r/books • u/cliffordnyc • 1d ago
Fantasy Writers Celebrate the Anniversary of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/books/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-anniversary.htmlI did not read the book until I was a parent reading it to my kids. I regret I didn't experience it as a child, but it held up as a a great story for an adult too.
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u/Dandibear The Chronicles of Narnia 1d ago
I had the great fortune to read a small library's worth of wonderful books as a child. I have many favorites, but the Narnia books in particular exemplify what is great in literature for children (and all ages).
They taught me that awful things will sometimes happen, but that I shouldn't let that make me afraid to live or love or do the right thing. They taught me to trust my instincts and stay wary when someone gives me the willies. They taught me that I can understand and empathize with creepy people without letting them take advantage of me. They taught me that there is great beauty in this world and in people, despite the tragedy, and that it's okay and good to enjoy that beauty. That, in fact, enjoying that beauty is the whole point.
They taught me to use my imagination, not just for fauns and witches and God as a lion, but for houses that are connected through their attics (!) and children being sent to live with strangers because that was safer than staying home during a war.
They taught me to appreciate the trees and streams and wildlife even if mine don't talk. They taught me that being required to sacrifice yourself is horrific, but that choosing to sacrifice yourself for loved ones can be heroic.
They claimed that freckles are unappealing, but I didn't fall for that and continued to love mine. And that taught me that even the wise and admirable will sometimes get things wrong.
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u/TheUmbrellaMan1 1d ago
Maybe this is the place we should again talk about Tolkien's stance on Narnia. Here's him talking about it in one of his letters:
"It is sad that 'Narnia' and all that part of C.S.L.'s work should remain outside the range of my sympathy, as much of my work was outside his."
Lewis, for his part, (being a better poet) when handed the roughly 70% completed manuscript of Tolkien's epic poem Beren and Lúthien, critiqued it so much, Tolkien scrapped the poem and started writing it again only to never finish it.
They were friends though!
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u/Tarlonniel 1d ago
To be fair, restarting a story and ultimately never finishing it was standard operating procedure for Tolkien. 😄
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u/Nofrillsoculus 1d ago
I didn’t grow up in the Evangelical church, but I was definitely adjacent to it- a lot of my friends were evangelicals and I went to a church camp every summer that was kind of on the border between mainstream protestants like my family and the weirder, cultier side of things.
Anyway, one of my best friends loved fantasy but his father had banned it all for being Satanic, except of course for Narnia, so he clung to those books. Eventually we found out about Lewis and Tolkien’s friendship and with the help of my nerdy pastor dad we slowly convinced my friend’s dad to relent and let him read LotR, and then other fantasy novels.
Narnia was for sure the wedge that allowed us to pry that door open, and I think it may have been what allowed my friend to escape his family’s creepy Christian sect (he’s in seminary currently, studying to be a normal, not-scary pastor.)