#Jill Eustace and Tirian maybe

[dimsilver]

I know it has been said before but the girl + two guys trio is really unbeaten. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Lockwood, George, and Lucy. Percy, Grover, and Annabeth. Peeta, Finnick, and Katniss.

[greatwyrmgold]

Another "The Problem of Susan" post

As you may know:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was not a standalone book. There were seven books in the series, each with more Christian allegory than the last.

(Or maybe it's not allegory? Apparently C.S. Lewis has said that Aslan is literally Jesus, so maybe it's all literally just Christianity.)

The series stars the four Pevensie siblings who show up in most of the books—Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. They're absent from The Silver Chair and The Magician's Nephew, but all appear together in the other five books, with one exception.

The last book, called The Last Battle, features Peter, Edmund, and Lucy, but not Susan. Not only does Susan not appear, she's mentioned exactly once:

"Sir," said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. "If I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?" "My sister Susan," answered Peter shortly and gravely, "is no longer a friend of Narnia." "Yes," said Eustace, "and whenever you've tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says 'What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.'" "Oh Susan!" said Jill, "she's interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." "Grown-up, indeed," said the Lady Polly. "I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she'll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one's life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can." "Well, don't let's talk about that now," said Peter. "Look! Here are lovely fruit trees. Let us taste them."

(Oh yeah, the kids were kinds and queens of Narnia for a few decades when they were kids. Don't think about it too much.)

The Problem of Susan gets even worse because right at the end of the book, Aslan reveals that the Pevensies, their parents, and other Earth-humans who went to Narnia (like the Eustace and Polly mentioned above) died right before coming to Narnia this last time. And now that the Book of Revelations is done, they will live forever in "the true Narnia," which is either an allegory for Revelation's New Jerusalem or literally heaven, I'm not sure which.

Susan is still not there.

So, the first part of the Problem of Susan is that a formerly major character—one that many young fans of the series felt attached to—who gets all but dropped from the finale. This is particularly egregious, since—this is a direct quote— "Everyone you had ever heard of (if you knew the history of those countries) seemed to be there" by the end. Every character from the entire series, from Mr. Tumnus the faun to that cab driver who became the first King of Narnia, it makes sense in context.

But not Susan.

And I guess that makes sense in context, too; she's not dead. But C.S. Lewis wrote the context. It was C.S. Lewis's decision to kill off the other Pevensies, and C.S. Lewis's decision to keep Susan out of this last adventure.

Christian Apologetics, for Kids!

I've seen three common responses to The Problem of Susan from overly-protective fans of the series.

The first is, perhaps unsurprisingly, just a remix of shit fundamentalist Christians say about Heaven and Hell. Just as agnostics will burn in the fires of hell for their ambiguous faith, so Susan will be barred from "the true Narnia" for being less allegorically(?) pious than her siblings.

Speaking as an ex-Christian, I could write a whole series of posts about why that's fucked-up and wrong. But I will instead remain on topic and recommend you read basically any atheist blog from the early '10s; that eternal damnation/salvation shit is low-hanging fruit for guys who want to make fun of fundies.

Second, you have people who see Susan as materialistic, caring so much about "nylons and lipstick and invitations." First off, nothing in the text suggests she was maliciously materialistic, or greedy, or anything else that would merit getting kicked out of Narnia. Second, the text just...does not support this reading. Susan's sin isn't greed, it's growing up too fast.

Third are the people who agree with the text; Susan "always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up." This has textual support, and not just from the one page in The Last Battle that mentions her. The problem is, of course, that this isn't a sin worthy of punishment either.

(Zeroth: Susan spent decades as a queen of Narnia, but since because the books want us to think that that wouldn't have any real impact on the kids, we will continue not thinking about it too much.)

With that out of the way: Wanting to be older than you are is fine, wanting to be younger than you are is fine, wanting to be the age you are is great. There is nothing inherently wrong with either wanting to be treated as a grown-up or seeking the joy of youth. It can lead to bad behavior, but none of that is described in the actual text of The Last Battle.

Susan is described as misremembering the fantastical adventures the Pevensies had as children, and wanting to be a young adult for as long as possible. Who. Cares.

It seems like C.S. Lewis puts an unreasonably high premium on the innocence of childhood. (This has what I consider to be unfortunate implications when combined with his advocacy of blind faith in The Silver Chair, but that's a topic for another ramble.) This is, I feel, ridiculous. It's fine to seek the joy of youth, but to treat losing that joy as some kind of mortal sin is absurd! Treating the loss of innocence as an inevitable tragedy is one thing; treating it as something worth punishing a kid for if they stumble into it too quickly is horrific.

(And it's really hard to not think about that time Susan was a literal monarch. Well, there were four of them, so I guess she was more of a tetrarch? Whatever.)

Anyways. The fourth response is to point to things C.S. Lewis said after publishing The Last Battle. And I'm going to discuss that.

Contrite-over-Susan Lewis

Unfortunately, I can't find the actual quotes by C.S. Lewis, not in the time I'm willing to spend researching a Tumblr post about a book that was old when my parents were young. But C.S. Lewis has acknowledged the problem of Susan.

The gist of what he said is that he's not happy that Susan's story is incomplete, but writing her redemption arc would put the story into a whole different genre, and that's no good.

My first problem is, of course, the idea that Susan needed to change to be worthy of Narnia. So what if she was always the most skeptical Pevensie? So what if she wanted to grow up? So what if she likes nylons and lipstick and invitations? If the Susan we see in the other books isn't worthy of the true Narnia, that's Lewis's problem, not Susan's.

The second is that C.S. Lewis never wrote that book. Lewis would say that it's out of step with the rest of the series, that the tone would be off, but so is The Last Battle to anyone not drowning in Armageddon-lust. And it's not like character arcs are foreign to the series, either. There are plenty of examples of kids from our Earth going to Narnia and having it change their worldview or attitude. They're mostly small subplots, but elevating a Susan character arc to a booklong undercurrent would not be that much of a divergence.

And even if Lewis committed himself to only writing seven books for numerological reasons—well, first off, he probably could have cut one of the other books. A Horse and his Boy is neat, but depicting the lives of ordinary Narnians during a dramatic time probably should have taken a back seat to a character arc you think is required for her to join the finale. Anyways, he could have written the Susan character arc as a subplot in Prince Caspian or Voyage of the Dawn Treader if he tried.

