Chronicles of Narnia 7: The Last Battle
Narnia... where dwarfs are loyal and tough and strong -- or are they? ... where you must say good-bye ... and where the adventure begins again.
The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now: A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia's only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, "The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do." Who is the real Aslan and who is the imposter? Will we be forced to bid farewell to Narnia forever?
In some ways, this was the most affecting of all these books, and I do have to give CS Lewis credit for apparently making some of the characters important enough that the idea of cutting down Dryad-inhabited trees (thus killing the Dryads), or enslaving Talking Horses was truly horrible. I was actually a little disturbed and upset by this.
However, the story as a whole seems a little... I don't know. The writing is still the same flat, children-should-be-addressed-as-morons style, but the concepts in this book are actually pretty advanced. For one thing, everybody dies (no, seriously), and that's a heck of a lot for a kid to take in. But there's also stuff about the meaning of freedom, and faith, and an interesting idea that, regardless of who you claim to serve, if you do good, you're always serving Aslan, but if you do evil, you're serving Tash. I don't know how much of any of this one could really grasp as a child.
On the note of Tash vs. Aslan, it seems that my suspicions that the Calormenes (who appeared to be modeled after some kind of Middle Eastern culture) were being painted as godless heathens were actually kind of worse than I'd thought. I'd figured they were just, like I said, godless heathens. But no. It turns out that Tash, their god, is basically Satan. So Lewis has turned this entire culture into a bunch of Satan-worshippers. I realize, in a story of good vs. evil, you need to make one society the bad guys, and maybe Lewis figured it wouldn't be subtle enough to go the Tolkien route, and make 90% of the evil side hideous trolls (Ha ha, Lewis being concerned about subtlety -- I crack me up), but really, while it might have been normal at one time, at this point, it's kind of gross for your good side to be Caucasian, European-type Christians, and your evil side to be dark-skinned Arabs.
Furthermore, there is, once again, the matter of Susan. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if he maybe based his characters on real people, and the real Susan turned out to be a raging bitch, or they had a fight, or she grew up and refused to sleep with him, or what. I don't know. But observe the following:
He seemed to be standing in a lighted room where seven people sat round a table. ... Two of those people were very old, an old man with a white beard [Digory], and an old woman with wise, merry, twinkling eyes [Polly]. He who sat at the right hand of the old man was hardly full grown, certainly younger than Tirian himself, but his face already had the look of a king and a warrior [Peter]. And you could almost say the same of the other youth [Edmund] who sat at the right hand of the old woman. Facing Tirian across the table sat a fair-haired girl younger than either of these [Lucy], and on either side of her a boy [Eustace] and a girl [Jill] who were younger still. ... "we are the seven friends of Narnia."
Inexplicably (for the moment) no Susan. No mention that there used to be Susan, or anything of the sort. It's like she was just never there. Later, we get a little more on her subject:
"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."
"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"
"Oh Susan!" said Jill. "She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." *
So that's nice. I mean, I realize that people do grow up and maybe drift away from the church (and let's face it; that's the real issue here) - heck, I did, so maybe I shouldn't get so annoyed about this, but I just feel that the marginalization of Susan seems so contrived, mean-spirited, and unnecessary. It really doesn't add anything to the plot, and it just seems like a slap in the face to Susan, if Susan really existed, which is why I suspect that there was a real basis for Susan, and that for whatever reason, she fell out of favour with Lewis, and this was his spiteful little way of getting back at her or whatever. And it just bugs me.
Oh, and one final slap for Susan, it seems that she's left all alone now, since apparently the entire family managed to get themselves killed in a train accident, which is why they're all cavorting around with Aslan at the end. Including the parents, who are in a different part of Aslan's country. So I hope Susan's boyfriends or whatever will take very good care of her, because she seriously got the shaft here.
* And why is Jill even the one saying this? Has she ever even met Susan? She only really got to know Eustace fairly recently, and if Susan never joins their little Narnia gab sessions, when on earth would she have even met Susan? She sure as hell wouldn;t have known her long enough or well enough to know whether she'd always been "too keen on being grown up." This should have been said by Lucy for it to make any sense.
Anyway, so I've read the series now. I don't really feel that I've gained much from them, or like I should have read them ages ago, because I've missed out on so much awesomeness, but there it is.
