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Fiction Friction: “Prince Caspian” and How to Write Time Travel Well

I know @David Flin will appreciate the point I made (same as I did when I talked about The Animals of Farthing Wood - thanks for including the link, Gary) not to look down on children's fiction, because it often pulls off particular ideas better than its adult counterpart.

Also couldn't resist another shout-out to @AndyC 's Shadowlands series, and its review by Gary's nephew :D
 
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I know @David Flin will appreciate the point I made (same as I did when I talked about The Animals of Farthing Wood) not to look down on children's fiction, because it often pulls off particular ideas better than its adult counterpart.


Absolutely. Adult fiction can often hide shortcomings of the plot behind clever language and the use of excess verbiage, which fool the reader into thinking something is good when in fact it's simply over-written.

There's no hiding place in children's fiction. If characters act out of character, if there is a plot point that doesn't follow the internal logic, the child reader will notice.
 
One thing that does amuse me is the remark about settings that don’t reward arbitrary cynicism like Game of Thrones. Were you to make a list of such settings where characters believe machiavellian schemes are their own reward but are mistaken, you might well begin the list with A Song of Ice and Fire, which even from the infamous Red Wedding is quite explicit about how these nihilistic schemes lead directly to the downfall of the plotters and the collapse of their works.

Caspian was always one of my favourite Narnia books, and has my favourite ominous boast in all literature:

“I'm hunger. I'm thirst. Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy's body and bury it with me. I can fast a hundred years and not die. I can lie a hundred nights on the ice and not freeze. I can drink a river of blood and not burst. Show me your enemies.”
 
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One thing that does amuse me is the remark about settings that don’t reward arbitrary cynicism like Game of Thrones. Were you to make a list of such settings where characters believe machiavellian schemes are their own reward but are mistaken, you might well begin the list with A Song of Ice and Fire, which even from the infamous Red Weddig is quite explicit about how these nihilistic schemes lead directly to the downfall of the plotters and the collapse of their works.
I mean, that is a fair point; it's just in those cases (IMO) we don't enjoy the ride.

Caspian was always one of my favourite Narnia books, and has my favourite ominous boast in all literature:
I almost quoted that in the article, it really begs a punchline like "I now regret going around the table asking everyone to introduce themselves."
 
I know @David Flin will appreciate the point I made (same as I did when I talked about The Animals of Farthing Wood - thanks for including the link, Gary) not to look down on children's fiction, because it often pulls off particular ideas better than its adult counterpart.

Also couldn't resist another shout-out to @AndyC 's Shadowlands series, and its review by Gary's nephew :D
I fully agree with your inability to resist said shout-out. Thanks :)
 
That is such a powerful image, and thrown out quite in passing; it’s not a long reflection, but one which enhances the book a great deal by being there. The idea of having what’s essentially an ancient burial mound/Iron Age fortress, with ancient-looking inscriptions of Aslan, and yet it was raised after the Pevensies had lived in Narnia.
Something similar happens in Blake & Mortimer's adventure The Time Trap (Le Piège diabolique in the original), when Mortimer, piloting a sabotaged time machine, attempts to return to the present day from the medieval era, and instead finds himself in an abandoned industrial complex--and not only is it full of futuristic technology, but said technology is in an advanced state of ruin. Turns out he missed not only the present but also the shiny atompunk future, and jumped straight to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of the 51st century.
 
Something similar happens in Blake & Mortimer's adventure The Time Trap (Le Piège diabolique in the original), when Mortimer, piloting a sabotaged time machine, attempts to return to the present day from the medieval era, and instead finds himself in an abandoned industrial complex--and not only is it full of futuristic technology, but said technology is in an advanced state of ruin. Turns out he missed not only the present but also the shiny atompunk future, and jumped straight to the post-apocalyptic dystopia of the 51st century.
That's a neat idea. I can't discuss it in detail without giving away part of the plot twist, but Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye" also does something with deeps of time - I always think it may have been inspired by Americans going around European (or Asian) museums!

