# Narnia confusion **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 12, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224 "2005-12-12T06:05:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/1 "2005-12-12T06:05:37Z")
Kind of silly, but I’m just wondering why when they re-released the series they changed the order of the books, but now they go and make the movie and they start with the original first book? Some time ago I vented about how silly I thought the change in the order was, and I’m still not sure why they did it. Except to take the discovery out of it and basically “dumb it down” I guess. I don’t understand why the changed the order and then changed it back for the movie. Is this confusing people who may not know that the sixth book is not really the first? I was happy as heck that they made it in the order they have for the movie, and I told my friend not to pay attention to the new order of the books and gave her the original order. It doesn’t make sense what they did. Am I alone in this? Can anybody follow what I am trying to say here? ---
**Author:** ![Dancy\_McDance\_Dance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@Dancy\_McDance\_Dance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancy_McDance_Dance)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/2 "2005-12-12T08:02:21Z")
> [@Kricket](#): > > I don’t understand why the changed the order and then changed it back for the movie. Making LW&W first is all about money. This is the book everyone read. Lewis’ order be damned, there is no way MN was going to be made first. How much interest do think MN would have in comparison to LW&W? If you were going to start a new movie series which would you start with? That and the fact that most people (despite Lewis) consider LW&W to be the first in the series. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/3 "2005-12-12T08:23:49Z")
> [@Dancy McDance Dance](#): > > Making LW&W first is all about money. This is the book everyone read. Lewis’ order be damned, there is no way MN was going to be made first. How much interest do think MN would have in comparison to LW&W? If you were going to start a new movie series which would you start with? > > That and the fact that most people (despite Lewis) consider LW&W to be the first in the series. I think it’s a bit exaggerated to call that “Lewis’ order”, despite what the current publisher’s claims to that effect. The only quote I’ve read where he claims a preference to chronological order is this one, from a letter written in 1957 to an American boy: > [@C. S. Lewis](#): > > "I think I agree with your order [i.e. chronological] for reading the books more than with your mother’s. The series was not planned beforehand as she thinks. When I wrote The Lion I did not know I was going to write any more. Then I wrote P. Caspian as a sequel and still didn’t think there would be any more, and when I had done The Voyage I felt quite sure it would be the last. But I found as I was wrong. So perhaps it does not matter very much in which order anyone read them. I’m not even sure that all the others were written in the same order in which they were published. Not exactly a strong preference either way. He basically just tells the kid “The way you want to read the books sounds good to me,” and then goes on to say that is doesn’t matter much. Personally, I think the order probably doesn’t make too much difference, except that the “Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” works really well as the start of the series, and knowing all about the Wardrobe and the professor and such before hand probably takes a bit of the fun out of it. Scenes like the first time they go through the Wardrobe just wouldn’t have the same impact if you already knew what’s coming. And likewise, part of the fun of The Magician’s Nephew is that you’re getting the answers to the questions raised in the first book, like where the Wardrobe comes from. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/4 "2005-12-12T08:38:16Z")
The edition with all seven books in the order that they took place beginning with _The Magician’s Nephew_ was edited by Lewis’ stepson, btw. That would be the young son of the Debra Winger character in \* Shadowlands\*. The boy in that story, who turns out to be the wise old man in _Lion,_ has a mother who is dying of a terminal illness. There is a sequence towards the end in which Aslan looks into his eyes and sheds an enormous tear for him. Were I that young man, I would be very inclined to put the books in chronological order, making that one the first. It was, to some extent, written for him. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/5 "2005-12-12T08:43:33Z")
Episode IV: A New Wardrobe ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/6 "2005-12-12T10:26:08Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Episode IV: A New Wardrobe Really, including Jar Jar in the Dawn Treader was just a slap in the face. ---
**Author:** ![Kricket](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f14d63/32.png) [@Kricket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kricket)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/7 "2005-12-12T14:29:06Z")
I’m glad to see that people outside of my head could figure out what I was talking about. Any word about the other books going to movie or you think they will just stick with the money maker? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/8 "2005-12-12T16:04:10Z")
There are at least a half a dozen threads in which we discuss the order of the Narnia books and why it changed. Do a search on “Narnia”, “order”, “books”, and “Lewis” and you’ll find them. The change was made in the mid-1990’s. Douglas Gresham, Lewis’s stepson, who is mostly in charge of the estate, wanted the order to change. The letter Lewis wrote to the child back in the 1950’s is a mere pretense to do the change. It’s possible to argue about which order is “best,” but the fact is that the real reason for the change is that Gresham wanted the change. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/9 "2005-12-12T17:12:24Z")
