Kevin's Watch

I like both, but I can re-read Lewis again and again, whereas I need a good run up to wade my way through any of Rowling's work another time. Besides, Lewis never created anyone quite as annoying as Harry Potter in Harry Potter ad the Order of the Phoenix.

Sum sui generis
Vs

The chronicles of Narnia were classic. they will last for ages. But after a while, Harry Potter will start to fade away. I like them both, but Narnia a bit better.

Wow, that is like comparing Donaldson to Tolkien! Seriously how can you choose. The person who reinvented the genre or the person who perfected it?!? I picked CS Lewis (out of respect), however I only read his books cause I needed something to do before the fifth HP book was out!

sure, writers like that were there first, and influenced countless people, but that doesnt mean that others should bow and scrape to the ones that were there first. its not a pissing contest...i could understand if the authors themselves said stuff like "yeah i came up with this idea all on my own and i owe nothing to anybody" or something like that, but just because they write books that have a similar feel or similar themes or plots or whatever, doesnt mean that they should constantly be bowing at the altar of the one that came before them...im sure she was influenced by ALOT of writers, not just CS Lewis


anyway, i read the narnia books when i was younger, so i cant remember them very well..but i DO remember that i liked them alot, so im not really choosing either...though HP is more recent...of course im Lewis was a far more accomplished writer


forgive me if i seem to ranting, but i see posts like this alot around the boards i go to

Like Tolkien and SRD's work, both series have their ups and downs in my eyes. I think I've enjoyed HP more just for the sheer fandom participation *cough* fanfic *cough* and the intricate detail of the wizarding world, but there is certainly a wonder to Narnia that wizarding Britain can't beat.

As an aside, I have to say I was turned off by the Christian theology long, long, long before I realized it to be such. I read the books quite young and did not see the symbolism until it was pointed out to me in later years. Those aspects of CoN were actually rather frustrating for me - I kept wondering why the characters would behave like they did toward Aslan when he was so self-righteous... Looking back with an older, more educated eye, the symbolism is very clear.

Alynna Lis Eachann wrote:I kept wondering why the characters would behave like they did toward Aslan when he was so self-righteous...

It is a sign of evil times indeed when people cannot see someone being righteous without accusing him of being self-righteous. Aslan's insistence that he knew better annoyed a lot of people, in the books as well as outside them -- but then, he really did know better.

That's is kinda funny. I like it in the end of the last book (see Book of Revelations) where everything sounds like the Bible, it has my favorite lines (in bold).

“...I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thous hast done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that the earth shook (but his wrath was not agaisnt me) and said, It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites, I take to me the services, which thou hast done to him. For I and he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted. Dost thou understand, Child? I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also (for the truth constrained me), Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days. Beloved, said the Glorious One, unless thy desire had been for me thou woudst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.
“Then he breathed upon me and took away the trembling from my limbs and cause me to stand upon my feet. And after that, he said not much but that we should meet again, and I must go further up and further in. Then he turned him about in a storm and flurry of gold and was gone suddenly.”

--Emeth, The Last Battle