Stories Contaminate Us: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | Stuff You Like

Book burning, allegories and a potted history of CS Lewis, it's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Stuff You Like for our one hundred and fiftieth episode! (My book can be found here: books2read.com...)
Is that not a little mind-blowing? My mind is at least a little bit blown.
This episode was a PATRON-VOTED REQUEST! If you want to be able to suggest episodes for the show (or just videos in general) then you should head to / jillbearup and sign up to the $10 perk. If you want to vote on others' suggestions, the $5 perk lets you do that! If you just really love The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or CS Lewis, or The Chronicles of Narnia, then you should give this video a like. Because that'd be nice of you.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is part of the Chronicles of Narnia series.
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[@beardedpanda5086]

I love the Magicians Nephew. It was one of the most memorable books of the series for me. The giant witch in her dying world was terrifying to me as a child. The red sky full of lightening, the desolate winds... I can still see my imagining of that world and the world in between worlds in my head as an adult.

[@amellirizarry9503]

omg that was the darkest thing i had read at the time and i absolutely loved it, That one and the Dawn Treader are my favorites in the saga

[@Matheus-ql7mn]

The idea of that world under a so powerfull curse and the poem (which could not be enchanted but was at best unsettling for a child) got stuck with me for all those years. It's creepy. Also, I was terrified of Jadis.

[@Respectable_Username]

I read and loving Magician's Nephew first and got super disappointed when reading Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe that the vivid world I'd been introduced to had been changed so much

[@abramthiessen8749]

To me, the Magician's Nephew has an almost Madeleine L'Engle feel to it for a C S Lewis book.

[@Klaital1]

Your aware that the witch from the dying world in that book is what became the White Witch in Narnia, right?

[@JohnSmith-dz2dc]

I like how you called him Jack. Not many know that it was his nickname

[@ReeseAugust]

I can't blame him for going by that, since his name was Clive.

[@nigeldepledge3790]

Except that, with 33,000 views on this video, that's probably about 30,000 more people who now know Jack was his nickname...

[@benfarrar741]

@@ReeseAugust And his middle name was Staples! Staples! What kind of twisted joke is that? I wonder if Lewis might have been writing from the experience of having an unpleasant name when he wrote, "There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

[@keithklassen5320]

@@benfarrar741 Given that he hated his full given name, I am absolutely certain of that connection. He also had a low opinion of his young self, and I feel fairly confident in saying that Eustace was a bit of a self-insert character, tho in a very different way than we normally think of such a thing.

[@clivemitchell3229]

@@ReeseAugust Thanks for that. And don't spell it backwards!

[@HumDoodle]

The horse and his boy was my favourite growing up.

[@jacquessiemens9170]

same here :)

[@aelbion1453]

Same!

[@gaylordcomic]

I haven't read that all the way through. I'm gonna give it a go.

[@namwonglue]

same

[@coralstellar8483]

still my favorite :3

[@pollyrg97]

"They say Aslan is on the move, perhaps already landed." They cut that line from the movie, and as much as people love to scream "They ruined x for me!", for me that really did damage the movie in my eyes. As a child I completely missed the 'Aslan is Jesus' thing, but I DID understand that Mr. Tumnus, the Beavers, and the other inhabitants of Narnia were suffering and desperate and their entire hope of rescue was summed up in that one whispered line. And I utterly loved the BBC version. The theme music still makes me smile, and I remember being fascinated when Blue Peter showed how Aslan worked. I discovered your videos a couple of weeks ago, and have lost track of how many I've watched. In a world where cynicism, detachment and playing it cool are the norm I love how you're willing to be openly enthusiastic and positive about the stuff you like, much of which I also like. Watching your videos is like geeking out with a friend over mutual passions, and that's always a good way to pass the time.

[@jeffreyfiske8642]

As the adaptor and director of the Off Broadway production of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, there were many times people either praised or condemned moments and scenes in the production that were never actually there. If those people came to see the show a second time, they sometimes asked me why I cut certain scenes, and the scenes they described were ones that never existed. Far from Lewis hating women, if you really look at THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, you'll see that the character of The Woman is the real hero of the tale, and the character whom Screwtape fears more than any other human.

[@technocore1591]

I'm so happy I read the Chronicles of Narnia at an age where I had almost no critical faculty and took them completely at face value and enjoyed them as pure fantasy adventure and nothing else.

[@arrow2589]

Same, as an adult the christianity and sexism bothers me. But my love of them as a child let's me blind my eyes to it

[@katethegreat4918]

@@arrow2589 Why does Christianity bother you?

[@arrow2589]

@@katethegreat4918 🙄 Lol, I'm not even gonna bother starting. 😂

[@katethegreat4918]

@@arrow2589 That’s fine. You don’t have to think about it. I was just curious.

