a disappointing movie

During my dad's last visit, we took the kids to go see the newly released Prince Caspian. I will say that visually, it was pretty stunning and impressive, but on the story level, I was deeply disappointed. I've spent the last few weeks turning over in my brain some reasons of why I feel like they so completely destroyed the story (because in the end I do think they destroyed Lewis' story) and I've come to a couple of conclusions.

For my first issue I'll pull from Lewis himself, from his essay "On Stories" (which is a wonderful read). He shares his extreme disappointment after seeing the movie version of a Rider Haggard novel. At the end of the book, the hero is trapped in a completely dark, silent underground tomb. At the end of the movie, the director "substituted a subterranean volcanic eruption, and then went one better by adding an earthquake." Lewis suggests that if Haggard's climax was not satisfactory for the movie, then the producer should have chosen a different story, and that substituting the wild excitement of one climax for the deathly stillness of the original is a cheat: "The one lays a hushing spell on the imagination; the other excites a rapid flutter of the nerves. In reading that chapter of the book curiosity or suspense about the escape of the heroes from their death-trap makes a very minor part of one's experience. The trap I remember for ever: how they got out I have long since forgotten." (emphasis mine) Ironically, I think that the makers of Prince Caspian have done much the same thing with this movie.

For whatever reason, Lewis' story was not deemed exciting enough for the big screen, so action sequences were added, motivations changed, and essentially the entire story was rewritten to satisfy... someone. I doubt it was Lewis' faithful readers. The producers did very similar things in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (think about that whole contrived confrontation between Peter and the Wolf on the ice of the river), but I think they went a few steps farther in Prince Caspian and created a new story.

As disappointed as I was with the plot changes, though, I think was distresses me the most is the destruction of the entire novel--the characters, the tone, the mood. For me, one of the defining elements of Prince Caspian has always been the clear-sightedness of all involved, the determination, the purposefulness behind the story and characters. All that is gone in the movie. Caspian escapes from his uncle, Trumpkin embarks on his quest, Peter plans his strategies, all in complete and total ignorance. Once the Pevensies arrive to help, conflict, tension, and lack of knowledge continues. Maybe it made the movie better, but somehow I'm not feeling it.

This has all struck closer to home with me as I've recently started reading Planet Narnia by Michael Ward. His thesis is that Lewis carefully crafted each book in the series to reflect one of the medieval planets (remember Lewis' field was medieval literature). Ward is presenting a pretty compelling case so far and what he has to say about Prince Caspian as a reflection of Mars makes complete sense, while at the same time, makes the movie presentation all the more tragic.

One of the key elements of the novel is militarism (after all, it's a war story), and Ward posits that Lewis is creating a story around the Martial virtue of chivalry, especially knightly chivalry: "Peter is the model knight.... This is that 'knightly behaviour, in which morality up to the highest self-sacrifice and manners down to the smallest gracefulness in etiquette were inextricably blended by the medieval ideal." I think the movie has stripped Peter and Caspian both of their knightliness, in addition to ripping out the anchor of purpose and direction from the story.

Prince Caspian is one of my favorite of the Narnia Chronicles. I was excited about the movies and hopeful that they would uphold the flavor and delight of the books. The changes to The Lion were not small, but not destructive enough to bother me. However, I think they really screwed up with Prince Caspian. I hope the next one is better.

spring dance recital

Our girls finished their first year of ballet with a nice little recital. They were quite proud of themselves and their loveliness. It was hard to say which was the bigger hit, the tutu or the tiara, although the tiara didn't come off all day, so maybe that answers that question.

I am the web person and current blogger for the studio, so many of the pictures I took during the show are on the studio's new blog. However, I thought it would be pushy to put my own lovelies up there, so if you want to see them, here you go:

my latest project

Remember, I am no web designer, but I was happy to be able to try to help the girls' ballet studio out with their website, which just launched this past weekend, along with the studio's annual Festival of Dance. There is a little gallery with pictures from this past year (taken by yours truly) and they have started a blog. There are pictures (also mine) from the show on the dancers' blog, with more to come, plus a link from the latest blog entry to a whole slew of pictures on our local paper's website (before you ask, no, no pictures of my girls on either site, but when I finish going through images I hope to have some for you here).

