Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Spaceopoly Kill This Thread IX: The 24-Hour Version (Fifth Time)

I went to IKEA Sunday afternoon. Didn't buy a thing.

For those who've been to IKEA, are the meatballs really al that?

I don't eat beef or pork, but my friends who have eaten the meatballs all like them. Ikea does have very good coffee. I've gone there just to get a cup.

Thanks Rocky!

I love meatballs. Whenever we make spaghetti and meatballs I eat the sauce and cheese and leave off the spaghetti.

I've never had an IKEA meatball, which seems to be the only product they have with an English name.

And the only product they have that doesn't come with instructions (or do they actually have instructions for how to eat a meatball?)

That reminds me of the part in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books where someone goes insane because of the instructions on a toothpick packet.

But they have to put those instructions there! Otherwise someone who stabs their gums by accident might sue!

In the Narnia books, when Susan is called by a nickname, it's spelled "Su" rather than the more usual "Sue".

I'm a fan of the Narnia books.

I liked Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, which is basically an atheist's version of Narnia (ironic since I'm not an atheist).

Aslan is the only character who appears in all seven Narnia books.

Lucy and Edmund Pevensie both appear in five.

Caspian appears in four.

Peter and Susan Pevensie, Eustace Scrubb and Digory Kirke appear in three each.

I love how most of the main characters from previous books who are from the "real world" appear in the finale. It's a very interesting twist.

The Last Battle is my favorite ... I have read it several times.

I didn't find the CS Lewis books that churchy.

like ... at all. but I know his other books are.

Oh, I'm not saying Lewis's books were churchy. I have no idea if they are or not. I watched the first Narnia movie and parts of the second, and they do seem to reflect a very strong Christian and conservative worldview. Aslan is clearly a Christ-like figure. Also, the child heroes seem to reflect an idealized version of kids with few if any negative traits. (I'm recalling these points from memory, so I don't have any examples to support them.)

Lyra Belacqua, the young hero of Pullman's books, would have been out of place in Lewis's world. She's clever and resourceful, but can also lie and manipulate. (She eventually acquires the name Lyra Silvertongue.) The use of daemon familiars in her world seems drawn from pagan concepts.

None of this means that Pullman's stories are better or worse than Lewis's or that one series is more churchy than the other. But they approach their imagined worlds from very different perspectives.

I don't think "churchy" is a word I would apply to Narnia, either.

There are few overt references to Christianity at all. There are a few places where it's implied, such as when the Pevensies are told they will not return to Narnia and Aslan tells them they need to know him by his other name in their world. Another is at the very end of the final book where Aslan "no longer looks like a Lion."

The only real direct reference to Jesus (whom Aslan represents) is in The Last Battle when Lucy comments about the world within the stable, saying “In our world too, a Stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world,” referring to the Nativity.

I think HWW would enjoy reading the Narnia books. Recommend!

The best part is they're generally stand-alone. You can read Book 1 and stop there, and not feel compelled to finish the next 6 books.

Narnia fans usually have an opinion on which order the books are presented. The current U.S. publisher, HarperCollins, is under the impression that the books should be read in order of the series' internal chronology, which puts The Magician's Nephew first. I personally feel that The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, having been written first and having been written for the reader who had no knowledge of Narnia and Aslan, is a better starting point.

I agree with you, Rocky. Reading the books in that order gives one a lot of nice A-HA moments. When I was reading the Magician's Nephew I thrilled at all the references to books which were published earlier.

When they started making the movies, some American readers were confused as to why LWW was first. The drama of the books is lost by placing The Magician's Nephew first, I think.

Oh I am completely the opposite ... I have to read them in the internal chronological order. I feel like they really give the sense of their different time periods .. the Magician's Nephew is more abstract, more mysterious and develops the time period it is set in much more ... which I really like.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe could almost be from any point in history. As could the Last Battle.

^ Agree with Rocky and Ibby!

You are all welcome to read them in the wrong order!