@waggawerewolf27 I have a suspicion that there'll be Spoilers popping up in lots of articles, with clever (not considerate) writers spreading the Digory/Professor connection,  and really spoiling it for new watchers. 

So, I suppose I want this production/series to be different by not giving all the secrets away before the audience gets to see it!

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

  @ Courtenay: ... Hopefully this wasn't meant to imply that his worsening hearing loss is directly connected to nearly 54 years of being married to your unapologetically Australian accent.

Who? Moi??? Didn't you know I was supposed to be a librarian for much of my working life, running around telling noisy students to keep their voices down in the library, of all places?   I'd end up telling these so-called nice, quiet, accounting students that if their voices were raised any higher, their conversations would entertain passengers as far away as Central Station, a good 40 km away.

"It's a joke, Joyce" (to quote one of my dad's favourite sayings), but I'm sure you realised that — I was just having some fun with the way you phrased that earlier sentence.   Not meaning to be flippant about your husband's hearing loss, either. It's a difficult thing to live with (often both for the deaf person and for those around them), as I know from experience. My late gran was increasingly deaf in her senior years, but absolutely refused to admit it and would never even get her hearing tested, let alone consent to wear hearing aids (and as she couldn't see well either, lip-reading wasn't an option). So when she didn't hear what someone said to her, instead of asking them to repeat it, she'd just go "Mmm-hmmm, yes..." and pretend she'd heard, which didn't fool anyone.   But she never went through anything as tough as what your husband survived, bless him.

  

But back to the subject: I do agree with much of what you say about regional accents, and about what you say about the beavers as well, despite all those rude media comments about Western Sydney English accents, when their own North Shore accents aren't really any better.

I won't comment, having an ABC newsreader / Melbourne private school accent myself. (Don't worry, mate, I can bung on the broad Strine as well as anybody when I feel like it or I need to avoid sounding too posh.)

The trouble is with reading the books in publication order, that many people, who find LWW so identifiable, have never gone as far as reading MN, or HHB, for that matter, which is rather a pity. It is then a bit too much of a surprise, when after reading The Silver Chair, the next book in time order would have to be the Last Battle, where the Professor, whom we last saw in LWW, turns out to be a Narnia traveller, himself, as well as Polly Plummer, giving her opinion of Susan's 1950's style alleged debutante-style follies which created so much debate about Susan in literary circles. It was still a shock to me to find out in MN, the very last book I actually got around to reading as a child, long before the films were even thought of, that Digory Kirke was actually LWW's Professor Kirke, after all. 

Hmmm, yes, I never thought of that — if anybody misses out reading MN, then LB in particular doesn't make nearly as much sense.

For the record, I read LWW first (although I think it was my mum doing most of the reading, as I hadn't started school yet), and then a few years later, when I found out there were other books in the series, I read the rest of them in chronological order — MN followed by HHB, then PC, VDT, SC, LB. That actually worked very well, as I enjoyed all the "Oh, so that's where that came from!" reveals in MN for things I already knew from LWW, and then the rest of the series works fine in that order.

In some ways, as long as you've also read MN, The Silver Chair followed by The Last Battle (which is how I read them) is a great way to end the series. It's the two "Jill and Eustace" adventures back to back, and at the end of SC there's actually a fair bit of foreshadowing for the finale of the whole series. Jill and Eustace are actually in some part of Aslan's country (even though they haven't died), and they see Caspian brought back to life, and then comes this exchange:

"Oh," said Caspian. "I see what's bothering you. You think I'm a ghost, or some nonsense. But don't you see? I would be that if I appeared in Narnia now: because I don't belong there any more. But one can't be a ghost in one's own country. I might be a ghost if I got into your world. I don't know. But I suppose it isn't yours either, now you're here."

A great hope rose in the children's hearts. But Aslan shook his shaggy head. "No, my dears," he said. "When you meet me here again, you will have come to stay. But not now. You must go back to your own world for a while."

