Tag Archives: John Goldthwaite

Return to Narnia

May 23, 2020 – 6:31 am

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My subject is the Chronicles of Narnia of C. S. Lewis (1898–1963). I consider this heptad of books (published 1950–6) as constituting (1) literature (2) for children (3) that I continue to enjoy in my sixth decade, having started in my first.

  1. By literature, I mean a work of art whose medium is prose. Prose may also be a work of craft, intended to fulfil some purpose. This purpose could be to serve a market for fantasy or children’s books. Art as such has no purpose that can be specified in advance.

  2. Writing for children may take certain liberties that annoy adults.

  3. As with any post in this blog, I write out of my own personal interest. As a child, I read other fantasies, such as those of Lloyd Alexander, John Christopher, Ursula LeGuin, and J.R.R. Tolkien. Only the works of C. S. Lewis have stayed with me. This essay may be considered as an exploration of why, or least an example of how.

The seven books of the Chronicles of Narnia, Collier edition

Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Posted in Collingwood, Maugham, Plato, Thoreau | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (8)

Narnia

June 22, 2016 – 3:51 pm

The following notes about the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis are from four emails that I wrote in the fall of 2015 (with some noted additions in the spring of 2020 and some additional editing on November 25, 2021). The emails rebut various objections to the Narnia books. I have put my emails here, because I noticed that a friend on Facebook was wondering whether her daughter was ready to read the Chronicles, or perhaps to be read to from them. I do not wish to write much on Facebook, for reasons detailed elsewhere in this blog; so I asked interested persons to read me here.

My explorations continue in “Return to Narnia.”

Side of boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia from 1970s

I started reading the Chronicles in the summer before fourth grade. They had been on a list of suggested reading supplied by my school. I do not believe I was corrupted by those books, or by any other books; but anybody may read below for signs to the contrary!

Spines of Chronicles of Narnia in boxed set

The emails here were part of a conversation, albeit one in which I was the most loquacious. I have edited the emails to stand alone, but have preserved the original timestamps (according to Istanbul time).

I. Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 6:03 PM

I have been thinking a lot about childhood. Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Posted in Education, Facebook, Hitchens, Philosophy, Thoreau | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (6)