(no subject)

[crantz]

I've been reading The Horse And His Boy by C.S. Lewis and it's not going well.

For starters, it features in droves a squick of mine: Slavery*. So right off the bat I'm not the happiest camper, especially since it's followed by the People Of The Unfortunate Implications, the Calormene. Who also keep angrily going 'those free, BEAUTIFUL white narnians!'. I knew nothing good was going to happen when I heard the beautiful line shortly after how dark the Calormene were. (Product of its time, yes, yes, that doesn't make it less irritating)

I guess what I'm saying is I've spent this whole book in a state of irritation.

I didn't want to! I wanted to really like it, given how many people recced it. But the whole slavery thing and the Calormene thing has made me irritable and that's influenced me even being able to like the characters. I can't even get amusement at how the Pevensies still talk like they all got hit on the head.

Plus when I try to talk about it on twitter, one of my favourite things to do when I read a book, all that comes out is total nonsense. The book is near impossible for me to talk about.

That is why I am a sad hamster.

(Also, and this one isn't a complaint, C.S. Lewis does like his words that look like typos. Plashing, frowsty, lief...)

My teeny step-brother likes the book, though. I read the first chapter to him out loud and he was excited and kept making faces at the points I believe Lewis intended them to be made. I'm getting him his own copy to read today.


*It, rape, and molestation are the fastest ways to take me out of a story, because it suddenly stops being escapism and starts being 'this is happening to someone right now in the real world and this just isn't entertaining as a result'

Comments

[sorchar]

Well, in his defense on the word thing, "lief" really is an old word. Those other ones, I'm not sure about.

And yeah. I recently re-read the series and I had a lot of trouble with the race issues too. I don't mind the slavery thing in a fantasy setting - but I do mind that the Calormenes appear to be the only people that practice it.

[crantz]

The others are words! Frowsty means musty, ill-smelling, and plashing means to splash playfully. Every day I thank god for my dictionary app.

[sorchar]

See, I've learned something today. That means I get to give my brain the rest of the day off!

[undomielregina]

I like The Horse and His Boy, but I would be really reluctant to rec it to anybody, for all the reasons you mentioned. It's very much a product of its time, but just because I can see the "grew up reading stories about the Crusades and Sir Richard Burton's Arabian Nights translation" origins doesn't make it okay.

I do tend to think that, with the exception of the Problem of Susan, The Last Battle manages to be less "Narnians good, Calormens bad" whichh re-contextualizes things a bit. I think that's strictly ymmv though, and a lot of people disagree with me.

[telesilla]

The Horse and His Boy was my favorite of all the books as a kid and even now just thinking about it makes me wince. Lewis was a good storyteller but not at all subtle and very much a product of his time.

[crantz]

It's... I can actually see that all the Calormene aren't bad, which is good. Avaris is good, her friend is a twit but she's not evil, etc. But it's also covered in this patina of 'oh god no what are you doing no nooo'

Ann told me that Susan grows up to be M from James Bond.

[crantz]

I think I enjoyed it a lot as a kid too. I think my step-brother will too, but first he had to be sat down and told that the Calormene are Problematic and why.

He seemed to listen.