A good book...

I recently finished reading an outstanding book on C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. The book is titled Planet Narnia, by Michael Ward. I'll have to try hard to keep from gushing. The problem is that this is one of those books that give a person several of those proverbial "light bulb" moments.

Ward contends that Lewis structured his chronicles around the seven planets in the Medieval cosmology (Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Saturn, Venus). Each of the stories partakes of the "atmosphere" of its respective planet. For example, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe finds its atmosphere in Jupiter. Ward notes that in Lewis' poetry Jupiter stands for the passing of winter and the coming of spring. In addition, Jove's color is red, and Ward notes that red is a dominant color in the book (this also accounts for the odd inclusion of Father Christmas--i.e. the modern mythical epitome of the Jovial nature).

The rest of the books follow accordingly: Prince Caspian is Mars, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is Sol, The Silver Chair is Luna, The Horse and His Boy is Mercury, The Magician's Nephew is Venus, and The Last Battle is Saturn.

Another example of the sheer brilliance of Ward's thesis: The Silver Chair (one of my favorite Narnia stories) partakes, as noted above, of the atmosphere of Luna (i.e. the moon). This is the only story with a "lunatic." In addition, Luna's metal is Silver... So it is not surprising that the magical chair in the story is silver. Finally, Luna's atmosphere is dreary, wet, and filled with wandering. Not only is the whole book about wandering, but it is also filled with rain and poor spirits (Puddleglum comes to mind).

The scary part about all of this is that the evidence for Ward's position is simply overwhelming. When Ward places Lewis' own poetry and writings side by side with the Chronicles, one has a hard time not seeing the structure (Frankly, though some may have some quibbles with a minor point or two, I really don't think anyone can argue with Ward's thesis).

For anyone who has ever read and enjoyed the Chronicles, I would highly recommend this book (It made me downright giddy. It was like turning on a light in a dark room. I kept thinking, "Oh, that makes sense now...").