The Magician's Nephew

As my title suggests, this posting is about the novel The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis whom many would know was the writer of the Chronicles of Narnia. So, I'm writing to say that I've just finished reading the book and was very happy with it. I liked learning how everything fell into place such as Aslan, Jadis and the Wardrobe, as well as the many religious references. I like when writers use those.

Moving on, I guess my real reason for reading it was so I could learn a bit about Uncle Andrew, who is possibly the most despised character in the entire book. He was self obsessed and selfish and didn't care for anyone else really, but I feel somewhat inclined to disagree with some of those elements, mainly because without Uncle Andrew, the whole adventure of the chronicles could never be told. He was the one who granted access to Narnia.

Uncle Andrew had good intentions I've decided, but he tried to achieve them through selfish means, such as sending Polly Plummer to the Wood between the Worlds and not going himself. He wanted something good but got it the wrong way, and that's why I read the book because I was in a way doing research on a character for my own series, Andrew Natalis.

Andrew Natalis in a way was the one character who set everything into motion in my series The Hands of Sage Chronicles. There are some differences though. He did a generously good thing which had terrible consequences. Some characters refer to Natalis as "the most selfless son of a bitch in the world". That line's going to be used in the second part of the series.

So that was why I read The Magician's Nephew, aside from the fact that I enjoy classic stories, to learn how to create my own Uncle Andrew. As you can tell, they share the same first name which is an obvious shout out, but his surname "Natalis" is the Latin word for "birthday". It inspired the name Natalie and its variations also.

Aside from the Chronicles, I'm also drawing elements from other works of fiction, many of which I picked up on in my Literature class last year with my teacher Grace (I'm pretty sure I'm calling her that on the blog). The other stories I'm drawing on include the following-

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Cicade de Deus by Paulo Lins
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I'm also drawing on elements of Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. As for me I'm going to go and start on the rest of the Narnia stories as well as get my hands on Alice in Wonderland, mainly because the movie is coming out next year and Lewis Carroll was a left hander like myself.

Cheers.

It Is Done

I've been up to a lot lately, and I must admit I'm feeling rather buggered. The past week has been very eventful, such as me lugging myself around the city doing my sisters bidding on Tuesday (I finally went into Sticky- not bad), doing the drive up to Bendigo today with my bickering parents in the front and my grandpa in the back who was just laughing on the inside... and let's see, what else did I do? I sent my manuscript off to a publisher.

I was really excited about that, and hopeful that the recipients take interest in my story. My proof readers enjoyed it and helped me improve my tale by turning it from a 309 pg manuscript into a 308 one. Sweet. Anyway, that's the biggest thing on my mind at the moment, but there are other things too.

Let me see, there's my temp agency calling me up with some work because I am just poor. Seriously, I'm not enjoying it friends. I'm also waiting to see the new Roland Emmerich movie 2012 (I'm not expecting anything dramatic, but the trailers looked good- I'm going to be scared shitless in three years also) and there's The Time Traveler's Wife as well. Fingers are crossed that they're good also.

Also, I'm trying to get a short story down which my main idea will be about friendship. This "thing" came to me when I came up with the names Danny McCabe and Amy DeLeigh, and I decided that they would be life long best friends who would comfort each other when times were grim. All of these images come into my head like seeing them dance ballroom style in lounge room and a burning stable with horses running out of it. I just want to write it dammit!!!!

And then there's this little novel I've started on the side which will be heavily laddened with fantasy. It's meant for younger readers (older primary school) and I've got some good lines and images down on paper. I started writing it all down after I saw my little cousins, Little Miss Shifty and Little Miss Honeybear, a few weeks ago, and they tell me that monsters aren't real. Anyway, it dawned on me that the stuff I write isn't appropriate for them and so I'm going to do something about that Seamus. Fingers are crossed.

And that's that. I'm gonna try and post some drawings soon. Promise.

PS. I'm also getting published again. Go Wonderland!