Fair enough that you don't enjoy fantastical wars, but I just wanted to add, that just like LWW is an allegory to Christianity, it also has parallels to WW2, The White Queen occupying a country, making it always winter (symbolism!), and them having to defeat her (Hitler) and her evil creatures (nazis). It was published in the beginning of the 50s, so you can also consider it a way for the children of that time to cope with the trauma of WW2. A way for them to indirectly understand the horror.
Susan isn’t excluded because she’s vain, that’s just part of explaining she’s too “of the world.” She’s excluded because she’s lost her belief and memories of Narnia and is in denial that it ever existed. To give you the Christian phrasing, “she lost her childlike faith”.
As a POC gay christian fan who fell in love with the stories and had a gay awakening seeing Edmund in the movies, I can't really defend the problematic points of the stories because they were a product of his beliefs at the time, but CS Lewis kind of make a small effort to make his female characters a little stronger when he met his wife to be Joy Davidman. It's hard to explain the elements that makes them too christian without sounding brainwashed (like Aslan letting Peter kill the wolf without training or Eustace's undragoning), but they were interesting points and thought provoking to the faithful. But Susan's fate is never stated to be over but her redemption has to happen in the real world. Also like Susan, Lewis had a phase of unbelief until he met LOTR's author Tolkien and they became friends. Anyway, RU-vidr Into the Wardrobe can explain it better :)
I bought a gorgeous set of Chronicles of Narnia back when I visited Scotland and binge read the series. I literally threw the last book against a wall and screamed for a couple of minutes, just repeating wtf just happen like a mantra. I still have loving memories attached to the movies because Prince Caspian but the books are not amazing, especially that last book 🤣
Amazing review, as always ❤❤❤ The only thing I would say is that though some of the criticism is valid for an adult audience while reading these books one needs to remember that they are aimed at kids. That's why the pacing is very fast and that is why some of the most obvious things are written out in detail (like the fact that time in Narnia is different). I read these to my cousin when she was about six, and much like Susan, she was unable to put two brain cells together until I read the dialogue about the whole time thing out loud. Children are just not the brightest creatures and their attention span is pretty much non-existent, which makes the book perfect for them but maybe not ideal for anyone older than fifteen
Growing up as a good Christian kid, I was obsessed with this series but also read them in the “wrong” order 😅 and only got to magicians nephew, LWW, prince caspian, and horse and his boy and then fell out of reading. As an adult I decided to re-read it/finish it. It doesn’t have the wonderful writing I remembered it having even though it seems like some of the themes are meant to appeal to adults who are having to read it to their kids. Also it’s clearly a product of it’s time. BUT I do think some things, like the comment about it being better to be a slave that be rejected, is to appeal to a kid who can relate to that in a team sport setting, not to make a statement on slavery. Dawn treader is actually my favorite because I felt all of the different places they go were described so much more vividly and they are all so distinct. I hated the movie. I wanted to see the giant sea and wall of lilies at the entrance to Aslan’s country and they didn’t do it. Also, would recommend looking up “holy trinity” if you want to understand why he seems like God AND Jesus. Prince Caspian got exiled to the bathroom reading basket. My copy is twice the size and twice as beat up because it sat in humidity for like 8 years. It looks like I love it the most but it’s actually my LEAST favorite. I hated it so much. Jadis in the Magicians nephew gave me nightmares as a kid and as an adult she’s still kinda scary but so over the top dramatic it’s hard to take her seriously. But I remember feeling smart spotting the parts about the magic tree and the lamppost and the professor as a kid too and it’s actually super obvious as an adult 😅. My favorite part of Last Battle is seeing everyone come back like rip van winkle but it felt very anticlimactic during the actual battle. I will say the whole idea of masquerading as aslan and brainwashing society to believe it is kinda terrifying. There are plenty of real world non religious applications of this.
Agree Dawn treader was also.my favorite and I think the comment about slavery was supposed to be a job more at how shit Eustace was that has rightfully not aged well VS any kind of comment on actual slavery.
oh my god FINALLY someone who acknowledges how awful the dawn reader movie is lmao! I think I remember the BBC one being better? Which is saying a LOT 😂 The book is incredible and the movie is a CRIME LMAO
Its the "uhhh, ahhh, that's it. I am not going!" for me.... that got me so hard because as you said uhhhh.. I said the rest with you knowing exactly were your head was going with this. I love it.
