I’m so into the Audrapedia. I have one on pre-order on amazon. I’m still debating on whether to get the one with the Universe GPS-enabled version, though.
~Shooter Out
Little bit about shields.
In europe, the common types were Target (round with a boss in the middle. Think Vikings) Heater (what we think of as ‘shield shaped’ these days) and Kite (a long, inverse teardrop.) Target gives the best opportunity to use offensively while Kite provides the best defence, especially against missiles. Heater is a compromise. (There are other varieties as well, such as the Roman shield, but they weren’t common in the past millennia.)
The Buckler was a small Target shield that was designed for (a) ease of carry, and (b) limited to hand-to-hand combat. It was next to useless against missiles (although the Scottish variety was reputed to be able to withstand early gunfire,) but it was designed for more day-to-day sorts of activity where that wasn’t expected to be an issue. I believe it was surplanted by the dirk, but I’m not positive on that point (as it were.)
I’m so glad that I got to listen to the Narnia arc, it really brings back how I felt the first time I read the books. I remember my teacher reading TLTWATW to me when I was in the third grade, and I went on to read the rest of the series on my own.
The story really captured my imagination. I used to open my closet door, push on the back wall, and imagine that I could find a way to Narnia.
Prince Caspian holds a special place in my heart because when I was in the fourth grade (I think) I was on the playground, digging in the sand, when I uncovered a book. The cover and some of the pages were torn and the whole thing was water-stained. It was a copy of Prince Caspian. I remember thinking, “Wow! Buried treasure, real buried treasure!” because I’ve been an avid reader since I was four. I took the book into the school bathroom, cleaned off the pages, and took it home. I still have it to this day.
The movie was really different from the book and I’m not sure that all the changes were good, but I still enjoyed it. There were two things I really loved. The first was how the movie did an incredible job showing how the children struggled after coming back to the “real” world—especially Peter. I’m don’t think that was really highlighted in the text. But how would someone deal with being a king or queen in one land and then suddenly a child in the next? It would be hard enough being an ordinary adult stuffed into a kid’s body. The second thing was seeing Edward come into his own. He was so isolated from his siblings in the first movie but in the second he’s truly their rock
I’m behind the times, but as I’m listening through this podcast, a few things that caught my attention:
I have to agree with Audra on the gender inequality problems inherent in “Mars needs Moms.” It makes me wince…
On maps and pedagogy: I definitely use map and spatial reasoning activities in my language classes (they’re a great way to let students practice with speech that is common in everyday life (ahem directions) as well as to appeal to different types of learners)
Susan in Narnia – female sexuality as not well done in CS Lewis (I agree). What bothers me most about it (though her functional expulsion always rubbed me the wrong way) was the double standard with Peter and Susan, and what it says about the way Lewis viewed boys growing into men vs. girls growing into women. That said, I haven’t read the books since I was a child.
Suffering/Knowledge/God: I wouldn’t go with Job as an example in this case (though I do think it could apply), but rather with 1 Corinthians 13, particularly verses 11-13:
11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
I always understood this in the Narnian context in the light of the verse from Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians, “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” One does not necessarily have to see to believe (if we remember doubting Thomas…), and there is also, I believe, and implication that only God is all-knowing, thus we as humanity necessarily see only partially what actually Is, what is actually True. Lewis does something interesting, though, when he makes God literally present as represented by Aslan. I can understand people being frustrated that an omnipotent figure is present in the story and still allows suffering (see: theodicy), but I do not think that Lewis’s text means to explore that idea, but rather to show, as you guys discussed in the first Narnia podcast, the value of a system of morality based in Christianity.
Audra, worry not about jailbait, Ben Barnes (who played Prince Caspian) was born in 1981.
Also of interest from IMDB:
Said that he based his Prince Caspian accent on that of Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride because the night before auditions, he was sorting through his DVD collection trying to find something to help him.
