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Chronicles of Narnia Trailer

Ant writes "After United States' broadcast debut of the "Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" trailer on Saturday, May 7th during ABC's network premiere of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", Ain't It Cool News posted AOL's link to the QuickTime movie (direct link to download the 56 MB high quality trailer file)." Fix yourself some turkish delight and enjoy.

85 of 619 comments (clear)

  1. Another crappy Disney movie by esconsult1 · · Score: 2
    Here's hoping they don't destroy C.S. Lewis's excellent series of books.

    Here's disney's formula

    • annoying animal sidekick
    • fast paced animation
    • slapstick humor
    • no matter how historical the theme, bring it up to date with some uncalled for topical humor
    Sigh...

    1. Re:Another crappy Disney movie by solios · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, I read "Disney" and groaned. But I watched the trailer and didn't catch Eddie Murphy or Gilbert Gottfried anywhere and Narnia certainly isn't musical fodder, so... it looks more like they're trying to cash in on the current LotR frenzy. Box office has proven people want Big Epic Fantasy, and despite the overt religious themes, Narnia is exactly that. It's Big, it's Epic, and it's Fantasy. In a lot of cases (at least in my home skool district), it was the first fantasy novel(s) read by many, many children. I was reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader while I was still building Construx forts for my Star Wars action figures. Hopefully Narnia makes a decent transition to the big screen, but from the trailer it looks like they're focusing on everything they think made LotR a huge success (eg battle, battle, battle - gods that shit bores the hell out of me. Has since The Phantom Menace).

      I never got around to reading LotR - I was completely turned off by all the singing and poetry in The Hobbit and figured there'd be more of it in the trilogy... and I found Sci-Fi to be a hell of a lot more interesting (at least until the rack at Barnes and Nobel started to look more like a bad collection of Heavy Metal cover art)...

      If they don't screw it up, they can easily cash in on film adaptations of the rest of the series - there's quite a lot of material to work with.

    2. Re:Another crappy Disney movie by yotto · · Score: 2, Insightful

      *I never got around to reading LotR - I was completely turned off by all the singing and poetry in The Hobbit and figured there'd be more of it in the trilogy.*

      Try this: Don't read the poetry/songs. I skipped right over them and never missed 'em.

    3. Re:Another crappy Disney movie by sirwnstn · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think we Chronicle's fans can have some hope. Disney only is a co-funder of it. Walden Media is funding and distributing it. Also, Lewis's step-son is supposedly making sure that the movie stays true to the book. Check out this website and the FAQ.

      I can't wait to see this movie!!!

  2. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by -kertrats- · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's a SFF book. Nerds like SFF, haven't you heard?

    --
    The Braying and Neighing of Barnyard Animals Follows.
  3. Christian propaganda...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Anybody else get a little creeped out by the possibility that alot of what CS Lewis was doing with his fantasy writings was really Christian propaganda? I know this sounds terribly like a troll, but it's honestly not meant that way.

    I originally liked the stories as a kid, but then I read The Screwtape Letters, and while I thought it was a neat exercise in combining Christian morality with fiction (the story is about one devil advising another devil on how to corrupt a soul), I also got the vague feeling that CS Lewis was out to manipulate the readers. Then THAT got me thinking that maybe he might be trying to do that with a lot more than just TSL...

    Anyways, just wondering.

    1. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And The Lord Of The Rings isn't antimodernist propaganda? A book is going to reflect the author's beliefs in some way unless it's very superficial.

      LOTR is subtle where Narnia is obvious, but both advocate their author's views on life, because that is what literature does.

    2. Re:Christian propaganda...? by benjcurry · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but...who cares? I loved the stories as a child, and I turned out fine, you as;eklh;lkh fwe!2';wetjkokp[12'WTEGkrekl;ioh124j! 'wer['lgjk;;u

    3. Re:Christian propaganda...? by brokeninside · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Screwtape Letters was supposed to be a morality tale. If it disturbed you because it was trying to get across a fairly orthodox Christian point, that's because it was. Lewis wrote a few other `fictional' books with the same idea such as The Great Divorce. That said, I don't think it fair to saying that he was trying to manipulate his readers. It isn't his fault that most readers today aren't cognizant of the original context that The Screwtape Letters originally appeared in. His target audience was fully aware of what he was doing.

      But neither The Chronicles of Narnia or his space trilogy was written for that purpose. The Chronicles were originally conceived as bedtime stories for his nieces and nephews that eventually poured themselves out into a series of novels. His space trilogy came out as his attempt to get into that new fangled new literary genre.

    4. Re:Christian propaganda...? by maczealot · · Score: 5, Informative

      EVERYTHING C.S. Lewis wrote was about his Christian beliefs. If you didn't realize that then I'd approach whatever school you went to and ask for my money/time back. Again, do a simple google search and you will find that both Lewis and Tolkien wanted to create stories to teach Christian principles to readers through fun stories. The mark of an educated mind is the ability to hold and idea without accepting it. So do you ALSO complain when you read the Illiad or the Odyssey because Homer was *GASP* really writing propaganda for greek religious beliefs!! SAY IT AIN'T SO! Why is that Christianity is the only religion it is still ok to hate?

    5. Re:Christian propaganda...? by henrywood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, but let's face it every book can be looked upon as some sort of propganda. If an author doesn't set out to manipulate you in some way, even if it's just to manipulate your emotions, then his work probably isn't worth reading.

      Are "Animal Farm" or "1984" any less valid because they are anti-communist propaganda (no my US friends, that isn't meant as flame bait!)?

      --
      Something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you, Mr Jones.
    6. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Trillan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, not really. I don't believe in censoring those willing to bear the social and monetary cost of bringing a story to life. (Piggybacking on someone else's infrastructure and budget is another matter entirely.)

      For example, were I offended by the passionately atheist, I might view Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as atheist propaganda. Although I'm not sure the movie maintains the book's stance, the book was very hard line against religion.

      There's certainly room enough in my philosophy for both stories, and room enough on the video store shelves for both movies.

    7. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Jonathunder · · Score: 4, Informative

      The possibility? He'd call it apologetics, not propaganda, but it's more than a possibility that nearly all of his fiction promotes Christianity; it's no secret at all.

