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3.74 AVERAGE
3.74 AVERAGE
Lewis seems to have been off his nut on this one. Casual misogyny and racism -- his now favorite enemies the Calormenes -- ripple through the story, inextricably tied. His dwarves chant "Darkies" multiple times to mock them. It was terrible each time I read it. I should add his treatment of Susan is also wretchedly consistent, for she is no longer a friend of Narnia for believing their days to be children's games and who now cares for nylons and lipstick or however Lewis casually slut-shames her. But it gets worse!
Lewis goes very dark, kills off his own world, and leads the favored into new Narnia. Or rather, sets about Judgment Day, casts the sinners into Hell and welcomes the chosen into Heaven. He spends a great long time describing how wonderful it all is, with literal golden gates and people brought back from the dead, all young and healthy. He of course has Aslan forgive a repenting Calormen, chosen among his dark skinned savage people to be welcomed and redeemed. And then something I didn't think he'd actually do: he announces on the last page that all the children from all the books are dead, killed in a railway accident. But now they're in Heaven and everything is wonderful and he very strongly hints that Aslan turns into Jesus and they all lived happily ever after in the afterlife.
Frankly I'm left without words to describe it. What a strange and horrible end to a bizarre series. It's as if Lewis not only became more fanatic in his Christian worship as the years went on, but perhaps also dropped a bit of acid in conceiving this ending.
Lewis goes very dark, kills off his own world, and leads the favored into new Narnia. Or rather, sets about Judgment Day, casts the sinners into Hell and welcomes the chosen into Heaven. He spends a great long time describing how wonderful it all is, with literal golden gates and people brought back from the dead, all young and healthy. He of course has Aslan forgive a repenting Calormen, chosen among his dark skinned savage people to be welcomed and redeemed. And then something I didn't think he'd actually do: he announces on the last page that all the children from all the books are dead, killed in a railway accident. But now they're in Heaven and everything is wonderful and he very strongly hints that Aslan turns into Jesus and they all lived happily ever after in the afterlife.
Frankly I'm left without words to describe it. What a strange and horrible end to a bizarre series. It's as if Lewis not only became more fanatic in his Christian worship as the years went on, but perhaps also dropped a bit of acid in conceiving this ending.
I know that I read this before but I didn't remember enjoying it like I did this time around. And yet its still The Revelation as told by Lewis. Susan still goes to hell for wanting to be a young adult and liking lipstick and parties. ...while the allegory for the anti-christ is forgiven. But most of it was fun to read and the imagery of the REAL worlds is very well done.
This broke my heart from the start, what do you mean Tirian is the LAST king of Narnia.
A lot of this is glum, dire and dark. Tirian is one of the most fleshed out protagonists in the series, and the magic really works in this one. I love Aslan and always have, and his depiction as a kind and forgiving God, and the religious pluralism was truly lovely. The scenes of all our beloved characters reuniting and discovering the "new" Narnia evoked childish wonder in me and made me feel warm.
However the racism against Calormen really took me out of the story so really taking a star away for that. Again, I can appreciate something being a product of its time but this was so unnecessary. Calormen in general feels like such a lazy final villain and I wish we had more of Shift being the big bad guy rather than...people of color I guess? Also justice for Susan she was treated like a criminal for trying to survive as a woman in the 40s.
A lot of this is glum, dire and dark. Tirian is one of the most fleshed out protagonists in the series, and the magic really works in this one. I love Aslan and always have, and his depiction as a kind and forgiving God, and the religious pluralism was truly lovely. The scenes of all our beloved characters reuniting and discovering the "new" Narnia evoked childish wonder in me and made me feel warm.
However the racism against Calormen really took me out of the story so really taking a star away for that. Again, I can appreciate something being a product of its time but this was so unnecessary. Calormen in general feels like such a lazy final villain and I wish we had more of Shift being the big bad guy rather than...people of color I guess? Also justice for Susan she was treated like a criminal for trying to survive as a woman in the 40s.
“Yes,” said Queen Lucy. “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
1/5
I am stunned. I'm absolutely and completely taken aback at how this is, probably, the worst ending to a series I've read to the current date of me writing this. Wow. Listen, I don't normally listen to others when they start screaming things like "This book is racist and sexist." But...the criticism was extremely correct this time. To the point where even I couldn't justify it in any fashion. This book is deeply, deeply, deeply racist and sexist. It's also flat out insulting to everyone who doesn't subscribe to C.S Lewis and his Christian religious fanaticism. Im also stunned that a children's novel can be so deeply disturbing and violent. What on earth was Lewis thinking? No parent on planet earth would read this to their young children no matter if they bought into his religious bulls*** or not. The prose was bad, the speed of the plot was neck breakingly fast and confusing and just didn't fit well into the rest of the Narnia series. After just coming out of reading "The Magicians Nephew" and what a wonderful experience that was I'm absolutely appalled at the idea that this was written by the same person.
Lewis is completely unjustified at this characterization of anyone who isn't this pure, white, Christian ideal. I mean, for crying out loud he kept calling the Calormen "darkies" and how, after the characters doing the equivalent of black face, felt like "real men" again when they got back to their white appearances. Esh. Yuck. Gross on every level. I don't know this for a fact but I have a feeling that Lewis possibly based his Calormen off of Arabs just from the descriptions of some stereotype culture clothing and if that's what he thinks about Arabs it makes me wonder what he would think about me as a Jew. A gross thought to think about. Also the fact he seems to think all cultures and religions that aren't his pure, white, english ideal is backwards and evil is just laughable. Seems Lewis forgot about the Christian love of discriminating against atheist (poor Susan by the way), LGBT people, Jews, Muslims, or women. If you are going to point a finger Lewis maybe look at the ones pointing back at you first.