Anyway, a fun side project and hopefully some fun pictures.

happy father's day!

Happy Father's Day to two of my favorite men! (The third is pictured below and will hopefully not be on the receiving end of this holiday for many many years!) I just wanted to say that I love you both and am honored to be your wife, Andy, and your daughter, Dad. Here is the preview of your Father's Day presents; unfortunately I am just a little behind and the real deal is on its way. For now, enjoy this sneak peek:



Love, Robin

i took pictures of my own children.

I've been reprimanded more than once lately for taking lots and lots of pictures of other people's children and neglecting my own. Guilty as charged. Andy's sister and her hubby came down for a quick visit and since we were taking them to the beach, I forced my children into attractive clothing for a few minutes and took their pictures. Note: I do have one of them together from the front, but I like their backs and I'm saving that one for a special purpose anyway, so I'm sorry, you can't see it yet.





I also took advantage of the free time on the beach to play with my new fisheye lens, which can do crazy things to people, but is fascinating to play with. Here's some landscape type shots, which I don't normally get to take.

The fisheye is what's bending the horizon like that. If you don't know what a fisheye is, it's kind of hard to explain... it's the opposite of a telephoto lens, which gives you a very narrow (straight forward) field of view. A fisheye can give you such a wide field of view (which is why it's called a wide angle lens) that depending on the angle, the sensor, and other things, the photographer may have to be careful to keep his feet out of the picture. Mine isn't quite that wide, but it will give the typical fisheye distortion, which is evident in the above shot. If the horizon were in the middle of the picture you wouldn't notice the distortion as much (see below).

I couldn't believe how close I was able to get to this plant in order to get this picture. The fisheye still gave plenty of background but I was inches away from this flower. Did I mention that it's really fun to play with?
There were storms within hearing and sight distance but the sun managed to shine on us before we left for the evening. It was really beautiful.

habitat for hope looks to the future

Y'all, I just wanted to encourage to you read a recent article about Habitat for Hope and their hopes for the future. Please pray for their appeal next Thursday! This ministry is just awesome.

three cups of tea

Andy and I just finished reading this book called Three Cups of Tea, which is about ex-climber Greg Mortenson, who, after a failed attempt to climb K2 in the 90s, was inspired to do what he could to build schools for children (especially girls) in rural Pakistan. All I can say is that this book was both inspiring and humbling; you should read it. If your library doesn't have it, then buy it; it's absolutely worth $9. Or more.

Although the author explains that Mortenson grew up the son of missionaries, he implies that Mortenson's faith is kind of nebulous--at least, I came away from the book not knowing for sure whether or not he is a Christian. However, the book is so packed full of "coincidences" that it is obvious that God is at work in this man's mission. The first step on Mortenson's path was when he got lost on the descent from K2, lost his porter, and ended up Korphe, a Pakistani village so small and remote that it wasn't on any maps, and, although he had traveled to the area several times for climbing, he had never heard of it either. After a night's sleep, he asked to see the village's school, only to discover that the children met in an open field above the village. They shared a teacher with another village; on the days the teacher was not there, they practiced their facts by scratching with sticks in the dirt. Mortenson was shattered. His attempt to summit K2 had been taken on in order to honor the memory of his sister. Having failed that, having seen these children, he vowed to honor her memory instead by building them a school.

So began a process full of optimism, false starts, danger, sweat, and tears. At the time of publication of Three Cups, Mortenson's nonprofit, The Central Asia Institute, had built 53 schools in rural Pakistan and was beginning to look towards Afghanistan.

I don't want this to get really long, but I'd like to say that I believe that we as Christians could learn a lot from Mortenson's work. What came across over and over again is that the CAI is fighting the "war on terror" simply by providing education. Mortenson watched radical Islam build schools as well: schools which taught extremism over mathematics. Mortenson's schools offer knowledge over ignorance, and through his persistence, he, an American, has gained love and respect in a region where that is hard won.

Anyway, read this book. It is thrilling, humbling, and heartening all at once.