Aslan's Country Book Discussion

My husband will be facilitating a class for my daughter's homeschool coop from September to January on the Chronicles that mention Aslan's Country: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. I will be posting the notes, reading schedule and discussion questions biweekly starting the last week in September. Anyone who would like to join in virtually is welcome.

Benisse said:

My husband will be facilitating a class for my daughter's homeschool coop from September to December on the Chronicles that mention Aslan's Country: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle. I will be posting the notes, reading schedule and discussion questions biweekly starting the last week in September. Anyone who would like to join in virtually is welcome.

Click to expand...

I'd love to join. I would really like to hear more about Aslan's Country.

Wow that is a pretty cool topic to have a discussion about. I look forward to replying and see others post about it.

Sounds very interesting. I'd like to see that.

That sounds awesome! Count me in!

I'm getting excited about this project, especially with all your interest! My DLH (dear little husband) is currently working on the curriculum for a large homeschool network in California (200+ families) to be an Academy Day elective and will be open to all ages from 8 on up.

It looks like there will be an introductory class at the end of Sept. overviewing the Chronicles series, and giving background on Lewis and his work as a writer/apologist. Then there will be two sessions in October 2010 on Dawn Treader, two in November 2010 on Silver Chair, and two in January 2011 on Last Battle. The reading schedule will be published at the end of Sept probably with some preliminary questions, but since DLH is still drawing things up, I'm not exactly sure what the format will be. When his notes and questions are available I will post them to this thread, so you can comment and interact with them freely. Although I'm not sure if DLH will have time to join the Dancing Lawn himself, I certainly will refer questions of clarification, and all suggestions to him.

DLH's undergrad major was Greek and New Testament, and his seminary concentration was on Hebrew, so it is a safe bet that he will draw lots of cross comparisons with scripture in the course, though I think there will be plenty of food for thought no matter where you are in your faith journey. Here is a picture of our family from years ago when we were in England for a sabbatical he did during the tricentennial celebration of John Wesley.

Your family is so adorable, Linda!

I will be part of the book discussion if I can, sounds interesting.

Welcome 220/Aslan's Lily!

Preliminary Course Outline

The first Aslan's Country class is this Friday 9/24!! My husband Cliff got the class roster from the home school co-op coordinator last week, and the students' ages range from elementary through high school, with a pretty wide range of abilities. So he is trying to use principles of universal design so that those members who are younger can be on a more equal footing with those who are older, and so that a variety of learning styles can be accommodated. He has laid out preparation questions and exercises through the October VDT sessions but the rest of the schedule is left rather sketchy so that he can adapt assignments once he gets more of a feel for the chemistry of the class.

Following is a brief course outline. The Saturday after each class I'll post Cliff's notes plus more detailed questions and highlights from the class discussions for a springboard for your comments and sharing.


Aslan’s Country
Course description: Take a trip to Narnia by reading and discussing your way through the Chronicles by C.S. Lewis that mention Aslan's Country: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [VDT], The Silver Chair [SC], and The Last Battle [LB]. Students need to have copies of these books by the first class in September.

Note: Most of the assignments are taken from or adapted from The Chronicles of Narnia: A Christian Teacher’s Guide by Christin Ditchfield.

Assignments
1. Read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Last Battle.
Before the academy day on: Read at least:
October 8 -- VDT Chapters 1-8
October 22 -- VDT Chapters 9-16
November 5 -- SC Chapters 1-8
November 19 -- SC Chapters 9-16
January 14 -- LB Chapters 1-8
January 28 -- LB Chapters 9-16

2. Create a journal reflecting your thoughts, feelings, opinions, questions and insights. Students may use words, poems, pictures or music in their journals. Use of a 3-ring binder with 8 ½” x 11” paper and dividers to mark sections for each of the three novels is recommended. If a computer is used to keep this journal, then a print-out can be brought to the class to get credit for completion of the assignment.

3. Participation: The majority of this course will be based on discussion rather than lecture, for we learn best as we interact personally with the text and the ideas and interpretations of others. Discussion etiquette will be reserved, so please observe these guidelines:
a. Look at the person who has the floor.
b. Listen respectfully, affirming and restating what others say as much as possible.
c. If at all possible, build on what others have said when you speak.

4. Vocabulary list. When you encounter an unfamiliar word, record the word with the page number, and an indication of which novel you’re reading. Then look the word up in a dictionary and write down the definition.

