lirazel | (no subject)

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books,
have a poll!

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This is inspired by how many of us have one or two Narnia books on our books lists.

Poll #32953

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38

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Which non-TLtWatW Narnia book did you most imprint on as a kid?

View Answers

Prince Caspian
2 (5.3%)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
14 (36.8%)

The Silver Chair
4 (10.5%)

The Horse and His Boy
6 (15.8%)

The Magician's Nephew
3 (7.9%)

The Last Battle
1 (2.6%)

I didn't read any of these books as a kid
8 (21.1%)

I read all of them multiple times, but it was definitely Dawn Treader that I reread the most. The imagery is seared into my brain--falling through the painting, Eustace the dragon peeling off his skin, the star's daughter, the mermaid scene, the flowers on the water, Reepicheep going off in his boat to explore what's past the end of the world....

Though I will say, now that I think about it, the one I most want to reread is The Silver Chair, which, from my vaguer memories of it, I would guess was Tolkien's favorite. Heck, maybe I'll reread all of them!

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So, I read the entire series when I was in fifth grade, and I remember ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I know the plot of the first book because I was in a school play of it, but the books went in one ear and out the other. On people's book lists I've been clicking the Narnia books because I did read them, but it feels a bit like cheating.

I think it's fine to count them! You absolutely did read them at one point!

I mean...I'm going to say The Last Battle, but specifically in the sense that I read the whole series, feeling steadily more and more uneasy with them, hit the in-your-face Christianity of The Last Battle, and threw it across the room. I would have been maybe 8; they were the first books I read to enrage me. I just felt so acutely betrayed; I'd been lured in with the promise of Fun Fantasy Adventure and then fed a theology that vehemently opposed everything I'd been taught as a Jewish kid. So I did imprint on them, but not, uh, in quite the sense I think you mean. I never reread any of them; it took me almost thirty years to get to the point where I was willing to touch another book by Lewis.

Yeah, I have heard similar things from other Jewish readers (and I'm sure other non-Christian people, too), though usually they were a bit older.

I never reread any of them; it took me almost thirty years to get to the point where I was willing to touch another book by Lewis.

Understandable!

In another data point on this, I have had several discussions with other Jews who read them in elementary school where we were mystified by a lot of stuff, and very very mystified by The Last Battle ("this is a happy ending? but everyone died!")... but did not have any cultural background to understand that the books were so very Christian. It's not that it went over our head, but it was just that we're used to reading other fantasy books that do strange things, too. If someone had actually prayed to Aslan, we might have caught on, but that's not a thing in the books, so the Aslan = Jesus thing didn't connect. The "Emperor over seas" just sounded like a cool concept and hey he is a lion.

It may have been a rite of passage, though, to discover in late teenage/early adulthood "wait that was all a Christian allegory?"

Yes, I have heard this trajectory also!!!

Same!

and for yet a third data point, I loved them and read them over and over -- they're the first books I remember actually reading and being like 'oh there's a point to this thing my parents have been trying to teach me to do! this is great actually!' -- but I also can't remember a time when I didn't know they were a Christian allegory, and thus as much as I was imprinting on them they were also also sort of Not For Me. I suppose my parents must have mentioned something, but it led to a weird sort of double consciousness where I knew Aslan was supposed to represent Jesus and had a vague sense that this was a bit embarrassing for all concerned, but I also had a stuffed lion named Aslan and there was no inherent contradiction there.

The range of Jewish reactions is so so so interesting!

Lewis holds the dubious honour of being one of only two authors whose books I've hurled at the wall, although in my case it was That Hideous Strength (which I had to read as part of an undergraduate course on fantasy literature).

I never read that series!

What was the other author?

It was the second Twilight novel (and no, I don’t know why I tolerated the first book enough to give the second a chance, either).

That's SO funny! I read the first one all the way through right before it really took off.

I started reading with The Magician’s Nephew (I still even remember the exact part) so it’s a magical moment memory for me, but the Silver Chair was *my* book for sure. In many ways, it’s very separate from the rest of the Narnia stuff; its own adventure and fairy tale inspirations, and without (or at least less of? that I remember at least) the ham-handed theology from a few of the others. Also, I adore the Eustace & Jill duo and Puddleglum!