[@lugialover09]

@@katethegreat4918 I would imagine because there's a ton of baggage that comes with Christianity. Indoctrination of children, oftentimes a lack of critical thinking, homophobia, stripping women of their bodily autonomy, anti scientific thought, etc. There are Christians out there who don't prescribe to these kinds of things and there's a lot of denominations and doctrines out there. But a lot of them tend to share a lot of these elements.

[@robertlehnert4148]

Part of Tolkien's estrangement from Lewis was how casual the latter could be about story-telling. I mean, Tolkien developed the stories over decades, the coherent artificial languages he created FIRST, and while Tolkien from sheer length was bound to include some howlers, but here you have this Ulsterman just dropping in this jumble of centaurs, fauns, Calormen, and even Father Christmas, let alone where do the Beavers get their potatoes when it's always winter. It was a continuing irritation that combined with other irritations so by the late 1950s when Joy Davidman came along, the Tolkien-Lewus friendship had already become distant.

[@paulduffy4585]

Ulsterman? Is that a way to avoid saying Irishman?

[@robertlehnert4148]

@@paulduffy4585 No, it's an accurate label of a particular type of Irishmen, an Orange Protestantism that Lewis himself admitted was left deep marks on his payche, an implicit anti-Catholicism that was anything but unconscious.

[@paulduffy4585]

@@robertlehnert4148 calling him an Ulsterman implies he was part of that anti-Catholicism. When in reality he considered himself an Irishman and, as a committed orthodox Anglican, was careful to never espouse one denomination over another.

[@impp18]

"J.R.R. Tolkien. You might have heard of him.......maybe" Died laughing.

[@megaflamer]

the great irony of me and narnia is that I accidentally read them in chronological order. as a young book lover I didnt actually realize books could be read in a specific order and so picked up the chronologically first one by accident then just went down the list inside the hardcover to find the rest (they were listed in release order). Yes this led to some confusion when I would frequently pick up a book from the middle of a series and get dissapointed it wasnt a complete story. young me didnt realize the whole 'multiple books, one story' thing until my great grandfather died and I found his copies of 'Lord of the Rings' and seeing them all next to each other finally made it 'click' for me (still started with the two towers because it had a neater cover) yea, Enid Blyton sort of ruined my sense of books having a chronology since the Five books were my introduction to literature that wasnt meant for kids age 5 and below.

[@lilred5515]

My school legit didn't let anyone order Harry Potter because witchcraft. Yet I was able to order all of the his dark materials series. Which I had decided on my own I didn't like past the 1st book cuz it just gets weird. But my point is they weren't consistent with the censoring in fact they probably only banned Harry Potter cuz it was popular so they knew about it

[@RobertJW]

Lil Red speaking of books as infectious ideas! Oh man, they clearly didn’t read His Dark Materials, if they banned HP for witchcraft, they’d be aghast at what they’d unknowingly allowed. “Well, where is God," said Mrs Coulter, "if he's alive? And why doesn't he speak anymore? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and Moses only heard his voice. Later, in the time of Daniel, he was aged - he was the Ancient of Days. Where is he now? Is he still alive, at some inconceivable age, decrepit and demented, unable to think or act or speak and unable to die...” Reading that line of thought as a kid could leave an impression, maybe.

[@MissPoplarLeaf]

I suspect that His Dark Materials - which I think I read in middle school - helped me realize that I didn't believe in Christianity.

[@keithklassen5320]

Generally the book-banning crowd isn't particularly well-read.

[@eldrago19]

You didn't like it past the 1st book because 'it gets weird'? Not the extremely brutal character death at the end of the first book? Well that's a first.

[@joshuahudson2170]

Book banning is really only go ban popular books because they just don't know what's in the others unless they look, and they're not going to.

[@denvan3143]

I read adult science fiction at the age of ten, which my parents would have disallowed had they paid attention to my reading habits. The literature was replete with oddball philosophy, politics and sex. Was I contaminated by this? Even at ten I had a healthy skepticism about things. Faster than light travel, death rays, telepathy and the like were clearly plot devices, concepts to be put on the shelf when I finished reading. Philosophy, politics and sex were identifiably just the writer getting on their soapbox about their pet peeves and fetishes (particularly Robert Heinlein). I didn’t read fantasy until I was in my 20s. At that point I realized the main difference between the two is, in fantasy, things just work; in science fiction you have to explain _how_ things work. Despite all this or perhaps because of it as an adult I became a Christian with a love of the Bible, science, technology and good storytelling. The Chronicled of Narnia are a treasure.

[@AndyZach]

Rather similar to my experience. I read 'Have Spacesuit Will Travel' at 8, and then the 'Moon Is a Harsh Mistress' at 12, just when I was learning about sex. I noticed the difference between Heinlein's YA books (which I liked better) and his adult books, which I didn't like as much. Despite it all, I became a Christian at 15, ironically, because of my interest in science and cosmology.

