Chapter 10 The Magician's Book

[Pattertwigs Pal]

1. Do you agree with Lucy that it would be better to have one's back to a closed door than an open one?

2. Which spell would you be most tempted to say? Why? Some spells had some obvious negative outcomes. What negative effects might the spell you chose have?

3. Why does Lucy want to say the beauty spell?

4. What flaws in Lucy's character do we see in this chapter?

5. Why was Aslan invisible but Lucy and the other were not?

6. Aslan agrees with Lucy that she will never be able to forget what she heard Marjorie say. Do you think this means any kind of relationship is over between the two girls or will they be able to salvage some kind of friendship?

7. Lucy faces some fears in this chapter. Which fears do you sympathize with the most? Which don't bother you? Is there anything you wouldn't have been able to move past in the hallway?

8. What do we learn about the nature of bravery in this chapter?

9. How do Aslan's words to Lucy mirror those of God to biblical figures like David and Moses?

[Pattertwigs Pal]

1. Do you agree with Lucy that it would be better to have one's back to a closed door than an open one?
Yes, someone would have to open the door to get to you and that would be more audible than someone simply walking in. It would give at least a little advanced warning.

2. Which spell would you be most tempted to say? Why? Some spells had some obvious negative outcomes. What negative effects might the spell you chose have?
The spell about forgetting things. I’m not sure about the negative part of it. The thing I would choose to forget is an exhibit at a wax museum and I don’t think I’m likely to need that memory. Unless, it is to keep me from watching war movies but I think I would be able to figure out that would not be a good choice for me even without that experience.

3. Why does Lucy want to say the beauty spell?
She is jealous of Susan and wants to be prettier than Susan. She wants the attention Susan used to get and wants Susan to feel ignored like Lucy does.

4. What flaws in Lucy's character do we see in this chapter?
She is jealous. She must have doubts about her friends since she says the spell to hear what they think of her.

5. Why was Aslan invisible but Lucy and the other were not?
Aslan wrote the rules so he must follow them. Lucy and the others were not there when the spell was said so they are not affected by it. Who knows maybe Aslan was visiting when the spell was said?

6. Aslan agrees with Lucy that she will never be able to forget what she heard Marjorie say. Do you think this means any kind of relationship is over between the two girls or will they be able to salvage some kind of friendship?
I’d like to think Lucy makes the effort to remain friends with Marjorie. Lucy has a good heart and a forgiving nature. She is able to forgive Edmund for all he did to them in LWW. I know it is possible to remain friends with someone after a betrayal.

7. Lucy faces some fears in this chapter. Which fears do you sympathize with the most? Which don't bother you? Is there anything you wouldn't have been able to move past in the hallway?
I think I would react to the hallway, the symbols and wall hangings pretty much the same way Lucy did. I think I would have been able to move past everything but I don’t think I would have been happy about it.

8. What do we learn about the nature of bravery in this chapter?
Lucy is brave to go upstairs by herself but that doesn’t mean she isn’t afraid. Being brave can be making oneself do something one is afraid of.

9. How do Aslan's words to Lucy mirror those of God to biblical figures like David and Moses?
Well, God points out sins to biblical figures like David and Moses and Aslan does that for Lucy.

[aileth]

1. Do you agree with Lucy that it would be better to have one's back to a closed door than an open one?
Oh yes, to be sure. And how much worse when it won't close?

2. Which spell would you be most tempted to say? Why? Some spells had some obvious negative outcomes. What negative effects might the spell you chose have?
Of all the ones listed, I would love to have memorized the toothache spell. Pain is a blessing, however, and think how bad your teeth might get if they never hurt when there was a problem. Unless the spell removed cavities...

And then the poor farmers, if we could control the weather--today I want sun, so the crops scorch; tomorrow I desire rain, and the hay gets ruined.

The results of saying (or the narrow escape of not saying) the spells remind me of E. Nesbit's grumpy Psammead and the five children's misadventures. Yes, they got their wishes, but somehow it always turned sour on them; they hadn't thought out the consequences of what could happen. And invariably the negative ones outweighed the positive.

SHOW SPOILER Chapter 12

Even the first expectations of the D-T's crew at the Dark Island were glowing.

3. Why does Lucy want to say the beauty spell?
We know from the first chapter that Lucy "tried not to grudge Susan her luck" in going to America. She must have been a wee bit jealous of the attention Susan got. It doesn't seem as if she wanted to be beautiful for vanity's sake, but more to upstage her older sister. It was a pity that she couldn't see her own face when Aslan appeared; when he came, she forgot all such trivial things.

4. What flaws in Lucy's character do we see in this chapter?
That very curiosity which is such a positive quality in her also has its negative side. She was envious of Susan's popularity, and when thwarted of the beauty spell, she didn't resist the urge to spy on her friends. She knew she shouldn't (for both the spells, actually). I must say, though, that she did resist looking at the other pictures. Jolly good thing too. She might have had no friends left if she had looked at them all.

