The Book Illustrations (Nitpicks)

Sir Cabbage

Sir Cabbage

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On the whole, the illustrations in all books, although lovely, I have nevertheless noticed little things that don't quite follow what C.S. Lewis is writing. Also some varying sizing of some of the characters against others and what not.

I'm probably being extremely picky and transition between author and illustrator aren't always the best, but it's interesting to notice all the same.
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Some things to spring to mind:
In The Last Battle, the illustration that introduces us to the Cat (amongst other animals listening to the stupid Ape), has him a few rows behind the other animals. Perhaps it is just any old cat, but the sneaky look on his face suggests to me, it is this cat that is being referred to. But then Lewis writes something like 'the cat was sat at the front', of which he is not.

In The Magician's Nephew, the image with the two children and the witch rushing out of Charn, the with could be only normal kind of human height against the children, despite supposed to be 7 foot?

There's many more I've noticed... any anyone else noticed that bothers? Or is it just picky ol' me. :p
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The main thing I wanted to get out from the thread is my confusion with one or two LWW images: Why is Aslan randomly shown standing on two feet, arms behind his back as he speaks to the witch?

Anatomically, it is difficult to fathom a lion build suddenly becoming like human, and I suppose one answer might be that as the power that he is, he is able to shift form just like that. But he never seems to do this again.

What do others think?

Apologies if a similar thread has cropped up before... I didn't see any recent. :)
 
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Sir Cabbage said:
The main thing I wanted to get out from the thread is my confusion with one or two LWW images: Why is Aslan randomly shown standing on two feet, arms behind his back as he speaks to the witch?

Anatomically, it is difficult to fathom a lion build suddenly becoming like human, and I suppose one answer might be that as the power that he is, he is able to shift form just like that. But he never seems to do this again.

What do others think?

Apologies if a similar thread has cropped up before... I didn't see any recent. :)
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Ugh. I really dislike that picture of Aslan with the humanoid body. For a while before the movie came out I was afraid they'd make him two-legged.

I always imagined Aslan walking on all four paws. I think the book has him on all fours as well.
 
For the most part - and maybe he learnt to keep him more lionlike after LWW - Aslan is on all fours.

There are about two places in LWW where the way Lewis writes suggests he has some ability with his arms; further than a real lion could do. One of the things was the wording for when he knighted Peter. Well how did he do that properly with his paws? A sword hilt in his mouth would have been very clumsy.

From niggles I have with some other areas, I kind of get the feeling Lewis didn't always think everything through to the best.
 
LOL! I had noticed the picture of Aslan walking on hind legs with front paws behind his back. It makes him look like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, either the movie or the cheezy 80's tv show. In general I like Bynes' illustrations but every once in a while they don't quite sync with the book. In my paperback books, they are just line drawings. Does anyone have the illustrations bigger and colored? That would be cool.
 
I've always hated the Aslan on two legs illustration too. I think there are some others that used to annoy me too, but I forget them at the moment - I'll have a look later and see if I can remember.

Further to Sir Cabbage's point, in PC Aslan throws Trumpkin in the air and catches him with his paws as well.

Peeps
 
For the most part I love the illustrations, but there are a few that bother me. Here's a small selection:

TMN:
Ch 5, the picture of the door that Jadis 'blasts' doesn't match the description in the text, which (I think) implies it is several times as tall as a person and that there are many bars across it, although the picture shows it only about ten feet tall with three bars.

Ch 7, the picture of Jadis riding the cab as a chariot shows the interior of the cab is empty, but we later find out that Uncle Andrew was in it when it crashed.

LWW:
Ch 1, the picture of the wardrobe room has the shadows of the children as if they were standing at the door looking in, as the text implies, but it also has another door leading into more rooms, which doesn't seem to fit what the text implies.

Ch 7, when they arrive at the Beavers' house, from the outside the house looks barely big enough to fit one beaver, never mind all four children as well, but on the inside it looks pretty spacious.

Peeps
 
Illustrations

I find the Narnia book illustrations quite charming on the whole, and yet they seem to vary quite substantially in the way of quality. Perhaps it's the level of reproduction I'm used to, but some of the illustrations lack detail - whereas others are simply beautiful ie/ the faun and Lucy walking through the forest in 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe' is an amazing image.

It seems apt to mention this also - there are some reproduction prints currently being sold on ebay, which are probably fan made, but are quite beautiful - having been colorized and mounted. It may be worth a look.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300409527073&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300409530492&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT
 
When Aslan knighted Peter, he accidentally cut his head off with the sword and miraculously resurrected him, but the actual events were sanitized for the English translation. Really, folks, unless you've read it in the original Greek, you haven't really read it. :p
 
Do you know nothing, Badger? The Greek text is itself a translation of a reworked version of at least four original sources in much more ancient languages. The poetry of the P-source is quite beautiful, but very difficult to understand or to translate! :rolleyes:

Peeps
 
EveningStar said:
When Aslan knighted Peter, he accidentally cut his head off with the sword and miraculously resurrected him, but the actual events were sanitized for the English translation. Really, folks, unless you've read it in the original Greek, you haven't really read it. :p
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That made me chuckle a little. :p
 
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