Thank you Gavin for reaffirming my beliefs that I would not enjoy this series! After watching your vlog I cannot get over the fact that this is still celebrated as one of the best series created for children.
It wasn't the fear of aslan imo.... it was that she saw the reality of what would happen if she got the shallow thing she thought she wanted. She is already not wanting to make that wish to come true by the time aslan shows up in the page. I always saw it as more a comment on general morality and finding deeper meanings etc... VS pursuing shallow ends etc... she then goes and helps her friends instead of making a selfish choice.
I’ve been toying with wanting to read this series for a while - as a child/teen I definitely read some but not all of it but barely remember them. Also would you and Mel consider doing His Dark Materials together as well since that was written almost in response? I think that would be really interesting!
I’ve seen the first Narnia movie and I never realised you played a brilliant role in it. P.S. I had the biggest crush on William Mosely. He was so cute and alpha as Peter.
Thank you for reading book series I never have any interest in but making the experience through your eyes so freaking enjoyable. I think they seem magical as children because you don't disect and analyze the hidden meanings. You read about a taking lion, it's a talking lion.
This edition looks gorgeous! I tried to read the full series years ago but only managed Magicians Nephew / Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. I just couldn’t get on with the others
Saw the title and ran to watch bc I’ve maintained for years that Aslan is just Jesus Christ’s fursona ETA: the movies also introduced me to Ben Barnes which kickstarted my long and complicated history with Leo men
I think the "heavy handiness" comes from the fact that the books were written for a younger audience (8-12 ish, from what I could see online) and written in 1950. And if you read C.S Lewis' non-fiction they are Christian books so they are going to feel heavy-handed, but I find them a lot more complex, whereas Narnia is a lot easier to follow. I also read them for the first time as an adult Christian :) And plan to reread them this December. I find it funny that you enjoyed The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe until Jesus showed up. 🤔(This comment only covers that first book FYI).
I hated these books as a child and as an adult and that's with me not even noticing the religious imagery for the most part 🤣🤣 I'm living for the rants and also your verison of Asslan which would make the films watchable for me 👀
I feel like it’d be really nice to do a video recommending alternative books for each of these disappointing childhood classics. I’m sure you’ve read others that have similar elements without all the problematic propaganda
It is so interesting to see what Gavin thinks about this and what so many people in the comments seem to say - I read the entire series as a kid, and I will admit that Horse and His Boy, Silver Chair, and Last Battle I found a bit boring at the time, but Voyage, TLTW&TW, and especially The Magician's Nephew were massive favorites of mine as a child and early teen. I was actually quite enchanted and entranced by CS Lewis's works in general, The Great Divorce and his sci-fi series (especially Out of the Silent Planet) were some of my favorite novels ever. I enjoyed how he approached Christianity - but I haven't read anything since I was 14 or 15. I am very curious to re-read the books through adult eyes now. Sad though they mostly don't seem to be good books.
(as someone who adores the Narnia series and has done since they were seven) dear fucking CHRIST Gavin I did *not* expect fury content from you before 2023! 😉
I've never read the books but have seen the movies and enjoyed them back when I watched them. I am curious to eventually, maybe, probably one day read the series. 😅 But I have to admit that edition is gorgeous 😍 I lost it with your asslan update 🤣 Also, your cats are adorable!
This was bloody fantastic haha Cackling at the first Aslan skit. I really hated this series (except Wardrobe it was fine) but the final book enrages me, Susan was done really dirty in that one.