      Some of his most Christian books are so well written, though, that some serious doubters like myself can really enjoy them, particularly Narnia, but also Screwtape. I would really recommend Till We Have Faces, which unfortionately is often overlooked. Lewis thought it was his best novel, and I agree. Interestingly, it is set in a pre-Christian world.

    8. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Jerf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Along with the other comments you've recieved to date, I'd like to ask you something: I believe that when a person criticizes someone for something, they should have a plausible alternative in mind. Otherwise they are just whining.

      What is the plausible alternative for C. S. Lewis? Authors write things that are true to themselves, be it Christian, Pagan, Materialist, or what not. Any author who tries to be inauthentic to themselves generally turns out garbage; even if you can't put your finger on why, you'll not like it. A lot of young writers make this mistake, by trying to be someone else, instead of themselves.

      Was he supposed to write non-Christian stories? But that's not who he was. And it's hardly like the Chronicles of Narnia are blatent propoganda; instead, it's simply that they are set into a Christian framework. I've read things set into Buddhist frameworks, oodles of things in strict materialist frameworks, things set in a Victorian framework, various philosophies, etc. Do you blame any of those authors for their frameworks?

      Was he supposed to not write stories, because they bother you?

      When it gets down to it, at the level you're talking about, every story "pushes" some worldview at you. Why is it you're only bothered by this one?

      The most likely reason is that you don't realize that you're getting many other ones pushed at you, all the time, and you've only been sensitized to this one. In that case, the problem lies with you, not CS Lewis, and you're probably getting yourself nicely manipulated by other people without even noticing it. Everyone has a worldview that colors everything they do and everything they right. (In fact, Christian writings seem one of the best places to pick that up, regardless of how you feel about the rest of them; see Lewis' non-fiction writing and the works of Francis Schaeffer.)

    9. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Henry+V+.009 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      As an atheist, I can't stand talk from people about hating all religions. It shows lack of discernment. Some religions are far worse than others. Christianity, though it has its bad points, is one of the better religions. It is, after all, inseperable from Western life and culture.

    10. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Maul · · Score: 2, Informative

      It is well known that Lewis put obvious Christian allegories into the Narnia books. He didn't try to hide the fact.

      I fail to see how this manipulates the reader.

      --

      "You spoony bard!" -Tellah

    11. Re:Christian propaganda...? by MythMoth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That said, I don't think it fair to saying that he was trying to manipulate his readers

      I think that's an important point. Lewis was writing at a time when being a Christian was the norm. His books were written to put across Christian morality, not Christianity in and of itself.

      I remember being upset when I found out that the Narnia books were about Christianity; I felt tricked. But really the parallels are so blatent that there's no way he was trying to sneak anything past anyone. It was just his inspiration for the stories.

      As for Screwtape, well, it's a story written as letters from a senior to a junior devil - if you can't spot the possibility of a Christian message there, then you can't really blame the author!

      --
      --- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
    12. Re:Christian propaganda...? by JanneM · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why is that Christianity is the only religion it is still ok to hate?

      Huh? Like many agnostics and atheists I dislike all religion. Christianity certainly doesn't have any particular prominence in that respect.

      What does raise my hackles more than other is prozelysation, though. This of ocurse includes some Christian evangelcal sects and writers, but I am just as annoyed by prozelytising Hindu and Islamic sects as well. Hint: if I'm interested I promise to come over to your church/synagogue/temple/kiva/bloodstained sacrificial altar and discuss it, but knocking on my door, pushing leaflets in my hand or harassing me on the town is making me less - not more - likely to have a kind thought about what you believe in.

      Converesly, among religions the one I dislike the least is Buddhism and especially quiet, contemplative variations of it. It tends to be philosophy as much as religion (no father figure in sight), and they never bother you unless you actively want to be bothered.

      So no, Christianity is not special at all when it comes to general dislike. If you are Christian, though, you are of course a lot more attuned to criticism towards it than other religions (and more like ly to see it at all) and so it's of course easy to get the impression that it is singled out in some manner.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    13. Re:Christian propaganda...? by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Informative
      Anybody else get a little creeped out by the possibility that alot of what CS Lewis was doing with his fantasy writings was really Christian propaganda?

      I actually discovered CS Lewis/Narnia through my pastor as a teenager. He made no bones about it being a very christian-based story.

      Regardless of it's intentions, it's a great story. I'm sure I would have eventually discovered it later on, but I always thought it was kind of cool that a pastor would know of a novel that was christian, yet borrowed so heavily from pagan cultures for the basis of their characters.

    14. Re:Christian propaganda...? by UpLateDrinkingCoffee · · Score: 5, Informative
      Could it be because C.S. lewis was one of the greatest apologetic Christian writers of modern times? He was also an atheist in his early life and accepted the Christian faith based on logic and reason (with the influence of J.R.R. Tolkien I understand). Yes, for more dissapointment, Tolkien heavily used Christian themes throughout his stories also, although they were more heavily veiled than in the works of Lewis.

      Here are his works catergorized as "Christian" in a faq I found:

      • The Problem of Pain - 1940
      • The Screwtape Letters - 1942
      • Mere Christianity - (Probably his most famous)
      • The Abolition of Man - 1943
      • Miracles - 1947
      • Reflections on the Psalms - 1958
      • The Four Loves - 1960
      • Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer - 1964
      • Devotional letters to an imaginary friend
      • Christian Reunion
      • Christian Reflections
      • Fern Seed and Elephants
      • First and Second Things
      • God in the Dock
      • Of This and Other Worlds
      • Present Concerns
      • Screwtape Proposes a Toast
      • Timeless at Heart

      P.S. "Apologetic" does not mean making an apology for. In this context it means making a formal justification or defense.

    15. Re:Christian propaganda...? by toastgoddess · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What creeps me isn't that it's Christian propaganda. What creeps me is that it's inaccurate Christian propaganda.

      Lewis is quite clear that Aslan the Lion is Christ in another form - at one point Aslan tells the children that they have been allowed to know him in Narnia so that they will know him in their own world.

