I appreciate your take on this series. It's been a while since I've read the books but, like you, they were a big piece of my childhood. Some of what you note here I was immediately able to say, "Yes!" and other things (to my surprise) had me wondering if I would have caught that and yet I agree with your interpretation. Which is to say how insidious the prejudice can be.
Glad you were able to share these with your kids. Have you talked with them about these issues specifically? We can never escape the messages imbued in our culture but talking about them strengthens our critical thinking muscles (as you know, of course!) I'd love to hear what your kids think about some of these prejudices and inequities.
Thanks Jan. Like another reader said, my kids have read quite a variety of stories, many with explicit emphasis on characters of color who are heroes. So I’m conflicted about calling more attention to the racial undertones. Maybe my 11 yr old would be interested in that conversation.
or maybe it starts with the 2 female villians or about the gifts each child king receives. Which gift would SHE want? Honestly, I'm kinda curious about that.
She already got the gift she wants: an adult bow with arrows! :) I think she sees a lot of female empowerment in Greek mythology and especially loves how archery has represented power and expertise for figures like Artemis. Queen Susan is an expert archer in The Chronicles of Narnia and once earns the unreserved respect of a curmudgeonly dwarf for her talents.
Yes, there is that. Perhaps the situation Adichie faced as a child isn't the situation young people face today. Somehow the tit-for-tat reasoning doesn't seem to help, though. I'm annoyed by obvious racial propaganda, too.
I don’t know how this fits but Aslan is the Turkish word for lion. We would have named our son Aslan had we lived in Turkey but felt that it’s not nice to give an American kid a name with the sound “ass” in it. (His name is Emre, which apparently sounds like a girl’s name to the English speaker). Check out this link: https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2016/a-turkic-world-connection-in-the-chronicles-of-narnia
How interesting! There is a Calormene soldier named Emeth in The Last Battle. He ends up in Aslan's country even though he is looking for Tash. This is one of the things I still appreciate about Lewis: the notion that there are many viable roads to truth. In that way, he was a far cry from today's evangelical Christians.
I would even expand on point 3 at the bottom to say that Azin Balda does not just reference honey but sounds like “Honey Mouth.” Ağzı means mouth. Bal means honey. The n is a common suffix and the “da” means in or at. It sounds like Lewis had experiences in Turkey that he reflected in his work but changed the Islamic culture to fit his Christian allusions. I’m not sure what modern evangelicals would think of that. Perhaps Lewis converted Aslan to satisfy his ethnocentric worldview.
There is some hybridity in Lewis's view that could be seen as progressive. But the image of the god Tash in The Last Battle is pretty awful. Tash has a vulture's head, smells like rotten meat, etc. There's a lot of caricaturing there of what might be called "false gods" in the Old Testament.
I just took a quick look at online writings on some of this book and immediately saw Tarkaan. Tarkan is a male Turkish name, which was probably once written as Tarkaan or possibly even Tarkağan. My husband’s name is Kaan, which was once spelled like Kağan. I think I’ll have to read the book. I’m really curious now! I can see what you’re saying. It’s almost hard to know if it’s progressive or appropriated or honoring or caricatured prejudice. How interesting.
Read The Horse and his Boy and The Last Battle for the two main Calormene threads. I’ll be eager for your thoughts! (Slavery is permissible in Calormen, FYI -- not in Narnia).
Emre sounds pretty neutral to my ear. Is it pronounced almost like Emory? In which case that would be a boy's name, although nowadays I suppose Emory or some variant spelling of that could also be a girl's.
Thanks for sharing! It’s pronounced sort of like Em-ray. His name is Emre Luca and many people replied to the birth announcement by saying, “She’s beautiful!” That’s how I figured it sounded feminine. :) But yea, Emory tends to be given to boys!
I’m not familiar with the books you mention since I didn’t care much for fantasy as a kid, but haven’t there been movie adaptations of those books? I ask this because it seems most (?) people first encounter classic stories in film and TV adaptations, not in the original texts. In which case, they’ve already been rewritten, for a variety of reasons, but undoubtedly one reason was to smooth the “sharp edges.” Did that cause any real mischief? A good story is generally pretty durable.
