Prince Caspian

I enjoyed this more this time around than I ever had before. Some really neat scenes, especially an early one where Lewis nicely evokes the feeling of being in a ruin and a sense of slowly realizing where you are. But his gender politics make me want to bite, and the older I get the more Aslan reads like a gentle dom than *sparkles* Jesus. Although... actually, never mind. I'm too tired too pick at that knot today.

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis is more a story about belief and how that can draw barriers than it is an adventure. For the adult in me, that's a more interesting read, though I have to admit, it makes a more difficult movie (and therefore I can understand a lot of the changes the producers made).

The portrayal of the youngest child being the strongest believer is another theme within this, the second published book of the Narnia series. Lucy, a child whose faith is so pure, is the one who can lead the others. But Lewis is also clear that the child can be pushed away from faith easily enough, too.

I am not sure how I want to read into the idea that Peter and Susan are too old to return to Narnia (yes, I know Peter returns in The Last show more Battle). Is faith something that diminishes in adolesence and adulthood, only to return in a person's golden age? Or is it that as a child, faith can be magical? As an adult, faith has to be grounded in order to be lasting?

I'll be re-reading the entire series, for probably about the tenth time in my life. Then I'll make my final analysis. show less

Part two of my Great Narnia Reread. These books are interesting!

Caspian was never my favorite Narnia book as a child, and I can kinda see why. It's a fairly linear adventure story with a lot of tromping through the woods. Still, the opening rates as one of the most magical sequences in the series: the four Pevensie children finding themselves on a mysterious island and slowly arriving at the truth: they're exploring the ruins of their former castle.

If the first Narnia book is about redemption, Caspian is about restoration. The opening of Caspian's story parallels the Pevensies' in a pleasing way—as the children uncover the ruins of the past, Caspian gradually discovers that the Old Narnia is still very much alive. The rest of the book show more is pretty straightforward: the kids tromp across Narnia, there's a bit of a war, and the girls and Aslan team up with the forces of paganism to bring on a new age of libertarian anarchy. (There are MAENADS, y'all.) It's a nicely spun tale, and if it has a fault, it's that Miraz is a pretty boring villain and his defeat requires an eleventh-hour deus ex machina.

The gender stereotypes here are... not great at times. I was pretty appalled both by the scene where Peter walks into almost certain death with a quintessential, English public school, stiff upper lip, not even hugging his little brother goodbye, and Susan's overall role in the party as the Bitchy One. If I handed these books to a kid, I might want to followup with a conversation about gender roles in fiction.

But of course what I really want to talk about is Lucy and Aslan and theology. The long sequence where Aslan is visible only to Lucy is the reason I say these books are interesting.

Now, as a secular reader, if you take these chapters literally you will get nowhere—or rather, you will find yourself in the weeds, arguing about what it means to have faith in a God who seemingly withholds information, and that is nowhere anyone wants to be.

Instead, I invite the reader to approach this sequence as a parable about commitment to the truth. A while back it occurred to me that the famous quote about Lucy is actually a really good motto for the #MeToo movement. "You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth."

So yeah, I don't have much to say about lions who only appear if you believe hard enough (although this is a theme that Lewis explores more productively in Till We Have Faces). But if we stop worrying about Aslan's motivations and focus on Lucy, I think this becomes a really lovely parable about bravery and honoring the truth. Lucy knows something to be true, recognizes this knowledge is a call to action, and is afraid to do anything because her goddamn family won't believe her. I think this is a character arc we can all get behind.

What's more, read this way Lucy's siblings reactions become more legible—Edmund, who believes her but wants to follow the consensus of the group, Peter who listens to his head rather than his heart, and Susan, who knows in her heart that Lucy is telling the truth but just doesn't want to be inconvenienced.

I never in a million years thought I would stumble upon a close-reading of these chapters that redeems them, but there you go. #believeLucy show less

Borrowing heavily from Hamlet, this second adventure of the Pevensie siblings (but fourth chrononologically, which is how I'm reading them to my boys) is a bit of a mixed bag.

