 Fantasy: April 03, 2019 Issue [#9466] |
This week: The Dreams of C.S. Lewis Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Hello readers! I am happy to be your guest editor this week!
I am reading The Narnian, a biography of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs and was intrigued to find out how he came up with his magical world in Narnia. So it came to me to share what I found and ask that question here to you readers.
“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”
― C.S. Lewis
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
― C.S. Lewis
"I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say."
C.S. Lewis
“he was for long my only audience... Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby. But for his interest and unceasing eagerness for more I should never have brought The L. of the R. to a conclusion.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien
Some advice:
“Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is ‘terrible’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was ‘delightful’; make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers ‘Please, will you do my job for me.'” C.S. Lewis
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A Little Peek into Clive S. Lewis's inspirations for Narnia
 C.S.Lewis, born in Belfast, Ireland, November 29, 1898 and called Jack. He had one brother Warren and was impacted by the early loss of his mother at age 9. From age 7 on had the single ambition to be a recognized poet..in which he never succeeded. He could well identify with the orphaned and was away at boarding school most of his young life. He attended Oxford and also served in World War 1.
As a professor he taught, wrote and met and was influenced by his writing Group, the Inklings. In the later war, took in children during the war and entertained them with tales, which became ideas for his Narnia series. He and his brother had already made up a land in childhood, called Boxen when they were young. They layed with toys, made maps and tales and even when he went to boarding school, he and his brother kept in touch creating this world. No surprises that the anthropomorphized beasts show up as main characters like the Lion and Reepacheep!  He deliberately then used animals as characters so he could more simply communicate human personalities and wiles to children.
Lewis had first had the idea to write a book for children in 1939. He opened his home, The Kilns, child refugees during WW 1. One of them was fascinated by a wardrobe and imagined that there was another way out of it. This image struck a chord with Lewis, who had first read about a magic wardrobe as a boy, in "The Aunt and Anabel" by Edith Nesbit. He completed the work The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1948. Set in rural place where he was the old gentlemen with these children, fiction mirrored reality. 
He also loved and identified with medieval stories and heroes though he was seen as a serious person and scholar, his inner muse was active. He had images in his head often and strove to write them as his imagination dictated. He had the image of the faun since teenagehood and it is said he had dreams of lions that soon begged to be made into a character Aslan. For all of his seven books, he would get images and then see how it could fill in gaps and make the stories. Does that ever sound familiar?
 We can see in his books, the themes of kings and queens, the bright and the dark, the roles and levels of being, the great adventures at sea, battles, the dragons, the spells, the plights and intrigues of human and animal beings. And that children can be heros, trusting to the Good and even transforming the bad. He had a great imagination.
He pushed his friend Tolkien to keep on with his Hobbit story and was so complimentary toward the final "The Lord of the Rings" series by Tolkien! He loved to read the fantastical and even wrote some science fiction that he would like.
When he became a Christian and began writing about God, his imaginative writing seemed to elevate and as a passionate reader and writer all his life, finally gained the recognition for his works, though surprised many with the fantastical tales! He wrote 60 many concerning faith and philosophy of living. He always applied his passion to his beliefs and concerns of life.
 In 1956 Lewis married Joy Davidman, an American poet/writer and published Prince Caspian. She was the love of his life and died of cancer not long after.
He, himself, passed away to the "Shadowlands" in 1963 and remains a legendary literary giant!
 So, makers of worlds, what have been your influences, inspirations and muses for your compelling destiny into the Fantastical? Do you write what you would have liked to see written as lewis did in his sci-fi story? Did you have childhood dreams and muses talk to you? Did you have scary being living under you bed? Were you often feeling alone and your muse became your story teller to distract from reality and at the same time mimic the world as you knew it?
I'd love to hear how you began your fantasy trip. You may be famous one day and I can say I knew you...and get the story straight!  I know I have creatures show up and talk to me... when I write my little forrays into fantasy, and have not the wiles and wit to actually write a whole story..yet! One can dream... 
Thanks for reading. Muse on...
eyestar
Sources:
The Narnian, the LIfe and Imagination of C. S. Lewis. by Alan Jacobs
http://cslewis.drzeus.net/papers/origins-of-chronicles-of-narnia/
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 Now, let's read some of these magical tomes!
New rounds in:
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| |  | Evermore (13+)
A righteous king is corrupted by a magical object that has consciousness.
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