|| candle business overview || free homeschool activities || spiritual articles || || tasty weight control suckers || business articles || child whispering || healthy pain relief ||  || pumpkin crunch upside down cake || Read:  "Welcome to the Stable" || "And I saw a strong angel, who shouted in a loud voice:  "Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and unroll it?"  But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I wept because no one could be found who was worthy to open the scroll and read it. "But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, 'Stop weeping! Look, the LION of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David's throne has conquered. He is worthy to open the scroll and break the seven seals.'" Rev. 5:2-5

"And Aslan stood up and as he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did not dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as the grass bends in a meadow before the wind".  The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe

I juxtapose these quotes here to remind you that my conviction -- like that of C.S. Lewis --  is that there is a great day coming when all the causes of our weeping will be at an end, when the Great One of the Resurrection will return, and when all evil will be chased out of this world completely. For some really interesting reading about the influence of C.S. Lewis on the thinking and literary intentions of Ms. J.K. Rowling (the enchantress behind Harry Potter), visit here: THE CHRISTAN MEANING OF THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Before you get started reading any further, you might want to have something special on your computer to remind you of your study. This is a wonderful picture of the Great Lion against the backdrop of the massed Narnian defenders the day before the epic battle against the White Witch and her forces.   DOWNLOAD A FREE NARNIA SCREENSAVER HERE  >  >

Good books -- books that are well-written and well worth reading, as the Narnian Chronicles are -- can be studied in many different ways. Most of these forms are referred to by Literature Teachers as "literary criticism" of one sort or another. Some of those Literature Teachers might disagree with what I say below.       I find that the forms of literary criticism (which only means, after all, what one person thinks at a particular time about the content, structure or meaning of a particular story or poem or article or book) tend to fall into several classes:

The dissectionist approach is one favored by many.  Stories can be dissected much as you would do a biology lesson:  carefully and systematically taking out the innards of a once-living thing to try to learn what made the life inside it work. The student of literature who becomes merely a dissectionist misses out on the "naturalist’s" opportunity to observe the creature (Story) in the wild, as it were, being itself as an imaginative pleasure, roaming free.  At the end of such a dissection, a student may indeed know the length of the story's average sentence, but will she have any sense of wonder, of having experienced a univeral truth conveyed by a skilled writer?  As Lewis has one of his Narnian characters (do you know what character in which book?) say of heavenly bodies, "but that is only what a star is made of, not what a star is."*

The adversarial approach seems even worse to me.  Some who take the dissectionist approach even attempt to "dissect" the author so thoroughly that they cast themselves in an adversarial role almost as if they want to settle a personal score.  The role of a good and honest critic -- J.R.R. Tolkien was simultaneously an honest critic, a respectful colleague and close personal friend of Lewis' -- is often overstepped by those who cannot create, but only criticize the creations of others.  To make a name for oneself merely by becoming the most vocal of a famous writer's critics is the work of a small life.       If you do any serious investigation of C. S. Lewis and his life and work, you’ll find that he has always had a great number of critics and some who appear quite willing to stand as his moral or ethical or spiritual judges, jurors and executioners. The very fact that Narnia is an imagined place is enough to make some of those critics question Lewis Christian character and his faith.**       The fact that he knew about Myth and Mythic Creatures – he was a professor of Medieval & Renaissance Poetry, for goodness sake! – and understood something about the operation of evil in this world – he was a human being and fought in a very nasty world war, after all! – make others suspect him of being theologically unsound.       Some object to the Narnian stories being spiritual allegory; others think they’re not allegorical enough. I find the endless arguments pretty useless when it comes to an understanding of the Chronicles themselves and to appreciative engagement with them. It is like chewing on gum when you’re really hungry for a meal:  temporarily satisfying in a certain sort of way, but neither nourishing nor lasting.

The descriptive approach often reduces a story to the mere sum of its parts. The assumption is that if someone constructs enough grammatically correct, structurally well-organized sentences about form, grammar, content and meaning that the essence of a piece of literature will have been captured, defined and mastered. Most literary criticism – often mere literary reporting – will probably tell you more about the author of the criticism than about either the true nature of the Story being criticized or the author of the piece being criticized.

The discovery approach admits wonder into the equation as an integral part of experiencing (and therefore coming more surely to comprehend) a work of literature. You may find things you love about a Story and also things you don’t like very much at all. You may be surprised at how a certain set of words can make you feel or see something with your mind’s eye or long for something that doesn’t have a name yet in your experience. You may meet characters you want to be like and ones you hope you never meet (whether in a dark alley or on a sleigh in a snowy world).       I prefer the role of discoverer toward literature in general. What a shame it would be to try to get to know as fascinating a world as Narnia in any other way. *No, I’m not going to tell you. I am certain you are quite clever enough to discover this on your own! **I have a good deal to say, as Lewis did, on the subject of what he referred to as "the baptism of the imagination" as a necessary element in the process of Christ so dwelling in a person that every area of life and thought, including one's imagination, is transformed and redeemed by Him.  E-mail me if you'd like me to elaborate on this point.            And now on to the next section of the "Friends of Narnia" curriculum  >  >  >  >  >

NARNIA CURRICULUM -- I grant a limited license to print and use free of charge to families who homeschool, to any families who just want to study Lewis' Narnian Chronicles together, and to church groups (a limit of 10 copies with my copyright intact on each page).  Please do not republish in any other form.  And please take a moment to drop me an e-mail telling me that you are using this curriculum.  Enjoy these wonderful Lewis tales and my own small efforts at helping others explore them more fully!  All other publishing rights are reserved by the copyright holder, Georgia Ana Larson. Still haven't found what you want?  Keep on searching here:   Web www.aBrighterCandle.com

Some Christmas graphics courtesy of:  www.patswebgraphics.com
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