      But Aslan isn't the Christ of Lewis's church (the Church of England); it's his own creation, meting out punishment on whoever Lewis doesn't like. Look at the way the books pour out contempt on Eustace because he's a pacifist, contrasting him with Reepicheep the swashbuckling mouse, who takes insult at every little thing and, well, "lives by the sword." Somewhat the opposite of what Jesus taught, as I recall. Aslan hasn't come to offer everyone in Narnia hope if they'll accept it. He's come to reward the people Lewis likes and punish the people he doesn't.

      I don't want to get into the NT's views of women, but Lewis is worse - Aslan is killed by a woman; one girl is literally damned - excluded from heaven - because her teenaged interest in "nylons and boys" has somehow caused her to forget her time in Narnia; a classroom of "dumpy, prim little girls with fat legs" is unworthy of Aslan's company.

      From a theological standpoint, perhaps the most egregious scene is the end of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where Aslan gives the boys swords (and has the girl cut a switch) to beat up their schoolmates. John Goldthwaite wrote of this sequence "I cannot imagine a betrayal of one's faith more complete than this last picture of Christ at the playground, putting weapons into the hands of children."

      (For a more complete treatment of this subject, I recommend Goldthwaite's The Natural History of Make-Believe.)

    16. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Elsewhere in the mid-20th Century, "being a Christian" was not the norm. Being Hindu in most of India, Buddhist in Tibet, Shinto in Japan, Muslim in Arabia was normal. And every one of those religions has its stories of devils plotting to subvert souls. And, like Christianity at Oxford, each of those religions has its writers, whose writing is constructed within their beliefs, whether overtly or otherwise. And readers who think their particular religion is "the" normal one.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    17. Re:Christian propaganda...? by feronti · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oddly enough, when I first heard of the Narnia's ties to Christianity, I felt foolish for not noticing it before. I also found them even more interesting, because of how well written the allegory was. It wasn't so much that it was subtle (it's not) but that the story works well even if you are ignorant of the allegory! That is what I found most impressive about them.

    18. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Paul+Jakma · · Score: 2, Informative

      Are "Animal Farm" or "1984" any less valid because they are anti-communist propaganda (no my US friends, that isn't meant as flame bait!)?

      Note that Orwell hated fascism as much as he did communism. Indeed, Orwell fought in the spanish Civil war on the side of the socialists and communists against Franco. He was a socialist, but one disillusioned with communism (socialism and communism in the twenties and thirties being seen as close to the same thing). "Animal Farm" obviously being a parody (not propaganda) of how the socialist/communist "utopia" can become as oppresive and dictatorial as the hated Bourgeois and (later) Fascist regimes it sought to replace and/or competed against.

      --
      I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
    19. Re:Christian propaganda...? by MythMoth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did his novels get a lot of coverage in India, Tibet, Japan, or "Arabia" ? I think not. So for his audience it was the norm.

      --
      --- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
    20. Re:Christian propaganda...? by EpsCylonB · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some religions are far worse than others. Christianity, though it has its bad points, is one of the better religions. It is, after all, inseperable from Western life and culture.

      Are you kidding ?, look at the crusades if want evidence of the misery and suffering brought about by christianity.

      I hate all religions, I agree that some are historically "worse" than others but at the end of the day they are all clubs that will always struggle to co-exist. The worst religions IMHO are fundamental islam and catholicism.

      Islam is quite easy to explain but it is not just about violence. Recently during the British election I heard an interview with a muslim who described himself as moderate, he urged all muslims not to vote because all the laws to be obeyed are set down in the Quoran and therefore voting is useless and insulting to Islam.

      Cathlocism is just as bad but in different ways, the historical abuse of young children, most of it psychological and the tacit condoning of peadophilia represent the two biggest problems.

      If religions were harmless then they wouldn't bother me but they are just a form of tribalism and control.

    21. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Seumas · · Score: 2, Informative

      Why is that Christianity is the only religion it is still ok to hate?

      What do you mean? Plenty of Christians hate every other religion. And non-religions for that matter. In fact, they have a lock on that market. People don't hate wiccans (unless you're a christian or something), because they've never seen a wiccan going around trying to prostelitize, hypocritically lecturing them on morality or trying to push around legislation or school agendas to meet their religious points of view.

      "Hating" smaller religions would be silly. The two biggest religions in the world happen to be the two most hypocritical, hateful, spiteful and violent. Christianity is one of those two.

    22. Re:Christian propaganda...? by GuinevereTheWhitePha · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yes, there is a quite lot of theology and Christian symbolism in the Narnia books. Aslan=Christ, etc. I don't have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is the attitude toward women in these books. Read them carefully and you will see that the female characters divide into 3 types: physically immature girls who are generally regarded as good, adult women who are all evil witches, and adult women who are either dead or bed-ridden with illness, i.e, powerless. You will not find a single healthy adult women in charge of her own destiny regarded as good. When Susan matured and stop being a girl and became interested, in the words of the book, "stockings and parties", i.e., sex, she stopped believing in Narnia. Therefore, in the mythology of the books, she is denied the kingdom of heaven. That's a pretty big penalty just for getting interested in boys! As I child I enjoyed the books, but now I find them reprehensible in their treatment of women.

    23. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Snocone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      look at the crusades if want evidence of the misery and suffering brought about by christianity.

      Hmmm? The Crusades were a defense of territory historically owned by the Roman Empire peacefully for over a thousand years against its invasion and subjugation by Islamic hordes conquering and plundering their way out of Arabia.

      If you think that an empire defending its territory against invasion is "brought about by christianity" ... you need to learn a little more history there, friend.

    24. Re:Christian propaganda...? by wrf3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Judaism is not a proselytizing religion and never has been.

      That's not true. Judaism used to be a proselytizing religion. By some estimates, up to 10% of the Roman Empire was Jewish and much of that through conversion.

      Judaism stopped being a proselytizing religion after Christianity begin.

    25. Re:Christian propaganda...? by wrf3 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Because Christianity is the religion most likely to judge and condemn people?

      Let's be clear, shall we? Christianity judges all people and says that all are condemned -- gay or straight, rich or poor, or whatever else. Because all are equally condemned, all are offered the free gift of salvation through Jesus.

      It's common for people to hate something that they think singles them out, but that's hating something without first truly understanding it.

