go through the fire

Sunday, October 30, 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia

I just finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. It has taken me about two months to read all seven of them (because they weren't always available and I didn't always have the time) and they have been some pretty blessed months. Before I graduated college, I was not able to read anything I wanted except for the books I had to read for classes and what not. But now, I'm not really studying anything (except Japanese, but I don't study it as much as I need too), so I've pretty much been reading anything that I could get my hands on: all of The Lord of the Rings, almost all of Jane Austen's books, A Wrinkle in Time and a few of its sequels, all of the Harry Potter's again, plus the new one, and so many others I can't really remember. But they were all good. As you've noticed, these are all mostly fiction books. Unfortunately, I haven't read many non-fiction books - though I am in the process of reading several different books on Japanese culture. I regret that I am not reading more non-fiction books, such as some of C.S. Lewis' other great books, Passion and Purity again, books on the lives of missionaries, and what I like to call "Thinkers" - books that make me really think about my life and my relationship to our Glorious creator because they more often than not point me to God (my whole reason for living, by the way).
But The Chronicles of Narnia are not only wonderfully written, highly imaginative and descriptive fantasy books, they are "Thinkers". No matter what anybody says, these books are oozing God. These books not only kept my full interest because they are adventurous, but they made me think really hard about my life and how God is a part of it. Most importantly, they greatly increased the longing I have to follow Christ because they somehow managed to increase my love for him (that Aslan is just so lovable).
I don't know how to describe it. In fact, I'm going to pull a C.S. Lewis. Quite often in TCoN, Lewis says "It's difficult to describe...." how this fruit tastes or what it is like at the end of the world in Aslan's country or what it is like in the new Narnia past the Shadow Lands, but then Lewis goes on and tries to describe things that really puts many great, sometimes horrid, but mostly glorious pictures in your head. But then he will say "If you ever come to this land and taste it yourself, you will know what I mean." or "If you ever get there, you will know what I mean." I'm sorry, most of you know that I don't have a knack for getting things out in words very well, so you are just going to have to read the books and go through those wonderful adventures yourselves. For those of you who have already read them, you know what I mean.
After I read good books, I always like to talk to other people about them. If you have read TCoN, please leave a comment and tell me what you thought about them, your favorite part/book or whatever. It would help me to relive them again.

3 Comments:

  • At 9:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    My favorite of the books is 'A Horse and His Boy'. My favorite part is when Shasta encounters the Lion in the fog, and asks why the Lion hurt Aravis. His reply went something like "that is her story, not your's. I only tell people their own stories".

    God doesn't reveal to us why other people suffer, but I assume there's ussually a profound lesson involved. Its my job to understand the lesson he is teaching me.

     
  • At 3:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I found TCoN to be great bed-time stories. The kids were @ 8, 6, and 4. I think they had a lasting effect on us all.
    Bildad

     
  • At 8:20 PM, Blogger Peter Rice said…

    I love the Narnia books too, and there are too many good scenes for me to single out one as my favorite. But one very good one comes at the end of "The Last Battle," after they all enter Aslan's Land, or heaven. Parts of it look like the old Narnia--only better. Someone comments that entering Aslan's Land doesn't mean losing Narnia. It means gaining the real Narnia, the Narnia behind the Narnia, and anything they ever loved about the old Narnia was because it hinted at and pointed to the real Narnia.

     

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