I’m feeling that if they do go ahead with other Narnia movies, they should not feel pressed to do each book. I think most movie-goers would be happiest with **Prince Caspian** , **Dawn Treader** , and\*\* The Silver Chair\*\*. In man ways, the others are just filler, and the less said about **The Last Battle** , the better. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/10 "2005-12-12T17:26:43Z")
The Lion… is by far the most famous of the books, and I rather suspect the best seller of all the books, so it is the obvious one to start with. I doubt you have to look further than that to explain it. Do you think Luke could have warmed up Hoth if he took a lightsaber to the White Witch? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/11 "2005-12-12T17:35:27Z")
> [@Kricket](#): > > Kind of silly, but I’m just wondering why when they re-released the series they changed the order of the books, but now they go and make the movie and they start with the original first book? Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to start with an actual story, feeling that such was necessary for making a good movie. _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ has a plot, one dynamic character, a major conflict, a narrative hook, rising action, a grand finale, some logical coherence and a little bit of emotional intensity. _The Magician’s Nephew_ has no plot, the characters are bricks, there’s almost no conflict, there’s no reason to care about any of the events, nothing major happens at the end, and in short there’s nothing to make a movie about. Aslan sings, the world is made, two kids ride a flying horse to get an apple. Who wants to watch that for two hours? ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/12 "2005-12-12T19:31:33Z")
Besides, there’s textual evidence against putting _The Magician’s Nephew_ first. In _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_, upon hearing “Aslan is on the move” the narrator comments on the children’s response : “They didn’t know who Aslan is any more than you do …” Douglas Gresham not only has co-production credit on the movie, but a bit part as well, so I imagine he allowed the original publishing order to prevail (that is, if he had any say in it). ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/13 "2005-12-12T22:00:33Z")
> [@ITR champion](#): > > _The Magician’s Nephew_ has no plot, the characters are bricks, there’s almost no conflict, there’s no reason to care about any of the events, nothing major happens at the end, and in short there’s nothing to make a movie about. Aslan sings, the world is made, two kids ride a flying horse to get an apple. Who wants to watch that for two hours? While the Magicians nephew is hardly my favorite book, I felt the visit to charn was quite interesting. An entire dead world because of the white witch. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/14 "2005-12-12T22:14:41Z")
> [@](#): > > It doesn’t make sense what they did. Who is this “they”? The people making the movies are not the same as the people publishing the books. Lewis put them in order starting with _Wardrobe_. A publisher later changed the order to _Magician’s Nephew_ first. Many people thought this was a bad idea. Apparently, the folks who decided to make the movie(s) were among this number, and so took the opportunity to make the movies in the same order Lewis wrote the books. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/15 "2005-12-13T02:57:31Z")
It’s unlikely that the estate has much say in the production of the film. Douglas Gresham may claim that he has influence in the production, but it’s unlikely that the producers have allowed him to do more than read the script and make comments without promising him any control. On a film of this budget, producers just don’t make deals where the author or his estate control the making of the film. For better or worse, the attitude of most big-time film producers is, “Look, we’ll give you as much money as you want, but you don’t control this film. We’re spending too much money on it to endanger it by allowing a non-film person to control the production.” (I personally think that this is sometimes a good attitude relative to the quality of the film and sometimes a bad attitude.) I suspect that the producers bought the rights to film as many of the Narnia novels as they wanted and then decided that it would be best to start with _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_. ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/narnia-confusion/335224/16 "2005-12-13T04:35:33Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > The edition with all seven books in the order that they took place beginning with _The Magician’s Nephew_ was edited by Lewis’ stepson, btw. That would be the young son of the Debra Winger character in \* Shadowlands\*. The boy in that story, who turns out to be the wise old man in _Lion,_ has a mother who is dying of a terminal illness. There is a sequence towards the end in which Aslan looks into his eyes and sheds an enormous tear for him. Were I that young man, I would be very inclined to put the books in chronological order, making that one the first. It was, to some extent, written for him. It sounds nice, but doesn’t ring true. _The Magician’s Nephew_ was published in 1955 and Joy Gresham didn’t die until 1960 (although she was seriously ill before that and married Lewis in a church ceremony on her hospital bed in 1957 when she was feared close to death.). Also, while TMN was the 6th book published, it was the second he attempted to write, although he ended up putting it aside and writing _Prince Caspian_ instead. More likely Lewis wrote it with his own mother, who died of cancer when he was a boy, in mind.