In many ways, it’s very separate from the rest of the Narnia stuff; its own adventure and fairy tale inspirations, and without (or at least less of? that I remember at least) the ham-handed theology from a few of the others. Also, I adore the Eustace & Jill duo and Puddleglum!

Yes!

I imprinted so hard on The Horse And His Boy, it remains still my absolute favorite Narnia book (that I have not reread in 20 years).

I loved that one!

I can't answer this, because it was trying to decide which was my favourite between The Magician's Nephew and The Silver Chair that forced me to keep both on my list, whereas, since unlike a fair few other things, I stopped re-reading them long ago and gave most of them away, I would have rather plumped for just one. I think I like The Silver Chair best as a story, but there's something about the Magician's Nephew that always captivated me particularly - a little edge of Nesbit, too, and no doubt deliberately.

I think I like The Silver Chair best as a story, but there's something about the Magician's Nephew that always captivated me particularly - a little edge of Nesbit, too, and no doubt deliberately.

Oh interesting!

I picked The Magician's Nephew, but The Silver Chair is my second favourite! \o/

Dawn Treader, but The Silver Chair comes close.

Dawn Treader seems to be the fave both here and Tumblr!

none 🙈 was not a thing in Germany, at least not where and when I grew up.

It's so interesting to find out which pieces of media cross cultural/language borders and which don't!

Oh absolutely! Especially because other English language things absolutely do. I also never read the whole this dark materials saga, daemon AUs were very confusing at first, especially because in German, Daemon (Dämon) is "demon" 😂

I just immediately picked 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' because that was always my favourite.

I was given the books throughout my childhood, and where my mother was the one who would read aloud to be (so many books, so so many books), the Narnia books were special because my father would read them to me. <3

:D

the Narnia books were special because my father would read them to me

Aww, I love that so much!

Anything with a boat, really, lol.

This is not a minority opinion! The kids, they like boats!

I didn't vote for any of the options here, because my Narnia reading experience was very odd. I didn't read any of the books at a very young, formative age — one of my primary school teachers read The Magician's Nephew aloud to us, and I watched a TV adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I was six years old or so, but the Christianity completely flew over my head, because I was raised in an incredibly secular (albeit culturally Christian) environment, to the extent that I think the first time I ever went inside a church I was twelve years old and it was Notre Dame in Paris, in the context of 'look at this beautiful medieval cathedral' while on holiday in Europe. So the fact that Aslan dies and is resurrected didn't register to me as a Christian allegory, it just seemed like the kind of typical magical supernatural stuff I'd expect to see in a fantasy setting.

The books that did imprint on me at a formative age were Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, which, apart from being an anti-organised-religion-and-especially-Christianity retelling of Paradise Lost, is deliberately written as a sort of argument with Lewis and Narnia. I read them at exactly the right age, they confirmed and gave voice to all my half-formed but deeply held adolescent ideological and ethical beliefs, and so I angrily and self-righteously hate-read all the Narnia books with the utterly supreme self-confidence that only a thirteen-year-old convinced she's discovered some amazingly unique take on the iniquities of organised religion and authoritarianism can possess.

I should possibly give them another try now that I'm not a self-righteously pompous thirteen-year-old, especially given I wrote my Master's dissertation on the specific subgenre of medieval literature that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is drawn from.

o I angrily and self-righteously hate-read all the Narnia books with the utterly supreme self-confidence that only a thirteen-year-old convinced she's discovered some amazingly unique take on the iniquities of organised religion and authoritarianism can possess.

This is so funny omg. It reminds me of how I just Would Not Read the Harry Potter books when they were first making a splash because everyone was obsessed with them so obviously they had to be bad. And then later I finally got around to reading them (I think it was right before or after Order of the Phoenix came out?) and I was like, "Oh, I actually do enjoy these." Though in retrospect...

especially given I wrote my Master's dissertation on the specific subgenre of medieval literature that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is drawn from.

Oh man, that would be so interesting! I really dig Lewis and Tolkien as these two history nerds who liked their periods so much that they wrote fantasy novels inspired by them.

They’re called immrama, and they’re really weird, with a lot going on. Medieval literature can be a bit bare bones (compared to the psychological depth of more modern literature), but there’s a lot of complexity here to get stuck into unravelling.

