What Lies in Store for Prince Caspian?
Check out my article on the upcoming Prince Caspian movie at hollywoodjesus.com. Will Hollywood manage to re-create the subtle suspense of the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia? Here's a sample from the article:
One overlooked feature of the story is the complicated exposition that C. S. Lewis manages to pull off in the second book of the Chronicles, subtitled The Return to Narnia.
The first three chapters are actually almost a detective story: the four children are in the most humdrum circumstances possible, as opposed to the scenario in the last book. No longer hiding out from bombs in London, they are back in peacetime and on their way to school. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, they are pulled off the train platform and into someplace that they feel should be Narnia. But it’s not.
And Lewis manages to keep you guessing. There is no lamppost, no snow, no sign of anything magical. Just trees. And a deserted seashore. They don’t recognize where they are at all. Instead of being invited to tea by a faun, they confront hunger and thirst right away and are forced to stop acting like schoolchildren and start thinking like the resourceful former adults they were when they left Narnia. Thus they are forced to act like Narnians without even being sure that they are in Narnia, a masterful stroke.
Lewis keeps the plot moving as the children discover the apple orchard. the old courtyard, and finally the treasure house of Cair Paravel, where they recover their gifts and recognize that they are really and truly back in Narnia. But by this time the answer opens up far more questions: what has happened to Narnia? Where is everyone they knew before? And why have they been brought back?
One overlooked feature of the story is the complicated exposition that C. S. Lewis manages to pull off in the second book of the Chronicles, subtitled The Return to Narnia.
The first three chapters are actually almost a detective story: the four children are in the most humdrum circumstances possible, as opposed to the scenario in the last book. No longer hiding out from bombs in London, they are back in peacetime and on their way to school. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, they are pulled off the train platform and into someplace that they feel should be Narnia. But it’s not.
And Lewis manages to keep you guessing. There is no lamppost, no snow, no sign of anything magical. Just trees. And a deserted seashore. They don’t recognize where they are at all. Instead of being invited to tea by a faun, they confront hunger and thirst right away and are forced to stop acting like schoolchildren and start thinking like the resourceful former adults they were when they left Narnia. Thus they are forced to act like Narnians without even being sure that they are in Narnia, a masterful stroke.
Lewis keeps the plot moving as the children discover the apple orchard. the old courtyard, and finally the treasure house of Cair Paravel, where they recover their gifts and recognize that they are really and truly back in Narnia. But by this time the answer opens up far more questions: what has happened to Narnia? Where is everyone they knew before? And why have they been brought back?
Comments
dominique
I thought it was interesting what you said about Moria in The Lord of the Rings, too. As much as I love the book, I never really thought about it. People get worked up over the loss of Tom Bombadil, changing of Faramir's character (which, I think, is one of the things that bothers me most), the fact that Orlando Bloom either has too little or too much screen time (I'm inclined toward the latter), etc. I'll have to reread the chapters on Moria before I watch The Fellowship again.
dominique
In Prince Caspian, Caspian calls Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy to Narnia with Susan's own horn. He did know that they would be the ones to answer his call because his old tutor told him so. He also tells the dwarf to go to Cair Paravel and wait for Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy to arrive and bring them to him. I do think it is wierd that Caspian meets them at Cair Paravel instead of the dwarf but we will have to see how that works out in the movie.
God bless,
Claire