8.16.2011

The Founding of Narnia


There is little I can do to contain my delight.  And to think that I will have to leave this work unfinished to sit in an unbearably dull meeting for three hours is downright unfair.  But while I listen to someone drone on about things I already know and do, my mind will be back in Narnia.  The Magician's Nephew is the first in C. S. Lewis' magical Chronicles of Narnia series, and though I thought I might have read them all as a younger person, I am proving that thought wrong with this book.  I have loved and loved again The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe without ceasing, and now I can see that the entire series will hold for me the same sense of awe and wonder that infuses The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  I'll post a more complete commentary once I finally get to finish it, but for this morning, I will simply record these important thoughts:
"Watchin' and listenin's the thing at present; not talking." (114)
"Hail, Aslan.  We hear and obey.  We are awake.  We love.  We think.  We speak.  We know." (127)
For what you see and hear depends a great deal on where you are standing; it also depends on what sort of person you are. (136)
Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. (137)
And now that I've put those down, I can see that even my disdain for the meeting I must attend can be tempered by these lessons.  What I see and hear today will depend a great deal on the person I choose to be when I walk in the room.  Thank you, C. S. Lewis.

2 comments:

  1. I LOVE this first book. It is definitely one of my favorites from the Narnia series.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I finished after lunch all squirreled away in my office. Forget finishing syllabi! I had to be in Narnia today. So good.

    ReplyDelete