[@Esmeralda2diamon]

I love Narnia. But my favorite Narnia book is the Magicians Nephew. Too bad that book never got a movie. I like the Lion, the witch and wardbroe too. :)

[@evannelson4258]

I heard they're going to make a Netflix series for Naria, look it up!

[@beardedpanda5086]

Magicians nephew was my favorite too

[@amellirizarry9503]

That one and the Dawn Treader are my favorites in the saga

[@bookworm1412]

Thank you for a balanced look at CS Lewis and the Narnia series! It's particularly grating to hear/read criticism that isn't truly based on the text or that could be easily cleared up if one read Lewis's other works or comments on the Narnia series!

[@windwalker5765]

God, the music from the old BBC Narnia takes me right back...

[@Arkylie]

I've never understood why being the first book chronologically means it ought to be the first book in the series. I could see an argument for the *last* book chronologically to be the *last* in a series, but I was confused enough by The Magician's Nephew even when I already knew the previous books, and I'd never recommend starting the series with that. A lot of it doesn't make sense if you don't have a background in the later lore. Also: I love the combined ideas about the importance of stories, coming from Lewis and Chesterton. Chesterton said that stories teach us not that dragons exist (we all know dragons exist), but that dragons can be beaten, which is a crucial life lesson. And Lewis pointed out, in the third book, that reading purely non-fictional tales will never bolster your soul for the sort of ordeals you may undergo that are unlike anything you've been prepared for with facts and figures and data about your legal rights. Eustace constantly demanding to be taken to the British Consulate being the main thing -- he was never prepared for the fantastic because his parents didn't see the benefit in giving him anything that wasn't based in reality, but it's the pieces based in symbolism and compare-and-contrast by which we most clearly learn Truth. (More info also to be learned in Lewis's essay "Men Without Chests.") As Doug Walker put it, "Bad art is a distraction; great art changes people." And fantasy opens our minds to things beyond our limited understanding.

[@cmm5542]

Love your comment. I could NEVER recommend reading The Magician's Nephew first, though I understand why people want to, because the primary underlying concepts of Narnia aren't really explored in that book. They had been fully defined by that point in the series publication, so Lewis didn't re-explain them to his readers. Of course it's also my least favourite, so had I started with it I might never have read the rest!

[@sanjivjhangiani3243]

Reading the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe first lets you discover Narnia as the Pevensie children did. There is a point where they hear of Aslan for the first time and realize that it is significant, although they are not sure why .

[@theyfinallygottome]

Almost spit out my gum at that Philip Pullman bit. Subbing just for that. 😂😂😂

[@frankm.2850]

My favorite of the series is probably Prince Caspian.

[@frankm.2850]

If you start with Magician's Nephew, you'll be both spoiled for the reveal of Narnia, and confused.

[@EAKugler]

I still cry at the end of Dawn Treader and the Last Battle.

[@destinytroll1374]

Oh, the old BBC Narnia series was a huge part of my childhood! I've gotta say, going back and rereading the Narnia books as an adult was jaw dropping. Hidden in such simple stories for children are hidden (or not so hidden really) so much good and helpful philosophy of life. Thanks Jack, also your friend John Ronald did that too me as well lol

[@kramermariav]

I love Narnia so much. Have you read The Magicians? A dark, very adult take on Narnia - I love it too.

[@h.s.l6875]

I'd like to address an important issue I had with 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', a gross lie that has been told: Turkish delight. I've been made to understand (as a wee girl) that it's a delicacy, imagine my surprise as an adult when I finally tried it and it turned out to be inedible (and I'm being kind here).

[@annamattos8627]

I actually cooked that dish because I was obsessed about trying it out for the first time. It was disgusting.

[@daviddesterke9125]

Yours wasn't magic Turkish delight lol

[@blulotus8754]

Well you didn't probably try a good one there is good and bad ones out there

[@Matheus-ql7mn]

Hodaya, same here!

[@MaitlandJones]

IDK about you, but when my English teacher brought some to class she almost started calling me Edmund.

[@sailiealquadacil1284]

My first book was "The Horse and His Boy." Mum found it at the library and read it to me when I was sick. I eventually found out that there were more books, but I think I read them out of order, since they only had one set of books, and they weren't always available. I eventually got myself the "7 in 1" book, since I prefer to read them in chronological order. Pretty sure I read The Silver Chair before Dawn Treader, and had no idea just how much of a prat Eustace used to be.

[@squidminion3801]

I have a strange relationship with the Narnia books, if only because I loved them but as a non-Christian child could not work out what Aslan was supposed to be and it frustrated confused me to no end! (Reason to this day that I dislike the last battle) but nevertheless I love this! (The horse and his boy was one of my favourites) And what you said about stories changing and shaping us, that is something I definitely believe in, and hadn't made the connection with book burning so thank you (also time to rewatch the disney version)

[@emilytonkin8987]

My favorite book is The Voyage Of The Dawn Trader

[@benjaminbrewer2569]

Have you read “the princess and the Goblin “ by George MacDonald. Highly recommend it. Both Lewis and Tolkien were big fans of MacDonald.

