Narnia the Third and An Abundance of Katherines

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

To begin - I saw the Narnia movie as part of my good friend, Jake,'s birthday. As the film opened, I had to quickly immerse myself in the world, there is no pause or introduction. (Inception had a more gradual opening, and that is saying a lot!). The characters of Edmund and Lucy as their England incarnations is rapidly pieced together. Edmund has reached the restless stage that Peter exhibited in the last film - he is a king of Narnia, and is seen as a child in our world. Lucy is more reservedly wistful for Narnia - She feels self-conscious of Susan's overshadowing of her as the beauty in the family.

Eustace is given a better introduction, and becomes the most compelling character for me to observe in the film. Ben Barnes' Caspian is decent, but appears more as a one-sided "Courteous boy scout," than an full blooded character. Reepicheep the talking mouse is chivalrous and dashing as ever in this movie.

It bothers me though - While this third installation is a throughly entertaining movie, it is but a "dim reflection in a mirror," as C.S. Lewis was fond of quoting. (I Cor. 13:12) The book written by Lewis was a beautiful and full bodied story, of which the film places emphasis's out of proportion. It is not unlike a beautiful watercolor portrait, which a modern artist longs to improve upon using PhotoShop to bring out a more relevant and eye-catching work. The film's altered plot-lines only tangle and trip up the thrust of the tale. It is a modern journey to the past, with occasional highlights, and a surprisingly strong conclusion.

“Many a good beginning makes a bad ending. It remains to be seen how he turns out in the long run.” (Farmer Boy 213). This film exemplified this maxim, the other way 'round. Weak beginning, Strong finish, gives me hope as to Silver Chair.

"An Abundance of Katherine's," By John Green

Yea, I might be a masochist for pain, as Bridges put it when he described editing to my Journalistic class in college. This is the third book that I have read by the beloved VlogBrother from Youtube. However, this is arguably the best one that I have read so far - "Looking for Alaska"was deep and melancholy, "Will Grayson. Will Grayson" was too lighthearted on a controversial target, but "An Abundance of Katherine's" strikes an intriguing balance between the two. Colin Singleton is a child Prodigy (different than genius: Prodigies learn things others do in an accelerated manner; geniuses piece together information into innovative new processes and branches of knowledge. i.e. Prodigies absorb knowledge; geniuses create new knowledge.). Colin has an unusual streak - ever since his first relationship at six, he has had 19 relationships with girls named Katherine, always the same name, and been dumped by all of them. (the first one - "Wanna be my boyfriend?"-Katherine I; "Okay"- Colin; [lasted two and a half minutes] "We have to break up..."-Katherine I). Colin's problem is his extreme insecurity, he wants to do something: to live up to the potential that everyone knows he is capable of accomplishing. His best friend, a chunky Arab-American named Hassan, convinces Colin that they need to go on a Road Trip to forget Katherine XIX.

The duo end up in the small town of Gutshot, Tennessee. Hollis, the local factory owner in the one-horse town, offers a job to Colin, whom she recognizes from a Brainy game show she watched. He and Hassan are to interview the town's inhabitants on the history of Gutshot, a sort of local heritage project. Hollis' daughter, Lindsey Lee Wells, is assigned to accompany these outsiders on their interviews. Lindsey is beloved of the town's older generation, for her constant smile and her cheery personality. She confesses to Colin that she feels fake, that her life is an act put up in a desperate attempt to be different. Colin is socially inept - his intellect and pattern recognition fail to account for the spontaneity of the human race. Lindsey trusts him as a confidant because he has no one to tell of her secret struggle. Together, Colin, with his brain, and Lindsey, with her understanding of human nature, attempt to create a Theorem for relationships. This equation would map out the potential length and passion of a relationship, including which sex would "dump"the other person.

I liked this book, because I relate to Colin's cluelessness to a degree. He is trying to figure out "Why am I in a perennial 'Dumpee' position with Katherine's?" He is so insecure and interesting to me as a character. His habit throughout the book is anagramming any word or phrase within his environment. This odd knack for rearranging letters affords him constant fascination and amusement by using chaos to impose a new order or meaning.

What really creeped me out though was at the end of the work, in an author's note, John Green disclosed that his 11th grade calculus teacher was a Mr. Lantrip. The coincidence was startling to me for the reason that my last name of "Lantrip" is relatively unusual. Considering that I just learned calculus this semester, and that a distant relative might have taught one of my favorite vloggers makes for an interesting possible 'six degrees of separation...'

John Green lives downtown

Indianapolis home?

Eight John Green's (phone list...)