Session 1 – September 24: Introduction
C.S. Lewis
Childhood and atheism
Military service
Education
Teaching and writing career
His conversion to faith in Christ
Romance and marriage

Overview of the Chronicles of Narnia
The Magician’s Nephew
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

Preparation for Session 2: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule. Focus on the encounter between Eustace and Aslan in the last half of chapter 7. See if you can pick out some biblical truths presented there. If you need some clues check out:
Psalms 38:4; Isaiah 61:10; 64:6; Ezekiel 36:26;
Luke 19:10; John 3:3-6; Acts 2:37-38
Romans 3:10-11; 5:6-8; 6:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:8-9; 5:25-27
Colossians 2:10, 12; Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 John 1:9. [Adapted from Teacher’s Guide]

Session 2 – October 8: The Dawn Treader
“Who Said It?” quotation identification game.
Class discussion: Characters, the quest(s), events, and spiritual parallels

Preparation for Session 3: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule.
Writers create a mood by using descriptive words to make the reader feel a certain way. The setting and events in the story also help develop mood. As you read chapter 12 look for feelings and mood indicators in the following six events:
The darkness ahead of the ship grows greater.
The appearance of a stranger calling for help.
The stranger says that this is an island where “dreams come true.”
The crew realizes that the word “dreams” actually means “nightmares.”
The crew can’t seem to make any progress rowing out of the darkness.
An albatross appears and leads them toward light.
Write a paragraph comparing and contrasting the mood of chapter 12 with chapter 11, or write a poem that captures the mood of chapter 12, or draw a picture of the albatross and Lucy. [Adapted from Teacher’s Guide]

Session 3 – October 22: The Dawn Treader
Bring your journal to class.
Quiz on The Dawn Treader
Class discussion: Characters, events, and spiritual parallels

Preparation for Session 4: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule.
Write a summary of all the things Jill and Eustace learn about Prince Rilian in chapter 4 or write a poem or draw a picture of the events that reveal Prince Rilian. [Adapted from Teacher’s Guide]

Session 4 - November 5: The Silver Chair
“Who Said It?” quotation identification game.
Class discussion: Characters, events, and spiritual parallels
Preparation for Session 5: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule.

Session 5 - November 19: The Silver Chair
Bring your journal to class.
Quiz on The Silver Chair
Class discussion: Characters, events, spiritual parallels and conclusion.
Preparation for Session 6: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule.

Session 6 – January 14: The Last Battle
“Who Said It?” quotation identification game.
Class discussion: Characters, events, and spiritual parallels
Preparation for Session 7: Reading, journaling and vocabulary lists according to schedule.

Session 7 – January 28: The Last Battle
Bring your journal to class.
Quiz on The Last Battle
Class discussion: Characters, events, spiritual parallels and conclusion.

Cliff's notes from 9/24 and 2 questions

Here are notes from Cliff's lecture on 9/24. I left out the summaries of the Chronicles of Narnia since I assume that information is pretty accessible to the folks on this forum...

C.S. Lewis 11/29/1898 - 11/22/1963
Clives Staples "Jack" Lewis was born November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. He was close to his brother Warnie, and together they created an imaginary country populated with talking beasts called Animal Land or Boxen. Although Jack went to church as a child, his faith was crushed when God did not answer his prayers for healing his beloved mother Flora, who died of cancer when he was nine years old. Not long after her death, his father sent him to a harsh boarding school, and in that difficult environment Lewis completed his transformation to atheism when he was about ten. Thanks to an influential tutor who stringently taught Lewis how to think and reason clearly in addition to classical languages, he was able to gain admittance to Oxford.

World War I interrupted Lewis' studies at Oxford and at the age of nineteen he went to the front lines in France to serve as an infantry lieutenant. After he was wounded he returned to Oxford and graduated in 1924, receiving appointment as a fellow and becoming a tutor in 1925 at Magdalen College, Oxford. However he was denied a professorship until 1954, when Cambridge gave him a chair in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature.

Faith
In 1931 Lewis completed his spiritual pilgrimage that had taken him from atheism to theism and finally to Christianity when two of his colleagues at Oxford, J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, stayed up with him until the wee hours of the morning helping persuade Lewis that Christianity was the Myth that became Fact. He had begun writing articles even before he had become a Christian, but once he embraced Christ he became known for his lectures given on the radio on various topics dealing with Christianity, which were later compiled into works such as Mere Christianity. Other significant apologetic works defending the credibility of Christianity include: The Great Divorce, Screwtape Letters, and Abolition of Man, among others.

