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]

I always thought Susan's 'exclusion' was more that she abandoned 'childish' things in an effort to be 'more adult', and as a result fell into superficiality and shallow materialism? My interpretation of things is not that she's intentionally excluded from Narnia; she chose to disbelieve in the metaphysical, and won't really appreciate the value of her 'childish fantasies' until she's truly matured.

Heck, C.S. Lewis even says "The books don't tell us what happened to Susan. She is left alive in this world at the end, having by then turned into a rather silly, conceited young woman. But there's plenty of time for her to mend and perhaps she will get to Aslan's country in the end... in her own way.".

On a smaller note, wasn't the Witch long dead by the time The Last Battle took place? What's she doing here?

[cyberghostface]

"I always thought Susan's 'exclusion' was more that she abandoned 'childish' things in an effort to be 'more adult', and as a result fell into superficiality and shallow materialism?"

That's more or less how I viewed it. He wasn't a prude when it came to sex so I disagree with the notion that he was condemning Susan for it.

He also said the following about 'growing up' and dismissing childish things which I think is a relevant factor to her abandoning Narnia:

"Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

[locuatico]

it's... complicated.
there is that, but there is also the part that Aslan is Jesus Christ and the kids being sent to the christian heaven while the text explicitly says Susan is not welcome there (at least right now)
There is also the part in which Susan may be a stand-in for Lewis himself and his own personal stuff and his own personal tragedies.

Then there is the discussion between authorial intent (what the author intended) and wether it takes priority over reader interpretation (ie, the text seems condemning of Susan)

On why the witch is here, the dream sequence is not necessarily supposed to be "the last battle" specifically (you will notice only the siblings are present), but rather using familiar iconography in a way that is disruptive of the original text.

Jadis is the most well known and familiar anatagonist of the Narnia books (even before Tilda Swinton's wonderful performance) and more likely to be familiar to most readers than... say... Tash, Aslan fundamental opposite with the head of a bird and who you can easily confuse with smoke....