Don't be a Pinhead

[vovat]

bethje and I watched Bill O'Reilly on David Letterman last night. It was cool how Letterman totally called O'Reilly on the garbage he was going on about, eventually saying that he thought that 60% of what O'Reilly said was crap. Then, after that, we watched Hellraiser V: Inferno, Doug Bradley's least favorite movie in the series. I thought it was probably better than the third one. Beth also liked it better than the fourth, but I disagree. Anyway, Beth suggested that Bradley might have liked it the least because he wasn't in it very much. Pinhead's role in the film is quite minor. There's an interview with Bradley as an extra on the DVD, though, and he explains that Pinhead is more of a referee this time around, sort of like how he was back in the first one. I guess this makes sense. The third and fourth films present him as more of a traditional movie monster, trying to find as many victims as possible. That's not really how he was presented early on, and it's not how he is in Inferno. The movie was a departure from the other ones in many ways, which I suppose is good in a way, but it made it more difficult for me to get into it. I also found it somewhat disappointing that the plot was presented as a mystery, but didn't actually work out to be much of one. Maybe that's more appropriate for a Hellraiser movie, though. I don't know.

I've now finished re-reading The Magician's Nephew. I remembered liking this one. I tend to like origin stories in general, and I loved the idea of the Wood Between the Worlds. It's also a book where the story becomes much less exciting once the characters actually get to Narnia, which is unusual for the series. I did like the idea that anything that was planted in the newly-created land would grow into a tree of sorts.

The idea of the old world of Charn having a red sun suggests that C.S. Lewis might have been thinking of the life cycle of stars. It's believed that our own Sun will eventually become a red giant, but I don't think there will be any people around to see it. We never really find out whether Charn's world orbits its sun or has its sun orbit it (as is the case in Narnia), though. And speaking of celestial bodies, in Chapter Three, Digory "swears that he saw Jupiter quite close -- close enough to see its moon." I thought I remembered this as being "moons," plural, but maybe that's a false memory on my part. Galileo had discovered four of Jupiter's moons way back in the earlier seventeenth century, but Digory might not have been aware of this.

I'm somewhat curious about the period of Narnian history in between Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It's apparent that King Frank and Queen Helen are the world's Adam and Eve figures, and presumably all humans in the world are their descendants, at least up until the arrival of the Telmarines. Lewis avoids the idea of incest among Frank and Helen's children by saying that "[t]he boys married nymphs and the girls married wood-gods and river-gods." No such statement is made about the talking animals, who are chosen by Aslan in pairs. Lewis' own timeline says that it was a son of King Frank V who founded Archenland, even though Nephew says it was the second son of the FIRST King Frank. Regardless of which it was, though, the timeline goes on to say that it was refugees from Archeland who founded Calormen, which eventually would become the biggest country in the Narnian world. It strikes me as odd that Calormen would go on to have so many human inhabitants, while Narnia, where the human race was first introduced to the world, would become totally devoid of humans by the time of The Lion. Perhaps Jadis had something to do with this, though. We know that the Tree of Protection was eventually destroyed, allowing her to somehow overthrow the royal family and claim the throne herself.

My final observation on Nephew is how often the expression "No fear!" is used. Was this a common expression in England in the late nineteenth century (when the story takes place), the mid-twentieth century (when Lewis wrote it), or neither? No matter which is the case, I thought it was weird when people wore "no fear" T-shirts in the mid-nineties. It immediately made me think of this book.


And finally, I end this entry with a survey, which I took from countblastula.

What are your three (3) favorite songs of 2005:

1) Psychedelic Polka - Hypnotic Clambake
2) The Mariner's Revenge Song - The Decemberists
3) I Burn Today - Frank Black

What are your favorite movies of 2005:

1) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Favorite restaurant you dined at in 2005:

1) I don't know. The Olive Garden, maybe?

Favorite city visited in 2005:

1) New York, I guess

Did you get in any physical fights in 2005? Explain:

A) No, I can't say I did.

Favorite new person you met in 2005:

A) I can't think of anyone.

Worst injury sustained in 2005:

A) When I got water in my ear, and it led to my ear being infected for about a month

Biggest party day of 2005 you participated in:

A) I'm sorry. You must have me mixed up with someone who enjoys parties.

Most embarrassing thing that happened to you in 2005:

A) I'd rather not think about that kind of thing right now.

Most memorable event of 2005:

A) I don't know. What I'm probably going to remember best about 2005 is some of the concerts I attended.

What is your favorite music CD obtained in 2005:

A) Honeycomb - Frank Black

Longest distance traveled in 2005:

A) I don't know the number of miles, but it would definitely be when I visited Albuquerque.

Predict the biggest event to occur in the year 2006:

A) The price of gas will rise to a new high. Except that's not really much of an event, is it?

Predict three (3) people who will die in the year 2006:

1) Klotho
2) Lakhesis
3) Atropos

Comments

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

It's also a book where the story becomes much less exciting once the characters actually get to Narnia, which is unusual for the series.
True; but I've always been rather fond of the scene where Aslan and all the animals are all gathered together and they all keep laughing. You can feel the sense of joy. I like the fact that there is teasing going on among them, but it's good-natured teasing, and everyone is laughing WITH everyone else, even at themselves. It just seemed like a good place to be. But maybe it had something to do with WHEN I first read that book-- I'd just started college and had finally found a place where I fitted in, and I think I was drawing some parallels....