He also became part of a group called the Inklings for sharing and critiquing each other's writing projects, and in this creative circle which also included Charles Williams and J.R.R. Tolkien, Narnia was born as the type of children's literature they wish they could have read. (Middle Earth in Tolkien's Hobbit and Lord of the Rings also was a product of this group.)

Lewis wrote that the creation of Narnia was inspired by images that came to him, such as an image of a faun walking in the snow with an umbrella and red muffler. This mental picture ultimately developed into The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, the first published novel of the seven Chronicles of Narnia, listed here in chronological rather than publication order:
The Magician's Nephew 1955
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe 1950
The Horse and His Boy 1954
Prince Caspian 1951
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader 1952
The Silver Chair 1953
The Last Battle 1956

Romance and marriage
Lewis was a bachelor into his 50's, but in April of 1956 he platonically married poet/author Joy Davidman Gresham in a civil ceremony as a favor to her so that she and her sons could avoid deportation. She was diagnosed with advanced cancer in the autumn and Jack realized that he had truly grown to love her. So they had a second marriage ceremony, a Christian service to mark their true spiritual and romantic union while she was in the hospital for cancer treatments in March 1957. Joy had a miraculous remission for two wonderful years but finally died in 1960, and Lewis died 3 years later on November 22, 1963.

Questions:
1. The tragedy of unanswered prayer for his mom really destroyed young Jack's openess to God and contributed to his becoming an atheist for years afterward. If you had been his close friend during this time, what would you have done or said to try to help him through this terrible disappointment with God?

2. When Lewis wrote the chronicles of Narnia, he was inspired by images that first came to him, and the images flowed through him onto paper. When you create a story or other piece how do You do it?

Thanks Benisse! Very interesting. My answers ...

1. He was a small boy when his mum died, and I think if the adults in his life had done more to talk to him about his grief and assure him of their love nd God's love, it would have made a huge difference. I get the sense he felt simply abandoned, and this led to heartache and loneliness of a greater magnitude than if there had been some adult to walk him through the grief. If I'd been that adult, I would have tried to connect with him every day, ask him about his feelings, and remind him that he wasn't truly alone, that his mum in heaven was thinking of him and still loved him, and that I loved him, and Jesus loved him ... It was a horrible thing the way he lost his mum and then lost all semblance of a happy life he'd had when he was small. It might have been preserved somehow, if someone had been able to connect with him with God's love.

2. When I write a story, yes, I get a picture of the characters -- my two main ones that I posted here, "Dragonfly" and "A Crawfish Tale" both had very particular imagery: the guy in the green jacket and the crawfish in the aquarium, reading a book ... I didn't exactly know where either story was going until I started putting it down on paper.

Eustace and Aslan (Ch 7)

inkspot said:

Thanks Benisse! Very interesting. My answers ...

1. He was a small boy when his mum died, and I think if the adults in his life had done more to talk to him about his grief and assure him of their love nd God's love, it would have made a huge difference. I get the sense he felt simply abandoned, and this led to heartache and loneliness of a greater magnitude than if there had been some adult to walk him through the grief. If I'd been that adult, I would have tried to connect with him every day, ask him about his feelings, and remind him that he wasn't truly alone, that his mum in heaven was thinking of him and still loved him, and that I loved him, and Jesus loved him ... It was a horrible thing the way he lost his mum and then lost all semblance of a happy life he'd had when he was small. It might have been preserved somehow, if someone had been able to connect with him with God's love.

2. When I write a story, yes, I get a picture of the characters -- my two main ones that I posted here, "Dragonfly" and "A Crawfish Tale" both had very particular imagery: the guy in the green jacket and the crawfish in the aquarium, reading a book ... I didn't exactly know where either story was going until I started putting it down on paper.

Click to expand...

I totally agree with you, Inky. Poor Jack lost himself when his world crashed after his mom died. It would have made such a difference if someone had come alongside him and his father too during those cold grey empty days and given the hope of Christ's love and presence -- and of reunion with his mum. My daughter and I are listening to the audio version of The Secret Garden right now and it is another example of how a father's grief can make himself unavailable for his child and how that sort of shadow can be devastating on the child's worldview and development.