After I penned this article, I went back and looked at production stills of the Walden/Disney film, and disappointingly it doesn't capture the feeling as well, because they decided to do the inscriptions in Aslan's How as looking more like mediaeval church carvings - yes it looks old, but it doesn't hit you between the eyes like having it be an Iron Age-looking artefact.
 
Thanks Tom, you've made some excellent, and for me as an author, useful points.

I set out to relisten to 'Prince Caspian' a year ago (from Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre's 'The Chronicles of Narnia', of all 7 audio dramas, on 19 CDs. (copyrighted 2003)). but gave up about half way through the 2nd chapter because of the supporting roles Peter was allocating to Lucy and Susan simply because they were girls. I remember liking it the first time I heard it, and it wouldn't have needed much to have brought it up to date, but they were sticking pretty strictly to the books. Pity.
 
Thanks Tom, you've made some excellent, and for me as an author, useful points.

I set out to relisten to 'Prince Caspian' a year ago (from Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre's 'The Chronicles of Narnia', of all 7 audio dramas, on 19 CDs. (copyrighted 2003)). but gave up about half way through the 2nd chapter because of the supporting roles Peter was allocating to Lucy and Susan simply because they were girls. I remember liking it the first time I heard it, and it wouldn't have needed much to have brought it up to date, but they were sticking pretty strictly to the books. Pity.
Don't remember that part. The only commentary on gender I recall is when they get lost getting through the woods following the river and Edmund (I think) argues that "the trouble with girls is they can't carry a map in their heads" and Lucy retorts "That's because our heads have got something inside them!"
 
Thande said:
The Narnia books today are well known for their Christian allegory, something that was completely invisible to me as a kid despite being (then and now) a Christian believer in a Christian household; these things aren’t always as obvious as critics seem to think. I just thought of them as good stories for the most part.
Thank you! At last someone else who didn't notice! I was just the same, a Christian in a Christian house, and the allegory (allegories, when you take into account all the books as a whole) passed me completely by - it never even occurred to me until I read about it when I was much older.
The books are now favourites of my children and they also didn't notice until someone at school pointed it out to them, despite also being Christians in a Christian home. My wife and I haven't let them watch the new films yet because there's just too many things 'wrong' (like the pointless attack on Midas' castle which you pointed out). I suspect the film-makers just wanted an excuse to have more fighting - and hence more chance to show off their CGI - whereas the book, in my opinion, is much more about how countries, and peoples (including animals in this case), can change over time, with some core aspects remaining the same but others altering to fit the new circumstances.
We did let them watch the BBC adaptations, but only once they'd read the books, as we are firm believers in letting them use their imaginations based on words on a page instead of being forced into one way of thinking as is almost inevitable with something on screen.
 
We did let them watch the BBC adaptations, but only once they'd read the books, as we are firm believers in letting them use their imaginations based on words on a page instead of being forced into one way of thinking as is almost inevitable with something on screen.
Good man. I think that is something that should be practised even with the best adaptations.
 
Don't remember that part. The only commentary on gender I recall is when they get lost getting through the woods following the river and Edmund (I think) argues that "the trouble with girls is they can't carry a map in their heads" and Lucy retorts "That's because our heads have got something inside them!"

Thande, not surprised you don't remember that part. I just compared the audio adaption and the book. The book is fine, in fact I just read the first two chapters and both Lucy and Susan play active, assertive characters. However, the audio adaption isn't a word for word adaption and they cut a very important response out by Ivy.

Chap 2. In the book they're in the hall in Cair Paravel and Peter suggests clearing the ivy away from wall to check for the door to the treasury.

"Oh, do let's leave it alone," said Susan. "We can try in the morning. If we've got to spend the night here I don't want an open door at my back and a great big black hole that anything might come out of, besides the draughts and the damp. And it'll be dark soon."

"Susan! How can you?" said Lucy with a reproachful glance. But both the boys were much too much excited to take any notice of Susan's advice.

The audio version drops the "Susan! How can you?" said Lucy with a reproachful glance. With Lucy making a sort of yuck sound, and the boys just pulling the ivy down.

I admit I may have been a little over sensitive, but its certainly brought home that C.S. Lewis was very clever writer, and people adapting his work should be careful about any changes they make.
 