Next up: The Electric Church, by Jeff Somers
The Unicorn says that humans are brought to Narnia when Narnia is stirred and upset. And Narnia is in trouble now: A false Aslan roams the land. Narnia's only hope is that Eustace and Jill, old friends to Narnia, will be able to find the true Aslan and restore peace to the land. Their task is a difficult one because, as the Centaur says, "The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do." Who is the real Aslan and who is the imposter? Will we be forced to bid farewell to Narnia forever?
In some ways, this was the most affecting of all these books, and I do have to give CS Lewis credit for apparently making some of the characters important enough that the idea of cutting down Dryad-inhabited trees (thus killing the Dryads), or enslaving Talking Horses was truly horrible. I was actually a little disturbed and upset by this.
However, the story as a whole seems a little... I don't know. The writing is still the same flat, children-should-be-addressed-as-morons style, but the concepts in this book are actually pretty advanced. For one thing, everybody dies (no, seriously), and that's a heck of a lot for a kid to take in. But there's also stuff about the meaning of freedom, and faith, and an interesting idea that, regardless of who you claim to serve, if you do good, you're always serving Aslan, but if you do evil, you're serving Tash. I don't know how much of any of this one could really grasp as a child.
On the note of Tash vs. Aslan, it seems that my suspicions that the Calormenes (who appeared to be modeled after some kind of Middle Eastern culture) were being painted as godless heathens were actually kind of worse than I'd thought. I'd figured they were just, like I said, godless heathens. But no. It turns out that Tash, their god, is basically Satan. So Lewis has turned this entire culture into a bunch of Satan-worshippers. I realize, in a story of good vs. evil, you need to make one society the bad guys, and maybe Lewis figured it wouldn't be subtle enough to go the Tolkien route, and make 90% of the evil side hideous trolls (Ha ha, Lewis being concerned about subtlety -- I crack me up), but really, while it might have been normal at one time, at this point, it's kind of gross for your good side to be Caucasian, European-type Christians, and your evil side to be dark-skinned Arabs.
Furthermore, there is, once again, the matter of Susan. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if he maybe based his characters on real people, and the real Susan turned out to be a raging bitch, or they had a fight, or she grew up and refused to sleep with him, or what. I don't know. But observe the following:
He seemed to be standing in a lighted room where seven people sat round a table. ... Two of those people were very old, an old man with a white beard [Digory], and an old woman with wise, merry, twinkling eyes [Polly]. He who sat at the right hand of the old man was hardly full grown, certainly younger than Tirian himself, but his face already had the look of a king and a warrior [Peter]. And you could almost say the same of the other youth [Edmund] who sat at the right hand of the old woman. Facing Tirian across the table sat a fair-haired girl younger than either of these [Lucy], and on either side of her a boy [Eustace] and a girl [Jill] who were younger still. ... "we are the seven friends of Narnia."
Inexplicably (for the moment) no Susan. No mention that there used to be Susan, or anything of the sort. It's like she was just never there. Later, we get a little more on her subject:
"My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia."
"Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'"
"Oh Susan!" said Jill. "She's interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." *
So that's nice. I mean, I realize that people do grow up and maybe drift away from the church (and let's face it; that's the real issue here) - heck, I did, so maybe I shouldn't get so annoyed about this, but I just feel that the marginalization of Susan seems so contrived, mean-spirited, and unnecessary. It really doesn't add anything to the plot, and it just seems like a slap in the face to Susan, if Susan really existed, which is why I suspect that there was a real basis for Susan, and that for whatever reason, she fell out of favour with Lewis, and this was his spiteful little way of getting back at her or whatever. And it just bugs me.
Oh, and one final slap for Susan, it seems that she's left all alone now, since apparently the entire family managed to get themselves killed in a train accident, which is why they're all cavorting around with Aslan at the end. Including the parents, who are in a different part of Aslan's country. So I hope Susan's boyfriends or whatever will take very good care of her, because she seriously got the shaft here.
* And why is Jill even the one saying this? Has she ever even met Susan? She only really got to know Eustace fairly recently, and if Susan never joins their little Narnia gab sessions, when on earth would she have even met Susan? She sure as hell wouldn;t have known her long enough or well enough to know whether she'd always been "too keen on being grown up." This should have been said by Lucy for it to make any sense.
Anyway, so I've read the series now. I don't really feel that I've gained much from them, or like I should have read them ages ago, because I've missed out on so much awesomeness, but there it is.
Next up: The Electric Church, by Jeff Somers