Thanks also for sharing a bit about your creative process. I usually don't get to experience images like you and Lewis -- I mainly get ideas, not strings of words, but the gestalt of an idea, kind of a just "knowing how to do something" in my mind waiting to be made or done or written or said.

I meant to post notes of the last week's class earlier, but it has been pretty hectic with my husband’s schedule and I hadn't had much of a chance to get him to debrief me. The first part of the lesson was spent in games like "Who said it?" quotes and discussion of vocabulary. But then they focused in on Eustace's encounter with Aslan in his undragoning experience...

[1] In chapter seven, Eustace mentioned how he was terribly afraid when he first saw the lion, but it was not a fearful kind of fear:
But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it-- if you can understand.

How would you explain the non-scared kind of fear Eustace experienced? [Exodous 20:20]
Have you ever felt that kind of fear? If so please share a bit about your experience...

[2] Later as Eustace explains how Aslan "told" him to follow, he and Edmund got in to a brief discussion of how the lion kind of told him without speaking.
How does God speak to you? Please give an example of how He told you something and what happened as a result.

[3] the students in the class were then asked what these images reminded them of --
[a] the fact that there was light wherever the lion was
the garden with trees and fruit on the mountain top that had a well in the center
[c] the clear water in the well that Eustace knew would ease his pain

[4] In the undragoning process what spiritual parallels can you find?
[a] the fact that Eustace first had to be undressed (Isaiah 64:6) before he could get into the water (Ephesians 5:26-27)
the fact that he could not do it on his own (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9)
[c] that Aslan clothed him in new clean clothes (Isaiah 61:10)

[5] Eustace: But who is Aslan? Do you know him?
Edmund: Well—he knows me…
How would you explain Edmund’s comment?
Galatians 4:9a "But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—"

[6] It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that "from that time forth Eustace was a different boy. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. the cure had begun.
If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in what ways have you or are you changing?

Benisse said:

[1] In chapter seven, Eustace mentioned how he was terribly afraid when he first saw the lion, but it was not a fearful kind of fear:
But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it-- if you can understand.

How would you explain the non-scared kind of fear Eustace experienced? [Exodous 20:20]

Click to expand...

I can totally relate. When you have done something wrong to a friend, and you have to face them, you know they aren't going to hit you or spit on you, but you're still scared, because you have to face what you have done, not what might happen to you. That may be even worse than facing a physical fear in some cases.

[2] Later as Eustace explains how Aslan "told" him to follow, he and Edmund got in to a brief discussion of how the lion kind of told him without speaking.
How does God speak to you? Please give an example of how He told you something and what happened as a result.

Click to expand...

In the past few years, I think I do hear Christ's voice in my head ... the other day, for instance, my poor husband had to leave the house really early to go to an all-day event three hours drive away; he ouwld be working but it was a barbecue and awards ceremony so I could have gone also. It was the weekend, and I had a lovely day off, so I didn't plan to go on that long drive and all. But that morning, he thought I was out walking while I as actually still in bed. I heard him playing with the dog and laughing, but when he realized I was there, he got very dour, told me his knee was hurting him, became withdrawn -- I felt like I sucked the life out of him! When I did go on my walk, I was asking Jesus, why did Mike act like that? Why was he so happy with the dog and seemed so deflated to me? I think Jesus told me it was because Mike wanted me to go with him! He didn't want to spend 6 hours on the road (over and back) and 5 hours at work (his part of the awards ceremony etc.) alone when I had a day off. So I turned around, went home, got dressed and fixed up real quick and went with my husband to his long day of work. The result was: he got very happy, and we had a nice time, even on the drive ... It's a little thing, not something momentous like un-dragoning, but still ....

[6] It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that "from that time forth Eustace was a different boy. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. the cure had begun.
If you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in what ways have you or are you changing?

Click to expand...

So many ways ... but I think the most important way is that I am becoming transformed by His love, becoming His love, you could say ... He is empowering me to live a life of love. I think maybe that is what happened to Eustace ultimately, too!

Silver Chair chronology trivia questions

uh oh I've been remiss about posting notes from this course, which is now on break till January. My only excuse is that my husband's busy season (annual society meetings and the holidays) has kept us from really sitting down for debriefing so I can get his notes to pass along here.

