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.