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i'm rewatching atla and

oh my gosh

zuko is SUCH a teenager

he's such a stereotypical teen it's so funny

like the mood swings? and the dramatic "i don't need your help!"s? and the frustrated sighs at these kids he's babysitting?

because aang and toph are 12 (babies), katara is 14 (the WORST time to be around a teen girl), and sokka is (i think) 15 (so the only one that's really close to his age)

he's so done with their crap and it's so funny

Remember, remember, remember the signs

Or, if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself

Aslan gives Jill four signs, and she bungles all but one. The first sign (getting Caspian’s help) is missed entirely. The natural question, I think, is whether such signs were necessary at all, particularly in the form in which they were given. If Aslan, like Jesus, is sovereign and omniscient, wouldn’t he know that Jill would arrive to Narnia too late to tell Eustace to talk to Caspian and thus give her three signs instead? In fact, why give signs at all, rather than clear, step-by-step instructions? Doesn’t Aslan want the quest to succeed?

As Rilian says, “we are all between the paws of the one true Aslan.” I’ve characterized HHB in the past as a book about God’s sovereignty; I think SC is primarily about the relationship between faith and God’s faithfulness. Jill was meant to miss the first sign; as Eustace remarks, “I was only here about a minute before you [… Aslan] must have blown you quicker than me.” Aslan was completely in control of the time at which both Eustace and Jill arrived in Narnia, and if he chose, he could have caused Jill to arrive even earlier. The fact that he didn’t points to the fact that the first sign was meant to be muffed.

So why give it? There are a number of reasons one can come up with, but the one I find most compelling is so that Jill will begin the journey from a place of weakness and failure. Jill and Eustace get the help they need from the Owls and ultimately Puddleglum, but they begin their quest with one failure under their belts and the knowledge that more could follow. They are inadequate to the task before them.

Signs two and three are both missed in pursuit of Harfang, and it’s the third sign that most strongly indicates the nature of the signs. It’s possible that our trio could have recognized the ruins of the city for what they were while stumbling through them (and indeed Puddleglum nearly does), but UNDER ME could not be read except from above. Even if they had realized that the trenches were letters, which I’ll grant might have been possible if they had been both attentive to the signs and willing to make a substantial leap in logic, getting to a vantage point from which they could be read would have been tricky. If Aslan had wanted, he could have just as easily told Jill to look for trenches and then to climb a hill. He didn’t. I don’t think it’s a terribly great leap to the assumption that Aslan intended for the trio to end up in Harfang, to see the city and the letters from the window, and then to be chased down into the Underland. So again, why give signs at all if they were meant to be muffed, at least temporarily?

The fact that the trio, and particularly Jill, mess up the first three signs ends up demonstrating their inadequacy to the task they are given. Furthermore, it puts paramount importance on the name of Aslan and on the act of faith its invocation requires of them. I also think there’s a direct connection between the fourth sign and Puddleglum’s speech after stomping on the fire. As Puddleglum remarks, “Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do.” Aslan told Jill what to do, and she failed three times. They will not fail a fourth. And so, “live or die, Aslan will be our good Lord.”

The fact that the trio find Rilian and hear the fourth sign in spite of messing up the previous three points emphatically to Aslan’s faithfulness in spite of their own faithlessness. According to 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” Aslan’s very nature is faithfulness, even when Jill stops reciting the signs. Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum are brought to the fourth sign in spite of all their failures and faithlessness, because Aslan is their good lord. And necessarily, the faithfulness of God teaches us faith.

The Silver Chair contains two of the greatest acts of faith in the Chronicles, one right after the other, from characters who have spent the entire book up until this point messing up. It’s no accident that “the name of Aslan” is the one sign they get right. It’s only by the name of Aslan that they are able to accomplish their task. Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum are grown into faith through the failure that Aslan led them both into (by giving them signs that he knows they will fail) and through (by bringing them to their destination nevertheless). 

When Puddleglum says, “I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it,” a great statement of faith if ever I’ve heard one, he says it as one who has truly experienced Aslan’s faithfulness. No human faith is possible apart from the faithfulness of God.