But he didn't try.

Conclusion

C.S. Lewis supposedly said that Susan was his favorite character, the one he saw the most of himself in. If true, that is not reflected in The Last Battle.

Lewis set some arbitrary conditions Susan would have to meet to join her siblings at the end—at the climax of the entire series, arguably the most important event in Narnian history since the world's creation. He then chose not to write anything that would let Susan meet those conditions, left her out of the last book, and left it ambiguous as to whether she'd ever see her siblings in paradise.

I don't think this would be quite so egregious if Susan was at least mentioned more. Again, Susan is never mentioned before Tirian asks where she is, nor after Peter decides to taste some fruit. She gets three and a half paragraphs where her brother and "friends" bitch about her, and that's that. They make fun of her for growing up and liking nylons and lipstick, then they decide to eat fruit, end of chapter, end of Susan.

It's like the characters don't give a shit about Susan. They're not angry, they're not disappointed, they're not confused. They state a few things about Susan when directly asked, then move on, like these are just facts about some fictional character and not the reasons they're estranged from a sibling or longtime friend. Heck, the younger Pevensies don't even bother to speak up! They don't care!

And if the characters don't care about the formerly important character—important both to the story and, more importantly, to them—why should I think the author did?

[queenlucythevaliant]

Iirc, the only time the kids' memories were damped was when they had lived a span of many years in Narnia. Losing all that nd all their growth years would have been quite hard on them so I believe Aslan had mercy to make their second childhood more normal. But I think that's also why the other Narnia trips result in less mystical amnesia: they were shorter. Jill and Eustace only went for a few weeks/months and wouldn't have to face as much potential psychological issues.

I don't disagree in general, but I would argue that it's a little more nuanced than that. The primary driver behind the kids remembering their time in Narnia upon returning is exposure to the Narnian Air; this gets remarked on throughout the series, up to and including LB:

"[Jill] had succeeded in shooting a rabbit [...] and it was already skinned, cleaned, and hanging up. [Tirian] had found that both the children knew all about this chilly and smelly job; they had learned that kind of thing on their great journey through Giant-Land in the days of Prince Rilian. Then he had tried to teach Eustace how to use his sword and shield. Eustace had learned quite a lot about sword fighting on his earlier adventures but that had been all with a straight Narnian sword. [...] They both seemed to be already much stronger and more grown-up than they had been when he first met them a few hours ago. It is one of the effects which Narnian air often has on visitors from our world." (Ellipses are just to condense a little bit)

The length of time that the Pevensies spent in Narnia during their reign definitely means that there was more to forget when they went back to being kids and more to gradually remember upon returning. At the same time though, the journeys in SC and VDT were non-negligable in length: weeks in the former case, months in the latter. Based on how the above passage is written, I think Lewis wants us to infer that the Narnian Air is recalling the events of VDT and SC more strongly to Eustace and Jill as they breathe it in.

This is even more explicitly how it works with the Pevensies in PC (I won't quote that too, but you know the bits I mean). Thus, I think there's a degree of - I don't like the word amnesia - memory-condensing maybe? - that goes on for anyone that spends more than a few days in Narnia, particularly if they learn new skills there.

That said, Narnia's a fairytale and the magic is definitely up to interpretation. The Themes and Feel are more important than the specific mechanics, and I don't think it makes a huge difference how much Jill and Eustace remember, so long as like the Pevensies they're still ordinary kids when they return ;)

[lucifers-left-tit]

ohhh, that's actually very sweet!

I do have a penchant for turmoil, so I must ask what would happen the the pevensies by the time of the silver chair's end

after all, Eustace seeing Caspian die was already pretty heavy for him. now imagine his cousins (and uncle and aunt as well) going from only a few years older to being as old as Caspian on his death bed, if not already gone.

so, would they all come back to their younger selves when Eustace and Jill get back to Aslan's country by the end?

somehow, that makes me feel that Eustace would end up very close to Aslan, if not as much as Lucy herself. he changed his life when he came to Narnia for the first time, he freed him from the dragon's curse, and gave up his own blood to bring his family back to life.

on a much lighter note, it means that we might get a different string or events regarding Tirian visiting the Professor, Polly, and maybe Jill and Eustace

jill pole and her friend eustace clarence "do you remember how my entire family disappeared? turns out I went to a magical land and found them, we should go there" scrubb

the more you think about the pevensies staying in narnia, the funnier it gets in england

[abandoned-as-mustard]

do you ever stop to think about the fact that eustace and jill never actually “died” on earth, aside from never physically “dying” in narnia either (going through the stable door).

the others died in the train crash and went straight to aslan’s country, but eustace and jill got pulled into narnia to help king tirian.

so somewhere on earth, they’ll find the bodies of the pevensies, diggory and polly, but eustace and jill would be missing, presumed dead.

and i didn’t pick up on that till now.

so, technically, eustace and jill could have continued living on earth afterwards and probably got married, but perhaps aslan knew it would be a miserable life without any of their friends? maybe they would’ve forgotten narnia too, like susan.

[e-louise-bates]

Talk about the Netflix adaptations of Narnia has resurfaced again, and it’s made me think about some of the things I would desperately love to see in it.

1. NOT MIDDLE EARTH LITE!! There is this weird but pervasive notion out there that Narnia is some sort of weaker, less thoughtful, shallower version of Middle Earth. This is so, so far from the truth. Narnia follows it own rules, forges its own path. (I suspect this is tied into the “it’s so popular it can’t really have depth” notion that plagued Lewis even throughout his lifetime, even with his apologetics, as though the ability to take deep truths and translate them into something accessible for everyone isn’t a rare and precious gift.) I want to see the untamed-but-safe aspect of Narnia, as well as the places where maybe it isn’t so safe. I want to see a world that is a blend of medieval and ancient myth. I want to see richness of color, of texture, of JOY. Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth is a beautiful thing, but it is not Narnia, and it is doing both a disservice to try to imitate it. Let Narnia be its own world.

2. Tie it into medieval cosmology, but subtly. Okay, this one is a little abstract. I read Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia years ago, and I went into it a firm skeptic, and came out seeing that even if each book wasn’t deliberately tied into one of medieval cosmology’s planets the way Ward depicted, they could be read in that way without doing violence to the text, and oh, what a rich layer of meaning and beauty that adds. Please, Netflix, get a medieval scholar on your team and let them loose on symbolism, it would be AMAZING.