[@NerdilyDone]

Dude, did you read the sequel, the Princess and Curdie? That ending...that was so messed up.

[@Scribblore]

I love it! I'm actually working on an audio adaptation of it right now and have been noticing how many elements seem to have influenced Narnia and the Hobbit.

[@valjoy1507]

Magicians Nephew is one of my favorites of them.

[@clouddweller]

I really like the way you speak in these. Easygoing and enthusiastic but not overstated.

[@Uriel238]

I remember Edmund getting hooked by the White Witch on magic candy (and Lewis explaining how it's super addictive). And a lot of others say either it wasn't true or wasn't important.

[@carebear8762]

Turkish Delight. Played Edmund in a jr. high youth group production that traveled to churches in SE Alaska.

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

My favorite reading order is publication order. I read it chronological, publication, and random and that's how I roll. Fav. Narnia is dawn treader.

[@johnmccarron7066]

Bonus points for using the absolutely wonderful theme and scenes from the BBC movies!

[@TheInnerParty]

It is my first, but not last. Your channel is delightful. "Books contaminate us". Brilliant. 😎

[@zackwest6787]

I wish that you had applied the same rigor from your discussion of Susan to the critique of the depiction of Calormen. You nailed the fact that Susan's fall is a consequence of her choices and her agency, not Aslan punishing her for being a sexually mature female. But isn't it equally true that Calormen's status as the villainous empire comes from *political policies*, such as slavery, feudalism and imperialism, rather than either their race or their cultural emphasis on poetry and architecture? When it comes to culture, C. S. Lewis explicitly considers Calormen culture to be *superior*. Their storytelling is better than essay writing. Tashbaan is the wonder of the world. In fact, the only way in which Narnia and Archenland are "better" is their status as "free", not "white". Although Rabadash and the Tisroc are villainous, everyone expects them to adhere to chivalry, not to be savages. Actually, it's the decadent Tisroc who thinks of the northerners as savages. Even in TLB, when Lewis becomes arguably more critical of Calormen, what he is criticizing is really paganism and imperialism. Not foreign cultures.

[@jasonseipler2665]

I just dislike the strangely universal assumption that if you make the bad guys in a story dark-skinned that it is obviously racist. Only white people can be bad? Maybe there are heroes and villains of all races and cultures, regardless of skin color (and Lewis clearly makes this distinction in both books that features Calormenes). Also, why isn't he accused of hating 'little people'? There are some pretty terrible dwarves in his books too.

[@zackwest6787]

@@jasonseipler2665 It's critical theory and postmodernism, innit? An entire generation (and working on a second) have been taught to think of human society as the Da Vinci code, and that if they can compose any kind of critical statement at all, then it must be true.

[@nickporter4279]

Good post. One point I'd like to discuss - it's been a while since I've read The Last Battle, but *does* it criticise paganism? Tash itself turns out to be a cruel monster, as are the gods of many cultures (arguably including the Old Testament Christian god, not that I'd expect Lewis to hold that view - although it's notable that the "Emperor Over The Sea" is a completely absent force in the series). But the good deeds done in service to Tash get rewarded just as much as good deeds done in service to Aslan. I'm not sure where that leaves atheists like myself, but my recollection is that the story doesn't discriminate between religions. But yeah... both of the books involving Calormen include characters in the culture that are unambiguously good, not even morally grey (well, maybe a little grey for Emeth). One is even a core protagonist. Aravis and Emeth don't strike me as the works of a racist; I don't remember any similar roles among the Haradrim or Easterlings in Lord of the Rings, and they're even rare in some modern works looking at Middle Eastern relations such as 24. (Edit:) Actually, if we're talking about *paganism*... Calormen isn't technically a pagan culture, their religion is highly organised and the biggest in the world of Narnia. It could more be argued that the Narnian culture is a closer stand-in for paganism, as it involves obvious pre-Christian imagery such as the Stone Table (= Stonehenge) and Aslan's How (= Neolithic/Bronze Age burial mounds), involves a lot of mythological creatures (= Greek mythology) and anthropomorphic animals (= Native American spirituality), has a deep attachment to nature (the procession after the climax of TLtWatW seems more like a Wiccan festival than anything Christian) and doesn't have set places of worship like churches, mosques etc.