    26. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Txiasaeia · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not exactly. Christians believe that Jesus came to free us from the legalism of the Torah; no more sacrifices, no more strict adherence to Levitical dietary laws, etc. Messianic Judaism (which is what you're describing, I believe) is Judaism that believes that Jesus was the Messiah prophesised in the Hebrew Scriptures. Obviously there's still no more sacrifice (as the temple's the only place where it can happen, and the temple hasn't been in Jerusalem for two thousand years), but Messianic Judaism and Christianity are still two different... sects? Religions?

      --
      Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
    27. Re:Christian propaganda...? by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      When you're around others, how long do you let them go on having fun before you go on and ruin it by slipping into dramatic diatribes and hidden meanings?

      He told the kids to use the flat side of the sword so they didn't hurt anyone. And Lewis hadn't yet experienced the feminist movement to know that whenever you write stories for toastgoddess, you have to give "male" responsibilites like war to a few token female characters. And Lewis wasn't attacking women being interested in fashion and men, he was using it as an example for trading ones spirituality for materialism. You know, this world for the next.

      Sorry to come down so hard, but I think you're being just a little bit uptight.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
    28. Re:Christian propaganda...? by Snocone · · Score: 4, Informative

      What empire, Rome had fallen long before.

      The Byzantine Empire was what the part with historical claims to the region was called at the time. The Crusades came into being because the Byzantine Emperor called for help against the Seljuk Turks' depredations, and he had nothing to call with except an appeal to shared Christian heritage against the Muslim invasions.

      Come on dude, this is _trivial_ to look up. If you seriously don't know what the Byzantine Empire is and how the invasion of it is what caused the Crusades, you really should go away and shut up until you have enough basic knowledge to form an opinion that isn't an utter waste of our time.

    29. Re:Christian propaganda...? by NMerriam · · Score: 4, Informative

      This is bullshit, period. Buddhism doesn't "require" anything, except taking a hands off approach to everything in the hopes that things will turn out just fine.

      Wow, even more from some Christian speaking on a religion they know nothing about! What a surprise. Do you get all your comparative religion information from the back of cereal boxes?

      Buddhism requires right action, it requires that you live every moment of your life aware that every action you commit, every choice you make, reflects on you and either brings you closer to or further from enlightenment. That is, in many ways, similar to Christianity (in that, if you TRULY believe in God, you would treat others as creations of God, and you would live each day to bring yourself closer to his will through right action).

      The difference being, no matter how contrite he is, no matter how TRULY regretful and sorry he is for the evils he causes, a Buddhist will not reach enlightenment until such time as he has actually balanced out his bad acts.

      I have no doubt that the genuine deathbed conversion of a Christian would be a painful experience -- TRULY understanding and comprehending the magnitude of how you have offended the Lord would be horrific. Accepting His mercy at still forgiving you, even after your offenses, would be an amazing experience, humbling and painful. But it wouldn't do a hell of a lot of good for all the poor souls you have harmed, and the world will still be left with plenty of pain from your acts.

      A Buddhist understands that if he commits an evil against another -- be he man or beast, or even the world itself -- then he will have to atone for it. Not in regret, not in personal suffering, but in action. He will have to MAKE UP FOR the evil he causes, be it in this lifetime or the next.

      What it sounds like you're saying is that you can never, not even on your death bed, change your mind. From your point of view, you can't reach "enlightenment" unless you're a perfect individual your whole life. Well, since no one is perfect, I guess you're screwed.

      No, on your death bed you can't "change your mind". If you hurt people, changing your mind doesn't unhurt them. If you poison the water, changing your mind and being contrite doesn't purify it, no matter how much you mean it.

      Enlightenment doesn't require perfection, it requires recognizing that your actions affect the world and the lives around you, and for the pains you cause you must cause an equal amount of healing. You can be as truly regretful and sorry as you want, but until you get off your ass and do some good in the world, you're going to be stuck.

      --
      Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
    30. Re:Christian propaganda...? by child_of_mercy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      to the cultural atheists of the world anyone who believes in the resurrection is a "fundamentalist"

      beyond that, anyone who modifies their behaviour due to religious teaching is a "fundamentalist"

      --
      'There is a Light that never goes out.'
    31. Re:Christian propaganda...? by kbahey · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The Crusades were a defense of territory historically owned by the Roman Empire peacefully for over a thousand years against its invasion and subjugation by Islamic hordes conquering and plundering their way out of Arabia.

      If you think that an empire defending its territory against invasion is "brought about by christianity" ... you need to learn a little more history there, friend.

      Oh my, oh my! For someone to write such historically inaccurate stuff is one thing, and for it to get +5 Insightful is totally another. I was going to waste a mod point on this at first, but thought that this better gets a proper response.

      You really need to read more history, and not just watch a movie.

      First the Roman Empire as you refer to it had ceased to exist before Islam existed. The successive Barbarian invasions, and many other factors caused the Roman Empire to disintegrate. Nor was the Roman occupation of the lands in The Levant ever peaceful. Go and read about the successive revolts by the Jews against Rome from the time of Jesus, to the siege of Masada, to the destruction of the temple by Titus in 70 C.E. Rome as colonial and as imperialistic as any empire, old or new. So much for the "peacefully" part of your claim.

      Second, the Roman Empire did not "own" the areas there. They encroached on territory that was owned by others successively (Jebusite, Canaanites, Philistines, Hebrews, Seleucids).

      Read Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire sometime. It is available for free on the net in several places.

      You could not be talking about Byzantium, because the Crusades originated in the Western half of what used to be the Roman Empire, and not in Byzantium. Even if you are, they were as much hated in the area as the original Romans. The Egyptians hated them so much that they helped the Arab armies against the Byzantines. Jerusalem hand over was done by the Patriarch/Bishop to Omar, the Muslim Caliph, without much of a skirmish.

      Did you ever ask why it took the European Christians four centuries before they remembered to take Jerusalem back?

