Statistics: Posted by Ariel.of.Narnia — Sat Jul 25, 2015 6:38 am
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Also, there is a piece of tech, it does not go alive and intelligent, but it goes alive as a tree - the lantern, remember?
As there were gas lanterns back then, converting such a gas lantern into a tree would be not impossible, if the gas it lit with were some product of its metabolism.
I think CSL held to a metaphysics with "golden chain of being" - things can be improved one step (from beast to rational animal, non-extant from plant to beast, again extant from artefact to plant), but not two.
Statistics: Posted by hansgeorg — Fri Jul 24, 2015 8:22 am
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Ah, OK, you mean High Tech in the English part ... hmmm.Hermit - I don't think having tech in the Chronicles would have killed it, although we would have lost the WW2 setting. I mean, Narnia was never meant to be in the same time-period as Earth, so I imagine it would remain medieval/neofeudalistic in nature, but if we had cell-phones on Earth it would lend a whole new level of impact to "worse than what Father says about being at the mercy of the telephone"!
No, still no.
Blitz is so much the reason for evacuation, and WW2 plus subsequent years is so much into the story line, since Professor Kirke cannot keep his house when taxes rise (VDT).
It's as impossible as setting the farms of Enid Blyton's Famous Five into 21:st Century. It would be wrong episode of Emmerdale Farm. So wrong episode.
And Digory and Polly need to be in an era when collars were stiff and Sherlock Holmes was still in Baker Street. Especially since if Frank had been the other kind of cab driver (as in taxi rather than horse cab) there would not have been any Fledge.
My second instinct is to wonder vividly what it would be like - not for the Chronicles themselves, not to change the canon, but as an AU or a fan-art concept of sorts - if that was modern. If the cab was blessed by Aslan and given life with the woods and waters of Narnia - a sort of spirit of metal - a softly purring chrome beast unfolding its shell beetle-like to show off its new wings - a kind of magical Narnian Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. It wouldn't work I know. The Pegasus tugs a different sort of heart-string, and fits much better with this land of castles and centaurs and dwarves. But that idea almost sings to me. The thought of a humdrum car going Somewhere Else and becoming one with the Somewhere Else on the other side - changing into something wild and vivid and magical, but still somewhat mechanical and metallic at the same time - a fantasy world where tech brought over could be blessed by the lord of that land and become living and magitech and more than the sum of its man-made parts - it seems like a plotbunny someone should use somewhere, if not Narnia. Perhaps in one of the other pools in the Wood Between the Worlds.
Statistics: Posted by Lily of Archenland — Fri Jul 24, 2015 7:17 am
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But I think it's true that it can be distracting. Possibly one of the things that has made Narnia and Middle Earth remain popular is their setting in pre-industrial times. We can relate to them no matter what technology today is doing.
One other thought I had reading your comments (sorry, I know I'm rambling) is that fantasy stories like these cope well without modern technology because they have "technology" of a different kind to fill the roles that modern tech has in other stories - I mean "magic". (I'm thinking of how Tolkien compared "magic" to "machinery" - both a way of subverting the natural laws to achieve things more easily - in his preface to the 2nd edition of The Silmarillion).
Statistics: Posted by Ajnos — Sat Jul 18, 2015 12:16 pm
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However, something like Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit had plenty of tension and most of that was because of technology (eg: hacking into a computer in x amount of time, baddie taunting protagonist over the phone during a car chase, etc). Tech was so much a part of that movie that it would have been a different story altogether without it. Non-Stop wouldn't have had the effect it does without tech (the killer hacks into a federal network to text the marshal, which allows for greater anonymity (during a plane flight, anyway) than slipping notes in his pocket or luggage or leaving them for him to find in the lavatory, etc.).
Statistics: Posted by Ariel.of.Narnia — Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:24 am
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Sherlock is a show that actually uses the technology to make itself more popular in the culture, but do all modern stories work like that? I know I've seen at least one movie where they had to come up with an excuse not to have cell-phones in order to heighten the plight of the characters (Mom's Night Out).
Also, many popular children's movies do without technology altogether, (HTTYD, Frozen, Rise of the Guardians, Tangled, etc.) Yes, Big Hero 6 is a successful movie that has technology, but they have the story come first. (Hiro doesn't phone the team, it is Baymax who contacts them because he is concerned for Hiro; and it is the heroic aspects of the characters that save the day, not the technology.)
Statistics: Posted by HermitoftheNorthernMarch — Wed Jul 15, 2015 4:27 pm
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This being said, sometimes Modern-Narnia AUs are the most fun to read.
Statistics: Posted by Shield Maiden — Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:12 am
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If they had say, cell phones in Prince Caspian, then there wouldn't be so much suspense for Dr. Cornelius and the others at the How, wondering if Queen Susan's horn had really called help to Narnia. Trumpkin could have just phoned the others and told them, of course, the Telmarines would have taken the phone away.
Part of the Narnian charm is there is no high tech there. It is not like the setting is in a somewhat less advanced high tech society which can be updated (like Sherlock), it is like CSL is making a point of no real post-medieval things (except tobacco, tea, coffee and Mrs. Beaver's sewing machine) being there.In PC someone makes a point against telephones.
