It is the week of Nativity for traditional Orthodox Christians and it promises to be a white Christmas here in upper New York State where my family and I are living. More than eighty inches of snow since 1 December… In the slow-down to the lead-up to the big day Friday (services begin tomorrow night and will go through the weekend), I’ve put aside my writing and publishing projects for some reading between shoveling shifts. I’m on something of a Charles Williams binge of late after reading David Downing’s Looking for the King in which historical novel Williams is featured. I just finished his The Greater Trumps (1932) and I thought I’d share some very brief notes here for serious Potter readers of the echoes of Williams’ supernatural thriller that we find in the Hogwarts Saga.
Charles Williams: ‘The Greater Trumps’
HogPro Interview with Professor David Downing, Author of Looking for the King: An Inklings Novel
David C. Downing is a Professor of English at Elizabethtown College and one of the handful of C. S. Lewis scholars whose books reward reading and re-reading. Downing’s Planets in Peril is the accepted gold standard for understanding Lewis’ Space Trilogy, for example, and his guide to Narnia, Into the Wardrobe, though pre Planet Narnia, is the best of its generation.
Now Prof. Downing has taken up his pen, not to write about one Inkling or to analyze his work, but to write a story involving them all. His novel, Looking for the King (Ignatius, 2010), is subtitled An Inklings Novel and features extended cameo appearances by Charles Williams, J. R. R. Tolkien, and C. S. Lewis. I read King in one sitting — it’s that good and, to an Inklings junkie at least, something like Turkish Delight — and wrote Prof. Downing some questions. It turned into an interview that he agreed to let me share with you, though it is more of a debate than the usual back and forth between author and reporter. His frankness, good humor, and insights, not to mention his willingness to punch back, made the experience a highlight of my writing for this weBlog.
After the jump, then, the publisher’s fly-leaf summary of the story and the HogPro interview with David C. Downing, author of Looking for the King:
Voyage of the Dawn Treader Film Thoughts: The “Voyage” is Bumpy, but the Destination Delivers
After my serious qualms with a few issues in the film version of Prince Caspian, it was with some trepidation that I sailed off to the theater to see the just-released Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. For one thing, I knew PC had to be seriously re-worked to function as a film because of its narrative structure, and it’s not my favorite of the Chronicles anyway. VDT, on the other hand, has a big place in my heart, great journey structure, with plenty of fascinating stops along the way, and some fantastic moments of transcendence, including the heartwrenching scene in which Aslan tells Lucy she and Edmund will not return to Narnia. So I was concerned to see how the characters, plot, and most of all, the spiritual payoff survived the transition to the screen. There were some serious liberties taken, but, in the end, the Deeper Magic shines through. Follow me after the jump through the picture frame to get the whole story….
But wait, There’s More! Voyage of the Dawn Treader Trailer
In all our fuss and dither over the big Eclipse premiere today and the tempting new Deathly Hallows trailer, we mustn’t forget another upcoming treat. The official Voyage of the Dawn Treader trailer is available now. I’m delighted to see the scene with the picture, but no sneak peeks of Eustace as a dragon, perhaps to avoid the inevitable HP comparisons. I’m really curious to see if the last few pages of the book, some of the most powerful in the Chronicles, will make it to the screen. And what is with the Hollywood trailer makers and the giant letter title thing at the end?
Guest Post: Myth in Meyer, Lewis, and Disney
A guest post from John Stanifer in Indiana! It is a paper he will be delivering this weekend at Taylor University’s Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C. S. Lewis and Friends. Who knew that Twilight and Till We Have Faces share a mythic antecedent and common cause? Enjoy!
Tale as Old as Time:
A Study of the Cupid and Psyche Myth, with Particular Reference to C.S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces
In 1956, C.S. Lewis saw the publication of his final novel, Till We Have Faces. “Everyone says it’s my best book,” he wrote to one correspondent (Hooper, 647). Lewis lovers may argue that point till they have blue faces, but one thing they can agree on is that the novel stands as a testament to Lewis’s love for Greek myth. For those who are unfamiliar with Till We Have Faces or who simply need a refresher, the novel’s basic plot is a reworking of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, a myth that centers on the love between a gorgeous god and a mortal woman. As we will see, this myth in all its numerous forms is designed to resonate in the hearts of book lovers, playgoers, film audiences, and human beings everywhere.
The goal of this discussion will be to trace the various adaptations of the Cupid and Psyche myth and its echoes in works as various as the poetry of John Milton, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight novels, and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Though I’ll be referring back to Lewis and Till We Have Faces often, my aim is to unveil the threads that run through each and every one of these works. [Read more…]
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