I Have An Inkling: Devin Brown's book shares lessons from Narnia

Monday, September 5, 2016

Devin Brown's book shares lessons from Narnia

On this date last year, Examiner.com published my very brief review of Devin Brown's 2015 book. Examiner.com has ceased to exist, and all its content was removed from the internet. So, I'm reproducing the text of the review here for posterity.

Bringing Narnia Home: Lessons from the Other Side of the Wardrobe

A good book has new things to discover every time you read it. So it is not surprising Devin Brown, an expert on the Chronicles of Narnia, has more to say about the books, even after writing extensively about them in his Inside Narnia series. Similar to his Hobbit Lessons from last year, the emphasis this time is on the lessons the books have to teach us. Dr. Brown seeks to get us to live out the lessons to be learned, as implied by the title, Bringing Narnia Home.

When we finish the last page of each adventure and close the book, we do not have to leave Narnia behind. If we bring home the lessons we have learned and apply them to our lives, we are like a person who returns from a distant country with magical treasure. Not someone who buries this treasure in the ground where no one will find it, but instead shares it with everyone they meet. [p. xi-xii]

Each of the twelve chapters examines a certain principle which can be found in the Chronicles, such as "Actions We See as Small and Insignificant Can Be Far More Important Than We Realize" (Chapter 1). Brown then gives specific examples of how that principle is demonstrated in the Narnia stories. The principle is reiterated in a short "Bringing Narnia Home" section at the end of each chapter, followed by a "Futher In" section with questions designed to help the readers understand how the principle applies to them personally. This could be a good exercise to further discuss the book in classroom situations, or less formal book discussion groups.

Devin Brown asks the reader to have read the Chronicles prior to tackling Bringing Narnia Home. His examples will make much more sense if you have a good sense of the overall story and context. But if you know the stories, or plan to read them soon, Bringing Narnia Home would be a good place to follow up your adventure. Dr. Brown's expert eyes may help you uncover buried treasure you might have otherwise missed – and bring it home.

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Favorite C. S. Lewis Quotes

"Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things – trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if their isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.” --Puddelglum to the Witch in The Silver Chair

Some people when they say that a thing is meant "metaphorically" conclude from this that is is hardly meant at all. They rightly think that Christ spoke metaphorically when he told us to carry the cross: they wrongly conclude that carrying the cross means nothing more than leading a respectable life and subscribing moderately to charities. They reasonably think hell "fire" is a metaphor--and unwisely conclude that it means nothing more serious than remorse. They say the story of the Fall in Genesis is not literal; and then go on to say ... that it was really a fall upwards--which is like saying that because "My heart is broken" contains a metaphor, it therefore means "I feel very cheerful." This mode of interpretation I regard, frankly, as nonsense. ---Miracles

Favorite JRR Tolkien Quotes

"If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer [allow] himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even ourselves." spoken by Finrod in "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth" (The Debate of Finrod and Andreth), found in the book Morgoth's Ring, by JRR Tolkien edited by his son Christopher

"In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory. Farewell!" Aragorn to Arwen at his death [Appendix A The Return of the King]

"Mighty are the Ainur,and mightiest among them is Melkor [Morgoth]; but now that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may see that no theme may be played that hath not it uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined." -- JRR Tolkien's "Ainulindalë" [The Music of the Ainur] in The Silmarillion