With regards to the use of sixteenth century Conquistador outfits in Prince Caspian (hello, Cortés!). Given the Black Legend, no wonder we’re supposed to see them as bad guys 
[And yes the Spanish accents threw me off]
All of Europe had a lot more contact with Morocco and the rest of North Africa than we generally are taught. What is referred to as Al-Andalus, that is, Moorish Spain, existed from the invasion from North Africa beginning in 711 and ending with the fall of Granada in 1492. That said, parts of Spain were never conquered by the Moors and they were the base for what Audra was referring to, the Reconquista, which basically started in 711 (I know!) and coincidentally was “completed” in 1492 (not related to Colón, though) with the fall of the last Muslim city-state in Spain (Granada). For many and various reasons Spain over the course of the next century (and as it built up its overseas empire) insisted on religious homogeneity, culminating in the forced conversion or exile of religious minorities in the peninsula (generally Jews and Moors). Also: hello, Inquisition! Despite the forced conversions and the thought that everyone was therefore “Christian,” however, there were systemic benefits for Old Christians, that is, families who could prove they had no morisco (Muslim) or marrano (Jewish) heritage (not to mention the complications that developed with the establishment of Protestantism in parts of Europe). There’s much more I could say about this, but I’ll stop. 
TL;DR: “eradicated” is a general term.
In general, I would encourage people to remember the Mediterranean trade routes and wars! Europe was not nearly as ‘isolated’ as is generally portrayed during what we refer to as the medieval and early modern periods. It might be of interest to learn more about Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote: he served the Spanish military in Italy and was captured by Algerian pirates, having spent time as their captive. A number of his works feature quite interesting portrayals of the Moors (the framing tactic of the great novel itself involves supposed translations from Arabic).
Recommended further reading (also known as a perusal of some of my bookshelves):
[ul]
[li]Richard Fletcher, Moorish Spain. (2001)
[/li][li]Medieval Iberia, an encyclopedia. (2003)
[/li][li]Maria Rosa Menocal, Ornament of the World (2002)
[/li][li]Teofilo Ruiz, Spanish Society, 1400-1600 (2001)
[/li][li]JH Elliot, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716
[/li][/ul]
With regards to accents (again) If Caspian and his father are modeled on different European ruling groups, having the same accent or even speaking the same language is not necessarily true! Though I suppose the surprise is that Caspian and his father speak the same language as their subjects, in that case.
All I have to say is Damn Casilda, that is some real good insight…Good read 
Regarding the whole mythos of the west - I take it that is where the whole ’ Wicked witch of the west’ comes from.
I’ve never read TLTWATW before, and its only now that I found a copy (I took it from my childhood home as my mum had brought it home from school). So at the same time that I’m reading it to my son (17 months). I’m reading it for the first time.
I still say that while Edmund wasn’t that great, he did have some valid points in that
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Just because the robin is historically good, how can you trust them enough to follow
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He was just unlucky that he met the white queen first, how would it have turned out the other way around.
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The bit that I’ve just got to is the whole fleeing from the beaver cave, talk about stereotypical view…We’re fleeing for our lives and Mrs Beaver is wondering whether to take the sewing machine and other household stuff (because she doesn’t want another woman to touch it). shakes head…You can really see the views.
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Back to edmund, I still think he has a point in that how do you know that the side you are on is the right side
Anyway…I’ve loaned the horse and his boy from the library so I’ll be reading that next.
Sorry I am so far behind, but NaNoWrimo put me way behind. As to Mazes and Monsters…
This made for TV movie did what most do, they rode the shirttails of a recent news event and quickly threw together a movie to make use of the hype around the event. A kid had committed suicide because his high level D&D character that he had been building up for years had been killed off in a game. Schools were banning the game from campuses, and Churches were joining in on the ban because they believed it drove children into witchcraft (I am serious, you cant make this shit up…).
And yet if you pay attention to the movie, it has far more in common with LARPing than it does with tabletop gaming. I remember this hysteria well because I lived through it. I was a young and up and coming DM when this backlash hit, gaming stores were picketed, and parents were forbidding their children from playing the game.