3. More myths! Here’s another area that many people tend to misunderstand what Lewis was doing in Narnia. They take the “JRR Tolkien thought Narnia was a sloppy conglomeration of myths” idea (which isn’t even exactly true) and run with it, acting as though Lewis simply couldn’t be bothered to come up with his own mythology. No, no, no. Lewis had come to see (through Tolkien’s arguments, no less!) all myths as pointing toward the “true” myth of Christianity. So why would he not include them all in Narnia, to show how many different facets come together to show a beautiful image of truth? And when we look at it in that light, well, we have no need to stick to only the myths Lewis himself knew and loved. We can add in myths and mythological beings from all around the world.

4. Well done cultural representation. Regarding point 3, we do not want cultural appropriation, please no! So, if we want to do myths from around the world, we need representation as well. Just as Rick Riordan has done with his Rick Riordan Presents, giving POC opportunity to share their own myths with their own voices, I would love to see POC behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera, having input into how the myths should be used as well as being seen. Narnia belongs to everyone, and we should show that! I have ideas of some ways that I think could be done well (a Polynesian-influenced Lone Islands is one of them), but I would much rather see how the cultures to whom those myths and traditions belong want to see them used. Because I have blind spots, and something that I think could be great could actually end up being hurtful to the people of that culture.

4b. Staying true to the spirit of Narnia without being slavish to descriptions. Look, Lewis never once complained that Pauline Baynes drew Lucy with brown hair when he described her as golden-haired, so even he wasn’t as fussy at one might expect. Lewis thought in images, and those images were generally a representation of a particular idea or feeling. (Which, I believe, is why you get Mrs. Beaver with a sewing machine--it’s meant to evoke a feeling of homeliness, comfort, and peace, even though technically a medieval society wouldn’t have had sewing machines yet. Again--not sloppiness on Lewis’s part, rather his way of painting pictures for his readers.) So then, why not an Indian Jill Pole? Or a black King Frank and Queen Helen? Or a black Ramandu and Star’s Daughter? Or half a dozen other characters that I haven’t even thought of? Not “diversity for diversity’s sake,” but genuinely looking at the stories and saying, “how can we show that Narnia is for everyone?” Again, Netflix would need to consult with people from various cultures to make sure they are being represented in a way that is helpful, not harmful, but I honestly believe that this would honor Lewis’s vision of Narnia MORE than sticking so closely to book descriptions that there’s no room for imagination.

5. Additional storylines and subplots that deepen and enhance the existing stories, rather than altering them. For example, I have been on-and-off writing (most off this last year, I confess) a Silver Chair screenplay which leaves the main storyline intact, but adds a subplot of rebellion in the Lone Islands and an attempt to make Caspian’s cousin’s child the new ruler of Narnia. It gives added tension for the viewer, because they are now wondering if there will even be a Narnia for Rillian to return to or if it will be torn apart by civil war, and it stretches things out, without changing ONE SINGLE THING about the story as Lewis told it. This is all stuff that could have been happening off the page while Jill, Eustace, and Puddleglum were trudging northward. That’s the sort of thing I’d love to see in this adaptation, as well as brand-new, original stories told in-between books. There’s a whole lot of room between Rillian and Tirian, between Frank & Helen and the White Witch, between the Pevensies leaving and the Telmarines arriving. There’s even plenty of room for stories between Caspian’s coronation and his journey east, as well as between his return from that journey and the start of Silver Chair. You could include stories from the Telmarine occupation, but I personally think that would be boring since the Telmarines tries to suppress everything that makes Narnia special, so let’s skip that period.

6. Let’s try not to make the children from 1940s England think and act like modern day teenagers, please. I realize we want them to be accessible to today’s mentalities, but I really, really don’t need another floppy-haired angsty Peter. Or Lucy discovering that she just needs to love and accept herself. Those are not necessarily bad character developments, they just don’t really work with the attitudes and mindsets of the era these characters are from.

7. Joy, joy, joy. Narnia is a land that has a deep thread of joy running through it. It is wild and free, it was born out of song, and it is above all joyful. As I mentioned in the first point, if you try to make it look too much like all the other medieval fantasy worlds out there, you lose its unique flavor. And if you lose the joyfulness that underlies everything, you don’t have Narnia. Oh please, let me see a joyful Narnia.

[narniagiftexchange]

                                      THE WINTER NARNIAN GIFT EXCHANGE.

                                   for @bexlynne  by  @luxaofhesperides .

DREAMING OF A GREENER GRASS.

 Jill wakes up with an apple in her hand.

 This is not the first time this has happened: she’ll dream and in those dreams pick up a variety of objects that somehow end up in her hands when she wakes up. The dreams themselves are vivid and feel real, as though she never fell asleep at all. The strangeness of it all forces her to keep quiet, but whenever her mind isn’t occupied by her studies, she wonders about it.

  At least this time it’s something mundane and easily forgotten. Food can easily be eaten or left on a table for someone else. It’s much harder to hide daggers and bear claws and gem-studded cups. She had a hard time hiding those ones, especially when Eustace asked if she had picked up anything recently with a strangely sharp look in his eyes.

 Sighing, she forces herself out of bed and sets the apple down on her bedside table. Lately, she’s become the first one to wake up in her dorm room, rather than the last. Sleep evades her the moment the sun rises, and Jill has given up on falling back asleep after the first week when she lay in bed, bored, for two hours.

 The new boarding school she goes to has separate buildings for girls and boys, and sticks four students per room. It’s a cramped space, and Jill is beginning to worry about where to hide things; sooner or later she’s going to run out of room under her mattress.

 It’s the last day of class, and Jill skips it because she’s not going to be doing anything in a stuffy old classroom, so she might as well do nothing outside. She’s a decent enough student that skipping a few classes means nothing to her, and no one cares enough to hunt her down. And whenever she chooses to spend her day hidden outside, laying on the grass, Eustace always stumbles upon her and keeps her company.

 He really has changed, she thinks, but then again, so has she. Narnia leaves quite the mark on people, even if it’s not so visible.

 “Fancy seeing you here, Pole,” Eustace says, dropping down into the grass beside her. “Never would have thought I’d see you skipping class.”

