Friday, June 19, 2009

Chronicles of Narnia

One thing I am pretty certain about C.S. Lewis, without the benefit of any reference books about him or his life, is that the man clearly loved to eat. Throughout the Chronicles of Narnia there are references to food and eating. Take, for example, the tea that Mr. Tumnus and Lucy have, and the many feasts that are described in detail (such as in The Horse and His Boy), or merely alluded to.

What I like most is his ability to make my mouth water for something I would probably not choose in the "real world". Would I really want to eat sardines on toast like Lucy and Mr. Tumnus? Or snipe stuffed with almonds like Shasta?

Perhaps if I tried it, sardines on toast would become my favorite tea-time snack. On the other hand, perhaps not. It might be more like Edmund's experience:
"They [the moles] began with a rich brown loam that looked almost exactly like chocolate; so like chocolate, in fact, that Edmund tried a piece of it, but he did not find it at all nice." (Prince Caspian, 212).

So, sometimes feeding your imagination might actually be better than feeding your stomach.

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