What future for "Voyage of the Dawn Treader"?

The Guardian reports that Disney will no longer partner with Walden Media to produce the film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I find this strangely annoying. I say "strangely" annoying because I have not been a fan of recent film adaptations of beloved books. I should be relieved--"Treader" is safe and can stay just as I remember reading it, rather than how someone chooses to translate it.

But I took umbrage with a comment in the article which stated that, while the decision was no doubt financial (Prince Caspian made considerably less money than The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe) part of the problem is that today's readers are not as familiar with the rest of the series. This is in marked contrast to the Harry Potter books, for example, which are equally popular from volume to volume. The thought that the Narnia books are somehow less than the Potter books just irks beyond measure! "Treader" as it stands in the Narnia sequence (the original one, by the way, not the reconfigured, chronological sequence thrust upon us in the 90's) is the bridge between the story of the Penvensie children and the rest of the chronicles. It also boasts one of the best opening lines ever in Children's Literature: "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it."

So now I want "Treader" to be a film, finances and nostalgia be damned!

The Narnia Code--is this really necessary?!

Talk about taking all the fun out of a series: the Guardian reports about an upcoming BBC documentary about the third layer of hidden meanings within the Chronicles of Narnia. Evidently, each of the books can be linked to a planet in our solar system. To quote the article:

"There are three layers of meaning - it's like three-dimensional chess. Instead of wishy-washy fairy tales, in fact this proves they are quite the opposite - he was writing happily on three levels," said Stone, who has interviewed academics and friends of Lewis for the documentary.

So, not happy with just two levels--the "wishy-washy fairy tale" level and the Christian allegory level--evidently Clever Clogs Lewis was slipping in Medieval Cosmology as well.

Sigh.

I have cherished memories of reading these books as a child. At the time I was more than happy with the wishy-washy fairy tales. As I got older and was able to recognize the Christian allegory, well that was okay too. And kind of cool, because I felt learned for connecting the dots. But this third level is a conspiracy theory too far! It seems as if the Narnia books have been fiddled with quite a bit in recent years; first there was the reordering of the books by publishers so that they could be read chronologically. Now this. Narnia, we hardly knew you.

New Honor for C.S. Lewis

I'm not sure why this was listed in the BBC Entertainment section, but it's cool news all the same. Those Blue Plaques ensue that the everyday pedestrain doesn't cruise past an otherwise unrecognized spot without realizing the history that took place there.

So it's not just me--Keeping Narnia in order

One of the trickiest questions I often get at work is, "Which is the first Narnia book?" It's a tricky question because there is a correct answer--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe--but it is being undermined by the insistence in recent years of publishing them in chronological order within the narrative, rather than as originally released; hence, starting with The Magician's Nephew, whose action predates that in "Lion", Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Horse and his Boy. I'm not sure who came up with this idea--I have even seen it floated somewhere that it was Lewis' wish to re release them so. But in this age of prequels, alternate endings, and companion volumes, I find it difficult to believe that today's savvy young readers would be confused by reading a history of Narnia's inception after they have already read the previous five books. So, when some poor, unsuspecting soul asks me which is the first Narnia book, I give them the spiel about the debate.....and then hand them whichever of the two is actually on the shelf (mustn't send them away empty handed.) The release of "Lion" in the theatre has helped to reassert it's position as the lead-off title. And now, The Horn Book, the children's literature Bible, has taken its stance on the issue. How nice to be right ^_^

Of course, the second part of this issue is: "What?! You mean you don't intrinsically know all of the Narnia books by heart? They're not etched on your soul?!" That incites the same feeling of being flabbergasted as when someone asks me for a recommendation for a 2nd-4th grader, and they answer the statement, "Well, I'll assume you have already read Charlotte's Web," with, "No."

How is that possible?!