[@zackwest6787]

@@nickporter4279 I think you make some great points. To clarify, I don't mean that C. S. Lewis was criticizing "paganism" from a modern standpoint of neopaganism, but rather from an older standpoint, where "paganism" is polytheistic, amoral (from a Christian perspective) and involves blood sacrifice. And I don't think the critique is particularly biting, because you're right, Lewis does use a lot of pagan imagery and symbolism in Narnia and on the "good guy's team" in general. He also wrote Till We Have Faces, in which a pagan woman becomes a Christian...while still being pagan. I think this happens because Lewis was a huge Greek mythology nerd (and also really liked British folklore). Trying to reconcile history's pagan roots, with what he'd consider a more mature and sophisticated belief system was an omnipresent theme in his work. So when I say he was critiquing paganism in TLB, what I mean is that the only reason that the Calormene religion is "bad", or "evil", is because it is amoral and involves blood sacrifice, not because dark-skinned people worship it. Similarly, the only reason the Calormene forces are bad is because they are invading a peaceful and free neighbor *by trickery*, without giving them fair warning. In fact, it's even suggested that if they were to have formally declared war beforehand, it wouldn't even have been a bad thing, simply a chivalrous contest between nations. Anyway, to your point, I agree that TLB gets extremely confusing in its portrayal of differing religions, but I think that's because Lewis' point is exceedingly complicated. He does *not* suggest that Christianity and "paganism" (if Lewis would have called it something else, then my apologies) are morally equivalent. That is the pantheistic interpretation of "Tashlan" that both Aslan and the evil spirit of Tash abhor. Rather, Aslan is clearly good, and Tash is clearly evil, and Aslan discriminates very heavily against them. He suggests that if you do a good and honest thing in Tash's name, you were really doing it in Aslan's name, because it was a good and honest thing. However, if you do an evil and treacherous thing in Aslan's name, you were really doing it in Tash's name because it is an evil and treacherous thing. In this way, the Calormene religion isn't merely polytheistic worship with blood sacrifice, but actual Satan worship. But what's interesting here is the idea that if you are purporting to be a Christian, but doing evil things, then you're really not a Christian at all. But if you're a pagan who tries to do the right thing for the right reasons, then you count as a Christian. This is what's interesting about Aravis and Emeth, because they find Aslan through pursuing their own religions I believe (if I remember correctly) that Aravis prays to a moon goddess of the Calormene religion at some point, but it's Aslan who answers her prayer (that may be way off base though). I'm not sure if every Christian would agree with him, on that, but he makes a strong argument for it, and it helps to characterize his theological view of Jesus' message. It's a very interesting perspective, and I don't think it gets enough credit for its depth and complexity. It is almost certainly just as much a critique of parts of the history of the Christian church as it is of anything non-Christian. It also goes a long way to explaining Lewis' pagan influences and sympathies. One of the endearing things about the Chronicles of Narnia is that they aren't merely good stories, but actually extraordinarily complicated bits of theology. Even as an atheist, you might still be able to appreciate the theology because of how much effort goes into communicating such ineffable concepts. If you're at all interested, I recommend checking out Lewis' Till We Have Faces and his Space Trilogy. They are both exceedingly theologically complicated, while also being incredible stories. The third book in the Space Trilogy is effectively a Christian 1984 (Orwell even praised it, though he disliked the theology in it), and one of the villains is a priest, and one of the heroes is an atheist! How is that for theological complexity?

[@nickporter4279]

Thanks @@zackwest6787, some food for thought there! Space and Till We Have Faces are going straight on my reading list. :)

[@guitarfan01]

love you putting the old BBC footage in here. I absolutely adored the terrible TV-taped copies I had of those as a kid.

[@nickporter4279]

The BBC adaptation theme tune! So many feels! ALL the feels! They really knocked it out of the park with that series, even if Aslan did give tiny 4-year-old me nightmares. Fully second the opinion on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe being the least favourite of the book series, too. It's fine, just... does it have Charn? Does it have elephantine Aslan stalking through the mist? Does it have Eustace shedding his dragon skin? Does it have Jill Pole? The literal end of the world? Does it... well okay maybe I like it better than Prince Caspian.

[@freshoutofcrabs]

Stories of all varieties, not just in books, cut to the heart of who we are. Especially the long form variety that books take, but I've also had similar effects with fiction podcasts and TV shows and movie series. Sure, a lot of those are fluff, but a lot of them give me the words that I can use to define myself.

[@segevstormlord3713]

I wouldn't normally have thought I'd be bringing this up in a comment thread on Narnia, but C.S. Lewis talking about "how the Christian story might play out in a world not our own" and about "stealing past" the hangups people have by making it a story made me think of Orson Scott Card's "Call of Earth" series. It's a sci-fi series, but if anybody shares Card's particular Christian denomination, it's a _suspiciously familiar_ story.

[@pugboy3866]

Puddle glum being played by tome baker is the best thing ever

[@occhiellome6099]

I did that telling people the correct chronology thing as a kid too. I remember arranging the books on our shelf in the "correct" order and telling people about it, mainly because I was 7 and I had never heard of a sequel before. As you can tell I was a pretentious child.