 “Ugh, spare me,” she groans, swatting his arm, “I’ve heard that joke too often. What’s brought you to my neck of the woods then?”

 He shrugs. “Just felt like it.”

 Jill hums, and lets the silence settle between them.

 “It’s… been quite some time since we came back, hasn’t it?” she muses, thinking out loud. Since the dreams started, her thoughts turn to Narnia more and more, and there’s only one person she knows who would understand what she speaks of.

 She expects Eustace to ask her why she’s bringing this up now, or not really answer at all. They haven’t spoken of Narnia since the first week back, when they arrived at this new school after the abrupt closing of Experiment House. He does neither of these things; instead, he says, a little quiet, a little melancholy, “It has been a while. Somehow, leaving a second time is worse.”

 Jill turns her head to look at him. He has his head tilted back, looking up at the sky in all it’s bright and blue glory. “In what way?”

 “It was much more abrupt this time. And Capsian…” He trails off. “Last time, we stood at the edge of the world, and had a chance to say goodbye. It was hard for my cousins, since it was the last time they’d ever be in Narnia. And they told me about how time flows differently there, how they lost a thousand years. But I guess I never expected to see him die of old age. Never really expected so much time to pass.”

 He’s much more open with his emotions now. It’s nice, Jill thinks, remembering back to Experiment House, just a year before, where he sneered at people who cried and vehemently avoided any talk of feelings. She couldn’t stand that Eustace. But this one, the Eustace besides her, is her dearest friend.

 She’s lucky to have him with her.

 Jill hopes that Tirian has someone like Eustace with him; a friend, someone to rely on. Someone to trust.

 “Do you think we’ll ever go back?” Jill asks, reaching out to hold his hand, offer a small comfort.

 He’s silent for a while. Just breathing, existing besides her.

 “No,” he says, “Not me, at least. Maybe you, but I think that was the last of Narnia I’ll ever see.”

 “I don’t want to be in Narnia without you. It’s you, Puddleglum, and Tirian that I was there for, after all.”

 Eustace smiles, and finally turns to face her. “How weirdly sweet of you. Did you eat something funny this morning?”

 Scowling, she slaps his arm again as he laughs, then pauses. “Actually…”

 “Wait, if you actually feel bad, go take some medicine.”

 “No, no, not that,” Jill reassures, “It’s just that. Lately, there’s been something…      strange     going on.”

 “Strange?” Eustace repeats.

 “Strange,” Jill says, “Very strange.”

 He eyes her for a moment, looking serious  as she lays sprawled on the grass, then slowly leans back until he lies on the ground as well.

 “Well, give it to me straight. Are we going to die?”

 “My dreams are real,” she bursts out, and Eustace blinks, trying to process her words.

 Pursing his lips, he says, “I’m not quite sure how to explain to you that that’s not how dreams work.”

 “I      mean    , I dream things and I wake up with them. I dreamed up an apple and I was holding it when I woke up.”

 “Are you sure you just haven’t been sleep walking and hungry at night?”

 "I dreamed up a sword and a jewel covered cup.”

 Eustace shots up as though he’s been shocked, and stares at her with wide eyes. “Does the cup have emeralds in it,” he says, growing louder with each word, “Is it made of gold?”

 Jill stares back, unsure of where this is going. “…Yes,” she slowly answers, “How could you possibly know that?”

 “I was a dragon.”

 “I need a little more explanation, Scrubb.”

 He waves his hand in the air. “You know.” Jill does not know. She stares.

 “Last summer, when I ended up in Narnia with my cousins, I became a dragon because I tried to steal gold from a dragon’s hoard. Aslan fixed me up, but I still carry some dragon traits.”

 “Like what?”

 “Well, I’m really good at finding things. And I know when someone has something valuable. That’s how I knew you had something with gold and emeralds a while back; it’s like a sense, or a certain smell. I can’t explain it, but it’s how I was when I was a dragon.”

 “Huh,” Jill says. “Well. That’s. Hmm.”

 Eustace shrugs. “Narnia leaves its mark on people. I just the dreams are your mark.”

 “Hmm,” she says, and files this new information away for later.

 That’s all they say of it that day, before Eustace turns the topic onto his newfound love of baking, and they say their goodbyes, promising to meet up during the summer despite the distance between their homes.

 It takes a few nights of testing. Jill dreams and tests the limits of her awareness; she’s practically awake, but there’s a haze covering everything, making it feel unreal. She supposes it      is     unreal, being a dream and all. Even so, she explores her dreamscapes, mostly neighborhoods and unfamiliar house and sometimes a forest filled with silence.

 She brings back an acorn and a blue mug to the waking world, then starts to test the limits of her dreams.

 Just like lucid dreaming, Jill can control her dreams, to a certain extent. It takes a great amount of focus to change the landscape, so great that she wakes up immediately after managing it. Every night it becomes easier, and that’s all Jill needs to keep going.

 She can also dream up certain things. She calls up flowers and candles and even a few birds. Jill begins to wake up more exhausted, but the thrill of controlling her dreams makes her push past it. She’s been successful in every one of her experiments so far, but the next is what she’s been looking forward to.

 Jill spends the day distracted, writing a letter to Eustace about spending a day together, and does her best to picture him as accurately as possible as she writes, She barely tastes any food she eats and can’t remember a single word her father has said; instead Jill is focused on the ticking of the clock, waiting for the hours to pass and the sun to go down.

 The nerves alone almost keep her from falling asleep. But the pull of it is too strong to be put off for long, and a few minutes after she’s laid down, staring at the sliver of moonlight that managed to slip past her curtains, Jill is falling into darkness and opening her eyes in a dream.

 “Okay,” she says to herself, psyching herself up, “Worst thing that can happen is that it doesn’t work.”

 Letting out a deep breath, Jill stands and surveys the landscape around her. The grounds of Experiment House greet her. She stands at the bushes where Eustace first told her of Narnia; perhaps her subconscious still has some say on what she dreams.

 She focuses, staring into the empty space in front of her, trying to pull Eustace in. The familiar drop of her stomach hits, and suddenly, he’s there, confused but undoubtedly Eustace.

 Jill laughs, giddy with excitement, and throws herself forwards to hug him.

 “What– Jill?” he says, patting her back. He’s shocked enough to use her first name, which makes Jill laugh even more. Perhaps it’s time for first names, anyways. They’ve already helped Narnia together. Surely being kidnapped into her dream is a good enough time to stop using their surnames.