      Did you read about Pope Urban II Council of Clairmont in 1095, and how his fiery sermons played among the nobles and lay people alike? Did you know that he asked the Christians of the time to turn the swords against Muslims, instead of their infighting? Did you know he mentioned "land flowing with milk and honey"? Did you know that a common sentiment at the time was that the recapture of Jerusalem (1099) was necessary for Christ's second coming? (Sounds familiar today with Left Behind series, and other Christian Zionist movements?). Initially, his sermon was about helping fellow Christians (Constantinople) against the Turks. Over the years, his message was morphed by chronicles, after hindsight, to recapturing Jerusalem as a religious duty.

      There is no doubt that the Crusades were fuelled by Christian sentiment to a large extent, and that they were spearheaded by the church authorities at the time.

      There is also no doubt that the Crusaders . Read how Christian chronicles glorified the massacre of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and relished the bloodshed, even after people took sanctuaries in synagogues and mosques. Read about it on Halsall's collection of Medieval sources at Fordham.

      I don't know if your view is colored by the Kingdom of Heaven movie by Ridley Scott or what. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I have an upcoming article on the Crusades in the works. Perhaps I will see the movie sooner now.

    32. Re:Christian propaganda...? by kbahey · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You shouldn't be ashamed of it.

      It was not you who did it. You did not participate in it, nor were you supporting it in anyway.

      It was another generation, another time. The motives were not solely religious, although religion played a big role, at least to motivate the masses to act.

    33. Re:Christian propaganda...? by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm going to pick up your response, though I found the anonymous post to be rather harsh.

      A Buddhist understands that if he commits an evil against another -- be he man or beast, or even the world itself -- then he will have to atone for it. Not in regret, not in personal suffering, but in action. He will have to MAKE UP FOR the evil he causes, be it in this lifetime or the next.

      This is where Buddhism and Christianity are in exact opposition: Christians don't get what they deserve, because Jesus got what heh didn't deserve. Mankind cannot "balance" the good out with the bad because we are so much more bad than good. That sounds crazy to non-believers but it's just a perspective problem. If you only look at man all your life, the average man seems like a decent enough chap. If you look at God for once, and his act for love shown on the cross, you see a different story.

      If karmic law were true, I'd "deserve" to be burning in very hot fire right now, because, like all other men, I was made for something better than my pitiful selfishness. I was made to show compassion.

      Enlightenment doesn't require perfection, it requires recognizing that your actions affect the world and the lives around you, and for the pains you cause you must cause an equal amount of healing.

      I think the notion of enlightenment itself is a reasonable goal for this life, but for a Christian it should be understood that, in the next life, we shall acheive something better.

      It is important to always remember that it is because of God, not us, that we can get the strength to show this kind of love. I mean the kind of love that is hard to show. Not just dropping a few nickels in the hobo's bucket. Like, giving a year of your life to feeding the hungry in a desperate part of the world. Like forgiving your spouse for infidelity.

      You can be as truly regretful and sorry as you want, but until you get off your ass and do some good in the world, you're going to be stuck.

      Faith without works is dead. We're just not saved by our works.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  4. Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recipe) by licamell · · Score: 5, Informative

    I remembered being in grade school and watching the movie and craving to try Turkish Delight. Well we had a "party" one time in class and one of the teachers brought it in. It was disgusting! So much for childhood dreams... As you can see, it's mainly just water, sugar and corn starch (corn flour).

    Anyways, here's a link to the recipe for those that are interested.

    Ingredients:
    1lt (1¾ Pints) Water
    900g (2lb) Sugar
    285g (10oz) Corn Flour
    225g (8oz) Icing Sugar
    1½ tbsp Rosewater
    2 tsp Lemon Juice
    Red Food Colouring (optional)

  5. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by stealth.c · · Score: 4, Insightful

    [some] Nerds like Tolkien. Tolkien and Lewis were part of the same gang of lit nerds in Oxford. Therefore Lewis is [somewhat] similar to Tolkien. Therefore Lewis has [some] nerd interest.

    Anyway, it's a news item about a new fantasy flick. I think that's nerdular enough. I was glad to see the article.

  6. Mac? by Tharkban · · Score: 3, Informative

    We're sorry, this feature is not yet available for Macintosh.

    You'd think they could figure out it's a linux box not a mac. I guess they just assume since it's not windows it must be a mac.

    I'm also sick and tired of browsing through javascript trying to figure out exactly what the link to the actual file is that doesn't plugin correctly. Mplayer deals with the file fine, but the page won't tell me what the URL of the stream is.

    Anyone have a torrent up?

    --
    Tharkban (It is a signature after all)
  7. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by garethw · · Score: 3, Informative

    Mods: How on earth can a question be "informative"?

    --
    garethw
  8. Re:First book? by Trillan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I actually feel cheated by this. I really looked forward to reading the Chronicles to my own children one day. I guess I'll still be able to, but they'll probably see the movie somewhere first and the magic will be gone from the words.

  9. More reading: by stealth.c · · Score: 4, Informative

    Fans of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia should also look for the work of the other authors that were in the same writing group at Oxford with those two. My favorite is G.K. Chesterton, but there is also Charles Williams and Dorothy Sayers.

    1. Re:More reading: by LarsWestergren · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A popular modern fantasy series primarily directed at children but with appeal for adults as well is Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials.

      Surprisingly negative portrayal of organised religion, especially Catholisism, in the third book, and I say this despite being an atheist. Still, a breath of fresh air from the religious stuff in Lewis work.

      --

      Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die

  10. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by MythMoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, that was Arthur C. Clarke, you idiot.

    C.S.Lewis did write some "science fiction", but it was horribly inaccurate in all sorts of details, and like most of his writings it was a religious tract dressed up as a story.

    Now that worked brilliantly with the Narnia stories, but in his science fiction (That Hideous Strength) it did not.

    Incidentally, while I'm not even remotely religious, I think that his best writing was The Screwtape Letters. They're entertaining and they show his deep understanding of human nature.

    --
    --- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
  11. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by jskiff · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought it was Arthur C. Clark who had the idea for geo-stationary satellites...hence the "Clark Belt."

    --
    It's "no one," not "noone." Who the hell is noone anyway?
  12. Re:Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recip by DarkSarin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Traditionally (AFAIK), Turkish Delight comes with both red and green shapes (frequently just squares). I kinda like it, but it's an older candy froma a time when not everything had corn syrup in it.