The Silver Chair trio are definitely the funniest main characters in the Narnia books, just constant fuck ups 

Susan and Lucy sketches

I just finished re-listening to prince caspian and wanted to sketch them

There's actually much MUCH more to this but I was too lazy to write them all down

Seek Unity and you will find neither Unity nor Truth. Seek the light of truth, and you will find Unity and Truth. - C. S. Lewis

Tolkien:*uses his lessons in theology and myth to make middle earth*

C.S. Lewis: *Literal Lion Jesus and Man-Bird-Satan*

Tolkien:

The road to Heaven is right through the middle

Christianity knocks on the door of people’s hearts (Revelation 3:20) saying “I have bad and good news. The bad is that you’ve sinned (Psalms 14:3; Romans 3:23) and now deserve death (Romans 6:23), the good is that there’s this guy, that is also God, that has the solution to your problem (1 Timothy 1:15).”

Christianity is the way it is and no part of its message can be removed. C.S. Lewis said “The devil always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites.”.  

In the first opposite, we highlight the bad news and suppress the good news and when that happens we’re crushed by the weight of our sins. However Jesus called unto Him those with heavy burdens and promised them rest to their souls (Matthew 11:28-30).

The second opposite is the suppression of the bad news and the highlight of the good news. That opposite leads to the mitigation of the severity of sin followed by its acceptance. Since the bible clearly states that we’re called to be dead to sin and no longer it’s slaves (Romans 6) this opposite it’s also erroneous.

Then we shall walk right in the middle, free of guilt and free of the dominance of sin, approaching the throne of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16) having faith that He will reward our search for Him (Hebrews 11:6).

SPOILER

One of my favorite scenes between Emily and Wendell because like

Even though it’s from her perspective you can’t tell if she’s being serious or just antagonizing him and like I think that’s beautiful lol

Collection

What type of sand? Quartz? Calcite? There is a very important difference

The somewhat sexual quality of sand

what artists dont tell you is that every compliment is actually 100 compliments because they'll go back to re-read it 100 times and it'll make them feel fuzzy all over again every single time

I love that heather fawcett used this font, also that’s such a cool fun fact like

Someone tried to scam me. It was fun.

(Context: she orriginally asked if I was her yoga instructor, i said no, she said "oh sorry wrong number" i said "you're fine" and deleted the convo, case closed. Not quite.)

Tolkien:*uses his lessons in theology and myth to make middle earth*

C.S. Lewis: *Literal Lion Jesus and Man-Bird-Satan*

Tolkien:

mm. I’ve seen a lot of posts lately bashing Lewis for writing Susan as forgetting about Narnia because “she liked lipstick and dressing up” and I’d like to clarify, which I know many people have done before.

Susan did not forget about Narnia because she discovered makeup and jewelry or anything like that.

She forgot about Narnia because she put so much faith into things of the world that she forgot to put her faith in the things that really mattered. She cared more about being seen by her peers, who might discard her later on without a second thought, than by being seen by Aslan, the only one whose opinion really mattered.

She wanted to grow up so badly she made herself believe Narnia was a child's game, and she forgot.

Not because she enjoyed worldly things, but because she valued them more than Aslan himself.

Oh fuck off

The most terrifying part of having memory issues is when you can feel something from 5 seconds ago be thrown out the window and there's an empty hole where it once was. You remember that you forgot something.

My dad and I once had a disagreement over him using the adage "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

I said, "That's just not true. Sometimes what doesn't kill you leaves you brittle and injured or traumatized."

He stopped and thought about that for a while. He came back later, and said, "It's like wood glue."

He pointed to my bookshelf, which he helped me salvage a while ago. He said, "Do you remember how I explained that, once we used the wood glue on them, the shelves would actually be stronger than they were before they broke?"

I did.

"But before we used the wood glue, those shelves were broken. They couldn't hold up shit. If you had put books on them, they would have collapsed. And that wood glue had to set awhile. If we put anything on them too early, they would have collapsed just the same as if we'd never fixed them at all. You've got to give these things time to set."

It sounded like a pretty good metaphor to me, but one thing I did pick up on was that whatever broke those shelves, that's not the thing that made them stronger. That just broke them. It was being fixed that made them stronger. It was the glue.

So my dad and I agreed, what doesn't kill you doesn't actually make you stronger, but healing does. And if you feel like healing hasn't made you stronger than you were before, you're probably not done healing. You've got to give these things time to set.

I don't know where my post going "i have got to stop reading books with no/dead/inactive fandoms" is, but I need it again. Lady Trent memoir readers I am politely inquiring after your whereabouts

Trying to study and keeping myself motivated by leaving this book right next to it

Any song/playlist suggestions that fit the vibe of the book/academia? I like lyrics, they actually help with focus for me

She can't help herself lol