[@smakutostrange8884]

I gotta say, the cartoon animated Narnia was always my favourite when growing up and still is now. Like, when I was little, the White Witch was freaking SCARY! I guess it's the most nostalgic because that was the one that came out when I was a kid, but it's still great now

[@RadarLakeKosh]

I was raised Christian and am now agnostic because of the hatred my particular sect taught me to have for certain classes of people...But none of C.S. Lewis's writing, not a word of it, taught me that hate.

[@Brievel]

No true Christianity teaches hate of anything besides Satan and sins, and it makes me sad that you were taught that under the guise of Christianity.

[@TonksMoriarty]

Oh my heart, the BBC productions! I got them on DVD when I was young, and they're so nostalgic for me!

[@LuchoZeta9]

the face when you say endlessly is such a mood i can relate to

[@therealkillerb7643]

"Whatever are they teaching children these days...' I see what you did there! :-)

[@sonorasgirl]

I don’t know how I only just discovered you, but I’m so happy I did :). Earnestness and kindness? Yes please!

[@Ttoby89]

What does it say about me that I love Silver Chair? no, i mean it, give me your best

[@EmethMatthew]

Ttoby89 That you like a darker and slightly less whimsical take on the world?

[@srkh8966]

Ttoby89 I love that one too-many come down, and few return to the sunlit land!

[@EmethMatthew]

"respectabiggle Marsh-diggle..."

[@mathsalot8099]

That BBC movie was my introduction to Tom Baker. Imagine my surprise years later when I started watching Doctor Who as an adult and saw a marshwiggle dressed in a colorful scarf and big hat!

[@brettemiller8046]

That you're on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. That you're going to live as like a Narnian as you can even if there isn’t any Narnia.

[@bricelory9534]

I came across your channel from your more recent stage fighting analysis videos (I believe the algorithm fed me your lovely video rating various women's armor in media), and I am so glad I am digging back into your catalog! It's been a lot of fun, and I say this in as a wholesome way as a random comment on KZbin can sound (and why is it that I know it sounds far less wholesome by pointing out I mean it wholesomely - thanks Internet), you seem like the kind of nerd this nerd would enjoy making friends with! Thanks for continuing to make cool, thoughtful content.

[@johntabler349]

Wasn't sure where you were headed at but I like your thoughts. As a Christian I am very comfortable that the truths facts and philosophy of our religion will compete well and prevail in the free market place of ideas and I (and the vast majority of Christians I know) want nothing more than to have that fair market place

[@othrilis]

The BBC Narnia series was my childhood - I adored it! I will still listen to the theme tune if I need comfort.

[@sarahcb3142]

Oh man that music. That brought me back.

[@MoneyGist]

I read the Chronicles in random order as a kid. First read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (also watched the cartoon). Didn't realize it was a series till I discovered (and read) The Last Battle. Later got a hold of The Magician's Nephew. Loved it. And started hunting down the other books one after the other. The Silver Chair, Prince Caspian, and The Horse and His Boy. Didn't read The Voyage of The Dawntreader till I was in my teens. Had to go back and read The Last Battle again to wrap up the story. Was excited when the movies were being made but felt they were a bit of a let down (I don't remember why). The books though, still work magic for me.

[@PaigeSinclaire]

I love the magicians nephew

[@ulasonal]

you made a drop of water come out of my eye at the end

[@spiffybumbleteeth]

Surprisingly wholesome. What a nice video to find in your backlog :)

[@jefferyblake9881]

Thank you.

[@thomashammel7633]

Oh my I'm just discovering this video right now and I'm so glad you raised the subject! I think I would have liked you to elaborate a bit more on it, maybe with a concrete example of how a book might have affected your worldview and you only realized later on where it came from. In any case, thank you so much and keep doing what you do with the passion you have =D

[@samuraijaco1]

“Because it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, at least let them have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” CS Lewis

[@Seebaer-wg6jh]

I got the Narnia series as a box set when I was a child, and it made me the reader I have been for my entire life.

[@TheMimiSard]

My earliest memory of the whole Narnia series is that my second grade teacher read LW&W, Magician's Nephew and Last Battle as the serial reading. She read those because as she said, they are the most exciting ones. In the following years of my life I had a great fondness for flipping through them for the pictures, and latter on actually read them. When the Disney LW&W movie came out it gave me a chance to buy an omnibus copy of the series all in one book.

[@Seana17]

thank you so much for all the BBC footage. it was my entry (along with the book) into Narnia in grade 3

[@Michoss9]

Thank you, KZbin Algorithm, for reccomending me this channel. I've got hundreds of great videos to go through now.

[@davidingleby7341]

I love that you used the old BBC series music

[@jolenesnow1032]

Thanks for this. I loved the books and the BBC version and I am overly passionate that Magician's Nephew should NOT be the first book you read no matter what modern publishers believe. Yet, I too, would be unlikely to go back and read Lion, Witch, and Wardrobe again but may read the others.