So we already have it signalled very clearly that death isn't the end, that those who love Aslan will find that his country is truly their own country, and that Jill and Eustace will "come to stay" there some day too — which is exactly what we discover in more detail at the end of LB. And indeed, the endings of VDT and SC and LB, when read in that order, give a progressively clearer revelation of who Aslan is and what his country is. That's another point in favour of the chronological reading order, which looks like being the order in which the whole Netflix series will be made (if they do get around to doing all seven books).

[@waggawerewolf27:] I expect that Magician's Nephew could still keep that surprise until the ending of LWW when they go back from Narnia to his old-fashioned home, which no doubt cost a fortune to keep in order, especially after the war when repairing larger buildings falling to ruin was rather low on UK Government agendas.

Yes — I take it you're meaning the surprise that Digory Kirke from MN is actually the Professor from LWW. That's an interesting point to think about. Should the (presumably) upcoming adaptation of MN make it clear, at the end of it, that young Digory grows up to be the Professor, or should that be left till the ending of LWW? That would avoid one of the big "spoilers for LWW" in MN, at least. But they would have to show the Pevensies talking more with the Professor at the end than they do in the book, or else throw in something in that final scene that gives it away that the Professor is actually Digory from the first film. It will be interesting to see how they handle that aspect.

By the way, by the time the Pevensie children get to the Beaver domicile, in LWW, only two of them were on their first visit to Narnia, when Edmund met the White Witch on his first visit, which he lied about. 

Ooer, yes, you're right, my mistake — thanks for that, Wagga. I've edited my earlier post to correct that detail.  

Posted by: @courtenay

...giving the children an attitude of "sorry, we're leaving" was, I reckon, a silly move on Walden's part.

This is off topic, but I'd argue that's pretty true to Susan's character in the books. 

“I — I wonder if there’s any point in going on,” said Susan. “I mean, it doesn’t seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won’t be much fun either. And it’s getting colder every minute, and we’ve brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?”

“Let’s go home,” said Susan.

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I’d thought he was a man. Is he — quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“How perfectly dreadful!” said Susan as they at last came back in despair. “Oh, how I wish we’d never come.”

Of course, in the book, Susan also reluctantly concedes that they should stay in Narnia.

“I’ve a horrid feeling that Lu is right,” said Susan. “I don’t want to go a step further and I wish we’d never come. But I think we must try to do something for Mr Whatever-his-name is — I mean the Faun.”

I'd argue that makes her a more complex character in the text though that could just be because I'm a book guy and I'll always be biased in the books' favor.  

@col-klink Good point and I remember mentioning it in another post somewhere in a discussion of that scene in the Walden film (their conversation in the Beavers' house) — Susan in particular is very reluctant to stay in Narnia from the start. But she also concedes that "Lu is right" and they have a moral duty to try to save Mr Tumnus, and however tempted she is, she never completely backs down from that.

It's actually obvious throughout the two books where she's a main character — LWW and PC — that Susan is the least adventurous of the four siblings and the quickest to give in to fear and to thoughts of her own personal comfort and safety, and the most inclined to "talk like a grown-up" when she wants to override something she doesn't want to hear (quote from PC when she doesn't want to accept that Lucy just saw Aslan and nobody else did). That's why it was no surprise to me at all in LB when we learn that Susan has dismissed Narnia as "all those funny games" that they supposedly played as children. I'm always a little baffled by both fans and critics who react with horror at that turn of events and moan about how terrible it was of Lewis to "do that" to Susan. There are quiet but clear indications all along that Susan is the most likely of all the children to reject Narnia, if anyone does. But that's another aspect of the stories and we'll just have to wait and see how Netflix handles it, if their Narnia series gets that far. 

@ coracle: @waggawerewolf27I have a suspicion that there'll be Spoilers popping up in lots of articles, with clever (not considerate) writers spreading the Digory/Professor connection, and really spoiling it for new watchers. 

So, I suppose I want this production/series to be different by not giving all the secrets away before the audience gets to see it!

