Old Proofreaders Never Die

[msmemory_archive]

I was reading this publisher's blurb about the newly released book Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy at
http://www.opencourtbooks.com/books_n/chronicles_of_narnia.htm

The first sentence reads, "Pushing through some mothballed fur coats in a wardrobe in a disused room of an old London house, Lucy and the other Pevensie children found themselves in a strange and wonderful country, populated by creatures unknown in our world."

Well, it's not in London, for starters. They've been sent to the countryside during the Blitz. The London house is in The Magician's Nephew.

Comments

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Not to mention "unknown in our world" which is an interesting concept. Every one of those creatures in Narnia is one that is "known" at least in myth in our world ...

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've seen a talking beaver which eats bacon in any other myth, but in general, yes, all the critters are standard issue fantasy.

[goldenstag.livejournal.com]

Well, okay, if you want to pick nits. <g>, I was generalizing.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I LOVE picking nits. Nibble on their tiny feet, etc.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Um, yeah. It's even mentioned the first sentence of the book, if I recall correctly.

[kfitzwarin.livejournal.com]

Sigh....

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm unimpressed by their scholarship.

Myth creatures

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Awake inexplicably, so of course re-reading LJ instead of something constructive.

Hmm. What I can remember from the first book:

Faun.
Talking police dogs.
Reindeer on Queen's sleigh (I think)
Dwarf.
Various talking animals.
Giant talking lion with god complex.
Giant.
Various evil critters allied with the Queen, all with names I recognized at the time.
River god.
Wine god.
Maenads.
Dryads, etc.
Centaurs
Merpeople.

There aren't really any *new* mythological creatures until Voyage of the Dawn Treader (those one-footed dwarves, for example) or The Silver Chair (the underground people.)

Re: Myth creatures

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall that the Monopods weren't original to Lewis, though I can't remember the earlier source just now.