Prince Caspian

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Makes me miss my kids. Before bedtime we read the Scriptures, sing Psalms and pray. Following that they get under the covers while I read them stories. We've been reading through the Chronicles of Narnia and finished Prince Caspian about a month ago.

The stories are pretty good. The plots aren't really very thick but the kids seem to enjoy them.
 
Andrew,

Any word on why they skipped over The Horse and His Boy? I actually found Prince Caspian to be kind of a boring read by comparison.
 
SemperFideles said:
Andrew,

Any word on why they skipped over The Horse and His Boy? I actually found Prince Caspian to be kind of a boring read by comparison.
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Rich -- Here is what they say about it at NarniaWeb:

Q: Why aren’t they doing The Horse and His Boy? Isn’t that the next book in the series?
A: When Harper Collins took over the publishing, they re-ordered the series chronologically and set THHB to be the third book in the series, directly after LWW. But, LWW was actually the first book to be published. According to Douglas Gresham, they are making the films in "the most logically consistent order for filming." For more information on the ordering of the series and an intelligent discussion of the pro’s and con’s, please click here to read Andrew Rilestone’s excellent article.
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Augusta said:
Looks good. I need to read the book again. I can't remember very much of it. :book2:
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:up: My wife has been reading through the whole series recently and is The Horse and His Boy now. Prince Caspian was not her favorite, but we are both looking forward to the movie.
 
SemperFideles said:
Andrew,

Any word on why they skipped over The Horse and His Boy? I actually found Prince Caspian to be kind of a boring read by comparison.
Click to expand...

My guess is that they are following the popular order of the books. I would also be curious to see how they handle the obvious (and correct) negativity towards the Arabian and Islamic people of Calormen.
 
Augusta said:
Looks good. I need to read the book again. I can't remember very much of it. :book2:
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We're in the thick of it now. Before bed, we read the Scriptures, sing Psalms, and pray. At the conclusion of family worship the kids curl up and then I read a few pages from the Chronicles of Narnia.

The kids so look forward to family worship that they've kept me from being lazy at times because they always ask: "Are we doing Bible Studies?"
 
fredtgreco said:
SemperFideles said:
Andrew,

Any word on why they skipped over The Horse and His Boy? I actually found Prince Caspian to be kind of a boring read by comparison.
Click to expand...

My guess is that they are following the popular order of the books. I would also be curious to see how they handle the obvious (and correct) negativity towards the Arabian and Islamic people of Calormen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was going to post that point too and wondered if they were leaving it out because it painted a bad picture of Arabs.

I didn't realize that The Horse and His Boy was in a different order. In the tale, all the Peavensies are still in Narnia ruling before they've chased the White Stag and returned from Narnia for the first time.
 
SemperFideles said:
Augusta said:
Looks good. I need to read the book again. I can't remember very much of it. :book2:
Click to expand...

We're in the thick of it now. Before bed, we read the Scriptures, sing Psalms, and pray. At the conclusion of family worship the kids curl up and then I read a few pages from the Chronicles of Narnia.

The kids so look forward to family worship that they've kept me from being lazy at times because they always ask: "Are we doing Bible Studies?"
Click to expand...

:ditto: here, Rich. I've been in bed all day with flu like symptoms, but my daughter came in to my room tonight before her bedtime and said, "Daddy, are we doing Bible tonight?"
 
SemperFideles said:
fredtgreco said:
SemperFideles said:
Andrew,

Any word on why they skipped over The Horse and His Boy? I actually found Prince Caspian to be kind of a boring read by comparison.
Click to expand...

My guess is that they are following the popular order of the books. I would also be curious to see how they handle the obvious (and correct) negativity towards the Arabian and Islamic people of Calormen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was going to post that point too and wondered if they were leaving it out because it painted a bad picture of Arabs.

I didn't realize that The Horse and His Boy was in a different order. In the tale, all the Peavensies are still in Narnia ruling before they've chased the White Stag and returned from Narnia for the first time.
Click to expand...

Yes. The "ordinary" order for American sales is:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Note that the Magician's Nephew is actually the first (chronologically) of the books.
 
fredtgreco said:
SemperFideles said:
fredtgreco said:
My guess is that they are following the popular order of the books. I would also be curious to see how they handle the obvious (and correct) negativity towards the Arabian and Islamic people of Calormen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was going to post that point too and wondered if they were leaving it out because it painted a bad picture of Arabs.

I didn't realize that The Horse and His Boy was in a different order. In the tale, all the Peavensies are still in Narnia ruling before they've chased the White Stag and returned from Narnia for the first time.
Click to expand...

Yes. The "ordinary" order for American sales is:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Note that the Magician's Nephew is actually the first (chronologically) of the books.
Click to expand...

Interesting. The book Sonya and I bought a couple of years back has them in chrono order. It doesn't make any sense at all to have The Magician's Nephew second to last as it deals with the creation of Narnia and the White Witch. Lewis even refers to the events of the book as he's reading it.