@@GavinReadsItAll oh one thing I’ll say, I’ve read two “childrens classics” that have aged well (and only two) Anne of Greengables and Little Women, although I will say Anne is much better
I’d say this video shattered the glass for me, but, honestly, it shattered my soul. I know it’s not smart to continually do things that hurt oneself, but I also know it’s good to get different perspectives. Ultimately, I like to finish what I start, and that’s why I kept listening. I had decided to watch this video because I you, Gavin, and I like The Chronicles of Narnia. I guess sometimes mixing two things one likes doesn’t always work out. In this case, it was like putting silly putty on a stuffed animal. It just ruined both. Aslan was my favorite character reading this series. I loved how he saved the characters because it gave me comfort in how God saves me. I loved how after meeting Aslan Eustace started to become a better person. Hence, hearing you talk about how much you disliked Aslan was really painful. I know you have the right to look at his involvement differently than I did, but the heavy criticism really hurt. I understand that the main characters do seem to have less agency when Aslan saves the day, but I would maintain that all agency isn’t lost when he shows up. In the second half of LWW, Peter leads the Narnians into battle, Edmund breaks Jadis’ wand, and Susan and Lucy follow Aslan when he sacrifices himself and when he comes back, they look for statues for him to revive. The Horse and His Bot actually may have been my favorite. This is because I loved the scene when Shasta is comforted by a cat when he is afraid of ghouls and later finds out that cat was Aslan. I struggled with a lot of anxiety as a kid, and I feel like this scene gave me room to feel that way while telling me I’m not alone. Aslan didn’t criticize Shasta for feeling anxious. He just comforted him, and that’s what I needed to know about God as a kid. Ultimately, this series helped me understand God’s love better. I understand there were some problematic, racist comments. I wish they weren’t there. I realize C.S. Lewis could have been a lot kinder when describing other cultures. As a child I loved this series and used it as a way to understand my faith better. However, now my eyes were opened a lot of less than great parts: colonizing, just how bad the racist parts were, the way Lewis wasn’t kind in his description of obesity, recycled tropes, and parts that seem to portray women as weak. However, I would say that there are some parts where there were strong female leads. At the beginning of LWW, all of Lucy’s siblings tried to tell her Narnia wasn’t real, but she never denied it. Imagine how hard it is for a child to stand up to three older siblings with no one backing her. Then she did the same thing again when she chose to follow Aslan in Prince Caspian, not knowing if her siblings would support her. Lucy holds to her values even when she is alone, which is the mark of a strong person. Furthermore, in The Magician’s nephew, Polly tried to talk some sense into Digory before he hit the bell that woke Jadis, and she stood up to Jadis a lot more than Digory did. Overall, Polly kept her head on straight even when her friend didn’t. Like Lucy, Polly held firm even without support. There were some narration points I didn’t like when C.S. Lewis pointed out that what was happening was a story. As a child I never really liked those parts. Overall, The Chronicles of Narnia have a lot of good parts, but those parts are mainly enjoyed by Christians. For a Christian reader, it really explains God’s character and helps one understand him more. Unfortunately, there are some extremely problematic parts that taint the series. It’s weird how a series can come off so loving in some parts and so hateful in others. At the end of the day, a reader just has to take the good with the bad and learn from both.
I took these books out of my church's library because I thought it presented a weird conservative worldview I didn't want to promote. The Wrinkle in Time series is like the hippy alternative if you're looking for obviously Christian fantasy kids books. I remember friends reading this growing up. Loving it, and not picking up on the religion stuff at all. I think you're right about the beginnings being better and more exciting, and then kids fill in their own stuff as they move into the boring sections. And because it's boring there's more room for their ideas and opinions. At least I'm pretty sure how kids who enjoy Narnia absorb the books.
The Last Battle was my least favorite as a child and now I understand why! My favorite was The Horse and His Boy, but wait hear me out!!! I was a horse girl and I remember reading that book laying on my horse's back and wishing he would start talking to me lol. Did not realize back then how problematic the book was, I just was thrilled about the talking horses. Thank you for ruining my childhood! :D
Goodness, my family has recommended I read this series many times as both a kid and adult. My agnostic self is very happy that I never gave into it because the preaching would have driven me to possibly tossing out a book.
What a beautiful edition! I did enjoy The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe as a child but I never had any interest in the rest of the series and still haven’t read past the first book! 💕
I always read Susan's non-ending as, "She's grown up and wearing makeup to attract boys," which... you can extrapolate "and have all the premarital sex" from that, in my opinion.
This is very much Christian analogy from a Christian world view written for christian children...so...if someone has major issues with that worldview, they will have major issues with this series. There are definitely other issues with it that aren't related to that (women can't fight, the...Calemarians? I forget the name of that people group being portrayed poorly, a few other things, writing style depending on the person, etc.), but the allegory/world view will likely be the make or break thing. The Voyage of the Dawn Trader re colonialism. Many of the islands used to be under the rule of Narnia and over the years the rule slipped, so some of it is Caspian reasserting the narnian slipped rule...so imperialism more than colonialism. Not sure if that's better.
