I’m reading The Voyage of the Dawn Treader out loud to my daughter.
Granted, she’s nearly 17 and could read the book on her own. But she’s nice enough to humor me. She knows that C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia stories are among my all-time faves, and that I’ll miss her when she goes off to college in the next couple of years. So for the last few days, whenever she’s been around and I’ve had the voice, we’ve parked ourselves on the family couch, flipped on the fireplace (ah, modern technology) and plunged into a world filled with talking mice and sheepish dragons and lots and lots of water.
One of the great things about Lewis’ Narnia stories is that they’re built to share. Which is perhaps one reason why the makers of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have created a template for churches to put on their own “Narnia Night.”
The Narnia Night concept is, simply, this: Interested church-going folk gather ’round and learn something about C.S. Lewis (through a downloadable multi-part documentary), hear from Jim Burgen of Flatirons Church on how to “undragon” your life, and get a peek behind the scenes of the new film. Then they’ll head out to see the movie (if they haven’t already done so).
So, sure, the concept isn’t completely altruistic. But it does tap into one of the most important concepts behind entertainment, be it book or movie or television show: This stuff is better if you can talk about it, and share it, and enjoy it with one another.
Media, whether it’s good or bad, can sometimes feel rather isolationist. We read books quietly by ourselves. We watch movies in darkened rooms, barely looking at the folks around us. And it makes sense. It’s supposed to be immersive: We’re supposed to forget about the outside world for a bit.
But at the same time, we enjoy this stuff more when we enjoy it in community (something Eustace himself learns aboard the Dawn Treader). That community helps us process and, sometimes, helps us grow a bit. Dawn Treader, both the book and the film, offers plenty of opportunity for dialogue and growth. And, outside of that, it can give a dad an excuse to spend time with his teenage daughter. And really, what’s better than that?
(Photo credit: 20th Century Fox/Walden Media)
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