XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.books.childrens, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: p4@enzym.rnd.uni-c.dk   
      
   JF  writes:   
      
   > That is stupid advice! Read Jack Lewis's opening paragraphs in 'The   
   > Magician's Nephew' as to why it's important to read it first!   
      
   Actually Lewis was a horrible judge of this. Knowing his own work so   
   well, he obviously failed to see that reading the books   
   chronologically confuses more than it helps.   
      
   The world in LWW really doesn't sound much like a place where humans   
   has ever been, and I don't think Lewis thought they had, when he wrote   
   it. But as the world grows, calormenes, telmarines and finally(!) the   
   first king, Frank, turns up as well.   
      
   That's all good and well. Lewis never bothered about building a   
   complete and consistent universe in the way Tolkien did. That doesn't   
   make his books less entertaining.   
      
   But if you start out reading TMN - don't you wonder why nobody ever   
   mentions Frank?   
      
   > Taking your advice, reading the LWW first, means that the wardrobe   
   > exists before its made from the wood of a tree from Narnia!   
      
   That's nonsense. Noone said that you should pretend the events in LWW   
   HAPPENS before the events in TMN. There's nothing unusual in an author   
   going back and writing prequels.   
      
   --   
   Peter B. Juul, o.-.o  "I'm not ignoring any facts.   
   The RockBear.  ((^))   I'm simply ignoring you.   
   I speak only  0}._.{0  Slight difference."   
   for myself.    O/ \O                         -jms   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)