The Chronicles of Narnia Book Summary

I just finished the chronicles of narnia by CS Lewis and I want to talk about why I read fiction as a business owner.

Because it’s fun. Because it’s inspiring. And it makes you a better storyteller. Which is what marketers are. Religious texts (arguably the most persuasive) are stories.

Fantasy writers (like CS Lewis) are a Ven diagram of painter, army general, copywriter, salesman, advertiser. You design the whole world: name lands, invent geography, warp time. World building is a massive variable. Whereas if you set the story in 1950s New York, everyone immediately has context.

Big stories turn into big businesses with movies, theme parks, merch, niche-podcasts, toys… There’s some multi-national consumer goods company in the US paying salaries to executives, putting kids through college, renting full office buildings… all because a toy lion Aslan from the chronicles of narnia sells hundreds of thousands of units a year.

For those of you less cool adults who don’t spend your free time reading children’s books, here’s some context. The chronicles of narnia was written by CS Lewis in the 1950’s-1960s. There are seven books in the series, each about 100-150 pages.  Collectively they make up the chronicles of narnia.

The most famous and beloved book is the lion the witch and the wardrobe. And…

It was my least favorite and I’m not click baiting you. It’s because it lacked novelty and adventure for me. I knew what was going to happen. Plus my expectations were too high. But with the six other books, I didn’t know where they were going and that was the whole thing.

In the final book “the last battle” narnia is destroyed (which you’ve fallen in love with), you enter heaven, but some characters don’t, and CS Lewis threads reasons why. Faith, believers, nonbelievers, and allegiance to different gods w/ the afterlife gets explained in like 10 pages of a children’s parable. It was insane and I reread the last chapters because it was so good. It’s wild this is a children’s book. CS Lewis takes on huge, existential topics, distills them down, so you read it and you’re like, “holy shit that was dope i see what you just did there.”

CS Lewis is a Christian, you feel heavy religious references throughout the book. A few weekends ago, there was a Wall Street journal article on the endurance of the chronicles of narnia and lord of the rings. The argument was they endure because they’re built on the Bible, centered around concepts people infinitely wrestle with.

By the way – CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien were friends who started a casual writers club – they’d meet at a pub and discuss stories. “If you could have dinner with anyone dead who would it be? “ Can you imagine how dope happy hour in an English pub with Lewis and Tolkien?

My favorite character in the chronicles of narnia is reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse. A true gentlemen.  The alpha male.

Reepicheep stole my heart. He takes no shit from no body. He challenges people to duels to settle disagreements. He bows to greet you. His default response is to glory through battle. Oh we’re surrounded by the enemy? Let’s rush them swords out right at their strongest point and win head on.

I close with a quote from reepicheep:

“If you are a foe we do not fear you. And if you are a friend – your enemies shall be taught the fear of us.“