Lewis

[altariel]

I really do like Lewis, which is as enjoyable and attractively made as Inspector Morse, but doesn’t have that miserable misogynist snob spoiling my fun. I like it even though they cruelly bumped off Lewis’ missus at the start of the first episode, just so that he could pretend he was mourning her and not Morse, which I probably shouldn’t like for all sorts of reasons.

I also like how the Lewis-Hathaway relationship replicates the Morse-Lewis one, only this time the over-educated misanthrope is the junior partner. It makes you believe that this dynamic stretches back and back, even unto the Middle Ages, where the medieval equivalent of a grumpy grammar school boy and a put-upon working class boy are forever together in the green wood, fighting crime.

Last week’s episode, “The Point of Vanishing” made much use of The Hunt in the Forest by Paolo Uccello. It made me think of Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the Narnia books, particularly the end of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the young kings and queens of Narnia go on a hunt in a forest and vanish from the world. Lewis did an episode about the Inklings at the start of the season: I’m surprised that’s not turned up in the Morse-verse before.

Comments

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I can never go into the Ashmolean (one of the joys of living in Oxford, it's almost as much fun as the Fitz) without going to have a look at A Hunt in the Forest. There's something about that very extreme use of perspective, with everything shrinking away towards the vanishing point in the darkness, that almost literally tries to suck you into the painting - it's addictive.

And you're quite right, though I'd never thought of it before, there is something reminiscent of Baynes - her drawing of human figures is rather graceful in a Uccello way, though I think Uccello is more robust, particularly in his use of colour. (I've always found Baynes's illustrations rather weedy for my taste somehow: I don't mind them in Narnia too much, but when applied to Middle-earth they always feel twee beyond belief.) As you say, I'm sure in that particular painting it's the combination of the dark forest setting and the vanishing motif which particularly says "Narnia!"

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I love her Narnia illustrations - I couldn't imagine the books without them, to be honest. But absolutely not right for Middle-earth, too whimsical.