Chronicling Me Some Narnia, Part 2

(Oh, there was a Part 1. Sure, it was almost eight months ago, but I hadn't forgotten.)

Wherein I Talk about Order

As I have mentioned before, I really can't handle it when the Narnia books are printed so as to lead people to read them in "chronological" order. (Seriously, I kind of freak out.) Here is why I am RIGHT that they should be read in publication order.

For reference:

Publication order
1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magician's Nephew
7. The Last Battle

Chronological order
1. The Magician's Nephew
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Horse and His Boy
4. Prince Caspian
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
6. The Silver Chair
7. The Last Battle

Reasons Publication Order is Better

A) They were clearly intended to be read in the order they were written. As you go along, it's obvious that Lewis assumes that you've read the books that were previously written, since he makes explicit references to them.

B) You get attached to certain characters based on how early you're introduced to them. This is a complaint I heard from someone who read a set that was presented chronologically--his favorite character was young Diggory, but after The Magician's Nephew, he was only present as the mysterious old guy that the Pevensie children stay with. If you start out with the Pevensies, it's more satisfying, since they carry most of the stories.

C) There's an increasing complexity to the writing as you go along in publication order. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is very, very simple, while The Magician's Nephew has much more going on, both in the writing style and the ideas presented. It makes more sense for the complexity to increase incrementally as you go along, instead of ricocheting back and forth.

Anyway, that's why I'm glad that when they decided to make the movies, they decided to release them in publication order. (It was probably less for my reasons than because The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is by far the best known and therefore the most marketable, but the ends justify the means!)

Of course, this might not matter anymore, but I'll save that post for tomorrow. (Really tomorrow, not eight-months-from-now tomorrow.)