Thande, not surprised you don't remember that part. I just compared the audio adaption and the book. The book is fine, in fact I just read the first two chapters and both Lucy and Susan play active, assertive characters. However, the audio adaption isn't a word for word adaption and they cut a very important response out by Ivy.

Chap 2. In the book they're in the hall in Cair Paravel and Peter suggests clearing the ivy away from wall to check for the door to the treasury.

"Oh, do let's leave it alone," said Susan. "We can try in the morning. If we've got to spend the night here I don't want an open door at my back and a great big black hole that anything might come out of, besides the draughts and the damp. And it'll be dark soon."

"Susan! How can you?" said Lucy with a reproachful glance. But both the boys were much too much excited to take any notice of Susan's advice.

The audio version drops the "Susan! How can you?" said Lucy with a reproachful glance. With Lucy making a sort of yuck sound, and the boys just pulling the ivy down.

I admit I may have been a little over sensitive, but its certainly brought home that C.S. Lewis was very clever writer, and people adapting his work should be careful about any changes they make.
Ahh, I understood what you meant now. Yes, indeed.
 
'Prince Caspian' was one of my very first experiences of time travel and unusual cultural juxtapositions in literature as a child, aged about eleven, and in fact I preferred it to 'The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe' as having less obvious religion in it - and I also liked the whole 'if only ' storyline of the 'mythical' Talking Beasts turning out to be real and helping Caspian to get his throne back from the medieval human knightly thugs around Miraz who had trashed their country. (A sort of parallel in a longer timescale to the hobbits kicking out Saruman and his human 'Ruffians' with their up-to-date industrial development in Scouring of the Shire at the end of LOTR, with added magic and divine help?) I thought the transformation of Cair Paravel over a thousand years or so to an overgrown wooded island and the 'resistance army' theme of the animals fighting the invaders from Our World, the Telmarines, to be very clever and examples of Lewis as a good writer, and noted the humour about putting in Bacchus and his 'girls' and the comment that they wouldn't be very safe without Aslan to keep an eye on them. The dangerous as well as the light-hearted and friendly sides of non-human beings mingle well in CSL, if on a more light-hearted level for younger readers at an earlier era than the mixture in JK Rowling where the mixture of 'light' and 'deep'/ dark magic and beings gets uncomfortable at times . To my mind PC and The Horse and His Boy were more exciting and their settings more of 'a real world' and interesting stories than the CSL books where more of the evident allegories popped up, especially the LWW with its Easter symbolism, though the magical aspects and Arthurian themes of Voyage of the Dawn Treader were well-crafted and interesting too. There was a genuine air of late C19th society and writing in The Magician 's Nephew, which mentions Sherlock Holmes and the Bastables en route, plus the well-done interaction with the Assyria-like world of Jadis and her city (presumably influenced by the British Museum Assyria galleries).

I had hopes of the Prince Caspain film , and it was not too distorted from the text to my mind - though the attack on Miraz's castle seemed a bit pointless and putting in 'thrills and swordplay' for the sake of it, like all the extra time spent on battles in the Peter Jackson JRRT films. Having grown up with the Pauline Baynes medieval-style illustrations to the CSL books , though, I found the 'C16th Spanish ' -style costumes etc of the film Telmarines a bit jarring, expecting their world to be like the knightly C15th, although I had noted when I read the book that the Telmarines were supposed to be descended from pirates who had found a portal to Narnia in the South Seas so their medieval culture was unlikely. Lewis did do 'portals' well, as with the 'Wood Between the Worlds' and the whole concept of time not moving at the same rate in Narnia as it did in our world (or even at a consistent rate) so there could be a few years between one set of human visits to N and then a thousand between the next two sets of visit. i had never thought of that idea until reading Lewis. CSL did a lot of things right, though Tolkien objected to his mixing up figures from different mythologies.
 
As another aside, it was literally decades after I first read the Narnia series before I discovered that Aslan is Turkish for lion. I just thought he'd made up the name.
I obviously have no idea what prompted Lewis to use that and therefore how much of a PoD it might need for the lion to have been called Sher, Sinha, Cinkam or something else.
 
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