I've lately been reading this Narnia deconstruction

[conuly]

http://www.anamardoll.com/2011/02/narnia-narnia-deconstruction-index-post.html

She didn't finish the whole series, but that's all right. It got me thinking a bit. The whole "kid from our world goes to fantasy world and saves the day" trope is exceedingly common, which has to mean that in Narnia type worlds, the publishers are churning out books about kids coming to strange lands without magic and saving the day. That's got to be how it works :)

Comments

[the_rck]

Ana Mardoll's deconstructions have really changed how I view The Chronicles of Narnia. They're intellectually chewy, so to speak. I still love Narnia (I write fic for it occasionally), but I'm not thinking more deeply about its flaws.

If you're interested in discussion on Narnia, you might try here. It's a discussion that's kinder to the canon and to Lewis than Mardoll's critique, but it's still sporadically active, and you'd be welcome to introduce new topics.

[conuly]

I've had my issues with Narnia ever since I (belatedly) realized it was a big ol' Christian agenda. (Atheist kid, in an atheist household. This was so not on my radar.) I'd already picked up on the uncomfortable sexist and racial undertones, but I was able to file them under "everybody knows the past sucked".

[siderea]

which has to mean that in Narnia type worlds, the publishers are churning out books about kids coming to strange lands without magic and saving the day.

Sure! I understand there's one about a boy named Kal-El who travels to a strange magic-less place called Metropolis, where he uses his magic powers to save the day. :D

[conuly]

LOL, you win.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

That trope is a great premise: you get to describe all that wierd stuff in our terms, and the heroine usually gets to meet the rulers and observe their weird laws etc. For the Protagonist to Have Agency(tm), zie has to solve some big problem for that country.

But how many books actually use that trope? Oz, now Narnia, what else? Alice meets royalty but doesn't change the country much. Gulliver same.

Frodo solves a big problem in lands strange to him, and meets rulers. And his Shire is closr to our world than any of the other places. But I don't know of anyone labeling LOTR as a 'portal fantasy.'

[conuly]

So You Want to be a Wizard.

If we count bizarre time travel, then the Magic Treehouse books, but honestly, that opens up a whole new kettle of fish.

The end of The Shadow Speaker reveals it's going that way (kindasorta), which is interesting because that kinda makes Zahrah the Windseeker an example of the reverse.

The Never-Ending Story

The Castle in the Attic

Huh, this list is already longer than I expected.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Well... it's NOT a 'portal fantasy'. There's no portal, no time-travel - Frodo travels a long way from his quiet little backwater town, but although the lands he crosses are strange to him, they're still part of the world he was born in. And it's our world too - not a fantasy-realm like Narnia, not another planet or another dimension, but our own Earth; just a very long time ago.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

There's Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36492):

"We would be ruled by a magic lord," they said. (https://www.worldswithoutend.com/novel.asp?ID=1793)