I was first introduced to the world of Narnia when I was about eleven years old, through the BBC movie, “Prince Caspian.” I hated that movie so much. In fact, I don’t remember ever hating a movie in such an irrational way before or after the BBC “Prince Caspian.”
I didn’t hate the movie because of poor quality. Back then, I was the sort of child that liked a movie no matter how poorly made. And today I actually quite like all of BBC’s Narnia movies. No, to be fair, my hatred had nothing to do with the movie at all.
I hated the movie because my routine had been broken.
You see, Mom was away visiting a friend and she was rarely away. Dad and my Uncle Caleb were home taking care of my siblings and me, and they were doing a poor job of it. The house was chaos, my brain hurting from watching too many movies, and the food wasn’t all that good. To top it all, we ended a horrible day with a new movie my Uncle Caleb brought home.
Not only had the day already been weird, now we were watching the movie called “Prince Caspian” and it hurt my eyes so much and it was just so weird and made no sense. And my uncle laughed at me for never having heard of it.
When Mom came home and asked how the weekend went, I told her about the awful movie.
“Oh,” she said, “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of that. It’s a Narnia movie.”
Well.
That was the second time being told I should have heard of something I thought awful. But it did pique my curiosity. So, we went to the library and borrowed the rest of the BBC movies. And I decided they weren’t too bad. And when I saw there was a newer movie released called “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” I watched that, too, and decided it was definitely not too bad. And then I saw there were seven books.
And so I read them.
And I fell in love.
I read the books in their sequential order and believe that’s the best way to read them. ;D I started with the “Magician’s Nephew”, then the “Horse and His Boy” (decidedly my favorite!), and finished with the “Last Battle.”
But … a few things bothered me about the books.
First, it was when I finished the “Magician’s Nephew.” I loved the book, and I especially loved Polly and Digory. But I’d also seen the movies and knew Digory wasn’t married. How could those two not grow up to be married?
The second thing was when I read those few short sentences in the “Last Battle” that condemned Susan. I read them again. And again. I couldn’t believe Lewis had made her go bad.
How could Susan have forgotten Narnia? How could she have said it had been a childish game when she’d grown up there?
I’d always felt myself to be most like Susan. Deep down, I wondered most of all, “What does this say of me?”
I knew that I had to write her story. It wasn’t a mere disappointment like Digory’s and Polly’s missed romance. I had to tell her story, not just because it needed to be told, but also because I needed to know why and what had happened to her.
But I was too young to know the answers when I was twelve, and I knew that. So I told myself, “Someday. Someday I’ll be ready to write her story.”
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