Spencer Sims, Narnian Papers

Date: 12-6-14

When one looks at C.S. Lewis's writing style in the Narnia series it is plainly seen that he wants his audience involved. Often the reader finds themselves being directly addressed by the author, creating a experience of having a story told to you instead of you experiencing the narrative first hand. This doesn't demean the experience mind you I think it actually enhances the experience. If anything it is this story telling method that allows us to see the primary &secondary world meeting in myth. This inclusion of the audience in the narrative in mind creates a better transference of the truths C.S. Lewis attempts to reveal. C.S. Lewis reaches out to us when we need to feel sympathy to the characters to feel engaged, but when he relates them to you personally, as a story  teller could reach out to you physically for emphasis, he provides emphasis to these asides to grant you empathy with these characters. a deeper connection is established with the narrative and in doing so it mixes into your reality, in that the morals or the basis of these characters struggles are known within you.

When we shared our Narnian stories we shared in this connection of story teller to audience. It provided the vehicle for the truths we were trying to encompass in narrative to reach us fully. The noteworthy difference though is that we established this connection not in our writing per se, as C.S. Lewis has, we instead accomplished it through the placement of our story telling. In the darkness around the fire we were able to lose ourselves and become enthralled not by the person reading but by the narrative unfolding before us. Their presence as a story teller wasn't a performance but a vehicle giving the audience the true experience of the myth.