This book is my favorite of the series, but I'm not really sure what to say about it in the context of this discussion. Let's see...
One of the things I love about it is that of all the books, it most directly deals with the Pevensies trying to reconcile their adult and child identities. I wish, as I think a lot of us do, that it had gone much further in exploring that, but we get more of it here than anywhere else. The Pevensies have a dual nature in this book that has always intrigued me. It also hits my competence kink hard; they've been through this once and know what to do this time, and they become more competent the longer they're there.
recessional made the point that this is really Caspian's story, and I think the interesting thing about that is that it's Caspian who provides the child POV in this book — he's the one who's discovering Narnia for the first time — whereas the Pevensies represent a hybrid child/adult viewpoint and are already at home in Narnia (and, in fact, are themselves an important part of the Narnian culture into which Caspian is being initiated).
It strikes me that every book in the series, with the exception of TLB, is somebody's Narnian initiation story.
I love the emphasis on the amount of time that has passed in Narnia and how they have to mentally reconstruct Cair Paravel like archaeologists to recognize it as their home. (I loved that there were illuminated manuscripts and cave paintings of the Pevensies in the PC film.)
And because I am one of those people who enjoys loving descriptions of food in literature, I love the part about roasting bear meat with apples. :) I've always thought that sounded delicious, even though I would never be able to eat it in real life.
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One of the things I love about it is that of all the books, it most directly deals with the Pevensies trying to reconcile their adult and child identities. I wish, as I think a lot of us do, that it had gone much further in exploring that, but we get more of it here than anywhere else. The Pevensies have a dual nature in this book that has always intrigued me. It also hits my competence kink hard; they've been through this once and know what to do this time, and they become more competent the longer they're there.
It strikes me that every book in the series, with the exception of TLB, is somebody's Narnian initiation story.
I love the emphasis on the amount of time that has passed in Narnia and how they have to mentally reconstruct Cair Paravel like archaeologists to recognize it as their home. (I loved that there were illuminated manuscripts and cave paintings of the Pevensies in the PC film.)
And because I am one of those people who enjoys loving descriptions of food in literature, I love the part about roasting bear meat with apples. :) I've always thought that sounded delicious, even though I would never be able to eat it in real life.