    --
    "We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
  13. Re:Yeah! by fa2k · · Score: 2, Funny

    They called my browser "insufficient" :(

  14. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by anakin876 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    true, the trilogy of "science fiction" novel he wrote should really be referred to as fantasy - probably something like "theological fantasy" at that. Just because it involves other planets, does not mean it has to be called SciFi - but people do that anyways.

  15. You know, it's not like he *hid* that fact... by cfalcon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's like complaining that the Fountainhead seems to promote individualism, or 1984 seems down on totalitarianism, or that Mein Kampf seems a touch racist. It's the goal of the author, and it's not hidden.

    He's not out to "manipulate", he's out to convert, and then to improve the behavior of the converted. That might be the same thing as manipulation in the books of many folks, and I can definitely see how you wouldn't want that out of a fantasy series...

    But honestly, CS Lewis pretty much wrote Christian propaganda, books on why he's not an atheist, etc...

    It's just like complaining that when you went walking in the rain you got wet, is all.

    1. Re:You know, it's not like he *hid* that fact... by iabervon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He's not really trying to convert anyone. The books are written with the assumption that the reader is already Christian of some sort. He is trying almost exclusively to improve the behavior of Christians. For that matter, the last book features fundamentalist Christians destroying the world, and nice pagans going to heaven.

      In fact, someone reading the CoN without a Christian upbringing is unlikely to identify the Christian elements in it without having them pointed out, and is certainly unlikely to find any relationship between the events of the book and modern Christian practice. The message is really that you should have a particular morality, whatever your articles of faith happen to be. The Christian elements serve primarily to make this message more persuasive to Christian readers. It's actually more like complaining that The Fountainhead seems to promote architects than individualism.

  16. G.K. Chesterton by qbzzt · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hi,

    My favorite is G.K. Chesterton,

    I agree. I may disagree with a lot of what he said (he was a staunch Catholic, I'm not even Christian), but he was one sharp writer. For people who don't want to spend money before having a chance to review his work, click here.

    Bye,
    Ori

    --
    -- Support a free market in the field of government
  17. Re:First book? by teslar · · Score: 3, Informative
    I really looked forward to reading the Chronicles to my own children one day. I guess I'll still be able to, but they'll probably see the movie somewhere first and the magic will be gone from the words.
    If it's any consolation, they would have had a chance to see the film since 1988.
  18. Film/Book Order by oboylet · · Score: 3, Insightful
    CS Lewis sort of jumped around in the timeline. Some of the books are prequels to others. Wikipedia has a comparison of the published order versus the story's chronology.

    If Disney ends up filming each of the Chronicles, how do they manage to continuity? The characters are going to grow up and the boys' voices will predicibly change before they can film the prequels. Or are they going to hire different actors, breaking continuity.

    I imagine it was a business decision. Everyone's heard of "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" but "The Magician's Nephew" might not be as well known.

    Overall, I'd say the trailer shows promise, though.

  19. What the heck ? by loekf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Quicktime 6.5.1 for Windows says: couldn't open the file, because the filename was bad. Well... appearently Apple programmer's just can't handle files as: chroniclesofnarniathelionthewitchandthewardrobethe _trlr_01_high_dl.mov Yikes... bad sense at humor at AOL ! Of course changing the file name to a.mov does not the trick.

    1. Re:What the heck ? by antdude · · Score: 2, Informative

      Same problem in Media Player Classic from QuickTime Alternative when playing a local file. I renamed to a shorter filename with your long filename tip, and now it works. :I

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  20. Chesterton wasn't at Oxford by panurge · · Score: 4, Interesting
    and was of a completely different style from Lewis. (He was also embarrassingly anti-semitic as was his friend Hilaire Belloc.)

    Dorothy L Sayers shouldn't be mentioned in the same paragraph. When she was advised that a character in one of her books could be taken as anti-Semitic, she promptly started to write in positive but not over-signalled Jewish characters.

    I mention this because one thing that does stand out about the writings of CSL is that, like Sayers, he was a Christian but not a fundamentalist bigot - he was too well educated, well connected and well read for that. In his adult science fiction he started to play with the idea that Christianity was a partial revelation, and that the battle between good and evil was going on in other civilisations elsewhere in the universe. It's a pity he got over mystical and started to bring in the Arthurian legends, because there is stuff in That Hideous Strength which to my mind spoils the book. But I guess no-one will make a film of it anyway, because it is anti-corporatist, anti-Statist and proposes that a small group of activists can and should employ rather violent means to defeat a technocratic dictatorship. In fact, if the Department of Homeland Security is reading this, you might want to investigate who has been reading That Hideous Strength. They might be potential terrorists.

    --
    Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
    1. Re:Chesterton wasn't at Oxford by GreyWolf3000 · · Score: 5, Informative
      I haven't yet read that series, but I believe your mistaking Lewis' liberal theology with universalism--while his beliefs were, for the most part, mainline Christianity, two beliefs more than any others separated him from todays "fundamentalists."

      He didn't believe in Biblical inerrancy; that is to say, although he believed that the 66 books contained in the Bible are in fact divinely inspired, he didn't believe that all of them were historically accurate. He didn't believe, for example, that Jonah actually got swallowed by the whale, or that the earth is only 8,000 years old. They are scriptures in the sense that they are divine teachings, but they are also myth (according to his line of thinking).

      God works "in cognito" in other societies where the Christian gospel is not heard in order to promote his values. Lewis agreed that no one could make it to heaven without believing in Christ, but he also believed that many who never crossed paths with a Christian were given revelation about God through their own mythology. After death, according to Lewis, those who rejected Jesus during their lifetime would surely bring hell upon themselves because they really wouldn't want to spend eternity with a God they hated.

      I personally wish more men like Lewis would lead the American church today, because in the absence of reason, superstition has become more and more powerful.

      --
      Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
  21. Re:First book? by wcb4 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    and in spite of the usual low budge BBS production, those shows, (LW&W, Prince Caspian, Dawn Treader and Silver Chair) were all fantastic. With the exception on the city under the sea n dawn treader, I don't think they took any liberties with C.S. Lewis' books at all.... I am sure that DIsney wil not be as kind. Disney, the Politically correct mass marketting machine, producing what are essentially extended metaphors for Christian beliefs. I can't wait until it comes out to see how they butcher it. I am sure that Peter will not kill the wolf, (a child, kill?) I wonder how they will explain the magic deeper than the deep magic that states that if a willing victim gives his life, death will be defeated. OUtta be interesting.

