The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis
Fun and nostalgic, but the philosophical weaknesses bothered me more than when I read it as a kid.
(Review posted 1 Apr 2002 12:12:12)

I seem to be rereading The Chronicles of Narnia; I finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe over the weekend. It was fun and nostalgic; I read all the Chronicles years ago (starting with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, for some reason), and Lewis is a great storyteller.

On the other hand the story suffered somewhat from age; my age, that is. The extent to which it's the basic Christian meme in a different protein-coat, and also the extent to which the story just doesn't make sense, got in the way this time as they didn't (or didn't so much) when I was littler.

If Aslan is so big and wonderful and powerful, and able to defeat the White Witch and save Narnia by basically just showing up, why did he stay away for a thousand years (or whatever it was) and let the inhabitants suffer?

If Aslan knew all about the Deeper Magic from Even Before the Dawn of Time, and that he'd be back the next day, why did he seem so sad and lonely on the way to the Stone Table?

Aslan's Dad, the Emperor from Over the Sea, seems to be a bit of a jerk, having made various dumb magical laws way back at the dawn of time. Why does Aslan get dangerously angry whenever anyone suggests that the laws might be sort of dumb? What's up with that?

Aslan knows the children (and everything else in the world, apparently) very well, much better than they know themselves. So why (okay, this is in "Prince Caspian", not "Lion, Witch") when the children are about to go down the wrong side of the gorge, does he show just a hint of his face to just Lucy, who isn't sure enough of what she saw to insist that they all go that way? He must have known it wouldn't work as a guide. Was he just trying to make Lucy feel bad?

Okay, so these are obviously the Narnian versions of the obvious rationalist questions about the whole Deity and Salvation Thing. No big surprises there.