Yes, that is something that occurred to me also, so I do agree that you are right: it would not be useful to give all the secrets away, not only the realisation that Digory Kirke would become Professor Kirke by the beginning of WW2, but also why that Wardrobe, stuck in a room by itself, could be all that magical. Putting myself in the producers' shoes I would say to close that movie with Polly and Digory burying that apple core along with the rings in Digory's aunt's garden, and maybe see it the next morning, already springing to life. 

@Courtenay: But they would have to show the Pevensies talking more with the Professor at the end than they do in the book, or else throw in something in that final scene that gives it away that the Professor is actually Digory from the first film. It will be interesting to see how they handle that aspect.

That is what I am trying to say, and if the producers intend to do LWW as well as MN, the ending of both films will be affected. Look at the other main versions, the cartoon version for example. The four children in that stand-alone version of LWW merely jump out of the wardrobe, and that is that. The BBC television version, as far as I can remember, doesn't bother with either the Professor's childhood identity or even explain what it is about that particular wardrobe that could have sparked their adventures. Ditto the Walden LWW movie, from 2004, but I'd have to listen once again to the BBC & those more American audiotapes, again, to find out how both depictions end in those series. 

@Col Klink:I'd argue that makes her a more complex character in the text though that could just be because I'm a book guy and I'll always be biased in the books' favor.

Of course, and in the book, itself, Susan and Peter do go back to see the Professor to explain why there are 4 missing fur coats in the wardrobe. But technically, those fur coats never left the wardrobe, did they? According to practical Susan, that is. 

The Walden version of LWW does depict how the Pevensies don't really relate to each other well as a family, one of the effects of each going to boarding school, no doubt. Peter has gone off to his boarding school where, as the eldest child, he flourishes, being good at everything, however, in LWW, he is no longer alone, so can't just vanish off with his friends, without looking out for Edmund, who is struggling & tends to cramp his style. Susan, by contrast, has gone to a girls' school, where careers, ability at sport, and academic excellence might well be less emphasized and there was more pressure to conform to being ladylike, to prepare to be a wife & mother, like everyone else in the crowd, which is what was expected of girls prior to 1939, according to both my grandmother & mother-in-law. Lucy still has to wait another year to attend boarding school, before she catches up as the youngest. 

I think that being evacuated at the outset of WW2, to a strange place in the country, would, in itself, be rather frightening, and Susan probably would cling to reassuring familiarity as much as she could, in those circumstances. It doesn't help when she tries to mother her siblings, even Lucy. And she is the one who is first to think that Lucy might be turning "dotty", when Lucy tells them first about Narnia. I'd imagine that Susan was just as terrified when she finally finds out that what Lucy has to say is actually the truth, but as you say, felt morally obliged to rescue Mr Tumnus.

@Courtenay: It's actually obvious throughout the two books where she's a main character — LWW and PC — that Susan is the least adventurous of the four siblings and the quickest to give in to fear and to thoughts of her own personal comfort and safety, and the most inclined to "talk like a grown-up" when she wants to override something she doesn't want to hear (quote from PC when she doesn't want to accept that Lucy just saw Aslan and nobody else did). That's why it was no surprise to me at all in LB when we learn that Susan has dismissed Narnia as "all those funny games" that they supposedly played as children. I'm always a little baffled by both fans and critics who react with horror at that turn of events and moan about how terrible it was of Lewis to "do that" to Susan.

Now that is a very good point that you have made. The Walden PC was just a little too "PC", putting too much emphasis on what was expected of Susan, in particular, and not on what it might be like to be a terrified young girl frightened of adult responsibilities, such as looking out for her younger siblings. 

I think that if the next book to be filmed after LWW is HHB, that also might give a different interpretation of Susan. The story of Rabadash and his pursuit of Susan, would give Susan even more reason to be dubious of Narnia, when clearly in that book she wasn't all that thrilled with the idea of marrying someone like Rabadash, whatever expectations she had of "romance" prior to her trip to Narnia.