Have the books had any influence in your life?

[Bree]

Can anyone else somehow attribute The Chronicles of Narnia to having an influence in how they live their lives?
I was five or six when I first discovered Narnia, the American animated movie version of LWW was on television and I remember lying on my bed sobbing my heart out after watching at the thought of what the Witch did to Aslan.
Although I read the books before, it wasn't until later on in my teenage years I became aware of the religious symbolism and because of the books began to feel the need for spirituality in my life. For a few years I played with different faiths until finding the right one - ironically it's not Christianity.
I was also lucky enough to be back home in the South Island of New Zealand visiting relatives when Prince Caspian was being filmed, and through 'knowing people who knew people' so to speak was lucky enough to see a day's filming - although at a distance! This experience gave me a desire to try acting, although I only did community theatre for a number of years - it has only been recently that I have done bigger projects.

Anyone else?

[The Rose-Tree Dryad]

Yes, definitely! I find that the impact that CoN has had on me and my life has snowballed over the years. (What a great idea for a thread!)

I first read MN and LWW when I was around eleven or so, and they honestly didn't make a huge impression on me at the time. I rather blame HarperCollins and their chronological publication order for this because I read The Magician's Nephew first and that really took a lot of the discovery and wonder away from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I already know all about Jadis and the lamp-post and Aslan! That kind of took the wind out of my sails with the series. Despite this, I do remember being moved by Aslan's death and resurrection.

My interest in the series was piqued again in 2005 when the LWW film came out, and I eventually ended up reading all of the books after that. I loved them and appreciated them so much more reading them as an older teen, in the proper order. I also found NarniaWeb forum after the first film came out, and that has been a fixture in my life, either as a lurker or a member, for over ten years now. This community has been a comfort to me through difficult times, even before I ever joined, and it has certainly changed and enriched my life.

I have also watched my faith as a Christian grow as my enchantment with CoN has increased. It always makes me think of the Aslan quote, "Every year you grow, you will find me bigger!" I'm always happening upon new layers of meaning in CoN when I reread the books through older and wiser eyes. It really brings to life the words "further up and further in"! C.S. Lewis's perspective and theology have been very helpful and enlightening in so many ways, and he has also introduced me to other influential writers such as George MacDonald, who has had and continues to have a great impact on me. (As he did for Lewis as well!)

I don't know exactly what my life would be like or who I would be without The Chronicles of Narnia, but I know for certain that I am a better, happier, and more fulfilled person because of them.

[Bree]

I don't know exactly what my life would be like or who I would be without The Chronicles of Narnia, but I know for certain that I am a better, happier, and more fulfilled person because of them.

Beautifully said, I bet many of us on this forum feel that way

[King_Erlian]

I first read the Narnia books when I was 6. The first one I read, oddly, was The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader; I can't remember the order I read the rest of them in at that time. But I read and re-read and re-re-read them countless times over the years. Brought up an agnostic, I didn't appreciate any of the Christian symbolism until I started going to church when I was 17.

As stories, they're among the best children's stories I've ever read and they still stand up to being enjoyed by the adult me. But there are elements in them that have helped me with my faith; Puddleglum's "I'll live like a Narnian" speech in particular, as well as Shasta's and Aravis' faith in a country they've never seen. One thing especially is that Lewis' vision of Heaven/New Narnia is much more appealing and exciting than the picture of Heaven I got from the evangelical church I used to go to, where we'd all be cookie-cutter spirits, dressed in identical shapeless white robes, chanting "Praise the Lord, hallelulah" mindlessly for ever and ever.

[wolfloversk]

Oh yes... They basically caused my love of fantasy. I am an animal lover so to imagine going somewhere where the animals can talk is like the best possible thing in my book. It's because of Narnia that I later gave LotR, Harry Potter, and Star Wars a try. And reading them has partially inspired me to write my own fantasy series (which is in progress, still unpublished).

It's also helped me learn some valuable Christian lessons that I might not have otherwise.

And it has basically had a domino effect on all kinds of things in my life

When I was reintroduced to LWW thanks to the movie coming out I read the whole series... when I found out they were making more movies I searched all over the internet for any news I could. This led me to NW, which I determined to be a fairly reliable source of news. Eventually, after gathering up the courage, I joined the forum right after the site switched over... my first foray into social media. From NW I became interested in MH which is how I landed on Facebook. Also NW linked to a Douglas Gresham interview on another site - at the time it was Middle Earth Network, they had an internet radio and podcast I occasionally listened to... this in turn led me to Lord of the Rings Online, which was my first venture into both Tolkien's universe and MMORPGs... I have since grown into quite the PC gamer Also as some of you know NW is where AstroWolfD and I first "met." We became fast friends, eventually met in person and are now engaged.

So yeah... my life would be very different if I had never read those books or watched the movies.

[fledge1]

The books have had a huge impact on my life. And as I get older the impact gets stronger or changes. All seven. I try to read each one every year. However I was first introduced to TLWW when I was very young. I had horrible dreams as a child. My oldest brother would read it to me until I fell asleep. When he finished the book he would just start over and keep reading until I would fall asleep. The thing that impacted me the most was how its ok to fear but dont let it consume you. In the book when Lucy first meets the faun, the original art work where they are walking in the woods for some reason brought me comfort. I actually have that picture tattooed on my arm. They all are amazing!.

[DiGoRyKiRkE]

Fledge1, I'd love to see that tatoo! You should post a picture of it so all of us can see it

[fledge1]

Fledge1, I'd love to see that tatoo! You should post a picture of it so all of us can see it

I am trying to get it posted but have it saved wrong on my phone it wont post...ill figure it out eventually. HA!

[narnia fan 7]

They've defiantly have had a influence on my life. I wouldn't spend so much time on this site if they hadn't.

When I was little I know what Narnia was because my older siblings had read the books and on occasion watched the BBC series. But for whatever reason I was never interested in Narnia until I was 9 years old and saw LWW in theaters. The idea of Narnia completely captured my imagination and over the next year I read all the books and found them even better. I had a hard time learning to reading when I was younger so I tended to avoid it, Narnia were the first books I remember actually wanting to read.

The storys themselves have had a big influence on me. The characters, themes, and idea's all really resonate with me. They also introduced me to Lewis' other works on theology, philosophy, and several other subjects have had an impact on the way I view the world.

[Mehinen]

It's so nice to see how other people, too, have been affected by Narnia!

My first contact with Narnia was as a small child. I didn't like it at all and thought what happened to Aslan was terrible. So, when I years later got the books, I didn't read them for a long time. One day, as I was around ten years old, I finally did read them. And there was no return after that. I was hooked. I would read them again and again, and think about them and their themes and places etc.

Two or three years later, when I knew the books through, I started to read them in English. I hadn't even studied yet the past tense in English lessons, but it didn't matter as I learnt it from reading. It seems that it is quite possible to read in different languages when you know exactly what it should say (apart from the translation mistakes). You could say that while I leant the basics of English at school, Narnia taught me at least as much. Because of it I started to understand how to use the different tenses, sentence structures and much more; basically how to use it. And then I found the Narniaweb.

Narniaweb helped me to learn to communicate in English, about other cultures, about giving and receiving feedback... And the positive comments about my art gave me confidence to continue drawing Narnian characters and develop my skills. All this in a remarkably safe environment on the web while discussing something very dear to me that I couldn't really share in real life for lack of people interested in Narnia.

In a nutshell, Narnia has been involved at least in developing my imagination, language skills, communication skills, some theological understanding and art. I would be a very different person without Narnia, and I am grateful to both Lewis and the fan community for making this possible.