In MN both a lamp post is reduced or enhanced from British technology to Narnian biology. Plus Uncle Andrew is seen as idiotic and tasteless for his preference for a high tech society.
Ah, OK, you mean High Tech in the English part ... hmmm.Hermit - I don't think having tech in the Chronicles would have killed it, although we would have lost the WW2 setting. I mean, Narnia was never meant to be in the same time-period as Earth, so I imagine it would remain medieval/neofeudalistic in nature, but if we had cell-phones on Earth it would lend a whole new level of impact to "worse than what Father says about being at the mercy of the telephone"!
No, still no.
Blitz is so much the reason for evacuation, and WW2 plus subsequent years is so much into the story line, since Professor Kirke cannot keep his house when taxes rise (VDT).
It's as impossible as setting the farms of Enid Blyton's Famous Five into 21:st Century. It would be wrong episode of Emmerdale Farm. So wrong episode.
And Digory and Polly need to be in an era when collars were stiff and Sherlock Holmes was still in Baker Street. Especially since if Frank had been the other kind of cab driver (as in taxi rather than horse cab) there would not have been any Fledge.
Statistics: Posted by hansgeorg — Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:23 pm
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Elanorelle, your right about the Left Behind series being dated by technology. I read it further back, but even then some of the technology had already changed. I think it worked for that series at the time it was published because of the type of book it was, speculating about what would happen if the end times happened back in 1998. Maybe this modern feel helped its success, back then.
Statistics: Posted by HermitoftheNorthernMarch — Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:33 pm
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Even in the science-fiction genre, there can be such a thing as too much technology. I don't really appreciate when an historical fiction novel pauses the story to give a long spiel on, say, the intricacies of a blacksmith forge. In the same way, I don't want a lengthy explanation about futuristic gadgets in a science-fiction novel. I want the story!
So I guess my conclusion is: Technology is great for giving a book a contemporary or advanced feel, but one must be careful it does not detract from the plot and characters.
Statistics: Posted by Esprit — Mon Mar 10, 2014 1:06 pm
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Statistics: Posted by Lily of Archenland — Sat Jan 25, 2014 7:40 pm
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Now the Left Behind series' use of technology is a very different experience because of the premise, (near future rapture and end times). While I read through it (this was at least 2-3 years ago) I found the use of certain tech to be a little distracting, sometimes I'd just smile and think of other options the characters would have now. A "futuristic" storyline such as, Left Behind, with technology should be made as up to date as possible but with technology changing and improving all the time it can be near impossible to do unless one were to go back every couple of years and rewrite certain passages-but I'm sure that would be very tiring.
Statistics: Posted by elanorelle — Fri Jan 17, 2014 1:33 am
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That's pretty much all I've gotta say to that.
Statistics: Posted by Ariel.of.Narnia — Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:23 am
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I'm wondering how much technology changes storylines, though.
If they had say, cell phones in Prince Caspian, then there wouldn't be so much suspense for Dr. Cornelius and the others at the How, wondering if Queen Susan's horn had really called help to Narnia. Trumpkin could have just phoned the others and told them, of course, the Telmarines would have taken the phone away.
Telmarine 1: "Look sharp, the Narnians' have tech too!"
Telmarine 2: "But Narnians don't exist."
Telmarine 1: "Don't believe everything you hear." (types in phone number from Trumpkin's address book)
Sound Effect: Ring-ring, Ring-ring!
Trufflehunter: "Hello, Aslan's How."
Telmarine 1: "Yes, can I speak to your help line?"
Trufflehunter: (Covers phone, and whispers to Caspian) "It's a Telmarine."
Caspian: (takes phone) "Hello, Prince Caspian speaking."
Telmarine 1: "I can't believe I'm talking to the Prince! Listen, do the old Narnians really exist?"
Caspian: "Yes, they do."
Telmarine 1: (ends call) "I-just-talked-to-Prince-Caspian-and-he-says-the-Narnians-do-exist!"
Telmarine 2: "Yeah, right, don't believe everything you hear."
Statistics: Posted by HermitoftheNorthernMarch — Fri Nov 15, 2013 12:07 am
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For example, I love BBC's Sherlock, though I was insanely wary of it. (I still refuse to even look at the Robert Downey Jr. films because the even the posters didn't give me the Holmes vibe.) Now, though, I love it. Watson blogs, Sherlock texts, they don't travel in horse-drawn cabs, the humour is amped up, etc.. It's different and I still prefer the originals, but the Sherlock Holmes spirit is still there, so I really enjoy the show.
On the other end of the spectrum, I don't hold the Nancy Drew movie (with Emma Roberts) in high regard. Sure, the character of Nancy still has that innocent charm and her fashion sense is fairly true to the period of the times she originated in. But the writing of the story wasn't stellar (despite the mystery being interesting), so I'm less forgiving of her use of the internet and her phone and the high school party she hosted.
Statistics: Posted by Ariel.of.Narnia — Fri Nov 08, 2013 3:35 am
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