The books I did like as a kid, for example Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, have been adapted many times, almost always abridged, certainly “sanitized” in some ways, but even in modern form still seem capable of stimulating the imagination, which is what those books did to me way back when. (Crusoe, in particular, has been reworked in countless variations, for example in the rebooted Lost in Space series, which takes elements of Crusoe’s shipwreck and stranding, adds strong female characters, and combines this with the sturdy family-in-jeopardy dynamic, with its emphasis on loyalty, sacrifice and honesty.)
I don't know if you'd agree, Frank, but if the movie adaptations need to clean things up, then that rather proves my point (or validates my questions). The same would be true of the Lost in Space series, if it overhauls characters in that way. I've seen The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (years ago), but don't remember much except how the film's HD digital touches made it seem overdone. Part of the pleasure of reading is that you complete the image within yourself, and the film left little to imagine.
What you're saying about reworking the core of a story is true of all literature. In fact, Lewis is doing this constantly with Norse and Greek mythology. But Crusoe has some colonial baggage that I think is hard to ignore. I suppose my question is how to be a thoughtful person about these things without lurching to either pole.
Yes, I’m with you, I think. What to do, what to do? Well, adaptations are one way of approaching these stories without changing the originals.
I look at adaptations as analogous to translations. Translations age, for some reason, in ways that the original does not, requiring a new translation from time to time. Same with adaptations. This provides a place to address any problems with the earlier work.
I think you’re tiptoeing around the edge of whether it’s ever permissible just to alter the original text. Well, these books are not Holy Writ; they were commercial works; their authors are long dead; and they’re mere fiction.
For some reason, we’re generally okay with certain kinds of changes, such as abridged versions and adaptations for film, TV and graphic novels, but not others. Think of the massive orthographic overhaul that was done to Shakespeare and Defoe to keep their works readable and modern looking. And with Shakespeare, the silent correction of apparent errors, insertion of stage directions, and promotion of lines from the corrupt quartos to the folio versions because we like those lines (Romeo and Juliet’s opening sonnet, for example). And then there’s the alterations to the text’s meaning that the intervening four centuries have made, to reference Borges’s Menard story re. Don Quixote.
It seems to me that in the future, when reading is done only on a screen, it should be almost trivial for a publisher to supply a classic in multiple versions: the original (untranslated if not in the target language), with any errors or archaic punctuation and spelling preserved; a more readable “modernized” original; the same modernized original with footnotes or links for certain passages or words; and an abridged version or one targeted at younger readers.
This is smart discourse, Frank. I don't know enough about the changes to Shakespeare to comment intelligently on that. But I think there is a kind of integrity to an original that isn't easily altered. I take your point about translations, but that really is a different beast, because a translation is always more of an approximation of the original -- and there is a lot of subjective discretion there. As an author, I don't much like the idea of someone fussing around with my text or adapting it (without my permission) to different audiences. I can see why publishers might want to do that and why some readers might enjoy the variety, but I think at that stage we're straying pretty far from my conception of art. One of the few privileges an artist has is the autonomy and integrity that comes from an original text (yes, I know, editors are usually involved, but the author must grant permission for the text to go forward). This is why it is unethical, in my opinion, to market unpublished manuscripts posthumously. The place for things like that is in an archive. But perhaps that is too curmudgeonly a view. You raise some really interesting questions about Shakespeare and Defoe -- and certainly the many adaptations we see of Shakespeare do little harm to the original oeuvre.
Note that Shakespeare’s First Folio was an effort “to market unpublished manuscripts posthumously.” Same with a lot of Kafka’s work. And Shakespeare’s sonnets were published in what was probably an unauthorized edition; we wouldn’t have them otherwise.