When some of the teens at my local church learned I was a DM they wanted to play a game and roll up some characters, of the 12 kids interested only 2 were allowed to play. One day we were playing at their house and the Father asked me over dinner about, “What do you think about parents who think that this game can lead to delving into witchcraft?” I smiled and told him, “I think they are ignorant.” He was shocked that I was so blunt, and I used the pause to explain, “I mean ignorant because they are condemning a game without even looking into it or how it is played. You have seen some of the game-play, do you see your kids waving their hands in the air and uttering incantations?” He shook his head, I perked up, “Well there you go.” He grimaced a bit and then asked, “But what about that kid who committed suicide?” I shrugged, “He was obviously disturbed, and his life was out of balance. If he had not committed suicide about that, it would have been about something else. People who become that obsessed about something will glom onto anything and ride it all the way down, destroying themselves and hurting their friends along the way.”
He seemed pleased with my answer and never gave me any grief after that, and never hovered around us anymore either. We had much freer and more fun games once the parents let us be. And no one ever committed suicide or delved into the black arts…
Sorry for the late response to this, but I’ve fallen behind a few weeks on the podcast and am just getting caught up.
There are two separate issues with Peter, and especially, Susan at play here. The first is why they are not allowed to return to Narnia post-Caspian. The explanation is quite simple, as Aslan himself explains to Lucy and Edmund when they are told that they will not be allowed to return themselves.
Notice, that Lucy identifies the real reason for the childrens’ love of Narnia. It isn’t the country or the people and beasts, it’s Aslan himself (though the other aspects of Narnia are important, Aslan is the most important reason why they want to return). And look at Aslan’s response when Edmund asks if Aslan in present in their world, too. “I am,” said Aslan. “But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This is the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there” (emphasis mine).
Two things immediately strike me about Aslan’s response. Note his reply to Edmund’s question is “I am”. This hearkens back to God’s response to Moses when he asks God who he should tell the Israelites sent him to save them from Egypt. “Tell them I am sent you.” The phrase “I am” becomes very significant throughout the New Testament as Jesus uses it many times about himself.
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
“I am the light of the world.”
“Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
By using the “I am” construct, Jesus was telling those who heard him that he was equating himself with God the Father, i.e., his son. It would not surprise me in the least to find that Lewis was leaving a very large hint as to the identity of Aslan both for Lucy and Edmund, but also for his readers.
The second key statement in Aslan’s response is the bit I italicized. Lucy, Edmund, and by extension, Peter, Susan, Jill, and Eustace were all brought to Narnia so that they could experience Aslan and to be prepared to know him even better back in their world. Being told that they cannot return to Narnia is basically Aslan telling them that they’ve gained all they can from Narnia and they must now return to the “real” world to further their relationship with Aslan there by learning about Aslan’s other identity.
The other thing I wanted to address was Susan’s absence in The Last Battle. Susan wasn’t absent because of nylons, makeup, or boys. Those things were really just side effects of the true problem.
As Edmund points out, Susan either no longer remembers the actual events of Narnia, or she is denying remembering them and instead tells everyone that it was a game the four (or 6) played when they were young. In her haste to “grow up” Susan put aside all else to conform to and maintain the image she thought the world wanted to see. To put it another way, she lost her faith in Aslan. But, that wasn’t the end for Susan. Lewis, in responding to a child’s letter said “The books don’t tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there’s plenty of time for her to mend and perhaps she will get to Aslan’s country in the end… in her own way.” So the possibility exists that Susan may have put aside her false grown-up ways and remembered Aslan and Narnia for what they really were.
If you are interested, I found an awesome LiveJournal entry that covers the topic of Susan in even greater depth.
Omra: Good story about the Mazes and Monsters phenomenon. I faced some of the same thing when I was in elementary school. Our “gifted” instructor scolded me for playing D&D and told me that her church taught her that dragons were a symbol for the devil. I stopped going to “gifted” class shortly after that.
As for the suicide, my wife always reminds me that mental illness plays a significant role in most suicides, but most people who speculate about why somebody took their own life rarely consider that the victim was suffering from a diagnosable mental illness such as chronic depression or bipolar disorder. At least that father listened to logic even though his son’s friend had to educate him.