The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: Revisited (Part 1)

December 22nd, 2022.

It was the second to last day ever of Bethlehem, A.D., on its 30th anniversary. It was a Thursday night.

Before walking over the Bethlehem, A. D. for the very last time, we stopped into the library to get warm. I looked at the booksale, and saw this book.

20221222_220338

It was a small, well-loved paperback. It was only a dollar. 

I remember having seen this cover in my childhood, because this was the 1994 HarperCollins edition that was making its round in schools. It had all of the original illustrations in it. (According to the internet, this may be an abridged version of the book?)

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this is a breath-takingly beautiful cover. 

I put my feelers out and asked my friends if they had read the book before. I was aptly, sufficiently and graciously warned about the !Jesus Lion! stuff, but I didn't... I still didn't feel prepared for how goofy that was, honestly.

All in all, I liked the book a lot. Much of it didn't make sense, which, in all honestly, I quite liked because sometimes things in life don't make sense, so why would they make sense in a mythical land? Especially from the perspective of a child, where they are thrust into an adult world that makes little to no sense, things in Narnia not making sense just *made sense."

It was so strange how familiar the book was to me, having never read it before. I knew I had seen the cartoon and was familiar with the premise, but it was strange to me how I could have one nearly 30 years never having seen the cartoon I only remembered parts of  came into my mind to vividly. I didn't remember the beavers at all, though. Mostly I remembered the White Witch, her wolves, and the shitty brother who sold out his siblings for Turkish Delight.

I read the book in about a day, but carried it around in my purse for a while after. I rented the Disney adaptation on Christmas Eve, and ended up liking it more than the book (for reasons I will go over tomorrow).

I plan on reading the book again soon (as soon as I can find my copy again).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Narnia, Chronicled

Image
  I had never read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe growing up. I had seen the 1979 cartoon film in syndication on the Disney Channel, and understood some of the pop culture references, but that was the extent of my Narnia knowledge. I knew that C.S. Lewis was a renown Christian author, and was friends with Tolkien.  Last year, a few days before Christmas, I saw a copy of   The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe   at a library booksale, the 1994 HarperTrophy edition with Jadis (The White Witch) and Maugrim looking menacing on the cover . I think the book was only a dollar, and the cover (yes, I know) was enough for me to be interested. I took it home, asked friends if they had read it before, and then read it in about a day. ( Yes, I had been warned about !Jesus Lion!) I watched the Disney adaptation on Christmas Eve of last year, and have been interested in it ever since.  Since it's Christmastime (which I have nicknamed Narnia Season), m...
Read more

My First Foray Into Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979 film)

Image
My first foray into Narnia was seeing The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe , the 1979 animated made-for-television film, in its syndication on the Disney Channel . I have very vivid memories of the scene with the White Witch meeting Edmund for the first time, and Edmund meeting Maugrim (who in this version is referred to as "Fenris Ulf," the name given to him for the US revisions of the novel until 1994). I didn't remember very much else from it. There are two different dubs of this film, the American version (which I saw), and the UK version (which I have yet to sit through). It was broken up into two parts, and was apparently seen by 37 million viewers and won two Emmy Awards (according to Wikipedia). It was directed by Bill Melendez of Peanuts fame. Ironic that it made its way onto the Disney Channel, because Melendez was a well-known and insufferable Disney-hater. The animation is.... not great. What may have been charming for Peanuts looks...just plain bad when it ...
Read more

Turkish Delight · Susanne Sundfør

Image
  The title of this blog comes from the lyrics of this incredible song by Susanne Sundfør. And if eternal winter, if eternal snow I'll have a Turkish delight I've got the freeze, they offer me holy wine It gets me through the night Everybody's hungry for more and more and more and Even though they know that Maugrim's at the door and Everybody thought they could make it on their own but I have seen them turn into stone Everybody thought they could make it on their own but I saw them turn into stone I am a huge fan of the treat Turkish Delight (the real stuff, not the disgusting mass-produced ones), so the title of this track had caught my eye. I am a huge fan of  Susanne Sundfør, and this song is no exception. "The Silicone Veil" is my favourite album of hers, and I think that this song would have been a better  fit sonically than  the one it was actually on.  For years I had thought about how 'Turkish Delight' reminded me of The Lion, The Witch, and th...
Read more