Nonfiction: The Way Into Narnia, Peter J. Schakel

Ran across this while shelving, and enjoyed a different take on the Chronicles of Narnia.

The Way Into Narnia: A Reader's Guide
Peter J. Schakel
ISBN: 0802829848
Finished October 1, 2014.

The author is a Lewis scholar, and has written several other books about Lewis, and about the Chronicles in particular.  I especially think that his second book: Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds (2002, ISBN: 9780826219374) would be an interesting read.

However, back to this one.  Here, we look at the Chronicles in the light of Lewis and Tolkien's desire to create new myths or "fairy" stories of other worlds and places that would resonate spiritually with readers and inspire them in various ways.  The premise is sound, and we're treated to a nice introduction that deals with Lewis' background in imagination, education and spirituality (and lacks thereof, and recovery thereof) that led him specifically to want to write stories of a "Secondary world" that would allow him to make allusions and references and suppositions (not allegories) of truisms that he held to be inspiring and important in this "First" world of everyday life.

Once we get into the breakdowns of the individual books, the premise lags a bit, as the majority of the mythos involved here is Christian, and while the author tries gamely to keep it to a minimum, the obvious fact remains that many of the important plot points of the books, or important character moments, are extremely deeply rooted in a very Western, very Christian, very theological sense of the world and how to live in it.  That is as it is, but it makes the treatise on the books being created fairy stories a bit thin in places, and no amount of caviling about how Lewis was inspired by Northern mythos or sentiment, or drew on Spenser and MacDonald's realms of "faerie," or inserted the gods and heroes of Classical mythology will change that those all appear in addition to and as supports to the overarching Christian figures and themes.

The real interest here for me is how the author gets into the spirited debate over reading order.  Much like with Star Wars, there is a very deep and sometimes acrimonious split between different camps of equally devoted fans, and like everyone else, I have my own deep-seated opinions.  I was happy to see that the author largely agrees with me, although I have to be difficult and admit that I prefer my own slightly weird ordering scheme (Lion, then Magician, then Horse, then Caspian and Dawn Treader as quickly as possible together, then Silver Chair to close us out, leaving The Last Battle out entirely.)

The author points out several extremely pertinent textual areas which clinch that Lion should be the first Narnia book read.  There we are introduced to the world of Narnia along with the Pevensies, and we get to discover and learn with them who Aslan is, and what this new strange world is.  Once we've made the initial discovery, then we can backtrack to Magician, and see how it all began, after we are already familiar and attached to the world.

Schakel also spends a good portion of his writing time on elaborating the differences in editions between the first British edition, the edited first US edition, and the subsequent "unified" edition in 1994 that reverts back to the (in the author's and in my own opinion) less powerful and more problematic first British edition.  In addition to lamenting the textual difficulties, he also warns against the unfortunate disappearance, reduction, or miniaturization of many the illustrations from subsequent editions, limiting the power and impact of the story on children reading for the first time (or as is more likely) being read to, and perusing the illustrations on their own to remember the stories and characters.

Sadly, all the illustrations are only in the British edition, the better edited text is in the first US edition, and there are multiple line editing mistakes and omissions in the US edition as well.  Looks like I'll be creating my own patchwork edition to correct all the faults and present the best possible reality of the Chronicles to my hypothetical future children.