The Magician's Nephew, Chapter 12: Strawberry's Disappointing Adventure

This was a chapter that I was really excited to get to. I remembered it being so magical. Aslan gives Strawberry wings, and he becomes Fledge, Narnia's first flying horse. He takes Polly and Digory on an adventure, flying far above Narnia. They explore the world, eat toffees, and have a marvelous time. What more could a child want in a story?

As an adult, however, it turns out that this chapter leaves a lot to be desired. I expected that my childhood memory of this chapter wouldn't hold up to the reality, and I was right. I just wasn't aware of how right I was actually going to be. It starts promising, with Digory agreeing to find the magical tree that will protect Narnia. There's also a very sweet part where Aslan grieves with Digory about his ill mother.

"But please, please--won't you--can't you give me something that will cure Mother?' Up till then he had been looking at the Lion's great feet and huge claws on them; now, in his despair, he looked up at its face. What he saw surprised him as much as anything in his whole life. For the tawny face was bent down near his own and (wonder of wonders) great shining tears stood in the Lion's eyes. They were such big, bright tears compared with Digory's own that for a moment he felt as if the Lion must really be sorrier about his mother than he was himself."

But this chapter is mostly description, like Digory describing the land to Aslan. When Polly and Digory are riding on Fledge's back, most of the narrative is description of what they're flying over. The "adventure" isn't so much a story, as it is a nice sight-seeing tour.

On the other hand, they're the first humans to ever see all this, so I guess that's exciting. Of course I would have loved to be riding on a flying horse through a brand-new world. But I don't get that thrill from reading this. It's like going through a photo album of someone else's vacation. You try to care, you really want to, but you just can't make yourself.

Man, growing up sucks.

There's also a disproportionate amount of time dedicated to the children having dinner. There are two pages that are just Digory and Polly trying to figure out what they're going to eat when they stop flying for the night. Polly has some toffees in her pocket, so they decide that will be their meal.

"The little paper bag was very squashy and sticky when they finally got it out, so that it was more a question of tearing the bag off the toffees than of getting the toffees out of their bag."

Okay, great, but what about the adventure?

"Some grown-ups (you know how fussy they can be about that sort of thing) would rather have gone without supper altogether than eaten those toffees."

No, I still eat candy for dinner sometimes. So about this adventure...

"There were nine of them all told. It was Digory who had the bright idea of eating four each and planting the ninth; for, as he said, 'if the bar off the lamp-post turned into a little light-tree, why shouldn't this turn into a toffee-tree?' So they dibbled a small hole in the earth and buried the piece of toffee."

Man, the word toffee sounds weird now. You ever notice how you say a word a lot, and it loses its meaning? Toffee, toffee, toffee...

At least there's still magic, when the toffee does grow into a toffee tree overnight. That's pretty cool.

There is one small detail in this chapter that I still really like. When Polly and Digory go to sleep, Fledge spreads his wings over them to keep them warm at night. It sounds cozy, and of course I would love to have a pegasus to snuggle with at night. In fact, a great deal of my wish-fulfillment stories I wrote in sixth grade were based on that exact premise. 

The Magician's Nephew, Chapter 11: Bit Characters and Other Matters

I've praised some of the ideas C.S. Lewis had, but there's one thing that's a little harder to get over: the chapter titles. Some of them are just so incredibly bland. Take a look:

Chapter 6: The Beginning of Uncle Andrew's Troubles
Chapter 7: What Happened at the Front Door
Chapter 10: The First Joke and Other Matters

And we've finally reached Chapter 11: Digory and His Uncle Are Both in Trouble.

The first half of this chapter is nothing but the animals trying to figure out what, exactly, Uncle Andrew is. They eventually decide that he's a tree, and plant him in the ground. It's amusing, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the story. To be honest, I'm not even sure why Uncle Andrew even had to come to Narnia with the other characters. He's been demoted from intriguing Magician to comic relief, by way of misfortune. At this point, he has nothing to do with the rest of the story. I also don't like to see clever and brave Polly relegated to the background. She should have a much bigger part in the story right now; certainly, she deserves a bigger role than Uncle Andrew. Much more so than the Cabby as well, who has only just been given a name. Seriously, this man's horse is named before he is.

Aslan decrees the Cabby, Frank, will be king of Narnia. This is presumably because Frank is the only human adult in the group who isn't evil. This also begs the question why Aslan wanted a human to run the country in the first place. So far, Uncle Andrew, Jadis, and Digory (to a point) haven't been shining examples of our species. All the sentient beings in Narnia are either animals or some kind of mythological creature, like dryads and fauns. Why not let one of its native people rule the country, maybe someone that Aslan specifically chose for his council? And how is Frank going to know what's best for the animals, talking or otherwise? It reminds me of reading an X-rated fanfiction that was clearly written by a virgin. Maybe you know what's supposed to happen, but it's obvious to everyone reading it that you've got no clue what you're writing about.

Do you think C.S. Lewis was pro-Imperialism?

Despite that head-scratcher, I'm kind of okay with Aslan's reasons that Frank qualifies as king. Writing this during an election year, I wish politics really were this simple and straightforward.

"'Begging your pardon, sir,' he said, 'and thank you very much I'm sure (which my Missus does the same) but I ain't no sort of chap for a job like that. I never 'ad much eddycation, you see.'