    --
    I reject your reality ... and substitute my own.
  22. Re:Only four kids? by wvitXpert · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nope, only four. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. There are two other characters that join in later books, maybe thats what your thinking of.

  23. Re:Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recip by killjoe · · Score: 2, Informative

    Get the kind with pistachias in it. Yummy.

    --
    evil is as evil does
  24. Re:Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recip by nomadic · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's a valuable lesson, you have to use the British tastiness scale, which is a lot different than normal people's.

    Mmmm, steak and kidney and liver and entrail pie....

  25. Re:Only four kids? by Jeremi · · Score: 2, Informative
    Does my memory decieve me, or weren't there six children (three boys, three girls) in LW&W?


    Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmund are in LW&W, IIRC. Some additional children appear in later books in the series, but not in the first one.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  26. Re:Only four kids? by mark-t · · Score: 2, Informative
    No... that was the Brady Bunch.

    In the Narnian Chronicles there was Lucy (the first in the wardrobe), Edmund (the second-youngest, who betrayed them and resulted in the death of Aslan), Susan (the second-oldest, who once she left narnia ultimately turned away from believing in it), and Peter (the oldest).

  27. Re:First book? by fireboy1919 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I read it when I was little and then I tried rereading it.

    Bad idea there.

    The prose is horribly dry. It's written for children - not young adults - children. The spirit of the books is laid out plain as day and easy to see, because the audience is children. To get the same feeling into a movie, all they'd have to do is not change it very much.

    Of course, it won't actually be the same as the spirit of the words in your memory or in mine. It'll be what was actually there, which, unfortunately, is much less grand.

    --
    Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
  28. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by Jeremi · · Score: 2, Funny
    CS Lewis was a science fiction writer as well. Among other things he foretold the geo-stationary satellite.


    Bwahaha, excellent troll! I salute you sir. Getting modded "+1 Informative" is the icing on the cake.

    --


    I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  29. But you're missing the forest for the trees by brokeninside · · Score: 5, Informative
    Lewis also stated:
    When I started The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe I don't think I foresaw what Aslan was going to do and suffer. I think He just insisted on behaving in His own way. This of course I did understand and the whole series became Christian. But it is not, as some people think, an allegory. That is, I don't say 'Let us represent Christ as Aslan.' I say, 'Supposing there was a world like Narnia, and supposing, like ours, it needed redemption, let us imagine what sort of Incarnation and Passion and Resurrection Christ would have there. From CS Lewis: FAQ
    There are two key points here. The first is that when he started writing, he had no idea where the story was going to go. He just took it where his imagination led him. Consequently, it is fair to say that he didn't intentionally make the series `Christian'. The second is that they are a classic example of `what if?' rather than an intentional project to illustrate a theological truth as are The Great Divorce and The Screwtape Letters. In fact, Lewis later did the same `what if?' project with the Pagan myth of Cupid and Psyche in Til We Have Faces.
  30. Re:First book? by westlake · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Disney, the Politically correct mass marketting machine, producing what are essentially extended metaphors for Christian beliefs. I can't wait until it comes out to see how they butcher it. I am sure that Peter will not kill the wolf, (a child, kill?)

    Disney had no problem distributing The Incredibles, which does not play as a Saturday morning cartoon.

  31. Accuracy by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Executing believers is "hard line". Jokes implying that believers are deluded are not.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  32. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by Pop69 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Lewis wrote space sci-fi as well, try reading Out of the Silent Planet and the rest of that trilogy.

    Doesn't that make him a nerdy author ?

  33. Re:could be good by eluusive · · Score: 2, Informative

    I was noticing that too. The book actually describes lucy as curiously looking into it, and then having to hide in it when she hears the person who is IT coming into the room.

  34. How will this movie be popular? by hunterx11 · · Score: 5, Funny
    The League of Concerned Christians will no doubt lambast this movie as Satatnic propaganda, due to its depiction of magic and speaking beasts.

    The League of Concerned Satanists will no doubt lambast this movie as Christian propaganda, due to its thinly veiled allegory.

    --
    English is easier said than done.
  35. Disney's Big Move by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The other day on the radio they were discussing Narnia, and how it appears as though it's Disney's big attempt to revitalize itself in the movie industry. They're putting more money into it than any movie they've ever done, and some of the higher-ups at Disney have said they're expecting it to work for the company similar to how The Little Mermaid did.

    If you compare it to any other Disney live action movie, none of the others come even close in terms of scope, story, budget, costume design, sets, CGI, etc. They're putting a lot on this movie.

    Since both my wife and I are big fans of Lewis (my wife even more so), I hope Disney's gamble pays off. There's word that they're hoping they can do additional stories from the book series, which makes sense if the movie is profitable.

    As for the few people that complain about it being a movie about Christianity, who really cares? Even though I'm considered a "Christian conservative", I still enjoy movies about other religions and cultures. They're not trying to hide what the story is really about, and there's people out there that actually ENJOY movies about Christianity (see the success of Passion of the Christ for an example). Just get off your anti-religious podium for a second and try thinking about it as just a story, similar to how some colleges will read portions of The Bible or Paradise Lost.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
  36. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by AndroidCat · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's only natural to confuse them, since Lewis and Clarke did so much exploring together. :)

    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  37. How it works... by Kjella · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well that's pretty suspicious. Sounds like they stole code.

    ...on the chance that this is not a troll, but code analysis a la Laura DiDio (SCO shrill). MPC is a thin GUI layer calling system-wide codecs to decode video. One of the inputs is presumably the file name, which the .mov decoder doesn't handle correctly. So they fail because they call on the exact same code, code that it is fully legal for MPC to call on.

    Kjella

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  38. Since this is Hollywood, we can do the trailer... by DiamondGeezer · · Score: 3, Funny



    "In a world of peace, four children are sent to a strange house, where they find a portal to another world of perpetual snow and talking animals."

    *Cue gratuitous beaver shot*

    "My word, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve! Come in and and have tea!"