I enjoyed reading this post for similar reasons. I already bought four of the seven old-school Collier Edition books to read to my daughter when the time is right. Looking forward to that moment! And it was no fluke that I got those books first, even if they are for a certain age. I fall into the "rush to defend" camp because Lewis is my fellow author and Narnia is some of the best literature ever written: but also, frankly, I don't think there's anything bad to defend here. The issues you mention are either misinterpretations (power), only part of the entire picture (gender), or totally irrelevant. (race)
I'm curious what you think about the donkey and the ape in The Last Battle creating Tashlan. It may not look like it at first glance, but it's one of the most powerful things any author has ever done in literature.
Bold words, Felix. Why am I misinterpreting monarchy? And why is race irrelevant in a story with obvious racial coding? I’m not making an argument for canceling Lewis. But I think your comment illustrates why it’s so hard to talk about these things without choosing a camp.
I'll explain it in an email tonight. I'm behind with emails, as you've noticed. And these are not simple concepts. I don't think you're trying to cancel Lewis, just to be clear.
Love reading your thoughts about Lewis, one of my favourite authors and critics (which is not to say he’s without his problems!). In my other life, I inhabited a world where a lot of people were writing peer-reviewed articles about exactly these topics. So I know that children’s books are well worth close reading!
I think it’s so important to keep revisiting the issues of power, gender, race in Lewis’s books because they are potent narratives that continue to enchant. Each generation can draw on richer and more diverse (and hopefully more equitable) perspectives to use as lenses for encountering Narnia - even if they don’t have to be conscious of doing so at every story moment. PS I’m v. Interested in experiences of rereading childhood books alongside children - or not - as a fascinating insight into the layers of reading selves we embody and the odd dance that memories lead us into over the course of our reading lives.
I appreciate your take on this series. It's been a while since I've read the books but, like you, they were a big piece of my childhood. Some of what you note here I was immediately able to say, "Yes!" and other things (to my surprise) had me wondering if I would have caught that and yet I agree with your interpretation. Which is to say how insidious the prejudice can be.
Glad you were able to share these with your kids. Have you talked with them about these issues specifically? We can never escape the messages imbued in our culture but talking about them strengthens our critical thinking muscles (as you know, of course!) I'd love to hear what your kids think about some of these prejudices and inequities.
Thanks Jan. Like another reader said, my kids have read quite a variety of stories, many with explicit emphasis on characters of color who are heroes. So I’m conflicted about calling more attention to the racial undertones. Maybe my 11 yr old would be interested in that conversation.
or maybe it starts with the 2 female villians or about the gifts each child king receives. Which gift would SHE want? Honestly, I'm kinda curious about that.
She already got the gift she wants: an adult bow with arrows! :) I think she sees a lot of female empowerment in Greek mythology and especially loves how archery has represented power and expertise for figures like Artemis. Queen Susan is an expert archer in The Chronicles of Narnia and once earns the unreserved respect of a curmudgeonly dwarf for her talents.
I'm super impressed with the bow. Those are quite heavy-duty! Not easy, even for an adult. Very nice.
To even things out, I'm sure your kids will read plenty of less-subtle books in school with dark-skinned heroes and white villains.
Yes, there is that. Perhaps the situation Adichie faced as a child isn't the situation young people face today. Somehow the tit-for-tat reasoning doesn't seem to help, though. I'm annoyed by obvious racial propaganda, too.
I don’t know how this fits but Aslan is the Turkish word for lion. We would have named our son Aslan had we lived in Turkey but felt that it’s not nice to give an American kid a name with the sound “ass” in it. (His name is Emre, which apparently sounds like a girl’s name to the English speaker). Check out this link: https://www.biola.edu/blogs/good-book-blog/2016/a-turkic-world-connection-in-the-chronicles-of-narnia
How interesting! There is a Calormene soldier named Emeth in The Last Battle. He ends up in Aslan's country even though he is looking for Tash. This is one of the things I still appreciate about Lewis: the notion that there are many viable roads to truth. In that way, he was a far cry from today's evangelical Christians.