'Well,' said Aslan, 'can you use a spade and a plow and raise food out of the earth?'

'Yes, sir, I could do a bit of that sort of work: being brought up to it, like.'

'Can you rule these creatures kindly and fairly, remembering they are not slaves like the dumb beasts of the world you were born in, but Talking Beasts and free subjects?'

'I see that, sir,' replied the Cabby. 'I'd try to do the square thing by them all.'

'And would you bring up your children and grandchildren to do the same?'

'It'd be up to me to try, sir. I'd do my best: wouldn't we, Nellie?'

'And you wouldn't have favorites either among your own children or among the other creatures or let any hold under another or is use it hardly?'

'I never could abide such goings on, sir, and that's the truth. I'd give 'em what for if I caught 'em at it,' said the Cabby."

"And will you build a wall between Narnia and Archenland, and deport all Archenlanders who have not legally come to this country?"*

But between Uncle Andrew being planted in the ground and Frank becoming king, Aslan has to deal with Digory, as he was the one who woke Jadis and brought her into Narnia. Aslan says that Digory must find a magical tree far away, take one of its fruits, and plant it in Narnia. This tree will help protect Narnia from Jadis for hundreds of years. When Digory owns up to the role he had in waking Jadis, his exchange with Aslan is a little...disappointing.

"'She woke up,' said Digory wretchedly. And then, turning very white, 'I mean, I woke her. Because I wanted to know what would happen if I struck a bell. Polly didn't want to. It wasn't her fault. I--I fought her. I know I shouldn't have. I think I was a bit enchanted by the writing under the bell.'

'Do you?' asked Aslan; still speaking very low and deep.

'No,' said Digory. 'I see now I wasn't. I was only pretending.'"

But that was so cool! It was scary and intriguing and now you're saying that the magic was all in Digory's head?

Thanks for taking away the scariest part of the book, Aslan.

Digory, you broke Narnia. C.S. Lewis, you broke my heart.

*Please note that Donald Drumpf's point of view does not reflect the author's, and that Drumpf is a tool.**
**Though it is worth saying that the Calormenes are C.S. Lewis's view of Muslims, and are not portrayed in a flattering light. So really, building a wall between Narnia and Calormen would make more sense for this predictable joke.†
†Please don't vote for Trump. Please, please, please.

Snow Drop, Vol.1, Chapter 4: The NPC

The chapters are divided pretty unevenly in the first volume of Snow Drop, and this is the shortest. It starts with So-Na solidifying her role as a Mary Sue by being admired by the boys from afar.

Ha-Da complains to So-Na that he didn't get Ko-Mo's number. So-Na, to her credit, tries to tell Ha-Da that Ko-Mo's a guy, but doesn't get the chance. Instead, he begs So-Na to get Ko-Mo's number for him. Since he doesn't know that Ko-Mo is Hae-Gi's brother, I don't know why he thought So-Na would be capable of getting Ko-Mo's number. So-Na accepts the challenge anyway, and decides that she doesn't need to talk to Hae-Gi. She goes back to her preferred MO of stalking.

Even her body guard comments that this is weird.

While she's stalking Hae-Gi, it's revealed that Hae-Gi is dropping out of school to work as a model full-time. His mother has suffered brain damage, and he needs to work to pay for the surgery that might heal her. I know enough about neurology (and have worked with people with traumatic brain injuries in the past) to say that while it might not be impossible, but it's extremely unlikely that his mom would ever be 100% herself again, even if the surgery was successful. Of course, as Choi Kyang-ah never gives us specifics of the surgery, or what exactly is wrong with Hae-Gi's mother, it's hard to say. But there's a reason that brain surgery is so difficult. Everyone's brain is mapped out differently, and...

Okay, I could talk about neuropsychology for awhile, but that's not why we're here. Even if neuropsych is one of my favorite things ever.

The other thing that bugs me about this is that So-Na finds out all this from overhearing a conversation between Hae-Gi and another classmate. It's not that it's an overheard conversation - as convenient as it is - it's the classmate that bothers me. We don't know anything about her. She has no name, no background, and we know nothing about her. I would like to, though. She genuinely cares for Hae-Gi and doesn't want him to drop out. She knows about his mother and how much trouble Ko-Mo gets into. It's already been established that Hae-Gi doesn't have any friends, but it sounds like he's confided in this girl. She seems sweet and concerned, not manipulative and haughty, like So-Na. This is the girl I want to root for. I want So-Na to drop off a cliff, and for Hae-Gi to date a sweet, sensible girl that doesn't bring any more drama into his already dramatic life.

That doesn't happen. In fact, this is the last time we ever see this girl in the series. She's not a character; she's a sounding board. That's really unfortunate, because in the few pages she's in, I already like her a lot more than any of the main characters.

And that's it. The final chapter of the first volume of Snow Drop.

It wasn't that good.

Final Verdict: I don't know.

Here's one thing I know for sure: I don't want to keep these books. I own every volume in the series, and most of them are in pretty good condition, so I'd be okay selling them. The problem with my copy in particular is that it has an ink stain that goes through several pages. I might consider giving this to someone who's okay with that, but I don't know anyone my age who would enjoy this series, and I wouldn't want to give it to impressionable, adolescent minds. Like mine was, when I read it.

Anyone out there want a slightly used copy?