Obsession Isn't All Bad...

On April 10 I posted that I had just finished watching the movie Paprika. I have to admit that I am obsessed with it. I bought not only the movie, but the soundtrack. The majority of my musical diet has been a selection of songs from it. And most of those are variants of the same song. I find that I am always hearing either the “Parade” song or one of those which is a variant of “Meditational Field” in my head. I know how corny this sounds, but they make me happy to be alive, appreciative of the world around me. I’m one of those who likes to analyze films and books and such. So after a while I figured out why I enjoyed it so much. For me it carries within it the same message as The Chronicles of Narnia. It’s as if the songs in Paprika are playing the chords that I had said Narnia struck within me.

My friend Le Trix is also a Narnia fan. After discussing it with her, it seems she did not get the same message/philosophy as me. Neither of us is wrong, we just each got something different out of it. Which means it’s likely that my perception of what’s going in Paprika is not necessarily intended either. But so long as it makes sense to me and brings me comfort, that’s all that matters. Or so think I.

So, since it’s entirely possible that neither work is saying what I believe it to be, I will one day write a novel that presents these ideas in my own format. For I have been thinking about how to easily explain what I grok from those two very different tales. I’ve come up with a metaphor that does so, albeit in simplified form. Thus, I would want to expound upon it in a novel. But I’m not about to put it down in writing before that. ;)

*Note: Paprika is not for everyone. It's certainly not a kid's movie. It does contain nudity, but not gratuitously (believe me I wouldn't like it so much if it were) and it also has many disturbing images. So before you rush out to rent it, make sure you can handle the oddities of anime.

A Chronicle of a Regret

A literary regret of mine is not having read C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia as a child. I remember picking it up. I started with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the school library. Maybe because I knew it did not come first in the series, perhaps the language proved too thick for me at the time or I just didn’t click with it. I’m not sure. But it’s moot anyway, as I have read them many times since. I’m not going to gush about how much I enjoy them. But I will say that part of my regret is not having come across the philosophy of life, if you will, contained within The Last Battle. One that can only be fully grokked by experiencing the whole series. If I had been presented with these ideas as a child, I think I would be much better adjusted than I am now. I’m not suggesting that I’m maladjusted. I just know that its wisdom struck a chord with me and it would have been nice to have been hearing that music all this time. Before anyone attaches the Christian influence associated with the books let me say yes, allusions to spiritual icons and themes exist in the chronicles. Notice I did not specify. The philosophies I speak of are actually much more influenced by Eastern faiths. No matter what, the fact is it’s a grand adventure with much to say.

I must say that I am put off by the reordering of the books into a straight timeline. I prefer the published order. Here’s why: It’s my understanding that when Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe he did not realize more stories would arise. He discovered as he wrote. My feeling is that reading them “in order” decreases the enjoyment of that discovery process. For me it’s more fun to let stories unfold the way they did for the author. But, you probably could have guessed.