Thursday, December 9, 2010

In Haste: The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I like to talk about dragons in Slovenia. There are three reasons for this.

1) The word 'Dragon' is a popular name in Slovenia. I wish I was named Dragon.
2) The Slovene word for dragon is 'Zmaj' (pronounced Zmai - 'ai' as in aisle), which sounds pretty cool to say, and is also the same word used for kite.
3) Jason and the Argonauts apparently found a dragon on the Soča river in ancient times here in Slovenian soil. The capital city, Ljubljana, has the dragon as its symbol.

There is a dragon in the third Narnia film. It is quite nice.

Nicer still than any dragon business, is that the third installment of the series lives up to its reputation (at least, the reputation that breathes in my mind's eye). It does so by being a children's story that exists as an adventurous allegory for Christian living. Whereas The Lord of the Rings never quite makes the leap to conceivable elf = sinless man, ring = temptation type correlations, in Narnia, the comparisons are simple and true.

Aslan is the lion that we worship. He even says, "In other worlds I go by other names." He is the good, awesome conqueror who is worthy of our love forever. He is Jesus.


Aslan is Jesus. There's something refreshing about saying that.

As for the plot of the Dawn Treader, it focuses on a disembodied evil. We see the evil as a green fog. Our protagonist, Lucy, is even tempted by its power to envy her sister. She wants to be beautiful like her, and with this desire, nearly incants a spell to make her become wholly as her own sister. Aslan comforts her by saying that to envy is to rob yourself of your own individuality. Of your soul.

Narnia is created for children, but I do remember what Christ once said, Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3-4

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