Some friends and I went to see Prince Caspian last night, the second in the series of Narnia movies. First of all, let me say that it was way better than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. LWW was awfully clean and shiny for a story that’s basically about a big war (I blame overly smooth animation, at least in part). Caspian had a darker edge. It was by no means perfect, but I liked it enough that I’m looking forward to Voyage of the Dawn Treader, my favorite of the books.
The biggest problem with Caspian, for me, is the message of the original story: “You can’t do anything without help from someone more important than you.” Caspian calls “the kings and queens of old” (our beloved Pevensies) to rescue him from his little throne-succession problem. Oops, turns out they’re no older than Caspian himself — great! Now we’re on familiar YA ground, in which the kids save the day, thus coming of age and proving themselves.
…Oh, but they can’t. Not without Aslan, the giant lion / Jesus metaphor. They have to have complete faith in him before he’ll come help them win the war, and in fact there’s a line in which Aslan guilt-trips Lucy (the youngest and therefore most innocent, most faithful, and most worthy) about not believing in him enough — maybe those who died in the first battle of the war would still be alive if she had!
And of course, no matter how much they believed, Aslan would never come help the Narnians (an assortment of talking animals, centaurs, dwarves, and other non-human creatures) take their land back from the Telmarines. “Sons of Adam and daughters of Eve” totally trump talking badgers (however freakin’ adorable they may be), so everyone just had to sit tight and wait a couple of hundred years for some humans to show up before they could get their lives back.
Obviously a ton has been written about Narnia and the Christian allegory therein, so it’s not like I’m shocked. This book is, like all books, of its author and its time. (As is this criticism, of course: I’m a big damn secular humanist hippie, so naturally I see this message as a flaw.) I just find it fascinating how different this is from the modern American Big Underlying Message of Children’s Lit (something like, “You are unique and powerful in your own way,” or more simply, “You can do it!”), and yet how compelling Narnia still is to modern American audiences.
Which brings me to my question of the day: What children’s fantasy novels get the secular humanist hippie stamp of approval? What could I give my (entirely theoretical) child as an antidote to the standard fantasy tropes of “blood is destiny,” “titles are the most important kind of power,” “prophecy/destiny is inescapable,” “only special snowflakes matter in the world,” etc.?
Un Lun Dun did this well (because China Mieville is a big damn secular humanist commie). His Dark Materials gets a bit overly philosophical for most kids, but the idea is there. Sabriel — and actually, the sequels even more so. What else? There’s a lot more to be said about messages in children’s fantasy — talk to me!
14 responses so far ↓
1 jadelennox // May 19, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I’ve been wanting to ask doctor elljay a related question, which is what epic fantasy novels do *not* have a destined hero? Because a destined hero can never get the SH Stamp of Approval.
2 colorwheel // May 19, 2008 at 6:21 pm
perhaps farsala? three of them, all different ranks/stations/classes, and i got the feeling their heroism was chosen rather than destined?
3 mayica // May 19, 2008 at 6:51 pm
There’s always the sub-genre of “girls don’t have to be princesses / damsels in distress.” It may be more middle grades that young adult, but our son loves the _Dealing with Dragons_ series by Patricia Wrede. I only read the first one, and that quite a while ago, but it was definitely along the lines of plucky princess heroine ditches the prince who comes to rescue her in order to hang out with the not-so-scary dragons , and ends up saving them from the evil wizard. No destiny involved.
4 bloodstones // May 19, 2008 at 7:23 pm
The Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. I could explain why, but Colin does it far more eloquently than I could, and has already done it: http://colinmac.livejournal.com/37031.html.
(One thing that I really love about Pratchett’s YA books is also that they are as smart as his adult books. The plot is a bit more straightforward. There aren’t as many characters to keep track of. But it’s not dumbed down.)
5 Martini-Corona // May 19, 2008 at 9:57 pm
Interesting — the heavy Aslan-as-Jesus message annoys me, but the general themes of recognizing your own weakness and having the humility to ask for help from others, working together, and being content with the things that are out of your power to change — those are useful messages for kids. Of course Caspian asks for help — he’s a kid (or a teen), and he’s thrust into a position of power suddenly — and he has a magic horn! Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em). And of course the kids want some help from Aslan — kids know what works, and Aslan worked last time. I think messages of patience, humility, and occasionally sucking it up are probably useful in the glut of very-special-snowflake tropes being fed to kids.