The LWW is a known allegory for the crucifixion and resurrection. Consider Susan and Lucy witnessing and standing vigil until Aslan is reborn. Mary and Mary Magdalene etc.
Oh. I. honestly never realized the kind of toxic ideas this book series planted into my head :/ i’m glad i got other, better, influences as a kid (im sure His Dark Materials must have canceled out SOME of the religious propaganda at least xD) that allowed me to grow past that because wow. I should never have read that (im pretty sure i was under 10 years old when i read them which makes it Worse). The passages where you dressed as Aslan are hilarious though i love them so much ❤️ and your cats are adorable!!!
Firstly: you're cats are adorable 😺 I read the series for Christmas (literally just last year) I had to leave the book unrated on Goodreads. Most of rating for the individual stories were under four stars, except 'The Last Battle' which I rage quit Dnfed at chapter 3. Throughout most of it, I repeatedly commented on how rude Aslan was.
I haven't watched the video and will probably update after I'm done, but i genuinely need to know if others agree with me: Am I the only one who loved the movie but hated the books? I watched the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was in elementary school and loved it (still love it honestly) and so I tried to read the books because I wanted to see what they were like. I read the first two and HATED them. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was almost exactly the same as the movie but I thought it was so much more boring :/ And I read the book before it, the Magician's Nephew and did not care at all. The story also didnt make sense to me because it felt different from how Aslan talked about the worldbuilding in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Maybe I didn't like them cuz I didn't grow up with them? Edit: Looking at the comments I've now realized a lot of people agree.
I loved this series as a child and am a Pagan now. The talking animals, trees and mythological creatures dancing in the forest clearly left a bigger impression than the Christian allegory. 🌿🦫🦉🐍🦁
Lol, I would love to see you ripping The Wingfeather saga after this, I love Narnia and listening to your opinion was refreshing, and I want to see more of you ripping different kinds of cristian fiction.
Last Battle is more remembered for its insane downer ending these days. Despite revised prints of the book having the offensive racist language taken out, it doesn't change the fact that King Tyrion and his companions black up to spy on their enemies. The Narnia chronicles definitely peaked at The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and the religious allegories get more heavy-handed as the series went on and, in turn, became more preachy. If you want a talking animal fantasy series, may I suggest Brian Jacques Redwall series. I think you might enjoy those books more.
Lol, maybe I should reread this? Maybe it doesn't deserve to be on my favourites list anymore! I remember I loved this when I was like 11 but I think it was mostly for the talking animals. That's all a book needed to get my tick of approval back then. But I do remember not liking the series as much as it went on. 🦁
childhood memories unlocked i was never enchanted by the "magic" of narnia the only thing in the series that ever stuck with me was that susan got left out and for WHAT. my b liked lipstick literally God forbid. also ben barnes. me at the theatre at 13 in the front row like 👁👄👁
I just want to say I'm glad you made this because I feel. So. VALIDATED. Earlier this year I saw some people talking about the series, and they mentioned that Susan turns bad at the end. I was like bro, the fuck?! I loved the movie as a kid, so after hearing that, I figured it was time to read the books. I found the whole series for one credit for the audio books. I went in knowing it was religious, and it was for kids, but I can still enjoy it. The order was a little different. It started me with the Wizards Nephew. I had about the same reaction. It was cool to see the building of Narnia. It was fairly entertaining. Over all I liked it. Then it did the Lion, Witch, Wardrobe. And once again, same general feelings. At was fun. It was light hearted. I was OK with some of the action stuff, because I do like fantastical action things. I actually even play Dungeons and Dragons. The sacrifice part... might be a bit much for kids, but I thought I would still enjoy the battle... But it was just so boring. Like it's a kids book, so as you commented, there's not always a lot of description. Yet once it started leaning towards that, there was pretty much none. At all. I didn't know what was really going in outside of the actions of some people. I feel like he could have built it up more with letting us know what the area was like. The camp. The army. Something. Then I got to the Boy and His Horse... And the racism started... I was not expecting that. I feel like the people who praise it either don't care, or don't remember that. But even if we ignore the racism, it was just boring. Interesting concept with the kid and the horse, but then he met the one girl, they sat down, and it felt like it was just dragging. Like holy shit did it feel so long. So I just skipped the rest of the book and next was Prince Caspien. I got bored and didn't finish it. And then that was it. At that point I was still interested in what happened with Susan, but not enough. I'm glad you spoiled it, because I would have been pissed to go through the rest just to get to that point, and to see that's what it was. Over all I can see why people recommend Lion, Witch, Wardrobe for kids, but the rest is just so bad. Like it's not even the first children's book I've read when I was older. Last year I went through the Wizard of Oz and thought it was great. My senior year of high school I actually did my final paper in English class on Through the Looking Glass, which then got me to read Alice In Wonderland. Both of those are amazing. But even taking into account the time period and everything, I just feel like the pacing for a lot of the other books wasn't comparable to other kids books, it had the bigotry that really bothered me, and it was just boring. Just so fucking boring.