 “Eustace! You’re in my dream!”

 “Oh, well, excuse me. Didn’t mean to intrude.”

 She rolls her eyes and pulls away from him to let him look around. “No, you dolt,” she says, “Don’t be so polite. I pulled you into my dream.”

 “Oh!” he says, “This is the dream thing you told me about a while ago!”

 “The very same.”

 “And you choose to dream about Experiment House?” Eustace sounds far too judgemental for someone who can’t control his dreams. Unacceptable.

 She tosses her head and says, “No! Well, not really. I don’t choose what my dreams look like when I first end up in them. But I can change the landscape! Takes a lot out of me, but I can do it.”

 Eustace hums in response, not bothering to say anything. He sounds disbelieving, which. Rude. Jill wants to change the landscape just to spite him, but she knows it’ll end her time in the dream rather quickly. Maybe some other time she’ll be able to show off and prove him wrong.

 For now, Jill focuses on another issue.

 “You’re properly Eustace, right?” she asks. “Not just a version of him my mind’s created, but you’re really you, right?”

 He frowns, and says, “Well, I hope so. I’m not sure how to tell if I’m not me.”

 “Well, we’ll know when we wake up and you remember this. Oh!” Jill stops, holds out her hand, and imagines an apple dropping into it. Once it’s in her hand, she tosses it to Eustace, who fumbles with the catch. “Assuming you are really Eustace, let me know when see each other in two days if you wake up with that apple in hand.”

 “Hey!” Eustace suddenly exclaims, “If this does work, then you can dream me up ingredients and I won’t have to go shopping for them!”

 Jill stares at Eustace, who grins as though he’s thought of something very clever, then sighs.

 “I can’t believe you,” she groans. “I can dream things up and pull them into reality, and you want to turn me into a grocery store?!”

 “Well, you’re not really a grocery store since I won’t be paying you.”

 “And why won’t you be paying me!”

 “Can’t you just dream up some money?”

 Jill pauses, then tilts her head, considering. “You know what? I      could    do that.” She shakes her head, turning back to the matter at hand. “Anyways, you have to let me know if it works! I still haven’t figured out everything with this whole dreaming business.”

 “I will, I will! Now, can you dream us somewhere else? I was really hoping I’d never see this place again.”

 “Pole!” Eustace waves at her from across the street, then quickly makes his way over, grinning. “Come on, my house is close by and my parents are out so we can talk about Narnia without anyone overhearing.”

 “Alright, lead the way,” she says, gesturing for him to go forth. “Say, have you had any strange dreams lately?”

 He turns back to grin at her as he pushes past people on the sidewalk. “I have actually. Dreamed we were back at Experiment House and you gave me an apple.”

 “So it worked!”

 “Well, the apple was gone when I woke up, but besides that, I’d say it did.”

 “Good. There’s one more thing I want to try, then.”

 Eustace turns the corner and Jill hurries to catch up, squeezing past people and bumping into quite a few more in her hurry. He laughs when she calls out to him to slow down, but waits for her at the end of the street. He doesn’t bother dodging when Jill punches his shoulder, so she calls it even and he slows down enough for her to keep up.

 “You’re always such a menace,” she grumbles ash she waits for him to unlock the door of his house and let her in.

 “You’re the one who came across town today, not me. You could have just stayed home.”

 “Shut up. It’s so I can know the results of the dream.”

 “And definitely not because we’re friends,” Eustace teases, opening the door..

 Jill elbows him as she steps inside, looking away to hide a smile. “Of course not, why would I ever have friends when I’m busy taking over the world?”

 “Then I guess you didn’t come for the cake either.”

 “Oh, no, the cake is the only reason I’m here, actually.”

 “Well!” Eustace says, clapping his hands together as he kicks the door shut. “Come on, let me get you a slice and you can tell me how it is.”

 He leads her to the kitchen and shoves a pile of letters and other papers to the side before pulling out plates and forks. The cake he takes out of the fridge actually looks nice, shaped by the placement of thin apple slices and lightly covered in caramel.

 Jill whistles. “Wow, that actually looks edible!”

 “We’ll see if it is once you eat it.”

 “Can’t believe I’m willing to die for this cake,” Jill grumbles as Eustace carefully cuts out a slice and lays it on a plate. He hands it to her and watches nervously as she takes a bite. Just to mess with him, Jill is careful to from being to expression, making him fidget more each second. Then she smiles and nods her head.

 “Alright,” she says, “That’s a damn good cake.”

 The grin Eustace gives her is bright and his shoulders slump as though a great weight were taken off of them. “I’m glad. I was worried it’d turn out bad.”

 “Keep baking like this and I’m sure you’ll be opening up your own shop soon enough.”

 “You think so?”

 “Yeah, so long as you give me a few discounts when I come by.”

 “That aside!” Eustace says, fighting off a blush, “The dreams!”

 Setting her empty plate down, Jill nods, leaning back against the counter. “The dreams,” she repeats. “Were you really there? How much do you remember?”

 “All of it. So it really works? You can really control your dreams?”

 “And bring other people into them, it seems. But I guess only I can bring things I dream up back into the real world.”

 “What are you going to do next?”

 Jill tugs on the hem of her shirt, and looks away, suddenly feeling anxious. “Well, I was going to try to bring Tirian into my dream.”

 “But he’s in Narnia,” Eustace says, shocked, “We don’t even know how much time has passed since we left.”

 “I want to try, at least. I keep wishing we were able to spend more time with him.”

 Eustace sighs, then nods. “Alright. But bring me into your dream if you’re going to try. I don’t want you to end up stuck in your dreams because some Narnian magic trapped you.”

 The relief she feels is overwhelming. While part of her anxiety came from worrying whether it was possible to bring Tirian into her dreams, another part was worrying about what she should do if she got stuck in Narnia through her dreams and couldn’t wake up. There was no one else she could ask her help, not in this world, but at least she wouldn’t have to go about it alone.

 How lucky she is to have Eustace as a friend.

 Maybe she should dream up ingredients to bring him next time.

 “So how’s this all work?”

 “Well,” Jill frowns, “I just kind of. Imagine what I want in my dreams and try to bring it to me. It takes more effort with anything larger than a chair, but it’s worked for me so far.”