5. Why was Aslan invisible but Lucy and the others were not?
I agree with you, Twigs: perhaps Aslan was there when the invisibility spell was said? I can't think of anything else. I would have wondered if it only affected those of the Narnian world, thus excluding Lucy, Edmund and Eustace, but then Caspian didn't go invisible, so it can't be that.

6. Aslan agrees with Lucy that she will never be able to forget what she heard Marjorie say. Do you think this means any kind of relationship is over between the two girls or will they be able to salvage some kind of friendship?
Aslan seems to suggest that they can still be friends--he reminds her that Marjorie does love her, even if she is weak. Every time that Lucy sees her friend, she may remember the betrayal, but also Aslan's rebuke and her own fault. An uncomfortable friendship?

7. Lucy faces some fears in this chapter. Which fears do you sympathize with the most? Which don't bother you? Is there anything you wouldn't have been able to move past in the hallway?
The excessive quietness would get to me--I agree that it would be way worse if it was in the dark.

8. What do we learn about the nature of bravery in this chapter?
We generally accept that bravery is not the absence of fears, it is doing what must be done in spite of them. Lucy did the best thing possible with the bearded mirror--she stopped to investigate, thus dispelling the worst of her discomfort.

9. How do Aslan's words to Lucy mirror those of God to biblical figures like David and Moses?
Very direct, leaving no room to wiggle or make excuses.

[Princess Frances]

the beauty spell is what upsets me most about the movie version. It falls apart because Georgie Henley doesn't need it!

At least with BBC Lucy, you could believe that she might want a beauty spell. Movie Lucy, on the other hand, will have boys falling over her.

[waggawerewolf27]

1. Do you agree with Lucy that it would be better to have one's back to a closed door than an open one?

Yes, that way nobody could sneak up behind one, especially if the door squeaks.

2. Which spell would you be most tempted to say? Why? Some spells had some obvious negative outcomes. What negative effects might the spell you chose have?

The toothache spell might tempt me, but I don't really want to end up toothless just yet by magic, let alone by dentistry. I might also end up looking worse than beforehand.

3. Why does Lucy want to say the beauty spell?

It isn't just that Susan got to go to America that might cause Lucy to be a trifle jealous of her luck which would tempt her to say the spell. It might well be because people are often thoughtless about little girls, habitually calling one the "pretty one" as has been mentioned about Susan in the first chapter. Even though continuing Susan's education was probably a waste of time, given her disinterest in schoolwork, and that might come against her later on, adults at the time wouldn't bother about things like that, thinking she would only get married anyway. The trouble is, that Lucy, still a child, is already old enough by then to be in her teens and to be aware that up to then she has been at the wrong end of such comparisons.

the beauty spell is what upsets me most about the movie version. It falls apart because Georgie Henley doesn't need it!

At least with BBC Lucy, you could believe that she might want a beauty spell. Movie Lucy, on the other hand, will have boys falling over her.

I wouldn't be too upset about how the movie Lucy was represented compared with the BBC tv program, produced over a much shorter period of time than the five years from LWW and VDT. The point of the book episode, on which both productions were based, is not really to portray how Lucy was the ugly younger (step) sister, but to emphasize how much younger sisters, like Lucy, might feel diminished by invidious comparisons with an attractive older sister, who is in her mid teens and who has been continually been the centre of attention. Later on in this chapter of VDT, when Lucy sees Aslan, for a moment she is every bit as beautiful as her sister, spell or not.

4. What flaws in Lucy's character do we see in this chapter?

The mere fact she has been overlooked, or else compared with the older, more sophisticated Susan, has left Lucy prone to feel jealous of her older sister, even before Susan got to go to America. It hasn't helped that Susan tends to be bossy with her siblings, and to act more grown up than she has appeared so far in the books. Lucy tends as a consequence to be less confident and more insecure about how people feel about her.

5. Why was Aslan invisible but Lucy and the other were not?

That is a quality of being human, I suspect. Not having been created in that world, humans aren't bound by the laws in operation in Narnia's world. And also, Lucy and friends weren't in Narnia at the time the original spell was said, let alone on that particular island.

6. Aslan agrees with Lucy that she will never be able to forget what she heard Marjorie say. Do you think this means any kind of relationship is over between the two girls or will they be able to salvage some kind of friendship?

I don't think there need be any overt break in the friendship as Lucy isn't an unkind person, and Aslan has warned her of her friend's weakness. Marjorie isn't aware that Lucy knows about the conversation in the carriage with Adele Pennyfather, so it is purely up to Lucy whether her friendship continues with Marjorie or not. Lucy will be understandably more wary and distant with Marjorie, but will probably say nothing to disturb the status quo. The difficulty is if there is a falling-out, Lucy might say something that is only too accurate that will end any chance of any friendship continuing. The question is, what could Lucy do to get along better with Adele Pennyfather, until they all leave that school, anyway?

[Princess Frances]

Just curious... did Lewis run any of his scenes where he wrote girls past any of his lady friends?