Okay, i see why judy blume is awesome. Sheila is complex, exactly her age, and hilarious. Her self-denial is so realistic and it makes her very down to earth. What a great character! I love how she admits everything reluctantly, but does come to admit it after all… what a great inspiration for pre-teenage-hood.
Totally digging blume and i can’t believe i missed out on her growing up. I was so close to reading Superfudge. Well, i’ll read more of her sometime.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis
So The Witch, the Lion and the Wardrobe is Edmund's struggle, Prince Caspian is - all of the children's, - Dawn Treader is Eustace's and The Silver Chair is Jill's.
Jill, who shows off, and forgets to repeat the signs - or say her prayers, and so, "muffs up" the sequence of things in the story. The children in the underworld, where, like Plato's cave, all is darkness and we can be conned into believing that sunlight and God are imaginary because there is no visible proof. The children brainwashed into this by the Green Lady and her lute and fire, like Meg and Calvin with IT in A Wrinkle in Time.
As always, very clear images. Not as purely symbolic as Dawn Treader, though.
The passage of time hurt me in this story as much as it hurt Eustace. It is one of my least favourite parts about the Narnian series - first, that the time in the two worlds aren't relative, second, that we MUST jump from character to character and to differernt eras. Then, too, we know Caspian as a bright young man, and it does hurt to see him aged - frail - dead. (His "ascension", the thorn and blood and rejuvenation is beautiful and symbolic and joyous, though. And I'm glad Caspian got to visit the world even if he plays a very minor role.) There is SUCH sadness in the Silver Chair, out-rivalled only by the finality of The Last Battle. That's my other point of contention with the Narnia books - the end always has the sadness of farewell.
In that way, The Horse and His Boy is one of the happiest stories of Narnia, although I can't love these characters as well as the Pevensies.
Lewis is a snarky writer. Puddleglum is hilarious and wonderful. His insights into Jill's acting innocent is hilarious, and his comments on the Experiment House are definitely political. He's extremely critical of "modern" ways through Eustace and Eustace's school, and in doing so he sets up this battle between Christianity and Modernity. As for his comment that the "Head... went into parliament, and there she lived happily ever after"... I can hardly believe this sort of snark is in a children's book. Then again these aren't children's books per se... I'm convinced they are family books, meant to be read aloud, therefore full of humour that will enliven the elocutionist's reading.
The landscape is distinctly British.
WELL: project for next month: read Mere Christianity!
Jill, who shows off, and forgets to repeat the signs - or say her prayers, and so, "muffs up" the sequence of things in the story. The children in the underworld, where, like Plato's cave, all is darkness and we can be conned into believing that sunlight and God are imaginary because there is no visible proof. The children brainwashed into this by the Green Lady and her lute and fire, like Meg and Calvin with IT in A Wrinkle in Time.
As always, very clear images. Not as purely symbolic as Dawn Treader, though.
The passage of time hurt me in this story as much as it hurt Eustace. It is one of my least favourite parts about the Narnian series - first, that the time in the two worlds aren't relative, second, that we MUST jump from character to character and to differernt eras. Then, too, we know Caspian as a bright young man, and it does hurt to see him aged - frail - dead. (His "ascension", the thorn and blood and rejuvenation is beautiful and symbolic and joyous, though. And I'm glad Caspian got to visit the world even if he plays a very minor role.) There is SUCH sadness in the Silver Chair, out-rivalled only by the finality of The Last Battle. That's my other point of contention with the Narnia books - the end always has the sadness of farewell.
In that way, The Horse and His Boy is one of the happiest stories of Narnia, although I can't love these characters as well as the Pevensies.
Lewis is a snarky writer. Puddleglum is hilarious and wonderful. His insights into Jill's acting innocent is hilarious, and his comments on the Experiment House are definitely political. He's extremely critical of "modern" ways through Eustace and Eustace's school, and in doing so he sets up this battle between Christianity and Modernity. As for his comment that the "Head... went into parliament, and there she lived happily ever after"... I can hardly believe this sort of snark is in a children's book. Then again these aren't children's books per se... I'm convinced they are family books, meant to be read aloud, therefore full of humour that will enliven the elocutionist's reading.
The landscape is distinctly British.
WELL: project for next month: read Mere Christianity!
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