I would even expand on point 3 at the bottom to say that Azin Balda does not just reference honey but sounds like “Honey Mouth.” Ağzı means mouth. Bal means honey. The n is a common suffix and the “da” means in or at. It sounds like Lewis had experiences in Turkey that he reflected in his work but changed the Islamic culture to fit his Christian allusions. I’m not sure what modern evangelicals would think of that. Perhaps Lewis converted Aslan to satisfy his ethnocentric worldview.
There is some hybridity in Lewis's view that could be seen as progressive. But the image of the god Tash in The Last Battle is pretty awful. Tash has a vulture's head, smells like rotten meat, etc. There's a lot of caricaturing there of what might be called "false gods" in the Old Testament.
I just took a quick look at online writings on some of this book and immediately saw Tarkaan. Tarkan is a male Turkish name, which was probably once written as Tarkaan or possibly even Tarkağan. My husband’s name is Kaan, which was once spelled like Kağan. I think I’ll have to read the book. I’m really curious now! I can see what you’re saying. It’s almost hard to know if it’s progressive or appropriated or honoring or caricatured prejudice. How interesting.
Read The Horse and his Boy and The Last Battle for the two main Calormene threads. I’ll be eager for your thoughts! (Slavery is permissible in Calormen, FYI -- not in Narnia).
Emre sounds pretty neutral to my ear. Is it pronounced almost like Emory? In which case that would be a boy's name, although nowadays I suppose Emory or some variant spelling of that could also be a girl's.
You might find this little poem amusing:
https://poets.org/poem/how-i-changed-my-name-felice
Thanks for sharing! It’s pronounced sort of like Em-ray. His name is Emre Luca and many people replied to the birth announcement by saying, “She’s beautiful!” That’s how I figured it sounded feminine. :) But yea, Emory tends to be given to boys!
I’m not familiar with the books you mention since I didn’t care much for fantasy as a kid, but haven’t there been movie adaptations of those books? I ask this because it seems most (?) people first encounter classic stories in film and TV adaptations, not in the original texts. In which case, they’ve already been rewritten, for a variety of reasons, but undoubtedly one reason was to smooth the “sharp edges.” Did that cause any real mischief? A good story is generally pretty durable.
The books I did like as a kid, for example Treasure Island and Robinson Crusoe, have been adapted many times, almost always abridged, certainly “sanitized” in some ways, but even in modern form still seem capable of stimulating the imagination, which is what those books did to me way back when. (Crusoe, in particular, has been reworked in countless variations, for example in the rebooted Lost in Space series, which takes elements of Crusoe’s shipwreck and stranding, adds strong female characters, and combines this with the sturdy family-in-jeopardy dynamic, with its emphasis on loyalty, sacrifice and honesty.)
I don't know if you'd agree, Frank, but if the movie adaptations need to clean things up, then that rather proves my point (or validates my questions). The same would be true of the Lost in Space series, if it overhauls characters in that way. I've seen The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (years ago), but don't remember much except how the film's HD digital touches made it seem overdone. Part of the pleasure of reading is that you complete the image within yourself, and the film left little to imagine.
What you're saying about reworking the core of a story is true of all literature. In fact, Lewis is doing this constantly with Norse and Greek mythology. But Crusoe has some colonial baggage that I think is hard to ignore. I suppose my question is how to be a thoughtful person about these things without lurching to either pole.
Yes, I’m with you, I think. What to do, what to do? Well, adaptations are one way of approaching these stories without changing the originals.
I look at adaptations as analogous to translations. Translations age, for some reason, in ways that the original does not, requiring a new translation from time to time. Same with adaptations. This provides a place to address any problems with the earlier work.
I think you’re tiptoeing around the edge of whether it’s ever permissible just to alter the original text. Well, these books are not Holy Writ; they were commercial works; their authors are long dead; and they’re mere fiction.