 “It’s all very-” Eustace waves a hand in the air, “-vague. Magicky. You know.”

 “It’s a      dream    , of course it’s vague! It’s not like I got step by step instructions on this.”

 This time Jill dreams up her grandparent’s house out in the country, and old thing surrounded by green fields and wildflowers. Eustace is looking around, poking the wooden fence that is falling apart and inspecting the flowers beneath it as though he expects his hand to phase through them. But Jill’s dreams are always surprisingly real; the world around her is solid and both she and Eustace are able to interact with it as though they’re awake.

 “Alright,” Jill says, taking a deep breath, “Wish me luck.”

 “No,” Eustace says almost immediately, shooting her a grin.

 She sticks her tongue out at him, then concentrates on the space in front of her. She thinks back to Tirian, tied in the chair, helping them through the cave, returning to Narnia and turning back to them moments before Aslan returned them to Earth. She focuses, imagines him standing in front of her, and      pulls.  

 For a moment, nothing happens. The disappointment sinks like an anchor in her stomach, then the air in front of her warps, shimmers, shifts.

 Tirian slowly comes into focus, eyes closed and sleeping. He sways for a moment, suspended in the air, before he pitches forwards. Eustace rushes forwards and catches him just as Jill throws herself on the ground to cushion their fall.

 It’s only because this is a dream that she’s not feeling pain, but the impact knocks the breath out of her regardless.

 Carefully, Eustace sits up and pulls Tirian with him, allowing Jill to move and push herself off the ground. Tirian sleeps through this, too.

 As Eustace tries to shake him awake, Jill claps her hands in front of his face a few times, then frowns.

 “Maybe it’s because he’s in Narnia that he’s asleep?”

 “I mean… It’s a good a guess as any,” Eustace says, pinching Tirian’s cheeks. “Can’t you dream him awake?”

 An idea forms in her head that makes her grin. “Oh, I can do you one better,” she grins, then imagines a bucketful of cold water being dumped on their heads.

 Immediately, Eustace is jumping up, shocked and offended. Tirian sputters, rolling away and then sitting up to shake his head.

 “What?” he says, looking around panicked, “Hello? What? Where am I?”

 Jill quickly dreams the water off them both, then reaches down to grab Tirian’s hands and pull him up onto his feet.

 “Welcome to my dream, Tirian!”

 He stares at her for a long moment, eyes wide, shocked. He glances behind her at Eustace, then softens.

 “My friends!” he says, throwing his arms out, “I never thought I’d see you again!”

 Laughing, Eustace barrels into both of them, trapping them in a hug.

 They stay there together for a long time, just reveling in the feeling of being together again, without having to worry about being whisked away and forgotten. It feels so real, and for a moment, Jill is horribly heartbroken to know that when she wakes up, she will be alone. Eustace will be across the city and Tirian will be a world away.

 As though he knows what she’s thinking, Eustace tightens his grip on her, then pulls away. His eyes are bright with unshed tears, and Jill swears that, for a moment, they look golden.

 “How am I here?” Tirian asks, looking at them with wonder in his eyes.

 “It’s all her,” Eustace says, patting Jill’s shoulder. She flushes and shakes her head.

 “I don’t really know how it works, but I can control my dreams. Make bits of them reality. So I dreamed you here.”

 “Incredible!” Tirian beams. “I am glad to know you have not forgotten me.”

 She shrugs. “Yeah well, I thought it was a shame that we didn’t get to spend much time together. Eustace too, though he’s spent more time in Narnia that I.”

 “Yes, my father used to tell me stories about his voyage! I’m still having trouble remembering them, the memories come without warning, but you were a dragon, weren’t you?”

 “I was,” Eustace answers, “It didn’t last, obviously, and while it scared me at first, I have to admit that being a dragon was rather fun.”

 “How unfair,” Jill mopes, “You get to be a dragon and travel to different places, and I almost get eaten by giants!”

 “I also almost got eaten by giants. I was there too.”

 “Well, this isn’t about you.”

 Tirian laughs at their banter. “You must be very close. I can only hope I have a friendship as good as yours someday.”

 “You’re friends with us, aren’t you?” Jill asks, “We didn’t get much time together, but I think of you as my friend.”

 “Same here,” Eustace says, reaching out to sling an arm around Tirian’s shoulder. “Say, would you like some cake? I’ve taken to baking recently.”

 Jill imagines the apple cake she had the other day and carefully imagines it sliced, then imagines a table and a few chairs so they don’t have to eat on the ground. Tirian startles when they suddenly appear, then follows Eustace’s lead and takes a seat.

 “I hate to ask this,” Tirian starts, “But how long do we have? We have to wake up eventually, right?”

 “We do, but we can always meet again the next night.”

 “Say,” Eustace cuts in, “How long do we have left in here?”

 “I’ve decided: time isn’t real, so we’ll wake up when we want to.”

 Eustace throws a cake crumb at her. “That’s not how it works!”

 “Excuse me, but is this      your     dream? Thought not. Don’t tell me what to do.”

 Tirian watches them bicker as he eats his cake, and Jill is glad to see that he seems happier, lighter, compared to when they had rescued him. He was doing well in Narnia, and she decided that even if she can never see him in person, knowing he’s alright is more than enough for her.

 “Tirian, give me something,” she says suddenly, holding out a hand. “I want to make sure I can call you back.”

 Without question or hesitation, he slips a necklace off and drops it into her hand. It’s a simple coin engraved with a lion, and Eustace focuses on it intently, before nodding to himself and relaxing back into his seat.

 “You better not lose that, Jill. It’s high quality gold.”

 “Dragons should mind their own business,” she replies, then throws a crumb at him. “Enough of that now, tell me what you’ve been up to! Have you been well? What’s Narnia like now?”

 Jill wakes up, feeling lighter and happier than she has in years. All that dreaming and imagining did make that bone deep exhaustion settle in her, but after seeing Tirian again, it’s more than worth it. She sits up, prepared to look through maps and wander around London to dream it more accurately, when something falls off her chest into her lap.

 The gold coin of the necklace seems even brighter in the waking world, and for a moment, Jill can swear she sees the lion smile.

