Book #7

[thistlechaser]

Amazon has a quick answer for why I didn't like The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis very much. It's listed under:

www.amazon.com › Books › Religion & Spirituality

Two years ago, I started reading the Narnia books. I hadn't yet, and it seemed like something I should do. I enjoyed the first couple, and though people had said they were very religious, I hadn't had an issue with it. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader I had a big issue with.

It's not just because it was religious that I had an issue with it, it's that the way religion was used made it into a lesser book. Any time there was trouble, any time one of the characters made a bad decision, the hand paw of god came down and made things right. What point is there of having a story where the there is no real danger or trouble? Stub your toe and Aslan will show up and make it better.

The end of the book was the worst though. Aslan was sending the non-Narnian kids home and the kids were all upset about not being able to see him again. He said he was in our world too, just with a different name, and that his whole reason for bringing the kids to Narnia was so they could learn him better there, so they'd learn him better in their world. Sigh. So there was no grand reason for them going to Narnia, not to help people or stop wars or whatever, it was so they'd be more religious in their own world.

No thanks.

It wasn't a totally unenjoyable book, there were a few scenes I liked, but the whole thing dragged and felt like it took me forever to read. Checking my last book post, it took me about 15 days to read the ... how many pages was Voyage? Amazon usually lists that, but I don't see it. Couldn't have been overly long though (it just felt that way). I know there were multiple days I didn't read at all, because just picking it up made me frown.

I have three Narnia books left that I haven't read yet. I don't think I'll be tackling them anytime soon.

Comments

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

I had a completely reversed reaction to the Narnia books; to me, Voyage was an absolutely great adventure yarn, but The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was a rehash of the same old stale story.

I suspect it may have something to do with the relative ages we read them at, among other things - those books were part of my childhood, and the strange people and places and events of Voyage set fire to my imagination in a way that LWW didn't. Children's books of that era are also a very different animal when it comes to plots etc; I grew up reading them, and Narnia is no different in that regard (if you ignore the blatantly religious, but then religion was viewed differently at that point too).

Which ones do you have left?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Voyage felt like a series of short stories to me. There wasn't an over-arching plot other than 'get the mouse to the end of the world for somethingsomething Aslan'.

Belatedly I noticed I read them out of order. I have Prince Caspian (should have been read before Voyage), Silver Chair (right after Voyage but before others I read), and the last one: The Last Battle. I read TWW, The Horse and His Boy, and The Magician's Nephew already.

Hmm, wiki says "The issue revolves around the placement of The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy in the series. Both are set significantly earlier in the story of Narnia than their publication order and fall somewhat outside the main story arc connecting the others." I guess it doesn't hurt anything that I read those two out of order then.

[evilgrayson.livejournal.com]

Okay. Prince Caspian will probably be worth your time - and there's a really good film of it, if you aren't sure about reading it.

Leave The Silver Chair and The Last Battle. Even at the age of seven I could detect the allegory in both of them.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a plan. I'm going to toss the last two off my ipad (I can always redownload them later if I want), but I'll keep Prince Caspian on it for later reading.

Thanks!

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

I read the entire thing last year, and was sorely disappointed.

The religious aspects I could tolerate fairly well. But the classism/racism, not so much.

One thing I hated about Voyage of the Dawn Treader is that "Ramatu's daughter" was never afforded a name. Even in The Silver Chair when she is mentioned, she is still Ramatu's daughter.

And "pleasanter" is not a word.

They are simply not very good books.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The classism and racism aren't that surprising, since they were written in, what, the 1950s? I'm kind of surprised they weren't worse than they were in that aspect.

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

I loved the Narnia books when I was a kid, so I got the set for Kidlet few years back. The first book was not too bad, but the rest were so not like what I remembered!

Maybe the older me is more aware of the religious undertones, or maybe the Korean translation glossed over outdated language and worldview. I could not finish the series and Kidlet never read any of the books beyond the first.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That makes me feel less bad that I have no interest in reading the rest of the series. (Why, oh why, did I buy the whole series at once?) I might just delete the remaining ones and try to forget the whole series.

[felknight.livejournal.com]

I loved them as a kid, but as a kid I also pretty much ignored all the religious undertone, except for the last book which was as weird (to me) as the time I tried to make sense of Revelations in the Bible.

I haven't read them in ages, but The Silver Chair wasn't that bad.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

except for the last book which was as weird (to me) as the time I tried to make sense of Revelations in the Bible.

