Another successful April Fools Day comes and goes. I couldn’t have asked for a better response than the one that was given by the amount of press that we received from our three major April Fools Day jokes this year.
For our wrap up this year, Jonathon and I are collaborating on this story. We’re both weighing in on the response to the stories that I can take no credit for. Jonathon is a genius, and he is THE genius behind the April Fool’s Day jokes this year and last.
Two of the biggest Christian actors are slated to star in a film about two of the 20th century’s most prominent Christian writers. Actors Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains, Left Behind, and Fireproof), and Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon, Braveheart and The Passion of the Christ) are slated to star as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien in an upcoming still untitled movie.
It is of common knowledge that both Lewis and Tolkien took part in the First World War, and that in the years following the conflict they became distinguished scholars of the English language and literature at Oxford University. Those who accuse these writers of escapism tend to overlook the fact that such a curriculum vitae would make it virtually impossible for them to remain ignorant of, and not to at least in some way reflect in their own writing, the events that changed the world and the literature in the first half of the twentieth century. This paper aims to offer a new approach to the place of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings in this common context, and also to discuss how these works differ from each other with reference to the way in which they combine Christian and pagan elements.
Amazon.com has today announced the release of their new edition of Kindle. With that announcement comes new additions to the library of books available for Kindle, including many works written by C.S. Lewis.
The C.S. Lewis and Inklings Society is now accepting registrations for its twelfth annual meeting on March 26-28, 2009, addressing the theme “Inklings: Dinosaurs or Contemporaries?” and featuring plenary speaker Peter Schakel. See below for more details. Please click here to see the seminar schedule (as a PDF). A detailed schedule will be available mid-February.
In papers and plenary sessions, the conference will explore ways in which C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield and Charles Williams may (or may not) be particularly relevant to the literary, theological, philosophical and socio-political issues of our own early 21st century times. As in previous conferences, we would like to extend the conversation to include Dorothy Sayers as well, and we would like to open the conversation even a bit further this year by including G.K. Chesterton, a strong-minded proto-Inkling of sorts, in the mix. What might this diverse and pleasantly provocative circle of thinkers have to offer to the world of ideas that we find ourselves in?
Jo-Anna wrote in to remind us about Silver Leaves. Our very own Jonathon Svendsen has an article in this issue, and we’re very proud of that:
Tolkien-based journal “Silver Leaves” Issue Two, has released as of Saturday, Jan. 10. The theme is The Inklings and we are very excited about getting it into folks’ hands. It’s a superb issue, with contributors including Douglas Gresham, Colin Duriez, Brian Sibley, and Jef Murray, along with many others. Ordering information is at www.whitetreefund.org.
Welcome to Tumnus’s Book Shelf where we review any and all books related to The Chronicles of Narnia and CS Lewis! For today’s book we will be reviewing Tales Before Narnia, edited by Douglas Anderson.
Title: Tales Before Narnia
Author: Various
Edited by: Douglas A. Anderson
Publisher: Del Ray
ISBN -10: 0345498909
ISBN -13: 978-0345498908
NarniaFans Staff Member, Jonathon D. Svendsen, is going to be featured in the second issue of Silver Leaves, which is put out by the White Tree Fund, a Tolkien-related publication. The theme for this issue is dedicated to the Inklings. Fans of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien know that the Inklings was the name of the informal literary group that consisted of CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, Charles Williams and many others.
We’ve just received the sad news that the original illustrator of The Chronicles of Narnia has just passed away:
Wayne Hammond reports the death of Baynes at her home in Surrey. Pauline Baynes was the original illustrator of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, as well as of Tolkien’s Farmer Giles of Ham (1948), The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and Other Verses from the Red Book (1962), and Smith of Wootton Major (1967).
Narnia expert Brian Sibley has written a blog entry about Pauline Baynes that you can read here:
Brian Sibley’s Blog on Pauline Baynes: Queen of Narnia and Middle-Earth
And note that obituaries will be appearing in The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian later in the week.
Kind regards,
Brian Sibley
Update 2:
Rem, from the Philippine Order of Narnians, sent us an update with links to the articles posted athe both the Independent and the Guardian:
I thought you’d like to know that, as Mr Sibley said they would, Pauline Baynes’ obituaries have already shown up at the Independent and the Guardian.
CS Lewis’ beloved classic is listed among other notables like JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird as one of the top 50 novels . The list, which was featured in the Telegraph.co.uk story about Play.com’s top 50 Novels, listed some of the 50 best novels of all time.
Here is a look at the top 10 novels:
1. To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
2. Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- C.S Lewis
4. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
5. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
6. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
7. Animal Farm – George Orwell
8. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
9. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – JK Rowling
10. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Give the full list a look over if you are interested in getting ideas for what to read this summer. Here at NarniaFans, of course, we recommend you start with Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe first and then read Lord of the Rings. Once you’re done, I’d say read Pride & Prejudice followed by Great Expectations. After that it’s all up to you.
You can read the full list here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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