December 12, 2005
I don't know what to write about. So perhaps, having nothing to say, I should say it.

It's about 12 degrees outside. My youngest son has a bad cold and I probably should have kept him home from school, but I think he's borderline and he said he was up to it, so off he went. I took the dog for a short walk. My feet are cold. I'm in my basement office with the space heater going and the dog's camped out in front of it.

We saw "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" on Saturday. It's a good movie, very well done. Did I like it? Hmmm.

Somewhere when I was 11 or 12 or 13 years old, I got Lewis's "The Magician's Nephew" out of the library and read it. At least, I think I read it all the way through. It left an indelible mark on me. I don't remember the story at all. I just know that the story depressed me, creeped me out and for some weird reason has left some notion of child sexual abuse connected to the story. I don't know why. But it's definitely left my view of Lewis's "Narnia" in a weird kind of bias.

My wife loved the movie. My kids seemed to like it. I thought it was good and well done, but I'm not sure I liked it. I don't like Lewis' "sacrifice" of Aslan and his coming back to life, Christ allegory or not. It doesn't make sense within the context of the story, at least the movie. And the death of Aslan, or worse, the humiliation of Aslan, is particularly nasty. And much is made of Edmund's betrayal, but much of his behavior was based on his not being aware of the larger context of his actions--he didn't know the ice queen was evil. She was friendly and sweet and pretty and offered him food and drink and a warm robe initially. So the notion that Aslan is sacrificing himself for Edmund's "sins" strikes me as being strained.

So what? It's just a movie. A bit of entertainment and I've spent more money on less.

Best,
Mark Terry