Well, over the past few days I have been exploring some of the features of Moveable Type. It is like monkey working on a BMW engine. But I have gotten results to my liking, though I am uncertain how the page looks in different resolutions, and Firefox doesn’t like it much. Thanks to my boss Dennis for the Dassler sphere and other technical and creative consulting. Thanks to Ron at Stlblogs for patience with my queries.
Another Narnia featurette is available. It has a lot of technical info regarding the visual effects which are pretty amazing. Also, there are glimpses of Aslan. The director, Andrew Adamson, who by all I have seen so far, seems to be doing a good job of this says that he wanted people to be terrified as they would be if they saw a real lion when they first see Aslan and also at the same time want to pet him. It looks like Aslan is going to be well done as well as the Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.
In talking about the desired effect he wants Aslan to have, Andrew Adamson seems to be on the right track to capturing the meekness and majesty which are rolled into the descriptions of Aslan in the Chronicles, “People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan’s face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn’t look at him and went all trembly.”

I am taking this quote out of Zondervan’s The Complete Chronicles of Narnia, which is ordered in chronological order with The Magician’s Nephew first, which makes sense for a one volume tome. This is not my preferred order of reading, though, largely I suppose because I was first read them in their publication order, but also because the serendipity of discovering in The Magician’s Nephew, orginally volume 6, where the lampost in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came from is delightful. Alas, in a letter to a young reader, Lewis settled an argument between him (it may have been a girl) and his mother that he agreed with the boy that they should be read in chronological order.
This edition is lovely, with all of Pauline Baynes orignal drawings and in color too. Lewis liked Pauline Baynes illustrations the best and they helped constitute a good chunk of the imaginative framework of my childhood. Click here to have a brief peek inside.
When I was young, I used to worry because I loved Aslan more than I loved Jesus (I used to also worry because I loved my parents even more strongly than both of them). However, as I have grown I have come to know and love Jesus. And hope to even more, for it is still a poor and feeble love. Reading about Aslan, though, puts into words for me what I imagine the emotions will be like to see the Lord Jesus face to face. The imagining of Goodness, and Glory, and Heaven is perhaps the strongest and most unique features of Lewis’ writings.
Before the children even meet Aslan, at the mere mention of his name, they have have this reaction:
“And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do, but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream if feels as if it has some enourmous meaning–either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.”