So interesting! I want to read someone's dissertation about the works of Lewis and Tolkien and their relationship to this tradition! I bet that would be fascinating.

I'm interested that you specified non-TLtWatW, because while I did love that one, it wasn't my top fave! My favorite of all was Prince Caspian, which I read over and over. After that it was a tie between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Horse and His Boy, I think, with the good bits of The Last Battle also a strong contender. (But I'd pretty much only read the Tirian and Jewel and Eustace and Jill bits, and skip all the Puzzle-and-Skip bits that made me sad and uncomfortable, and I always had all kinds of mixed feelings about the end.) But Prince Caspian was always the winner. The Pevensies returning to the ruins of Cair Paravel and a Narnia that had utterly changed except for how it hadn't, where they were still remembered but only as larger-than-life legends, and to the struggles of putting Caspian on the throne against all too human opponents, stuck with me. That's the one whose imagery is most burned into my brain, though really they all are.

Mostly I specified it because it's the one everyone has read. Plenty of people only read that one, so if you only read that one, your opinion was less interesting to me, you know?

and skip all the Puzzle-and-Skip bits that made me sad and uncomfortable

Oh gosh, I had forgotten about Puzzle and Skip till this very moment! Yikes!

The Pevensies returning to the ruins of Cair Paravel and a Narnia that had utterly changed except for how it hadn't, where they were still remembered but only as larger-than-life legends, and to the struggles of putting Caspian on the throne against all too human opponents, stuck with me.

It's SUCH a good premise!!!

I read them all as a kid but only liked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I missed the Christianity in it, to me at the time it was just a fantasy story.

I honestly think most kids don't notice it!

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, easily. It was my first Narnia book, and Eustace’s undragoning was baby’s first redemption arc after Darth Vader. And the moments just stuck with me: Eustace doing the first brave thing in his life by fighting the Sea Serpent, Lucy and the Magician’s book, Edmund saving the day at Goldwater… Plus I love Caspian being such a dorky, shiny Earthboo (major reason why Ben Barnes is very Not My Caspian for me; he wasn’t anything like in the book).

Also, I was a Catholic school kid and I got Aslan’s “you must get to know me in your world…” immediately. I didn’t think too much over the Christianity of it though, I just appreciated it like a cool worldbuilding detail: huh, so our worlds are connected in more than one way.

But I think on a character level, The Silver Chair wins me over – it has the best dynamics between Puddleglum and the two kids, plus they were, say, very human? Like, yes, Eustace and Jill, if I had to trek all day across a massive winter flatland to rescue an unknown prince, I will absolutely bitch and moan too. It’s my second fave.

The Magician's book!!!

Plus I love Caspian being such a dorky, shiny Earthboo (major reason why Ben Barnes is very Not My Caspian for me; he wasn’t anything like in the book).

Hee! I love this!

Like, yes, Eustace and Jill, if I had to trek all day across a massive winter flatland to rescue an unknown prince, I will absolutely bitch and moan too.

Oh same!

I think I'm going to reread as soon as I finish A Drop of Corruption!

Caspian legit thinks there are people in our world who walk upside down because it is round; he’s so cute! Why didn’t we get Ben Barnes rambling on about that?? He was way more Caspian-like in Stardust than he was in the actual movies!

OMG, A Drop of Corruption. The wait on Libby is killing me, lol. I’ll probably get it in…a month. Hopefully.

I also planned to reread them this year actually! But we’ll see.

So cute! And yes, I do love his Stardust energy!

I thought I had two more weeks to wait, but some kind person returned it early! *cheers*

Silver Chair! I liked it when the children were a little more horrible. Also Puddleglum is possibly my favorite character in all of Narnia.

Puddleglum is SO good!

Dawn Threader was my favourite too, and after that the Horse and His Boy. My father read them all for me when I was 7, and then I re-read them several times. Never ead them in English, though... I probably should. As I child the Christian bits went completely over my head and I remembering being quite puzzled that Aslan appearantly had a name in our world too. :D

Edited 2025-04-12 19:47 (UTC)

I love how many people had them read to them by their dad!

and I remembering being quite puzzled that Aslan appearantly had a name in our world too. :D

Yeah, that line makes NO sense if you don't pick up on the Christian stuff.

Absolutely no sense at all! XD

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