What I liked:
•All four siblings are back for another adventure.
•The time lapse element -- a year in England has been roughly 1000 years in Narnia, meaning everyone they knew (except immortal Aslan) is dead and Narnia is greatly changed.
•Aslan's wild pagan romp, which includes Bacchus (in more of a Puck incarnation) and Silenus.
•New characters: Trumpkin the dwarf, Trufflehunter the badger, and Reepicheep the mouse! And the unnamed Bulgy Bear who can't stop sucking on his paw.

What I didn't like:
•Once again, no one believes Lucy, because Aslan only show more reveals himself to her at first. Her faith is tested (gag!), but she prevails in the end. Okay, we get it already, Mr. Lewis.
•Boys go to battle while girls pet Aslan and wake up the dancing trees. (Although, they do get the pagan romp instead of having to wrestle with a hag, a wer-wolf, and a corrupted dwarf as their brothers do.)
•Prince Caspian is a bit of a dud. For a literary orphan, he lacks personality, but apparently his faith and his bloodline qualify him to be king.
•The Telmarines are supposedly decended from pirates (which I like), but the time line gets all skewy then. If Narnia was created in 1900 (English time) -- when Digory (AKA Professor Kirke) was a kid -- when did these pirates come through the cave entrance? I think the timeline only gets wonkier from here, with time passing inconsistently. show less

3.5 ⭐️
My third time reading this with the 5th graders; "Prince Caspian" is never my very favorite Narnia novel, but Lewis really goes above and beyond in his prose with this story. From Lucy's wandering in the sleeping woods, to the parade at Beruna, to the different textures and tastes imagined for the feast of the trees, one can enjoy the feel of this novel in a tangible, authentic way every single time.

("They stood sniffing in the sea-smell," is just one example of the intentional way the author uses language in PC).

Just to be honest, this installment didn't hit as hard as its predecessors. There were a few beautiful turns of phrase, such as the idea that Aslan grows larger as the beholder grows older or that he remains unseen by those who don't have the faith to follow him. But, on the whole, it just lacked some of the depth that we've become accustomed to in Narnia. Still a good read, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

A few years ago I started a Narnia reread which happens very slowly, but I'm getting there! Today I finished "Prince Caspian".

I absolutely loved "The Chronicles of Narnia" as a child and read most of those books many times. They were my introduction to fantasy and my favourite books before I started reading Tolkien and grew out of the Narnia stories.

I was really looking forward to this installment because I know that "Prince Caspian" was my favourite Narnia book as a child apart from "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". I am happy to say that it did not disappoint. I enjoyed it very much and I can see why I loved it so much back then.

The Pevensie children are back in Narnia because all that Narnia once stood for has been forbidden show more and the talking animals and other creatures are in hiding. Prince Caspian is their only hope, and the four children are called back to Narnia to support him.

Concerning the plot I remembered only the beginning, which is exciting and wonderful as well as a bit melancholic, and I enjoyed it very much this time, too. The story continues just as good and it has many elements I loved on this second reading: Old tales, a journey through the wilderness, friendship and bravery, fighting for the good, an atmosphere of something that is lost but still remembered. The language of this book is much more poetic than in the previous ones, and some passage are so beautiful that I had to read them several times. And this was something I discovered on this reread almost thirty years later: This novel is much more similar to Tolkien's writing than the other ones, so no wonder that I loved it so much. It has many of the features that I love about Tolkien, namely the ones I described above.
There are more similarities, such as the woods who move to fight the enemy, and the notion that fairytales are dismissed by adults although they contain so much truth.

Of course there are some aspects that are a bit problematic, such as the topics of gender roles or speciesism (why must humans rule Narnia when there are so many intelligent animals?). However, this did not take away from my enjoyment because there are so many things in the book that went straight to my heart. show less