Two questions, however, came up recently in the Aslan's Country classes on The Silver Chair, and I thought I would post them here too to get your feedback.

How old was King Caspian X when he became a father? (How long did he and Ramandu's daughter have to wait to have children?)
How old was Prince Rilian when he was freed from the Underlands?

The students thought it odd that Caspian was so old while his son was still a virile young man when rescued. The apparent age gap puzzled them. What do you think?

Good questions. Rilian had been enchanted for ten years, and from the description I have always assumed he was about 20 when he disappeared - certainly not above his mid-twenties, surely - so that makes him 35 at most on his return. Caspian, by contrast is described as an "old, old man", "very old and frail ... as if a puff of wind could blow him away". I have always assumed he was in his eighties, although he could perhaps be as young as 70. Eustace believes it has been "about seventy years" since VDT. In VDT, Caspian is three years older than he was in PC, when he was about the same age as Peter. If we take Caspian to have been as old as 16 in PC (probably a maximum), that would make him 19 in VDT and 20, perhaps 21, by the time he returned to Narnia with his new queen. If he is as young as 70 in TSC, and Rilian is as old as 35, that means that there were at the very least fourteen years between Caspian's marriage and the birth of his only son, which is just about plausible, albeit unlikely.

Alternatively, if we take Caspian to be about 17 in VDT and 87 in TSC, with Rilian aged 30, that means Caspian and his wife waited nearly forty years. It also means that stars' daughters must be fertile for rather longer than the average human - but this makes it all the less plausible that they waited so long. Unless, like with Abraham and Sarah, Rilian was something of a miracle baby.

Peeps

Thanks Peeps for your thoughtful answer...

Of your two proposals I lean toward your first, since my husband and I had been married for fourteen years before our first was born.

However if he was the same age as Peter during PC, Caspian's age could be nailed down if we knew which exams Peter was prepping for at Professor Kirke's while Lucy and Edmund were at the Scrubbs' home. It looks like the modern English education system has big exams at the end of the Form 5 (level O exams at 15-16 years of age) or the advanced exams during Form 6 (ages 16-18). If we knew which exam he was studying for we could simply add +2 to Peter's age in VDT to get Caspian's (= minus one year for his PC age plus three Narnian years that had passed for Caspian).

Another consideration is perhaps Eustace was exaggerating how many years had past since he had last seen Caspian. Certainly losing a beloved wife so tragically and then losing one's only son and heir must have aged Caspian prematurely, not to mention all the grief caused by losing the finest champions of the land who disappeared in the search for Rilian. So he may have appeared as frail as someone 80+ years old while actually being younger. Just a speculation...

Actually, since Peter was prepping for "an exam" (rather than exams plural) and he was prepping during the summer, I think this was almost certainly a university entrance exam - which would make Peter 18 in VDT and Caspian 20. However, that makes them 17 in PC, which most people have thought was too old.

Peeps

Interesting... So Ben Barnes is not so miscast as some have thought. But then if Eustace is to be taken literally about the 70 years that would make Caspian 90 in Silver Chair

I have a hard time thinking Caspian could have become a first time father at the age of 60, though, and of course it would put Drinian way too old as well for Silver Chair, assuming he is older than Caspian in VDT. I can't imagine many 80+ seniors out riding with Prince Rilian to check out beautiful maidens in woodland glades!

Maybe this conundrum is one of the black holes of Lewis' series planning? Or maybe it is easiest to resolve by assuming the "70 years" was a stretch on Eustace's part...

I think it's a bit of both. He says "about 70 years", but perhaps it could be more like 55-60 years - if he's just estimating, or even exaggerating. But in any case, Caspian must have waited quite a while before Rilian was born.

Peeps

There is also the possibility that Eustace, being young, sees Caspian as "really old" in the way I used to see sixth graders as "really old" when I was in kindergarten. He may have then decided that "really old" was about 85-90, even if it wasn't in Caspian's case, and used that to get his about 70 years.
Possible? What do you think?

Yes, but from the description given of Caspian in ch 3, he can't plausibly have been less than 70, in my view.

There is also the fact that Caspian only had one son, which is also unusual - especially for royalty. A few posts back I suggested that Rilian could have been a miracle baby born in old age to barren parents, like Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. Although the book doesn't say anything about this, it is beginning to seem to me like the most plausible suggestion.

Peeps