Commercialization and expansion of Narnia? ***BLECH***

www.theonering.net/perl/n.../991621905

"They have struck deals to license plush Narnian toys. The series publisher, HarperCollins, revealed plans to create new Narnia novels by unidentified authors, to the outrage of some devoted readers."
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"Most striking of all, they have developed a discreet strategy to avoid direct links to the Christian imagery and theology that suffused the Narnia novels and inspired Lewis."
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"By the fall of 2003 they expected to publish simpler picture books for younger children and a new Narnia novel."

Hellooo? Can anyone say boycott?

Geez, these marketing folks think Narnia is too closely associated with Christianity just because of its evangelically allegorical nature. They seem to think that only Christians read Narnia. And thus, they are trying to take a Harry Potter marketing spin on the Chronicles, which is now regarded as a "franchise", it seems. (I disapprove of Harry Potter marketing anyway - great books, poor commercialization)

What idiots.

I never read the Narnia Chronicles, but I condemn every abuse of an author's legacy. It might be that HarperCollins have the legal rights to the Narnia Chronicles, but the ethical rights belong to CSL, albeit deceased. So, every new book written about Narnia by another author is an desecration of CSL's work.
Therefore, you have my vote for a worldwide boycot in case HarperCollins is really planning to publish new Narnia books by other authors than CSL!

I read that they are planning to re-write the books to downplay (ie remove) all the references to christianity.

Granted, I never really liked the Narnia books, (maybe because I read Tolkien's M-E books first) but this is nuts.

that is so screwed up! I don't believe they'd do something like that.

ok, so my firm belief in in the stupidity of humanity in general prompts me to say that yeah, they would, and probably think they're doing us all a favour...

How the hell can they cut out the references to christianity? not only on ethical grounds, but... how can they do that and leave the books making sense? The whole POINT of Narnia, the whole reason the children were taken there, was to learn about christianity. It's wraped up in a series of nice stories, but that is the point. And they're going to cut that out?

And I'm not even saying this from a christian viewpoint, I simply think it's a terrible thing to change someone's work like that. And as for whole new books? no. please no. Don't subject all these poor people who are fans of Lewis' work to this.

Please, everybody, send an angry Email to HarperCollins!

Ah good old cooperate business at work, God forbid you leave something as it is. "Ok editors, remove some crucial info from these books, and we'll make a new book to fill in these gaps you'll have made." The new book will probably be called, "Aslan, tell us what we did in the old Narnia" or something equally simple minded. Though I do like the ideas of toys, now I know what to get my cousin for her next birthday. But really, who would be able to write a better Narnia than C.S.Lewis. Oh well I'll probably buy the books anyways and write the cruelest review possible for it (I'll galdly give it to you guys).

Haven't they heard the saying "If it's not broken, don't fix it"?

Gotta say, Narnia books aren't the greatest, but still, this is just plain wrong. I'll be surprised if HarperCollins doesn't pay dearly for this

I damn well hope they do

There will probably be a lot of outrage if it actually happens.

[IronParrot]

Bringing this thread back to the top...

I haven't heard about this issue lately. Has this evil, evil idea died off silently?

[galadriel]

I heard about this a couple months back, and I'm still just as angry. I really like the Narnia series, have been reading it since I was about five, and think it's horribly wrong to take an author's work and turn it into something overprocessed and politically correct. You can read the books on both levels, looking at the religious part or ignoring it, but without both parts the story falls apart.

I don't have a major problem with the toys. When you're eight, that sort of thing is fun. Although a stuffed Aslan does seem kind of sacreligious or something....

[Darkhalcyon]

THe Narnia books were my favorites when i was younger! i grew up on the oie of"the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe." (and i'm jewish!) i sawa bunch of the movies and was happy to discover the books, too. (this is whatgot me into fantasy). THey'retotally gonnaruin it for me. leave it to freakin americans to dumb stuff down for their children!and they wonder why education is going down the tubes!

Oh, and FYI, CSL wrote a book aobut Tolkien's work. *forgetting the title* i didn't read it, cuz it didn't pertain to my research paper, maybe i should take it out now ^-^

[Serena]

I heard about this too.


No!!

The chronicles of Narnia are Cool! Just because they have Christian ideals iand references in them doesn't mean that you have to be a christian to read and enjoy them. I have read all 7 of them, but I won't read any new ones. They were written to be a set, so if anything else is added to them, it'll just screw them up.

Of course, in the corperate world, religion has no place, so they think that this is a briliant move . . . . stupid.

I agree with Earendilyon. I will send HarperCollins an e-mail about this, and I'm asking the rest of you to do the same. So many people say they will and don' t that one protesting e-mail or letter, is treated like it has the weight of one-hundred people behind it.

[fireworks19]

I'm ATHEIST and this makes me mad!

How DARE they? The Christian symbolism was EVERYTHING in those books. I loved those books. I have them all! They can't do that....

[Varda]

how are they going to have more books anyway? i mean... i guess this is sort of a spoiler for anyone who has not read all the books, but at the end... narnia is no more and they all go to a different place (the last battle)... or will they be totally separate books? i mean... even if there isnt christian allegory in the story Aslan is a prophet/god and the son of the great emperor beyond the sea... i mean how much do they really plan to change things that are essential to the story? i get the idea of fauns, centaurs and talking beasts fighting evil witches and aslan leading the 4 humans as if they are more like power puff girls or power rangers rather than righteous kings and queens of a magical land... it just seems like it would be really shallow and dumb...

... and about toys, i think that would be fine except that people would ask for toy aslans... and that seems wrong.....

[IronParrot]

If this idea is still in the works (not sure it is, since I haven't heard much about it), I think the plan is to take advantage of the huge time gaps between some of the books.

For example, we don't see a whole lot of the four kids' adventures in Narnia during their actual reign as royalty...

[Varda]

so like the horse and his boy? i guess that could work...... though i think that wasn't really as interesting to me......

[Tessar]

Ok this is a near quote from a comic strip that I like (yes it did have the beep bits in it, no really cussing )



what the *bleep* do thoses *bleep* *bleeps* think that ther *bleep bleep* doing down there!?! if they dont *bleep* the whole thing then I'm gona *bleep bleep*

"I need some more asprin"


well sorry, but it did seem apropret for the situation.

[GoldenMallorn]

WHAT?! Is this the generation we live in? Are FANTASY books written by Christian authors so offending we have to REWRITE them? Aslan would'nt excist because his very ESSENCE is JESUS the LION of Juda. He even says"I am with you in you world. I am only known by a different name" or something like that in the third book when Lucy and Edmund have to leave. There are so many Christian themes in the Narnian chronicles the only things that would be left would be"Once apon a time these kids visited this one place and they had these adventures with animals and then went home. THE END" How exciting. Kids are gonna LOVE the new series.