The Problem of Susan

[cyberghostface]

 

This is an adaptation of a short story Neil Gaiman wrote in response to The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically The Last Battle. Gaiman has often spoken fondly of Lewis but it's clear he also has a few criticisms.

For the first half of the story he makes a number of legitimate points in regards to Lewis' writing and then it... turns into something else. I honestly don't know what Gaiman is trying to say with it.

NSFW for nudity and gore (...yeah). Also goes without saying that if you haven't read the series this spoils a number of plot points from the last book.

Comments

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, Susan explicitly cuts off her own ties to Narnia by choosing to abandon it as foolishly wasted time. As Aslan says, even he is powerless to do anything for the faithless (not just faith in him, but faith in anything).

[broblawsky]

That's my point: Lewis believes that people like Susan don't have faith in anything. When he can describe her as faithless, I think he's accusing a huge swath of people of being faithless. Lewis' attribution of spirituality to others is very narrow.

[lissa_quon]

Though - I always find that argument weird. That whole "she cut ties and rejected it" bit. Aslan cuts her off. In Prince Caspian Peter and her are told they are "too old" and can not come back. And they are cut off from the story after that fact. We never hear from them again except in passing.

We have no idea what Peter thinks of the situation. Peter never gets much character. And all we hear about Susan after everything is the "lipstick and nylons." It always seems strange that we accuse her of "abandoning" it when Aslan is the one who ended things.