Funny you should mention that. I read a review on Amazon that said to understand the books, you had to understand Revelations (then added a seemingly-snarky comment "That's in the Bible, in case you never heard of it").

I wish they could have been written as just fantasy books. Even the religion aspect might have been okay, if it hadn't been tied to real world religion.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I wish they could have been written as just fantasy books.

Except that's not the books Lewis wanted to write.

I haven't done a ton of research into it, but there's an entire fascinating history with Lewis, Tolkien, their writing group, and religion, which very much shaped both their lives and their works. And yet Narnia and Middle Earth influence so much of fantasy writing that comes after that.

[felknight.livejournal.com]

A lot of C.S. Lewis's work is religious in nature. I don't think he'd have written them as just fantasy books.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Except that's not the books Lewis wanted to write.

Yeah, I guess I got that backwards. I should have written "I wish I had made a more fitting choice in books to read", something like that.

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

As a kid, I never made it through the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Which was very unusual - there's probably less than ten books I didn't finish of the hundreds I read at these ages. (The Silmarillion is another.) I didn't explicitly notice the spirituality, they just didn't speak to me at all.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's more of a string of encounters than a real story. It just didn't work for me at all. Luckily the book I started next is great so far! The Forest of Hands and Teeth (http://www.amazon.com/Forest-Hands-Teeth-Carrie-Ryan/dp/0385736827) ...which is apparently going to be a movie later this year. Huh!

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

Dawn Treader is my favorite of the Narnia books, but I first read them when I was... six? My mom read them to me. So sentimental value.

HOWEVER. The books you read are probably not the ones that I read, and I have this problem also with some of it. I don't mind it with Eustace getting undragon'd by Aslan because he has to find himself as a non-douche first, so it's like any other kind of curse there.

But. The thing that I am thinking of where things are not the same. Do you have the version where the isle where dreams come true disappears when they leave it, and the lord they find there is all, "Never make me go back there," and it's totally stupid because THE ISLAND IS GONE why would you ask that what an idiot kind of dialogue? This is not how it is in the version I had. In the version I read, it is still there and he says, "Never make me speak of anything I saw there," and Caspian says, "I would give my entire kingdom not to hear it. Done."

So I think some things in the new one have been edited to make them less... scary? Maybe. I do think there is some real danger. The lake that turns things to gold, for example. They figure that one out for themselves.

However, I do agree that some things would be a lot more exciting if they weren't Aslan de machina'd, like Lucy reading the magician's book and almost saying the spell that makes her beautiful but then seeing Aslan gettin' all mad. I like the way she learns that would be a horrible idea much better in the movie. (In the movie, she is so fixated on being beautiful like Susan that she becomes Susan and wishes herself out of existence, and it's a lot more powerful, I think.) It isn't something I thought about before I read this due to my nostalgic attachment, but it's an excellent point.

You may like the next one better, as I recall there is a lot less divine intervention in The Silver Chair, and the kids screw up a LOT, and also Puddleglum is awesome.

One thing that drives me nuts about the books that's just a sign of the times is the sexism (and omg wait for it the racism in the last one HOLY CRAP DUDE BE READY). Every time someone is like, "Let's take the LADIES somewhere SAFE," even after it's perfectly clear in the first book that Edmund has a penis and is still totally less able to take care of himself than Lucy, I scream.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I don't mind it with Eustace getting undragon'd by Aslan because he has to find himself as a non-douche first, so it's like any other kind of curse there.

That was the one visit by Aslan that I didn't mind. All the others though seemed like just shortcuts to make the characters do the right thing. (In the end of the book there was a mention of Aslan coming to visit the ship's captain because he had a bad attitude about something... Seriously, is this god just really bored?)

it is still there and he says, "Never make me speak of anything I saw there," and Caspian says, "I would give my entire kingdom not to hear it. Done."

Oh wow, that would be a much better version. I had the other version, yeah. I wonder why they changed it?

The lake that turns things to gold, for example. They figure that one out for themselves.

And that was one part I really liked. You're right, that was actually scary (how easy it would be for someone to be turned into gold...).

Totally agreed on the Lucy/spell part. I remember liking the movie quite a bit in general, though I don't recall the details of it at all.

Heh, yeah, I noticed the sexism, too...

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

One of those series that you probably have to first read as a kid to really love them. I did. So much that now I'm afraid to go back and re-read as an adult, I'll likely find it full of flaws.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Exactly right. I read them for the first time as an adult, so I saw them warts and all.

Sometimes rereading beloved childhood books works out, but now and again I wish I had just stayed with my good memory of the story.