Alec In Narnia

As some of you might be aware, the movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is coming out in december. I had never read the books, and not wishing to miss out on a childhood meme, I read the first two books in the Chronicles of Narnia series. These books are brilliantly written, not as textured and descriptive as the Harry Potter series, nor as breathlessly fantastic and boring as Tolkien. Lewis uses simple, powerful prose, which does a geat job for description without being overly descriptive. What I found really intersting was that these stories are plainly allegorical for major events and themes in the Bible.

The Magician's Nephew has Genesis re-enacted, with Aslan the Great Lion (God) literally singing the world of Narnia into existance and calling forth all life from the ground. The children (adressed as Sons-of-Adam and Daughters-of-Eve) who enter that world inadverantly bring the Witch, personification of timeless evil, thereby tainting the land. Thier penance must be to seek out The Apple tree, and bring a fruit back to Aslan. There is temptation, hardship, and moral dillemas in this children's book. In the end, of course, Aslan makes everything right again.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a take on the Passion. A child sibling defects to the Witch's side out of petty emotions. When she demands his blood on old magic grounds, Aslan sacrafices himself to save the boy. He is bound, shaved, and subjected to ridicule, torment, and then killed. At dawn, a stoke of lighting splits the massive sacraficial stone, and Aslan reappears to battle and destroy the Witch and drive evil from the land, returning animals and people back to life from the Witch's stone curse.

This is pretty heady stuff for young children's books. I'm interested to read the rest of the series. Other books I'm reading inlcude Blink, a book about developing the ultra-quick subconscious decision making which people call instinct.

I did get my hair cut, I got a $5 off coupon for a hairstylist place called Grooming Humans so I got a shampoo, cut, and style for 17 dollars, just five bucks more than having Laquisha do it over at CostCutters. It's shorter, but looks pretty good.

This weekend, I worked on various homework, and went salsa dancing sunday night. I'm surprised by how much I still remember. At least we dont have to go to that class.