osprey_archer | (Reply)

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My least favorite Narnia book was always Magician's Nephew! An unpopular choice -- I know a lot of people love it. But while I liked Digory and Polly fine, it didn't feel like a Narnia book to me, you know? I didn't see why Narnia needed any backstory about how it came to be -- you don't need to explain how the Earth came about, regardless of how religious you are on the subject, in order to write a book set here -- or when the first people from Earth went there. It was fun backstory to have Professor Kirke be someone who had been to Narnia too, but I didn't want him to be the first one, or for the first Narnia travelers to have been from Victorian England; I wanted there to have been occasional Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve throughout history, their origins and identities unknown to the Pevensies but known to Aslan. So in another book I might have loved the Wood Between The Worlds with its castaway guinea pigs and so on, but it felt to me like an unrelated Kids Encounter Magical Devices In London sort of book that happened to cross over with Narnia towards the end and establish a bunch of headcanons I preferred to ignore along the way. About the only part I really loved was when Fledge the carthorse came into his own. And I liked Frank and Helen; I always wanted more about them.

I agree about the more intellectualized response to children's books in general! Possibly it's an inevitable part of growing up, but I do sometimes miss the uncritical intense love and immersion.