As someone who has never seen/read Narnia, I knew that it had a lot of Christian allegory, but I didn't expect the slavery, sexism, racism, fatphobia, and the sin of being boring. Wow. I think I understand why certain people would allow their kids to read Narnia. Either they never read past the first book, or they're the sort of people who are okay with those kinds of things. Also you kept calling CS Lewis Clive Staples, and I thought you were joking. I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING. Also also the fursuit is incredibly cursed, I love it.
I remember seeing the movies as a child... My mother loved them a lot, but the older I got, the less I liked Aslan. When I was small he was this calm, soft character that just makes everything better, but as I got older I just noticed that he made the story so much worse and was straight up just god. It makes sense why my mother likes those movies so much, since she's also very catholic... Nowadays, I still like the first half of the first movie, and some parts of the dawn treader, because I just really like Eustace's character development, but my religious trauma makes me just leave the second Aslan shows up. This gay pagan can live without Jesus' fursona in his life.
Ok…I find it so validating that someone else finds them boring. There are fun aspects, but otherwise zzzzzzz. I think what’s most challenging is that there is so much potential. Potential that is wasted.
I remember reading the first couple books when I was young and enjoying them. Then I got to the third or forth book and was just bored. Also kind of funny as you started talking about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Lion King came on the TV.
I agree with almost all of your opinions about this series and it makes me feel better about my own anger toward it. That said, I think reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a child was my first introduction to the word "queer" which as I grew up I associated with the wonder of the "strange" things in this series despite however it was used, I thought of it in association with the only good things I kept from reading this as a child. So to me queer as weird or other also meant curious and intriguing in a good way. It was one of the few good take-aways I had other than the love of the first half of the book and portal fiction for that feeling. Finding out that wasn't how others took that word was devastating. All else from the book felt like a waste of potential wonder and whimsy to me.
16:28 I don't think that is what he meant it was more of like when grilse have to fight it means that that's wean it gets real bad and this bat till does not nead that (and in the last book woman do fight)
38:04 - Oh, hi 😍 I completely agree with the idea that a lot of children's classics are not what we think they are. I read The Secret Garden as an adult and I feel like no one talks about some of the questionable parts of it. For example, the girl freaks out in the beginning because the house maid, I think she was, assumed she'd be Indian (since she moved to England from INDIA) and the girl FREAKS OUT on her, saying like "how dare you assume that!" and was totally offended about it... However, I re-read the Anne of Green Gables books as an adult and absolutely adored them! So, that's good haha.
Hi Gavin. I recently found your channel and have been enjoying the contents. Thank you for all the work that goes into your posts. I have just finished watching the Disney posts, books that inspired the movies. This was a great post and got me thinking. As you've done a Disney would you consider doing the same for studio gibhli (I think that's the correct spelling). I would love to have a post of either books inspired by the studio or novels that became/influenced the movies. I am a huge Spirited Away and KiKi fan. I understand that you plan these posts in advance but if you could consider a post like this I think it would be well received. Again, thanks for all the hard works. It is much appreciated 😉
I loved The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe when I was a kid and had been considering reading the Narnia books as I'd never read the others. Perhaps I won't bother now... 😕
