Nzinga-Ain is a 20-something-year-old piano teacher. She graduated college in 2016, majoring in neuroscience. Surprisingly (to her and her parents) she did not go into the science or medical field but instead started to freelance jobs as she moved out to live in Chicago on her own. First a nanny, then a insurance advisor, then a nanny again and then teaching piano Nzinga uses her skills and flexibility to achieve what she wants in life… spontanuity and freedom!
Today she writes about her Favourite Childhood Book.
“Like trying to remember a fuzzy dream”, The Magician’s Nephew, by C. S. Lewis, has the quality of being halfway between the real and made-up worlds. Which makes sense -of course- as it involves two children finding their way to the Woods Between the Worlds… able to access other worlds by way of a frightful Uncle. As I reread this story recently I realised how many details and quirks are actually influenced from religion. But I don’t want to talk about the symmetry this book has, instead I want to talk about the individuality that the first Chronicle of Narnia brings to the world of childhood reading.
From the very start The Magician’s Nephew drops you into a place of complete imagination. Very little backstory is given about the girl and boy, Polly and Digory, because though this story is named for Digory, where would the story be without Polly? Playing on heroism and gallantry, adventures and discoveries are made because of one, single event: Polly disappears. Of course all of this would not be possible without the “experiments” of Digory’s Uncle (who is so self-centred I don’t feel giving him a name would help his general disposition). But then we would have to go back again and give credit to his ancestor who left him with the objects to destroy.
The theme of being unable to find a starting point is so emphasized in this book, from it’s dreamlike quality all the way to Aslan beginning his toils to bring Narnia to life... Even just arriving at the Woods Between the Worlds, it was almost impossible for Polly or Digory to remember how they got there or what came before. Getting to the Deplorable World they are dropped in the middle (or really what could be considered the end) of a world that was destroyed by corruption and greed. Dropped back into Polly and Digory’s “real world” we get a glimpse into the lives of the Uncle, Digory and Polly as the Witch takes them through London in attempts to overcome and put this fresh, thriving world under her rule.
The most interesting question of “where is our beginning” however is the question of what is the true beginning of Narnia?
**and C.S. Lewis makes us work for this information. We don’t get an answer in the first book of Narnia, where we would expect it. Instead we are made to wait till the end to figure out the beginning.**
Polly, Digory, the Uncle, the Witch and others had gotten there before Aslan you could say. The Witch even had planted what could be called the first “tree” of Narnia, the very first thing to take root and grow out of the ground being a lamppost. Aslan begins to fill his new world and make his new “people”. But this world seems to have been here all along. It was simply empty. These are the things that make The Magician’s Nephew (and The Chronicles of Narnia in general) so unique. The freshness of everything being made anew, is separate from any book I remember reading in my childhood. There was always a beginning, a middle and an end to stories. In fact, if there was not then the story was not considered complete by most standards. Reading this the first time was, in fact, the first time I remember thinking that perhaps everything was not always “this-or-that” but instead things can flow from cause and effect and you cannot always be sure of why something happened.
That is a huge discovery as a child... psychology shows that children are only able to see things from their own point of view up until a certain age. The genius of C. S. Lewis writing These Chronicles of Narnia that show you not only how to jump into something in the middle of it, but also that what you do affects others in ways you would not have considered, for children at an age where they’re discovering life from other people's view is, quite frankly, amazing.
Of course this book plays on morality, goodness, nobility and kind-heartedness, which is very important to see and read about as you grow up. But almost every book addresses these things with the thought of impressing morals onto children as they grow. The use of fantasy and creation while subtly pointing out biblical ideas and influencing children to piece together how all these actions happened from a single disappearance of a little girl, is understated.
I adore The Chronicles of Narnia, but particularly The Magician's Nephew, because of the attention to these details that C. S. Lewis put into making a children’s book that is both wildly fantastic but also very psychologically growth-inducing. And where would I be as someone who majored in psychology without love for those who take time to craft psych into their own work.
If you'd like to check out Nzinga, her social media will be listed down below.
Blog: http://nzingaain.com/
Twitter: @NzingaAinBlog
Facebook: Nzinga-Ain & Etc.
Instagram: @nzingaainblog
Pinterest: NzingaAinBlog