There is a common saying that I have found to be generally true, the book is better than the movie. Occasionally, there is a movie that is better than the book. I have yet to experience one myself, but I am told there are a few out there. That being said, I do wonder why people cannot bother to read a few select books that are based on very popular movies.
I am writing in particular about The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia. I am astounded by the number of people who have repeatedly seen the movies based on these books and can quote them verbatim but have never read or so much as touched the books. They are, not surprisingly, people of my generation. Those of my parent's generation, really anyone born in the English-speaking world between about 1940 and 1980 grew up either reading The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia or having them read to them. Sometime shortly around the time I was born, however, there was a disconnect.
There have been many occasions when I have been in a discussion about these movies and I will mention something from the books. The person with whom I am conversing will stammer and said "Well...I never read the books." I don't know who is more embarrassed, me or them. I remember two occasions in particular. One we were discussing the most recent Narnia movie and I said "Yes I hope that they get a good Puddleglum for the next one. A decent Marsh-Wiggle will make or break the movie." After a strained pause and a nervous laugh the reply was "I never read the books." I sighed inwardly and hastily steered the conversation elsewhere. It seemed a safer option than tersely replying "Yeah, well maybe you should." and stalking away. The other occasion I remember we were discussing The Lord of the Rings, and somehow the back stories of the characters came up. I said something to the effect of :"Well yes, because Aragorn was a Numenorean." One of the people involved in the conversation replied rather jovially "Numa-numa-what? I never read the books." I counted to ten and ended the conversation soon after that. Again, these were people of my age. Somehow I get the feeling that people my parents age and older would have understood me.
Or is that true? I was going to say that it is because people of my generation want the world fed to them in 30-second sounds bites and have not the patience to read a large tome or series of books through. But then I remembered the Narnia and Middle-Earth of my generation. I am referring to the crap that is Twilight and the tripe that is Harry Potter. Yes! People my generation will read Harry Potter until the Crack of Doom and stand in line overnight to read the next Twilight novel before their friends do. The problem lies not in the media (for these two are movies as well) but in the content.
Ten years ago when I was an old teenager and Harry Potter had first come out, I remember the controversy among Christians whether or not they should let their children read it. The most common argument was "At least they are reading." What? That's the best you can do?! (Actually, if it is that hard to get your children to put down the video came console and read a book you have other problems.) Instead of that, they should have been saying to their children "That's a good story, but here is a better one." The crap that is Twilight and the tripe that is Harry Potter is just detailed and deep enough to be mildly interesting. I can give you a laundry list of stories that are so much more than that.
Enter the arguments that The Lord of the Rings is not a Christian story, Tolkien was a Catholic, I hate allegory, blah, blah, blah I have heard the same song and dance a hundred times. C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia are defenitely Christian stories, and not just for children although that is the target audience. Some of the more sweet and complex Christian themes in them I did not see until I was older, and their majesty and sublimity caused me to sink to my knees. And once we are grown, Lewis' Ransom Trilogy (I dislike calling it The Space Trilogy because it is so much more than science fiction) is like Narnia the Sequel, or Learning about Aslan in Our Own World. Even the protagonist is named Ransom for a reason. As for The Lord of the Rings, sure it's not a Christian story, JRRT never meant it to be. He says so himself in the preface when he goes into detail about allegory versus applicability. There are certainly applicable Christian themes. And while we are on the subject of themes, the themes of LOTR are much better than anything in Twilight or Harry Potter. Themes like good will always triumph over evil in the end; we do good things because they are right, not because people will like us or we will be rewarded; that above the reek and ruin of evil in the world exists a realm of light and glory that evil can never touch but only look at and gnaw on itself in repulsion; that one day the world will be remade and renewed and all that was ruined at the beginning will be healed.
So I ask you, is it really that much harder to read about those things than it is to read or watch movies about wizards in school or sparkly vampires?
Oh, and speaking of wizards, Gandalf would have never called anyone a Muggle.
