The Green Witch
Narnia Altered by Climate Change at the Franklin Museum
by Kathryn Walker
For students growing up in the greater Philadelphia area, one field trip was guaranteed to make the school calendar every year: the Franklin Institute. Recently renamed the Franklin, this science museum is famous for its walk-through human heart, its planetarium and observatory, the Sky-bike, and a series of levers that allow ten-year-old girls to lift 500-pound weights.
Though I live even closer to the museum now than I did while growing up, I thought little of it in recent years until a little girl I know told me about her visit to the museum’s special Narnia exhibit, which opened in November 2008 and ran through April 2009.
The idea of making an interactive visit to a world I’ve long admired evoked anticipation similar to what I felt as a preteen when my childhood-long dreams of visiting American Girl Place and Whit’s End Soda Shoppe were fulfilled. For years, I had inhabited the mental worlds of Narnia and Lewis, but the prospect of encountering them “in the flesh” prompted a new tingling of expectation.
Apparently, the Franklin hoped this tingling of expectation would be felt not just for the fantasy world of Narnia but also for real-world scientific applications: The promotional pamphlet beckoned visitors to “consider the surprising similarities between our world and that of Narnia.” Making scientific connections between a fantasy world and our world seemed a bit of a stretch, but the possibility of what they might include was still intriguing.
From Literary to Movie World
The opening hallway of the exhibit contained a tribute to C. S. Lewis. Various artifacts of his were displayed, including a large and impressive wardrobe, on loan from the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College. One small sign presented a brief biography of Lewis, while a second commented on the importance of virtue in his stories, expressed through the children’s struggle between good and evil. Visitors reviewed these displays while waiting to enter a wood-beamed room where an audio recording of a hide-and-seek countdown preceded the dramatic opening of wardrobe doors into a flurry of snow particles and the exhibit itself.
The step from the Lewis display into the main exhibit felt a bit like putting down a chapter of the book Prince Caspian to watch Walden Media’s film version. Costumes, artifacts, and set models from the movie, along with video documentaries, comprised much of the exhibit. The authentic and literary Englishness of the Lewis artifacts quickly faded behind a world of cinematography—which remained entertaining regardless.
There were also many displays relating elements of Lewis’s story to earth science and physics. Visitors could launch a catapult, build a stone archway, and feel an icy coldness seeping through the White Witch’s wintery throne. They could also test the heft of metal swords, press their hands into a frozen waterfall, and crawl into animal treehouses as they progressed through the displays.
Fantasy does not naturally correspond to earth science, however, so many of the displays seemed rather out of place. The White Witch’s stone curses, for instance, were accompanied by an explanation of petrification, and the plaque next to the frozen waterfall gave a description of molecular freezing.
Kathryn Walker is a graduate of Hillsdale College and Eastern University. She currently teaches Literary Genres and Advanced Placement Language and Composition at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Chris, attend Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Ambler, Pennsylvania.
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more from the online archives
16.5—June 2003
on the Importance of Fathers to Churchgoing by Robbie Low
31.2—March/April 2018
How Best to Face the Total War of the Anti-Culture by R. J. Snell
19.4—May 2006
The Culture War Is Between Religious Believers on Both Sides by Howard P. Kainz
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