I am not a Christian but Christians deserve much better representation than this and thankfully they have it! Maybe Lewis should have taken advice from from his friend Tolkien about good Christian representation or even someone like Dante Alighieri. Even Lewis himself did well in his books such as the before mentioned "The Magicians Nephew", "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader". All fantastic in their own right. To fall flat at the ending was just embarassing and falling how hard this story did is even worse. Makes Lewis look like a real prick if I'm being honest. But what do I know? I'm just a Jew with a much different ideal than Lewis's idea of what he claims Christianity says. I absolutely hated this book and everything about it. If I ever reread this series I'll just not read this last one.
I am stunned. I'm absolutely and completely taken aback at how this is, probably, the worst ending to a series I've read to the current date of me writing this. Wow. Listen, I don't normally listen to others when they start screaming things like "This book is racist and sexist." But...the criticism was extremely correct this time. To the point where even I couldn't justify it in any fashion. This book is deeply, deeply, deeply racist and sexist. It's also flat out insulting to everyone who doesn't subscribe to C.S Lewis and his Christian religious fanaticism. Im also stunned that a children's novel can be so deeply disturbing and violent. What on earth was Lewis thinking? No parent on planet earth would read this to their young children no matter if they bought into his religious bulls*** or not. The prose was bad, the speed of the plot was neck breakingly fast and confusing and just didn't fit well into the rest of the Narnia series. After just coming out of reading "The Magicians Nephew" and what a wonderful experience that was I'm absolutely appalled at the idea that this was written by the same person.
Lewis is completely unjustified at this characterization of anyone who isn't this pure, white, Christian ideal. I mean, for crying out loud he kept calling the Calormen "darkies" and how, after the characters doing the equivalent of black face, felt like "real men" again when they got back to their white appearances. Esh. Yuck. Gross on every level. I don't know this for a fact but I have a feeling that Lewis possibly based his Calormen off of Arabs just from the descriptions of some stereotype culture clothing and if that's what he thinks about Arabs it makes me wonder what he would think about me as a Jew. A gross thought to think about. Also the fact he seems to think all cultures and religions that aren't his pure, white, english ideal is backwards and evil is just laughable. Seems Lewis forgot about the Christian love of discriminating against atheist (poor Susan by the way), LGBT people, Jews, Muslims, or women. If you are going to point a finger Lewis maybe look at the ones pointing back at you first.
I am not a Christian but Christians deserve much better representation than this and thankfully they have it! Maybe Lewis should have taken advice from from his friend Tolkien about good Christian representation or even someone like Dante Alighieri. Even Lewis himself did well in his books such as the before mentioned "The Magicians Nephew", "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" and "The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader". All fantastic in their own right. To fall flat at the ending was just embarassing and falling how hard this story did is even worse. Makes Lewis look like a real prick if I'm being honest. But what do I know? I'm just a Jew with a much different ideal than Lewis's idea of what he claims Christianity says. I absolutely hated this book and everything about it. If I ever reread this series I'll just not read this last one.
I want to like this. I enjoyed some of the books in the series. They are certainly good children stories, but are sort of alarming when read as an adult. They're very xenophobic and sexist. The Horse and His Boy was particularly bad. The main character, Shasta is fair-skinned and is rescued from the Carlormene fisherman who raised him. With very few exceptions, Carlormenes (dark skin, turbans and long beards), are described really negatively in the books, and are usually antagonists. Of course the books are a product of their time, but again, it's difficult to read them now without acknowledging the blatant racism.
So Susan stops believing in Narnia, and since she stopped believing, she can no longer be brought there with the others. Makes sense, right? Except that not only is she no longer able to visit Narnia, but her ENTIRE FAMILY DIES IN A TRAIN CRASH. Talk about brutal punishment for not believing in Narnia/Aslan (Heaven/God) anymore. If that wasn't bad enough, she's dismissed by the others because she likes lipstick and has other "feminine" interests. These are just strange and uncomfortable things to read about in modern times.
If someone asked me which books are worth reading in the series, I would tell them to stick to The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. These are the most lighthearted, enjoyable and least offensive stories in the series in my opinion. I really loved them. I'm honestly torn about how I feel about the series as a whole, though. On one hand, I can appreciate what it has done for the fantasy genre, but it's also problematic in a lot of ways.
So Susan stops believing in Narnia, and since she stopped believing, she can no longer be brought there with the others. Makes sense, right? Except that not only is she no longer able to visit Narnia, but her ENTIRE FAMILY DIES IN A TRAIN CRASH. Talk about brutal punishment for not believing in Narnia/Aslan (Heaven/God) anymore. If that wasn't bad enough, she's dismissed by the others because she likes lipstick and has other "feminine" interests. These are just strange and uncomfortable things to read about in modern times.
If someone asked me which books are worth reading in the series, I would tell them to stick to The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. These are the most lighthearted, enjoyable and least offensive stories in the series in my opinion. I really loved them. I'm honestly torn about how I feel about the series as a whole, though. On one hand, I can appreciate what it has done for the fantasy genre, but it's also problematic in a lot of ways.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I mean, you can see that Lewis had some very questionable views evident by his portayal of the caloemens. Other than that the book seemed like one big metaphor about god and faith, which I actually didn't mind that much, but it did feel a big on the nose sometimes. I do love the descriptions about Narnia itself though.