Regarding recommendations: what about the Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones? Those kids aren’t special at all, and they don’t get a special destiny either.
6 Sam // May 20, 2008 at 4:12 pm
colorwheel:
I was thinking about the Farsala trilogy (by Hilari Bell), too. There’s a lot in there about blood as destiny, but then the story deliberately turns that on its head in a way that I do think is awesome. Sabriel is similar, come to think of it. Is it possible to find fantasy that just isn’t about royalty or heredity at all?
7 Sam // May 20, 2008 at 4:18 pm
mayica:
Oh, I love Dealing with Dragons! It also has a lot of fun with what it means to have royal blood — the dragons will only accept kidnapped princesses as housekeepers, so only princesses get to matter, but only the princess who has more to her than royal blood ends up *happy* as a dragon’s housekeeper.
The Ordinary Princess was one of my favorite books when I was a kid, and it has a similar theme (only without dragons): Princess Amethyst’s fairy godmothers give her a whole bunch of gifts a la Sleeping Beauty, but the oldest and wisest fairy tells her, “You shall be ordinary!” And so she gets freckles and her hair turns mousy and she’s not fit for a princessy life at all. I have no idea if it’s still in print, but it’s fabulous.
8 Sam // May 20, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Martini-Corona:
Ok, good point — my kids could certainly stand to hear more about patience, humility, and sucking it up.
But the fact that Aslan just sits around and waits for them to come ask? That struck me as petty when I was seven, and it still does. And I’m still irked that the whole book is about freeing the Narnians, but they aren’t allowed to take responsibility for their own freedom; they have to wait for humans from England and Telmar to come do it for them, even though they’re providing the overwhelming majority of the manpower (er, centaur-and-talking-badger-power).
I heart The Homeward Bounders, though I don’t remember enough about it to have a sense of what its message was. (And that would imply that I understood it well enough at the time, which I’m not sure I did.) But as I recall, you’re right that they didn’t have a special destiny, so I’ll add it to the list! I think Diana Wynne Jones’s books would often fall into this category… I’ll have to think about more.
9 jadelennox // May 20, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Homeward Bounders is kids who just suffer bad luck and do the best they can with it, and it’s really amazing. Lots of DWJ is special magical children, but not that one.
10 Doug Orleans // May 20, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Hm, does Earthsea count? I don’t recall much in the way of destiny or heredity per se, though it was about having special in-born talents. But I think it’s also about class and station and escaping from those restrictions. Which is sort of the exact opposite of “blood is destiny”.
11 Sebbo // May 24, 2008 at 11:47 am
Jade, I’d propose LoTR as an epic fantasy novel where, at least, the Destined Hero (Aragorn) is kind of a sideline to the action and heroism that actually matter–both to the outcome and to the reader.
12 » The Looking Glass Wars, Frank Beddor Parenthetical.net: Musings and snark about YA lit, libraries, and geekdom, from an overly opinionated middle school librarian. // Jun 6, 2008 at 7:50 am
[...] sauce. Good is dumb, and then triumphs anyway because they’re also loyal. And you want a predestined heroine? Hoo, [...]
13 » Sequel Summer: Out of the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst Parenthetical.net: Musings and snark about YA lit, libraries, and geekdom, from an overly opinionated middle school librarian. // Jul 15, 2008 at 12:10 pm
[...] I adore Into the Wild. It was an easy sell for my kids, too — I put it on the middle school summer reading list, and I think half the seventh grade will have read it by September. It’s particularly appropriate for a girls’ school because of the clever way it turns the tired damsel-in-distress pattern of fairy tales on its head: Zel and Julie save the world by refusing to be saved by their princes, by refusing to be trapped by their destiny. (Secular humanist hippie stamp of approval!) [...]
14 Destiny // Sep 2, 2008 at 7:44 pm
[...] little icon over there refers to what I’ve been calling the “Secular Humanist Hippie Stamp of Approval.” As I think you’ll all agree, that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. I’ve [...]
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