The Silver Chair

I just finished [re]reading The Silver Chair, on the patio, in the twilight; a very peaceful way to relax at the end of the day. And as I make my way through the series once again, I find that these books really were written for adults- not that children aren't meant to read them, but that adults are the only ones who have really lived long enough to know just how sweet they are. When I was a kid I found myself crying at the end of The Last Battle. Now I want to cry at the end of each story, because I can feel and experience so much more of it now than I could when I was a kid. I went to Wheaton and met Chris Long, and learned how to Frolic and Play and Read stories that really are in another time and place altogether, but closer to the truth of our lives than the things we read in our newspapers and magazines. I learned who Lewis was, and read Surprised by Joy, and came to understand his love of mythology in an isomorphic kind of way. I understand now why all the little details are filled into the books- the details I thought rather extraneous when I was younger. All those details take what would otherwise be a nice, moving Fantasy epic and turn it, quite literally, into something Extraordinary.

Then, of course- there's Aslan. :-)