> It's 4 white British middle class kids (Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy) who have the privilege of being sent to the country during a dangerous time
That is only true for one book in the series.
What about Aravis and the Telmarines who were not white British? The very working class character who founds the original Narnian royal dynasty? Those are just the major characters, what about all the minor characters? Then there are the non-human characters who are not exactly like any of us.
BTW a lot of kids of all classes were evacuated during the war AFAIK - it was not a privilege.
> But for the many, many people who prefer to read stories about people like themselves and can't identify with Peter and Susan, I'm glad there is something for them now.
One of the purposes of literature (and one endorsed by CS Lewis) is to identify and empathise with people unlike yourself. Anyone who only enjoys literature about people like themselves is missing out a lot.
Any reasonable reader would conclude that the Pevensie children are the main characters in that series.
Indeed, that was the whole point - Lewis wrote Narnia for his goddaughter Lucy. That's why she's the main character! He wrote it so she could enjoy a story about a girl just like herself!
Fwiw, I've also enjoyed books and video games all my life, including Narnia. None of the characters have ever looked or spoken like me, unless they were a caricature to be made fun of. I still read a lot because that's my nature. That's fine, it is what it is. But I hope the next generation experiences something better than what I did.
Frankly your comment sounds like cope. You so badly want to identify with this series so you decided that the main characters are the Telmarines.
> Any reasonable reader would conclude that the Pevensie children are the main characters in that series.
The main characters even in books they do not appear in (The Magicians Nephew and The Silver Chair) or appear in only as minor characters (The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle)?
The older two Pevensies are only main characters in two books.
> Frankly your comment sounds like cope. You so badly want to identify with this series so you decided that the main characters are the Telmarines.
That comment is an ad hominem and does not relate to what I sad at all.
I think the difference is that I am actually familiar with the books, and that you cannot let go of preconceived notions.
> None of the characters have ever looked or spoken like me, unless they were a caricature to be made fun of
I do not know enough about you to be able to evaluate that statement.
Edit to add:
> Indeed, that was the whole point - Lewis wrote Narnia for his goddaughter Lucy.
He dedicated one book in the series to his god-daughter. he was written about his motives and inspirations for the series elsewhere and it goes far beyond "writing a book for Lucy".
I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realised that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be
your affectionate Godfather,
C.S. Lewis
——
This speaks to
1. The sheer magic of reading a story where you are the main character.
2. CS Lewis knew that and wrote this book especially for a young white British girl, so she’d have a story where she was the main character.
You read the books, great. But guess what, I did too.
You’re unable to see the obvious because you want to so badly be right about Narnia. Cool.
Yes, you're right about that specific dedication to Lewis' god daughter.
But, you don't address the poster's point:
> The main characters even in books they do not appear in (The Magicians Nephew and The Silver Chair) or appear in only as minor characters (The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle)?
He does have a point and you're not answering it at all.
The answer is obvious to anyone with a passing familiarity with Narnia - the first 3 books featuring the 4 Pevensie children as main characters are an order of magnitude more popular than the others.
On goodreads the first book has 2.96 million ratings. Horse and His Boy - 371k ratings.
When people think of Narnia they think of the first 3. That’s the reason only the first 3 were adapted to film. These 3 movies crossed $1.5 Billion worldwide. Movies based on the others? Nothing, they don’t exist.
In terms of cultural cachet the books not featuring the Pevensies are afterthoughts. Anyone would know this.
Since you’ve appointed yourself the judge of points not being addressed, could you go around asking for a response to my point. Being the main character of a book feels really special, and the series being written for Lucy clinches that.
Yes but we were talking about the writer's purpose for writing the books. You're right those other books are less popular yet they exist and they serve as an example of non-white main characters in books 1950s by a popular author. It's not CS Lewis' fault that those books are less popular.
And, yes being the main character of a book feel special, there's no denying that but there's also the fact that the previous poster (and many others because even if they're less popular, 371k ratings on goodreads is nothing to scoff at) could find himself in those other books.
Its also unusual for the plot of a children's book published in 1954 to end with a brown girl (albeit an aristocrat) marrying into a white anglophone royal family - and earlier in the book a white English queen was considering marrying a brown prince.
I wonder how that went down in, for example, the Southern states of the US at the time? Never read anything about reactions to the plot, but did it sell there? Did people let their kids read it?
That is only true for one book in the series.
What about Aravis and the Telmarines who were not white British? The very working class character who founds the original Narnian royal dynasty? Those are just the major characters, what about all the minor characters? Then there are the non-human characters who are not exactly like any of us.
BTW a lot of kids of all classes were evacuated during the war AFAIK - it was not a privilege.
> But for the many, many people who prefer to read stories about people like themselves and can't identify with Peter and Susan, I'm glad there is something for them now.
One of the purposes of literature (and one endorsed by CS Lewis) is to identify and empathise with people unlike yourself. Anyone who only enjoys literature about people like themselves is missing out a lot.