    Four children clash hands together and shout "Talking Beavers! Excellent!"

    But then one encounters a mysterious woman:

    "Yes, dear boy. I am an evil witch! You can tell by my impeccable manners and cut-glass English accent!"

    "Uh oh!"

    "Like some Turkish Delight?"

    "Are they like Hershey Bars?"

    "Yes, but not quite as evil and low carb as well"

    To be continued...

    *sigh*

    --
    Tubby or not tubby. Fat is the question
  39. Re:Criticism by Jerf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You misunderstand.

    When you are criticizing a movie vaguely, you implicitly have an outcome that you would prefer in mind. Specifically, make a better movie. Generally, your specific criticisms point to how you would improve it; if you complain the directing is poor, you have this idea of what better directing would be. You may not be able to do it yourself, but you know you've seen it. Artistic criticism rarely falls under this.

    The topic at hand is one of those rare instances, since the criticism boils down to "CS Lewis shouldn't be true to himself when he writes" (or at least that's what I'm trying to convince you of), and my point is that there is not an acceptable alternative to that. If CS Lewis had tried to write non-Christian books, that contained a worldview he did not share... well, the person I replied to would never have had an opportunity to criticize, because he'd have never heard of CS Lewis.

    (Another artistic example I've seen is when people criticize a movie not for being what it is, but for not being what the author thought it should be; my canonical example of that is this review of Monsters, Inc. in Salon, where the author spends most of it bitching that the movie wasn't "darker". He didn't like Monsters, Inc. not because it was poorly directed, or in fact even a poor movie, but because it wasn't some other completely different movie. Uh, excuse me? This is a little less egregiously wrong since it is at least possible to make the change, unlike a single author which can hardly change his worldview to write one book, but still, it's hardly fair to call that a review of Monsters, Inc... it's more a review of this movie that the reviewer has in their head but none of the rest of us have seen. False labelling, at the least.)

    This comes up much more in the political arena, where I apply it much more aggressively. When somebody shrieks about some opposition plan, you need to have a better one to get my attention. Simple negativity is pointless. Sometimes that better plan may even be "do nothing, what you believe is a problem isn't", but still, that may be a better plan. (The party itself often has a "better plan", but the individuals and random people on the street are often just pointlessly critical.)

    The real thing I'm getting at here isn't the idea that you shouldn't criticize, it's that when you don't even have a feasible alternative, what's the point? You're just being pointlessly negative (except perhaps in certain teaching situations). What's the point of criticizing somebody who already did the least bad thing they could possibly do, if they had no good choices? (Which isn't what I believe the situation is with CS Lewis, but I suspect describes the original poster's point. What's the alternative that works for CS Lewis?)

  40. Re:Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recip by slim · · Score: 2, Informative

    British stereotype: Kidney pie (what it sounds like)
    [...]
    British stereotype: Black pudding (I'm not typing it, I just ate and want to keep my food down.)


    Have you eaten either of these things?

    Kidneys are a prefectly eatable part of an animal, and a good Steak & Kidney pie is a great pleasure (although you should probably avoid cheap frozen/chilled supermarket pies on your first attempt).

    A good black pudding is a joy. Try it.

    I think British cooking went into decline after World War II, and people lost pride in the classics -- but there are classics, and if done well, they are delicious.

    If you're actually interested in classic British cooking, look at the books of Gary Rhodes, a well respected chef who champions traditional English dishes.

  41. Let's get the commenting started! by halcyon1234 · · Score: 2, Funny
    We might as well do this in the same manner as every single H2G2-Movie thread in existence. If everyone will kindly file your comments in one of the following catagories:

    1) "That's Not The Way *I* Would Have Done It" comments

    2) "All What Those Hollywood Asshats Want To Do Is Make Money And Have Anal Sex With CS Lewis' Corpse" comments

    3) "This Is The Greatest Movie Every And Everyone Else Should Shut The Fuck Up" comments

    4) Legitimate comments.

    .

  42. Re:Nerd/tech/science? by Scrameustache · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mods: How on earth can a question be "informative"?

    Starting Score: 1 point
    Moderation +2
    50% Informative


    Wow! How did you do that? : )

    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  43. Full Circle: LOTR & Narnia by TsukasaZero · · Score: 2, Informative

    Tolkien and Lewis were good pals to my knowledge.

    Wetta, the shop created by Peter Jackson for Lord Of The Rings, based in New Zealand, is the special effects and costume company Disney employed to do Narnia.

    That's why is looks a lot like LOTR.

  44. Re:Turkish Delight Isn't All That Good (with recip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    [Turkish Delight] was disgusting. ... Anyways, here's a link to THE recipe for those that are interested. (emphasis added)

    I think that underscores a common falicy of our day. Saying that there is *one* recipe for a confection that dates back 2000+ years is preposterous, bordering on absurd. There are as many different recipies for Turkish delight as there are grandmas in the Middle East. (Actually, strike that - Mid East grandmas don't need a recipe.) Shucks, even the Joy of Cooking gives at least two.

    Conceptually, T.D. is congealed fruit paste. (Think extra thick jelly.) The thickener can be corn starch, but traditionally it's pectin, and some recipes use gelitain. And while Rose and Lemon is one traditional flavor combination, there isn't any limit to it, you could do others.

    You might have found one recipe disgusting, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't like others. Without more details, it's hard to say what you ate.

    To each his own, but I actually love rose and lemon Turkish delight. Probably the best non-chocolate confection I've had. (The rose flavor is probably an aquired taste - there isn't much precident for it in western cuisine.)

  45. Pretty Disney Perfection by xombo · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm sorry but it seems as though Narnia doesn't believe in dust. Everything in the trailer appears squeeky clean. One thing I particularly enjoyed about the Lord of the Rings was that pieces were dated well and you could honestly believe that this is something that exists in reality.
    Frankly there's no way an old British woman and four children could keep that house perfectly dusted.
    Furthermore, what's with the horrible choice of colors? I've never seen so many primary and secondary colors used in costume and set design in my life. If Narnia is so primitive, technologically, wouldn't it make sense that they would have to use natural dyes--frankly you can't get colors that perfect from natural dye.
    Disney just isn't selling it.