[@sintijasurubkina2390]

My only exposure to Narnia where the Disney films and I never read any of the books, so I don't really as a much of a connection to it as others do. Bu that P. Pullman burn tho... Pretty much summarises my issue with his books, despite being admittedly well written.

[@euminkong]

When i was in 5th grade i was college theatre perform this at Goucher College. ALL the 5th graders were singing deep magic and something greater.

[@samuelleask1132]

J.R.R. Tolkien?? Nah, never heard of him...

[@thegremlin3194]

Come on he wrote about small people without socks who wandered about either trying to steal stuff or destroy stuff to gain freedom and destroy a dark lord, Hold on isn't that Dobby from Harry Potter ? Master has set me free !

[@thegremlin3194]

Oh a better description The small person traveled with a famous wizard who everyone thought had died but returned in their hour of need . Damn still not sure I got this right Did he write Harry Potter ?

[@digitalnomad9985]

No, he wrote the one with the secondary villain mage played by Christopher Lee who works for the main villain big bad who tries to recruit the good guy mage whom he holds captive but who gets rescued and later the secondary villain mage gets defeated in battle and killed in a later scene. Or is that Star Wars?

[@JamesMC04]

Edmund starts as a little beast LOL (1) The books should be read in *chronological order of events* . (2) The Magician’s Nephew is perhaps the best book. :Cough: Emeth :Cough: ----> The Last Battle

[@rmsgrey]

So do you put The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe aside at the end of the penultimate chapter to read The Horse And His Boy? I have been known to do that, but I found it didn't add anything to the experience.

[@JamesMC04]

@@rmsgrey I have done that: 1. The Pevensies are crowned at Cair Paravel 2. Put LWW aside 3. Read THAHB 4. Read rest of LWW - hunting of White Hart, Pevensies blunder back through Wardrobe into England.

[@no_i_dont_want_no_slugs]

I was so happy when I heard the old tv series theme. The nostalgia is real.

[@frankm.2850]

I kind of love that you used the old BBC movie for this and not the new Disney "let's make Chronicles into Lord of the Rings for Kids!" adaptation.

[@LunaBianca1805]

I first came into contact with Narnia through the Disney adaptations when I was like 15 or something. The books are known here in Germany, just like Tolkien's works are, but there are other more prominent children book authors that I read when I was of the proper age for these books. So I first stumbled through that old wardrobe alongside Lucy when Disney brought out those movies (still kinda mad they didn't do movies for the whole series)I got all of the books (German edition) short after. Loved the story, but didn't like the translation - there were actual mistakes in those so in one case I actually had to read a sentence THRICE to understand it. Even though it was written in my native language. So I actually reread them all in English a few years back 😁 To this date they are one of the few serieses I read more than once and they're the reason I actually switched to reading the originals versions if I could (which, to be frankly means, I read the English ones in their original, because that's the only other language I'm somewhat fluent in) or at least the English translations ^^' I'm still reading a good bunch of YA and children's books intermittently with the "grown-up" books I'm reading (right now that's Dune), because that way I can catch up on many of those little gems that I only got to know through film and TV adaptations 🥰

[@tiiti2003]

Great review

[@joshdaniels2363]

We are narrative creatures. Story and narrative is basically how we process things. It's why political campaigns often focus on personal stories, rather than policy arguments presented in purely abstract or theoretical terms. It's why lawyers talking about why their clients should win the case in front of the court try to distill the case down into a simple story of justice or injustice. Stories are how we understand the world.

[@captjames19]

Love love LOOOVE the bbc version! My childhood!

[@EmrysMerlin8807]

Anybody else have this randomly show up on their recommended feed in 2020?

[@Pyre]

@4:45 ah. There it is. Because that's the trick. I was lucky enough to have a positive Christian upbringing. "Humility and care for fellow man good. Bigotry and persecution of others bad", etc. And I got the Christian allegory in Narnia pointed out very early. And the story of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and attendant stories, are so much more beautiful to a young person than ancient ones in a religious text. Even when they are, in most ways, the same story.

[@alwaysapirateroninace443]

That is fascinating how everyone forgets Lucy is blonde. It's almost like there's this trope that brunettes are always the sensible & smart ones . . . Speaking of the movies, I can't help but always laugh at the way they hold their swords. It just always looked awkward to me.

[@shastasilverchairsg]

I think it's because of the movies.

[@dallassukerkin6878]

Most impressive is the breadth of the net you cast over subject matter, dear lady :). Also, impressive is how mean-spirited KZbin has been all the years you have been a 'creator' as it was only last week that I came across you!

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

I read Lewis first in first grade, or rather it was read in school during final period after all other lessons were done as a sort of reward for good behavior and to wind down the day before going home . We also read the little house books the same way, and this continued for four grades. I was going to a private nob denominational christian school at the time. I am a Christian by the way. We also did charlie and the chocolate factory, and a couple less well known books and probably things I am forgetting .

