Narnia: Lewis’ style

Posted by Chris | Filed under Books

A couple pieces of background information:

  • For Christmas, Jen was given The Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles consist of 7 books - each book is between 230 and 280 pages long and documents the Land of Narnia from beginning to end (with several gaps in between).
  • After receiving the books on the 25th, I started the series on the 26th, reading one chapter out loud to Jen (we planned on going through them together). Beginning on the 27th until Jan. 2nd (I believe) I completed all 7 books, reading about a book and a half a day until the final 3 and taking about a day and a half to complete (I had to start getting ready for the Real World again).
  • You may or may not notice, but I’ve picked up some language and possibly some writing styles of Lewis.
  • I read the books in chronological order in Narnian time. I know that the books were written in one order and published in another order and even then the Narnian time is a third order. However, before I started the first book, I read about this and found that even Lewis himself thought the books should be read in Narnian order. Yes, it may take away from a surprise or two, but you get to watch all the events unfold and is probably less confusing.
  • I’ve never done a series of blogs before. I’m quite excited. I’m going to give my views and thoughts about the series and C.S. Lewis and whatever comes to mind that is related.

My first post in the Narnia series is about C.S. Lewis’ writing style.

Story-telling

My first thoughts are in the tone of his writings. All the books (even his other books, such as Mere Christianity as I’m told by my wife) are in a very conversational manner, as if he were actually sitting in front of you. If you sit back from the actually story, you can almost see him sitting in an armchair, the room lit by a fire, Lewis smoking a pipe and telling you this fantasical story of Digory, Polly, Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, Eustace, Jill and Aslan. There are many instances where he includes thoughts in parenthesis, tells you that he is looking back, or gives his version of “Meanwhile.” He always lets you know where he’s going (and usually why).

I can’t say he wrote this way because The Chronicles are kid’s books, because he wrote that way in most, if not all, of his books. However, I do think it makes the series easier to read and more suited for kids. In fact, in Lewis’ dedication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, he said that Lucy (who the book was dedicated to) would be too old to read it by the time he finished it. Nevertheless, The Chronicles are wonderful for children AND adults.

Just the facts, please

Something about his story-telling that I found a little peculiar was that Lewis never tried to paint flowery pictures of anything. He didn’t try to make things seem ornate or overly beautiful or glowing. He simply stated that, if things were detailed, he would say just that. He would give details, but then usually say something like

…but what was there would take up far too many pages and isn’t particularly important…

He was not averse to saying something was shiny or beautiful, if it would catch your eye in real life; however, he would not make an object seem to glow (unless it really did seem to glow).

I believe that many writers “flower things up” and try to make ordinary things seem extraordinary or extraordinary things seem heavenly. Whether they are trying to take up space or not, I don’t know. Lewis has a way of making things appear exactly the way they are.

…as red as the ripest strawberry the day you picked it…

describing the red lion on Peter’s shield and just about every reference describing Aslan, saying that his mane shone gold and that light seemed to radiate from Him.

Time

I noticed, in A Horse and His Boy (the third book in Narnian time), that Lewis does not equate time with pages used. While this may be true of most, if not almost all, authors, Lewis’ style intruiged me:

…and he rode on for weeks and weeks…

Given the adventures this boy, Shasta, had already had with his Talking Horse, it seemed odd (or ‘queer’ as Lewis would have stated) that he, almost whimsically threw in that statement. It was almost as if it were a passing thought.

While that statement in itself is not important to the plot line, most authors (in my opinion) would try to make the journey seem more arduous. More could’ve been said about Shasta becoming a more skilled rider (for he had never ridden a horse before) or his struggle to find food or his adventures in villages he passes - anything to give the reader a sense that the journey really went on for “weeks and weeks.”

On the other hand, Lewis also takes up pages and pages with things that happen in an instance. While this is inherent to writing (even if a million things happen in a single second, you still have to take all the space to document the million things), Lewis is carful to point out that it all happened very quickly.

Through Lewis’ writing, you can almost see Narnia. He paints great pictures without being “flowery.” Of course, I’m going to recommend reading the books. If you don’t have time to read the books, go see the movie (which will be a later post). If you have kids and you take them to see the movie, don’t tell them about the spiritual references (which will also be a later post) and see if they pick up on it.

By the way - Jen is still on the second chapter of the first book. ;)

Permalink | January 4th, 2006

5 Responses to “Narnia: Lewis’ style”

  1. Wp Says:
    January 6th, 2006 at 8:22 am

    Now this is the type of post we need to see more of!

  2. Mom Says:
    January 9th, 2006 at 2:14 pm

    OK, who are you and what have you done with my son??????

  3. julie Says:
    January 10th, 2006 at 4:26 pm

    Maybe if you’d hold the little “monster”, Jen could read. Just a thought…

  4. Chris Says:
    January 10th, 2006 at 8:09 pm

    thanks Julie. I totally agree. Although, I am just so impressed that my husband is reading!

  5. julie Says:
    January 11th, 2006 at 8:33 am

    I’m impressed he can read. Actually, I’m secretly impressed with his comments…

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