For some reason, we’re generally okay with certain kinds of changes, such as abridged versions and adaptations for film, TV and graphic novels, but not others. Think of the massive orthographic overhaul that was done to Shakespeare and Defoe to keep their works readable and modern looking. And with Shakespeare, the silent correction of apparent errors, insertion of stage directions, and promotion of lines from the corrupt quartos to the folio versions because we like those lines (Romeo and Juliet’s opening sonnet, for example). And then there’s the alterations to the text’s meaning that the intervening four centuries have made, to reference Borges’s Menard story re. Don Quixote.
It seems to me that in the future, when reading is done only on a screen, it should be almost trivial for a publisher to supply a classic in multiple versions: the original (untranslated if not in the target language), with any errors or archaic punctuation and spelling preserved; a more readable “modernized” original; the same modernized original with footnotes or links for certain passages or words; and an abridged version or one targeted at younger readers.
This is smart discourse, Frank. I don't know enough about the changes to Shakespeare to comment intelligently on that. But I think there is a kind of integrity to an original that isn't easily altered. I take your point about translations, but that really is a different beast, because a translation is always more of an approximation of the original -- and there is a lot of subjective discretion there. As an author, I don't much like the idea of someone fussing around with my text or adapting it (without my permission) to different audiences. I can see why publishers might want to do that and why some readers might enjoy the variety, but I think at that stage we're straying pretty far from my conception of art. One of the few privileges an artist has is the autonomy and integrity that comes from an original text (yes, I know, editors are usually involved, but the author must grant permission for the text to go forward). This is why it is unethical, in my opinion, to market unpublished manuscripts posthumously. The place for things like that is in an archive. But perhaps that is too curmudgeonly a view. You raise some really interesting questions about Shakespeare and Defoe -- and certainly the many adaptations we see of Shakespeare do little harm to the original oeuvre.
Note that Shakespeare’s First Folio was an effort “to market unpublished manuscripts posthumously.” Same with a lot of Kafka’s work. And Shakespeare’s sonnets were published in what was probably an unauthorized edition; we wouldn’t have them otherwise.
Touché! Happy to concede the point. 😊
I enjoyed reading this post for similar reasons. I already bought four of the seven old-school Collier Edition books to read to my daughter when the time is right. Looking forward to that moment! And it was no fluke that I got those books first, even if they are for a certain age. I fall into the "rush to defend" camp because Lewis is my fellow author and Narnia is some of the best literature ever written: but also, frankly, I don't think there's anything bad to defend here. The issues you mention are either misinterpretations (power), only part of the entire picture (gender), or totally irrelevant. (race)
I'm curious what you think about the donkey and the ape in The Last Battle creating Tashlan. It may not look like it at first glance, but it's one of the most powerful things any author has ever done in literature.
I know this book's unicorn cover will set off academic alarm bells. But there's a great book I got last summer: The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy. Got it on a whim, but it's enriched my understanding of Narnia beyond all expectations. I highly recommend it: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-chronicles-of-narnia-and-philosophy-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-worldview-jerry-l-walls/11702975?ean=9780812695885
Bold words, Felix. Why am I misinterpreting monarchy? And why is race irrelevant in a story with obvious racial coding? I’m not making an argument for canceling Lewis. But I think your comment illustrates why it’s so hard to talk about these things without choosing a camp.
I'll explain it in an email tonight. I'm behind with emails, as you've noticed. And these are not simple concepts. I don't think you're trying to cancel Lewis, just to be clear.
Love reading your thoughts about Lewis, one of my favourite authors and critics (which is not to say he’s without his problems!). In my other life, I inhabited a world where a lot of people were writing peer-reviewed articles about exactly these topics. So I know that children’s books are well worth close reading!
I think it’s so important to keep revisiting the issues of power, gender, race in Lewis’s books because they are potent narratives that continue to enchant. Each generation can draw on richer and more diverse (and hopefully more equitable) perspectives to use as lenses for encountering Narnia - even if they don’t have to be conscious of doing so at every story moment. PS I’m v. Interested in experiences of rereading childhood books alongside children - or not - as a fascinating insight into the layers of reading selves we embody and the odd dance that memories lead us into over the course of our reading lives.
Sounds like we agree that eliding these questions is hard?