I guess kids really like it but I find this aspect of Lewis' writing annoying. I can see why Tolkien didn't like his work. I find myself wrinkling my nose sometimes and saying: "...that was just lame...."

My friend just gave James a gigantic collection of superhero cartoons from the 60's and beyond to include classic Spiderman, Hulk, and Ironman. They all have that cheesy still figure animation where it looks like some dude just slid the figure across a screen. James and Anna love it as much as I did back when I was a boy.

Sonya and I were listening to it this AM while they were watching it over breakfast and all the dialogue is kind of like: "Oh no, these transistors that power my suit are running out of juice. Maybe if I trick the Mandarin he will leave here so I can power up...." It's kind of the "...we don't have time to develop the plot so we'll just have the character tell you something right away and fill in all the blanks in an obvious way...." James and Anna don't seem to care but it makes me chuckle.

Well, that's a long way of saying that the Chronicles of Narnia are written that way. It's like: "You remember kids that in the last story, Lucy got a magic bottle that cures people with one drop...." It works for little kids but all the mythology and texture that makes LOTR so rich is completely missing from the Chronicles of Narnia. You feel like the kids have been dropped into a story and not into a real place. There are moments when I get caught up in the story but the plots build and resolve so quickly that their is little suspense.

Anyway, just my little take. We'll be reading the Hobbit after this is all done in a few months.
 
I started to read TMN and had to put it into storage months ago I cant wait to read them in the future.

Trailer was awsome!!
 
Well, that's a long way of saying that the Chronicles of Narnia are written that way. It's like: "You remember kids that in the last story, Lucy got a magic bottle that cures people with one drop...." It works for little kids but all the mythology and texture that makes LOTR so rich is completely missing from the Chronicles of Narnia. You feel like the kids have been dropped into a story and not into a real place. There are moments when I get caught up in the story but the plots build and resolve so quickly that their is little suspense.
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As some have said, they are written for children, but if you pay enough attention, there are a lot of lessons for adults. I can never read the episode of Eustace turning into a dragon in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" without getting a little choked up when Aslan comes and removes Eustace's dragon skin. How like it is to Christ dealing with our sin nature. We cannot deal with our sin, only Christ can do it. Lewis understood this and other biblical truths. When reading through these books, my children and I discuss these things, and it gives me a springboard to dive into the Scriptures with these things. I suppose that is what the magic of these books is for me, not necessarily how poorly or well-written the stories might be.
 
SemperFideles said:
fredtgreco said:
Well, that's a long way of saying that the Chronicles of Narnia are written that way. It's like: "You remember kids that in the last story, Lucy got a magic bottle that cures people with one drop...." It works for little kids but all the mythology and texture that makes LOTR so rich is completely missing from the Chronicles of Narnia. You feel like the kids have been dropped into a story and not into a real place. There are moments when I get caught up in the story but the plots build and resolve so quickly that their is little suspense.

Anyway, just my little take. We'll be reading the Hobbit after this is all done in a few months.
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I understand your point, Rich. But you have to remember that Chronicles of Narnia was written for very young children (ages 3-6) and LOTR was written for a much older crowd.

My son and I read through both series a few years ago. He thoroughly enjoyed Chronicles of Narnia, but got a little lost (and a little scared) during LOTR.

I'm also feeling your pain with the cartoons. We bought Zach all the old 1968-72 Spiderman cartoons. We also borrowed some of the Speed Racer cartoons from a friend. They all do the same thing, where the hero explains the lack of plot by commenting on his actions.
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What's important for the order here is that one has to have continuity of casting. With children in multiple movies, it makes things difficult. The Horse and His Boy does not have the same time constraints on it that these five have: LWW, PC, VDT, SC, and LB have, since there are interlinked characters that grow up in those five. MN and THAHB are out of that sequence. What Gresham said therefore makes perfect sense.
 
Hollywood buys the rights to the book before they make it, they do not own the entire Narnia catalogue, only the movie rights to three at the moment.

They will however continue the series so long as it is viable at the box office, it is my understanding that they have strategically purchased the most poular stories of the series for adaptation and will bother with the rest only if popularity in the series maintains a head of steam.

Filmmakers and audiences alike tend to get burned out if a series goes on past the magic number three, yes there are exceptions but that's exactly what they are, exceptions.
 
I enjoy the Narnia tales immensely. My, wife, however, LOVES them so much that she has been through the whole corpus several times. I gave her the CDs of the series and she uses them in the car constantly.

Our two holder grandsons (7 and 4) are also nuts about them.

We (esp. she) can hardly wait until the next movie comes out.

Last night I was up late downloading the RTS iTunes course (26 lectures?) on C.S. Lewis to my wife's laptop. She wants to start listening to it in the car now that she has just "finished" the Narnia series again (for the umpteenth time).
 
My name and avatar say it all. ;)

I read it first in college about two years after I became a Christian. I actuall read "The Horse and His Boy" first.

I prefer the publication order because there are some things assumed in the text that draw from the earlier published books. LWW clearly presents who Aslan is and what he did which I feel is critical to understanding the rest of the books.
 
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