The WELL: inkwell.vue.347: Laura Miller, The Magician's Book

#82: Laura Miller (lauram) Thu 5 Mar 09 05:14

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:14:00 PST

Thanks for inviting me, guys. It's been a lot of fun. [Read entire topic]

#81: David Albert (aslan) Wed 4 Mar 09 15:35

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:35:00 PST

Laura, thank you for sharing your book and your thoughts with us for the past two weeks. I look forward to reading more of your writing and have added your blog to my subscription list. [Read entire topic]

#80: Gail Williams (gail) Wed 4 Mar 09 14:59

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:59:00 PST

Thanks, Laura. [Read entire topic]

#79: Daniel (dfowlkes) Wed 4 Mar 09 11:33

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:33:00 PST

<scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14> [Read entire topic]

#78: (dana) Wed 4 Mar 09 11:32

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:32:00 PST

Thank you for joining us, Laura, this discussion and your book have been great, and have uncovered a lot of long-buried memories of Narnia for this reader.

It's time for another conversation to take center stage, but you're welcome to continue here for as long as you like. [Read entire topic]

#77: David Albert (aslan) Wed 4 Mar 09 11:05

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:05:00 PST

Of course, the way we look at it will depend on our views concerning the "ultimate source of beauty." Laura's book, with its subtitle indicating that it was written from the perspective of a "skeptic," suggests one way and will mean more to those of us who are skeptics, atheists, agnositcs, or simply entranced by a certain type of imaginative fiction, than to those who come at the book from another perspective.

For me, Laura's book did exactly what you say it did not: it led her, and many of us, right back to the ultimate source of beauty. [Read entire topic]

#76: Daniel (dfowlkes) Wed 4 Mar 09 04:13

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:13:00 PST

<scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14> [Read entire topic]

#75: David Albert (aslan) Tue 3 Mar 09 17:58

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:58:00 PST

Laura, I loved the ending of your book:

"The world I found was inside a book, and then that world turned out to be made of even more books, each of which led to yet another world. It goes on forever and ever. At nine I thought I must get to Narnia or die. It would be a long time before I understood that I was already there."

I think you have encapsulated what many of us ultimately took out of *reading*, as children, whether we got it from Narnia or some other equally ... equally ... mythopoetic book; I suppose that is the best word to use now that you've defined it for us.

Are there other books, I wonder, that have done as much and in the same way for other children that Narnia did for you, and for many of us who have gathered here to discuss it?

Thank you for providing in your ending a far happier outlook for us readers than Lewis himself did with his own ending. [Read entire topic]

#74: Laura Miller (lauram) Tue 3 Mar 09 06:54

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:54:00 PST

There was a specific school in England, David, called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dartington_Hall">Dartington Hall,>/a> which closed in the '80s. A friend of Lewis' sent her daughter there.

Dan, I realize I may have misinterpreted your question as pertaining to my own faith or lack thereof.

When you ask about whether Narnia embodies a "truer picture of Christianity" than the one I was raised with, I would say yes and no. Christianity is, to my mind, as much a practice as a body of theological principles. There may be a "true" Christianity in terms of doctrine, although as far as I can see there's not much agreement on even this, and what someone offers as "true" Christianity is more often than not simply their preferred version of the faith. Even Christ's teachings, as presented in the New Testament, have been substantively altered and amended over the years. The version of Catholicism I was raised in is a true form of Christianity according to the people who raised me. It was also different from Lewis' Christianity, which in turn is anathema to the Christianity espoused by John Goldthwaite, a critic of children's literature quoted in my book. Which is more "true"? The Christianity more people practice and subscribe to? The one that hews closer to the word of the Bible? The one that focuses on the most socially positive aspects of the New Testament? The one observed by the earliest members of the cult?

However, since I am not a Christian, this is not my argument. Although it's of historical and hypothetical interest to me, I'm really not in a position to discuss it in the way a believer would. Also, it doesn't interest me greatly, or at least not greatly enough for me to want to take a position on any of it. And I really didn't want to write a book about it, though I did want to write a book about Narnia. Hence, The Magician's Book, an attempt to write about everything I do find interesting and moving about Narnia. [Read entire topic]

#73: David Albert (aslan) Tue 3 Mar 09 06:42

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 06:42:00 PST

Educational reforms, yes... as someone who attended quite a few schools that Lewis was describing, or perhaps the better word is satirizing, in Silver Chair, and as Silver Chair was my introduction to Narnia, I was a little unsure at the time how to react.

I read A. S. Neill's "Summerhill" not long after reading Silver Chair and indeed, while "Summerhill" sounded like an ideal place to hear Neill describe it, I did wonder a bit, even at age 12, about some of the potential downsides of the school and whether it was possible that Lewis's description of the bullying incidents might not be something Neill preferred not to know about.

Laura, do you know if there were specific "experimental" schools Lewis had in mind (Summerhill itself, perhaps?) based on actual experiences or visits, or if it was more a reaction to the general movement in England and Europe (Montessori, etc.) at the time? [Read entire topic]