[doverstar]

One of the most frustrating things about The Last Battle tag is that everyone ignores the rest of the book and only focuses on Susan. I didn’t type ‘Susan Pevensie’. I want to hear opinions on Eustace dying for Narnia and Jill not getting her string wet and the dwarves that fool themselves through eternity and how freaky Tash is. And how loyal Jewel is. And Tirian being the second-best Son of Adam king Narnia ever had. And how wonderful Aslan’s Country is.  The Last Battle is not all Susan; she gets maybe a paragraph of dialogue spoken about her. That’s it. Narnia died and all kinds of amazing things happen in that book. I cry reading it every five minutes. Why is everyone sleeping on this incredible finale?

Where are the playlists and the aesthetics and the quotes that don’t have to do with Susan and the train?

[livehorses]

I finished at last the whole book series of The Chronicles of Narnia. 

(Spoilers ahead)

And well, I got mixed feelings while reading it. Happy because these characters at last are living happily ever after, meeting with old friends, finding the real Narnia more and more beautiful.

But also frustrated. I found myself trying with all my strength to imagine all the landscapes descriptions, and finding that I wasn’t able to imagine nor 10 percent of it. All in my mind was sort of blurred and limitated. Also more frustrated because the story was ending for me, and for them was just the beginning of the Great Story, which I wasn’t able to read, in which the next chapter was better than the last one, AND I WASN’T ABLE TO READ IT! I couldn’t imagine their happiness, maybe because I’m passing through a life crisis within myself. 

Maybe because I’m still on the unreal lands, and my vision is limitated and can only remembers these. now I understand why everyone, while talking about The Last Battle, doesn’t focus more in King Tirian, or in Trick the monkey, but are more focused in Susan:

Many of us are Susan.

We live so focused in terrenal things, that we sometimes forgot what is more valuable. But when we meet with these superior things, we felt like we are missing something. And the more we want to understand, the more blurred it become for us. As Susan, we must follow a path that lead us to understand those things people like Lucy, Edmund, Peter, Eustace, Jill, Digory and Polly were able to understand. It is in our hands, to find the answers of the questions, to open our minds and hearts, to become true, so we can understand, and find in due time, the real lands, and the real happiness.

Thank you C.S Lewis, you knew what you were talking about. You were never wrong.

[sojourner-between-worlds]

The Problem of Susan, pt.2

In case you missed it, the first part is here. You don’t have to read that first, but if you’re curious on reasons why all views are valid on this subject or why the witnesses are, indeed, reliable, then head on over to that link.

This post, however, is my own personal view on Susan’s fate, in regard to the series itself. There will be a third post with a Biblical perspective, as well. (It was supposed to all be in one, but I think this is far long enough for one sitting.)

I’m not trying to convince anyone to change what they think (I’ve already stated more than once that every view is a valid one), but I do hope I can get you to think about your own view -- question it, refine it, make it better. (Differing opinions don’t have to be bad, yes?) Feel free to comment/message me/reblog/whatever; I’m down for discourse on this. (Dangerous words, I know. I might even change my mind!) So let’s get started, shall we?

(All quotes taken from the 2008 HarperCollins Edition, which is a 7-in-1 volume so page numbers will not reflect single books.) 

Susan Pevensie is never reunited with her siblings and Aslan.

I debated starting with the typical passage everyone practically has memorized from reading it so many times in posts like these (you know the one, from the Last Battle, that literally everyone sites no matter their stance), and decided against it. If you want to see what I have to say about that passage specifically, you can head on back up to that link and read part one. The bits relevant to this post can be summed up as follows: None of her siblings deny what is said. It would be one thing if they were just talking among themselves, but Tirian is there. Tirian who knows nothing of the Gentle Queen except of her life in Narnia. Why would they want him to start thinking badly of her? They wouldn’t. But they also don’t want to deny the truth or sugar-coat it either. So good ol’ Peter changes the subject, and that’s all. He can’t deny that she indeed did say that Narnia was just fantasy, but he doesn’t wish to see her time in Narnia tainted either.

What I take from that popular passage? Susan disowned Narnia.

So let me take this a little further, and very simply refute a lot of popular opinions in one go: Aslan did not abandon her; she abandoned Narnia. If you think Aslan abandoned her, you need to go reread the entire series because thinking that He abandoned her goes against the very character established over the course of the books. The reason she was not allowed to return with them was not because she ‘grew up.’ She grew up in Narnia, too. She had suitors. (...Or did you just miss that entire subplot in the Horse and His Boy?) As a queen, she would have had many beautiful gowns. She didn’t like to go to war, but nowhere was she ever made out to be less of a queen because of that (and, let’s face it: ruling a country is a lot more than just marching off to war; she may have opted out of battle, but she definitely wasn’t just sitting on her butt doing nothing while her siblings were away). In fact, nowhere was she made out to be less of a queen for any of the above mentioned things. In fact, Tirian immediately recognizes that she’s missing. If those things had made her less of a queen, why would he know her just as he knew the others? She was seen as a powerful queen for her femininity just as much as Lucy was seen as powerful for being a warrior, because those things were not, of themselves, bad things. 

So what really happened then?

It was a choice. Plain and simple.

Just like her siblings, she made a choice when she returned to England. They choose to remember and talk about it often. She choose to forget.

I might add here, though, that it may not have necessarily been a conscious choice -- to forget, at least. If you’ll all remember how, at the end of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, they had all forgotten England as if it had been “a dream, or a dream of a dream.” They forgot England because it wasn’t a prominent part of their lives and it wasn’t relevant to ruling in Narnia. Susan could have just as easily forgotten Narnia the same way. 

However, it was still a choice. It was still a choice for her to stop talking about Narnia with her siblings. And when she stopped talking about it, she genuinely forgot that it was real. But what drove her to the choice of forgetting? Choosing to become so engrossed in England and choosing to regard everything that happened in Narnia as unimportant.

“But she was just doing what Aslan told her to do! To move on!” Yes, that is true. But not entirely. We don’t know what exactly Aslan said to Peter and Susan before they left for the last time, but if we’re assuming they were told the same as Edmund and Lucy, then we have to assume they were told everything the same, which means that not only were Peter and Susan told to live in their own world but they were supposed to try to find Aslan as he was known there. Completely forgetting and becoming engrossed in the world doesn’t fit the second half, now does it?

It was a choice. Plain and simple. And Susan chose wrong.

So now that I’ve established that the fault is hers and hers alone, why do I think she never made it back eventually?

