Thursday, February 28, 2008

For Narnia and the North!

It's out! Through the Wardrobe, edited by Herbie Brennan (a good bud, see my Blog) and featuring 'your favourite authors,' including me, talking about CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. Along with being the editor Herbie Brennan, of Faerie Wars fame, has written a piece in this and so has another friend, Canadian writer Susan Juby. I'm looking forward to reading it as soon as my author copies arrive. This is by Benbella Books in cahoots with Borders. You may remember that they did a similar collection on Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, called The World of the Golden Compass. I think this cover is much better than the other book's; old-fashioned but perfect. And I much preferred writing the paper for this book, though it is rather personal. Hmm. May regret that, but too late, publish and be damned. Of course what I wrote was more personal this time around because I love CS Lewis, while I only admire Philip Pullman. Also I much prefer Lewis's work and consider it of far greater value, both in story and soul terms. Reading Pullman wouldn't change my life. Reading CS Lewis did.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really loved Narnia also, but I think Pullman changed my life more than Lewis did. So I dont think I can agree with you on that. Pullman made me question everything and everyone, and I am happier for it. I mean too, I stopped having problems with my parents after I read Pullman.

OR Melling said...

Even though we differ here, I'm delighted to hear what you say and I'm sure Pullman would be also! Mind you, I read His Dark Materials as an adult, whereas I read CS Lewis as a 9 yr old child. I think Pullman's work would have had a stronger effect on me if I had read him at a younger age, i.e. as an adolescent or teenager. But since we are almost the same age that just wasn't possible. As a young adult, I devoured Herman Hesse's books and Demian, in particular, was a huge influence on me. In fact, it encouraged me to leave home at 17 and go travelling across North America!