[@BanazirGalpsi1968]

This would have been in the late 1970s.

[@kramermariav]

Hahaha, Phillip Pullman burn!

[@theothertonydutch]

I was such a nerdy kid. I read a lot of WW2 literature (that's hopelessly outdated by now). For the longest time "A Bridge Too Far" (Cornelius Ryan) was my favorite book. That being said, I did read a bunch of Roald Dahl, CS Lewis and a bunch of dutch writers like K Norel (again, WW2 based literature) . I barely remember the WW2 stuff but I am pretty sure I can recall most of the story beats from Matilda or James and the Giant Peach.

[@andrewolson1183]

I hope that you've listen to the focus on the family radio drama version. By far my favorite way to go back through the series.

[@miconis123]

This was my introduction to series fiction which is my favorite type. I wish the Disney version had paid more attention to story instead of battle but I get it..busienss is business and action sells. They skipped right over how Aslan was able to come back to life.

[@frankm.2850]

Okay, I know its a background clip, but I still have not forgiven the movie for showing Lucy Pevensie casually throwing a dagger into an archery target so it sticks. Throwing a knife accurately so it sticks in blade first is not easy. Its so tricky that there are specially made throwing knives, and people train A LOT to be able to do it. And we never see her do it again, so you can't even argue its foreshadowing or something.

[@IRMentat]

You make a good point about YA, heard people in work moan about how "boring" the sci-fi I gravitate towards is (despite often being soap-operas/disaster-movies in a more scientifically fantastical setting), then saying how much they or their kids are enjoying some random YA copy-paste despite the core trope (for a reason) about YA is the love triangle between main character an 2+ suitors out for more than a bit of innocent hand-holding and often a lot of psychological stress and/or torture (because, mostly female authors/audiences) I'd rate most of of the YA I have read (not much overall, just the ones with setting that interested me and didn't instantly ignore said setting) up there people like charles stross or terry? goodkind (sword of truth) in terms of how specific they got during "certain" scenes and those are authors who specialise in more mature settings and themes, not always done well or to the benefit/relevance of the story being told but to each their own as it were.

[@opalmarbles]

yass J.R.R Tolkien!!

[@charmedrools1]

heresy! when i first read them i read them starting from magician's nephew. it was dang confusing with the rings and the puddles but it was first and i was a good child who read things in the correct order!

[@LegendOfMoriad]

I do remember the BBC production fondly. Never going to see it again, both for overexposure and the fact that I'm reasonably certain I wore out the VHS...

[@egmccann]

I grew up with the Chronicles of Narnia. They're some of the earliest books I remember reading. If tablets, cell phones and/or ereaders had been a thing in the 70s, I would have had them on there and never let go. I wore out my paperbacks. No matter my feelings on religion - soured, frankly, by the religious - I *adore* these books still. (And yes, I tend to agree to start with the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I read them in "chronological" order once and it ... didn't come off as nicely as starting with the lamp-post and its mystery, only having that explained near the end. Yes, I'm a published order snob. :) )

[@lnb29]

Great video! Btw, I finished Screwtape Letters just a few weeks ago so those weird claims really surprised me - in a bad way, of course...

[@themapsguy]

Lawd the BBC versions what a blast from the past

[@slightlyembittered]

I hear the Narnia BBC Intro. Be still my heart.

[@insertkeysmashherejones700]

The Christian overtones/undertones ( I'm blanking on which is the correct word ) were totally lost on me as a child. I had no knowledge of the existence of the book series until a while after the second film was released and have never them. I feel like the first film had a bigger impact on me since I was younger when I watched it and the only Christian thing I remember from the film was mr. Tumnus asking Lucy if she was a child of Eve. I grew up Christian so to my young mind the film was just going along with the facts of life. It wasn't until high school when a classmate brought it up that I even realized that the series was a Christian allegory

[@cedricburkhart3738]

Wow that's exactly relatable. 🗡️🙂🛡️

[@Helgatwb]

I watched the cartoon version so. Many. Times. Yeah.

[@joshuacooley1417]

Have you read Planet Narnia? That combined with Lewis' book the discarded image really gave me a new depth of appreciation for the Narnia books.

[@Cat-ne5mt]

I LOVE THE BBC BEAVERS !!

[@northcoaster]

Once again - a very interesting video. I was never introduced to CS Lewis but I am a great fan of JRR Tolkien and J. K. Rowling's. I'll check out Disney + to see the Mouse's version.

[@Ignasimp]

I didn't know there was an older version of the film.

[@SamLoser2]

I do not, can not, and will not ever understand the insatiable compulsion of people to insist upon the retroactive reordering of a non-linear series into a chronological order as though that automatically makes it the "correct" order.

[@bspink74]

The Aslan puppet... the styrofoam brick walls... they haunt me