Thursday, March 09, 2006

Wherein I Become The White Witch

So I am following the media-led crowds and reading the Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia right now. Yes, I am admitting that my childhood self discipline was amiss and I never finished reading the whole series as a tot. But now that the books are being made into movies it is time to put this grievous omission to right. And I have to say that it isn't quite what I expected.

For some reason I expected to be met with the same complexity and depth that I found last time this scenario took place, during the Lord of the Rings craze. But hey, guess what, these are kids books! I am whizzing through this hefty tome at lightning speed (despite that pesky full time job)! Good to know that I can still read on a ninth grade level, huh? So aside from the (pleasant?) surprise of an easy read I am also finding Lewis to be a tiny bit more misogynistic than Tolkien, and I quote:

"For you also are not to be in the battle."
"Why, sir?" said Lucy. "I think - I don't know - but I think I could be brave enough."
"That is not the point," he said. "But battles are ugly when women fight."

I have to say that it is a little depressing to be told, even in our fantasy books, that it isn't proper for women to pursue the same goals as men. Yes, yes, I know this was written in 1950 and Eowyn (one of the few strong female characters from LOTR) was not actually allowed to fight either, and yes, I'm not a big fan of wars anyway, but darn it, if she wants to fight, let her! But I have to say that the book does seem to be getting better in this regard, such as in the next chronicle The Horse and His Boy (bah, the NAME!) there is a character, Aravis who is a pretty feisty gal. Perhaps there were some life changing events for Mr. Lewis between 1950 and 1954.

Yes, so this is what my life has been reduced to, feminist literary reviews of 50 year old publications. I think I feel slightly less badass these days, and that is making me a tad cranky. I can't even change my hair color to funk things up a bit because of my precious belly cargo. Maybe I'll go pierce something to bring back the spark... it would be really easy to do the belly button right now, since it is starting to poke out like the timer on an Oven Stuffer Roaster. Ha ha, heh.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey pal!

I have never read the Chronic, for whatever reason, and yes, it can be tough to make those discoveries about your childhood memories.

More importantly, there must be something that you can do to be feisty, even with the belly stretcher. Not too too feisty of course, but we all know how you get when you can't exercise or flex those muscles, and we certainly donnae wan' tha' te happen, lass!

Maybe I can google something up when I get home...I ph34r what might pop up if I google "feistiness for pregnant women" at work. ;)

Kathleen said...

hey cous! i just finished the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe with the shorties. i read it every year to my kids...well...except now the movie ruined that!

anyway...lewis' son was interviewed on npr and said that the movie was changed a bit from the book...lucy fights in the battle (or at least, i think she does) in the movie.
evidentally, he was very much the male chauvenist (sp?) but that changed when he met his last wife...
so good observation!

funny, too, because i was just going to start reading the entire series as i have only ever read tltwtw.

rock out with your badass self. you got the cool belly! work it, girl!

also...can't you dye your hair with vegetable based dye? my stylist told me that black is the only color with metal in it...and i think that is the issue...

yes?