Chronicles of a Narnian education. A Contrary review by Harriett Green  The enigmatic conclusion of the 1992 film Radio Flyer, starring a cherubic Elijah Wood, often leaves bewildered viewers in its wake, including myself: Did Bobby actually escape in his beloved Radio Flyer wagon or did the brutal reality of their childhood finally conquer him? While we might reasonably guess at the answer to this question, the film ultimately makes a powerful observation about the intricate world of children: the child's universe is a layered prism of the imaginary and reality, a world where the line between the fantastical and the prosaic is blurred, if not absent. Books act as catalysts in the complex universe of childhood as their imaginary worlds seed embryonic minds with myriad possibilities.

 C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia is among the most heralded series of these books, and I admit that I was one of those who wanted to journey to Aslan’s How, visit the palace of Cair Paravel, dance with fauns and nymphs in the moonlight. . . . Oh yes, where was I? The Chronicles have seeded many minds over the last half century, and in The Magician’s Book, Laura Miller explores how Lewis’s life shaped the novels that shaped her life as reader, writer, and critic. 
 Miller divides the book into three sections that echo William Blake’s famous collection of poems—“Songs of Innocence,” “Trouble in Paradise,” and “Songs of Experience.” In the first of these, Miller asserts that discovering The Chronicles was the formative reading experience of her life: What was it like to be genuinely surprised when Lucy Pevensie’s fingertips brushed against branches instead of fur coats as she first walked through the wardrobe and into the snowy woods? That sensation is lost to me. What remains is dim recollection of how life was shaped before I knew about Narnia, and a more distinct sense of what it was like afterward. I had found a new world, which at the same time felt like a place I’d always known existed.
  Miller incisively turns the mirror on herself to reflect on the trajectory of her literary and social education as traced through classic books such as The Chronicles. She notes, “Like Lewis’s, my material life often seemed to be nothing more than the drab and shadowy interludes between the hours when I could read and retreat to an interior realm furnished with the fabulous treasure I had scavenged from hundreds of books. . . . Did tumbling into Lewis’s imagined world at such an impressionable age imprint me with some of his traits?” As her essays unfold, it becomes apparent that her strongest formative influences were her parents, teachers, books, and friends, but her desire to draw closer into Lewis’s study animates her exploration. She reminiscences about connecting emotionally to Lucy Pevensie as many readers do to fictional characters and draws upon similar recollections from acquaintances such as Jonathan Franzen and Neil Gaiman to explore the nascent literary lessons embedded in The Chronicles. She weaves these thoughts through personal anecdotes of growing up Catholic, reading other canonical works and literary criticism, and gradually dealing with the fact that as she grew older, she learned that “the reality of authorship—the origin of every story in the imagination of a flawed human being—was both liberating and dispossessing.” However, her analysis of C.S. Lewis’s life and work in light of this “reality of authorship” is rather uneven. Her text is a series of loosely connected essays more than tightly woven chapters, and she occasionally meanders in her effort to touch all aspects of Lewis criticism. She provides an admirably succinct and insightful overview of “Jack” Lewis’s childhood, which was marked by the imposing figure of his father, who couldn’t grasp that his sons had thoughts or lives of their own, so that “in Jack, ‘a habit of concealment’ was formed.” She observes the thematic importance of friendship and loyalty in The Chronicles (strikingly de-emphasized in the recent films), and the emergence of Lewis’s love for medieval texts in the stylistic narrative of The Chronicles—“Lewis was a medievalist at heart, and if none of the Narnia books are actual allegories, they are infused with a related affinity for emblems, pageants, and layered symbolism.” She also tackles problematic aspects of The Chronicles, acknowledging Lewis’s racism and conservative elitism. It was borne of the fact, she writes, that “he and circle saw themselves as surrounded by a hostile world intent on destroying everything they valued.” In Narnia, “the evils of the British class system could be displaced onto a nation of swarthy foreigners while the romance and poetry of its chivalric past could be kept by the Narnians.” She also considers that Lewis’s conflicted attitudes toward women in The Chronicles may stem from the early death of his mother and from his demanding lover Janie Moore. Miller recalls that when she learned of the Christian themes in The Chronicles at age 13, she “was shocked, almost nauseated. I’d been tricked, cheated, betrayed.” But she provides a nuanced analysis of Christianity and The Chronicles, arguing, “When Lewis’s child readers don’t see Christianity in The Chronicles,” she argues, “they are in fact perceiving a truth about Narnia that adults usually miss. The Christianity in Narnia has been substantially, rather than just superficially transformed—to the point of being much less Christian, perhaps, than Lewis intended.” Miller’s book comes loose as it works toward an undefined end-point: In one later chapter, she employs a vague mix of Freudian psychoanalysis and literary theory to theorize on Lewis’s sexual life, then forces the unconvincing result awkwardly into the book. Several other chapters could have been cut, including one devoted to literary theory and J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, and a short chapter on the purpose of literary criticism. Although less coherent than one might like, The Magician’s Book is overall an enjoyable re-visit to the land of Narnia. Miller makes the case that for many of us, Narnia was a key first step in the all-important journey of literary discovery, of which Lewis was a fervent advocate: In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do. Harriett Green is pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Index of Reviews...>Reviews.htmlshapeimage_1_link_0

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The Magician’s Book

Laura Miller

2009, Little, Brown

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