i've been in a nostalgic mood for the past few days, and i've been thinking a lot about
Narnia & my childhood obsession about it. so, with all this free time i have now
(cuz thanks to the coronavirus, i'm doing college at home for the rest of the semester ;), i decided to write a rambly letter to C.S. Lewis, thanking him for
Narnia.
dear c.s. lewis,
thank you for making my childhood so memorable. thank you for writing seven lovely, inspiring books that not only sparked my love of reading, but also my desire to write my own stories. i apologize for my poorly written fanfictions when i was ten, and i promise that i won't use your characters or storyworld, but instead i'll create my own.
thank you for creating a world where i could spend countless hours dreaming and journeying with the Pevensie siblings. where i could pretend to sit on a throne in Cair Paravel and pretend that i was Queen Lucy the Valiant. or ride alongside Aravis and Shasta, or sail on the Dawn Treader with Caspian and Reepicheep.
i don't remember which came first,
Narnia or
Marvel, but
Narnia was my first real obsession / fandom. i first read
the Chronicles of Narnia when i was seven / eight, and i fell head-over-heels in love with the gorgeous world, characters, and, of course, Aslan.
i vividly remember sitting on my bedroom floor sobbing when i read that Peter and Susan would not return to Narnia after
Prince Caspian. and when i read
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, i cried even harder when Aslan told Lucy and Edmund they would not return either. i was heartbroken when i read
The Last Battle, and saw that Susan had chosen to forget
Narnia. it took me awhile to get over that, as i couldn't fathom how somebody could choose to forget such a wonderful, magical place.
thank you for creating a world so vivid and real, especially to a tiny, curly-haired eight year old girl who cried when she realized that she would never be able to visit Narnia.
i remember sitting in a sleeping bag, looking up at the stars and reciting the Narnia constellations
(cuz, like the obsessed weirdo i was - i, of course, memorized all the names). that's when i felt the heartache, of loving a fictional place so much that it hurt.
(yes i know i was a very dramatic child. still am) i dreamed of opening a wardrobe and finding
Narnia just like Lucy.
thank you for creating such genuine, relatable characters. Lucy was my favorite, mainly because she was so similar to me in age and personality. i longed to be like Queen Lucy the Valiant, and made my own cordial just like hers.
i began collecting all forms of Narnia literature and media, and still have them to this day. all the movie storybooks, Chik fil a abridged storybooks, making-of-the movie companions, and my treasured LWW graphic novel are carefully packed away in a box under my bed.
thank you for creating a world so vivid and beloved, that people were able to make movie adaptions. i saw the movies when i was nine, and i
loved them. words cannot describe how much tiny me loved them
(and adult me still loves them). i know the 2nd and 3rd movies are controversial, since they're so different from the books. but i still adore them. i will always remember the awe and pure happiness i felt when i saw
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time, and saw
Narnia come to life before my eyes.
i've seen the movies countless times
(seriously - the discs are all scratched bc of how much we watched them). we always watched
Prince Caspian on our big family road trips to florida. i fell in love with the cast, who portrayed the Pevensie siblings so authentically.
and then, when we discovered the
Focus on the Family Radio Theatre's dramatic adaptions of the books....we listened to the audiobooks every year on those big road trips, and those only helped to make Narnia a richer, more vivid world.
thank you for creating such memorable characters and unforgettable lines, that my family still quote today.
"the tisroc - may he live forever." "
tash tash tash the great god tash...."
(inside joke lol) "
how dare you come alone??!!" Reepicheep, Rabadash, Laslaraleen
(spelling? lol), Puzzle, Uncle Andrew, Jadis, and so many others.
and of course, my favorite quote:
courage, dear heart.
thank you, c.s. lewis. i can't wait for the day that i get to meet you in heaven, and express all my gratitude and love for your
Chronicles of Narnia.
and no matter how old i am, i will still peek into every wardrobe i see, just in case it leads to Narnia.
love,
a l l i s o n
- - - -
was narnia your first fandom?
if not, what was it?
hope this post wasn't melodramatic or sappy...narnia will always hold
a very special place in my heart, & i wanted to try to express
why i love it so much.
hope y'all are doing well with all this craziness!
a. r.