Let’s start by talking about materialism.

Because it’s about her faith, not materialism.

A lot of people argue about what role materialism plays and just how far it goes towards her eternal destination, so let me offer this: Materialism was not the issue, but it did play a part. Susan’s materialism (lipstick and nylons and invitations) was the visible quantity by which they measured her spiritual decline. We can’t see anyone else’s heart, but people’s hearts are reflected in what they value. Susan placed value on material things, and that’s what other people saw and recognized, and that’s why Jill made a point of it in the Last Battle. She couldn’t see Susan’s heart, but she could see the things Susan appeared to value.

But material things were never the problem in and of themselves -- as I already stated.

It was her faith -- or, rather, her lack thereof.

Again, I’d like to draw your attention back to the idea of forgetting. When they were in Narnia the first time, they all forgot England. It wasn’t relevant to their current lives, so they didn’t talk much about it or think much about it. When Susan returned from their second trip, the same was true for her. Living in England and knowing she would never return, Narnia was no longer relevant to her. Unlike her siblings, she didn’t seek to hold onto that knowledge and so didn’t talk about it anymore or even really think about it.

I’ve always been told you make time for the things that are important to you. When you love something, you want to talk about it, right? (I mean, c’mon, be honest with yourself: you wouldn’t be on tumblr if that wasn’t true. We all have things we love to talk about to the point that we’re willing to talk to perfect strangers about it, even.) The things that you love and that are important and that you value are the things you want to talk about. And, as Eustace tells us in the Last Battle, Susan no longer wanted to talk about Narnia.

When Narnia was no longer before her, what did she use to fill the void? Lipstick and nylons and invitations. Instead of finding faith, she chose to find the world.

(As an aside, I do fully believe she could have brushed it off as irrelevant at the first partially out of anger or bitterness or flat-out hurt at never being able to return. As time passed, perhaps she held a grudge, but perhaps she also came to realize that it was truly irrelevant and there was nothing else behind her forgetting. Regardless of either situation, it was still a choice, she still forgot, and it still happened over time, not right away.)

The progression of her fall can be summed up as follows:

Susan left Narnia and found it to be no longer relevant to her life.

Susan stopped talking about Narnia because it was no longer relevant to her and, as a result, became infatuated with worldly things.

Susan forgot Narnia and denounced it as a silly game.

But why would someone give up so easily on something they once loved?

Maybe because she didn’t really believe in the first place.

Let’s start with the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:

Even more than Peter, Susan didn’t want to believe Narnia was there in the first place.

After talking to Professor Kirke, Peter almost seems willing to believe it could be true (not that it necessarily is, only that it could be). 

“But do you really mean, sir,” said Peter, “that there could be other worlds -- all over the place, just round the corner -- like that?” --- “Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor. (Pg. 132) 

And Peter leaves it at that.

“But what are we to do?” said Susan. She felt that the conversation was beginning to get off the point. (Pg. 136) 

She couldn’t leave it alone, and felt that Lucy believing was solely the problem, not at all concerned with whether or not her sister had, in fact, been telling the truth. She refused to accept that it could be the truth and only wanted to know how to make her sister stop believing. She wouldn’t even consider it.

Susan starts out by making excuses. 

“I -- I wonder if there’s any point in going on,” said Susan. “I mean, it doesn’t seem particularly safe here and it looks as if it won’t be much fun either. And it’s getting colder every minute, and we’ve brought nothing to eat. What about just going home?” (Pg. 136-137). 

She only changes her mind for Lucy’s sake. She understands Lucy feeling guilty about Mr Tumnus, so, even though she’d rather go home, she gives in.

She tries to get them to turn around.

“Let’s go home,” said Susan. And then, though nobody said it out loud, everyone suddenly realized the same fact that Edmund had whispered to Peter at the end of the last chapter. They were lost. (Pg. 139)

The only reason she consents to follow Mr Beaver is because she realizes they are lost anyway so there’s no point in arguing over it.

Unlike the others, she regrets being there.

"How perfectly dreadful!” said Susan as they at last came back in despair. “Oh, how I wish we’d never come.” (Pg. 148)

Yes, those words could have just been spoken in regret over losing track of her brother, but she’s the only one to utter these words; Peter, instead, immediately asks what can be done. He and Lucy immediate look to what can be done instead of bemoaning their situation.

No one else tries to make any excuse to leave (except for Edmund, but we all know what he was like at that point in the story, and even he doesn’t fight as hard against it as she does). 

In summary: She was the only one who, even after seeing it for herself, didn’t want to stay.

And then in Prince Caspian:

Even after having ruled for fifteen years previously, Susan doubted.

“Where do you think you saw him?” asked Susan. --- “Don’t talk like a grown-up,” said Lucy, stamping her foot. “I didn’t think I saw him. I saw him.” (Pg. 373)

“Don’t be angry, Lu,” said Susan, “but I do think we should go down. I’m dead tired. Do let’s get out of this wretched wood into the open as quick as we can. And none of us except you saw anything.” (Pg. 374)

“Down,” said Peter after a long pause. “I know Lucy may be right after all, but I can’t help it. We must do one or the other.” (Pg. 374)

Peter at least acknowledges that Lucy could be right. Susan flat out refuses to believe Lucy saw anything because no one except her saw. As Edmund pointed out, this same type of situation had happened before, and Lucy had been right. And he says that before Susan casts her vote. Susan decides that doing what she would rather do is more important than trusting her sister and believing in Aslan.

Just like in LWW, she refuses to believe that Lucy is telling the truth and refuses to believe in Aslan.

Then she tried Susan. Susan did really wake up, but only to say in her most annoying grown-up voice, “You’ve been dreaming, Lucy. Go to sleep again.” (Pg. 381)

“Can you [see Aslan], Susan?” --- “No, of course I can’t,” snapped Susan. “Because there isn’t anything to see. She’s been dreaming. So lie down and go to sleep, Lucy.” (Pg. 383)

“Don’t talk nonsense, Lucy,” said Susan. “Of course you can’t go off on your own. Don’t let her, Peter. She’s being downright naughty.” --- “I’ll go with her, if she must go,” said Edmund. “She’s been right before.” --- “I know she has,” said Peter. “And she may have been right this morning [.]” (Pg. 383)

“You’ve no right to try to force the rest of us like that. It’s four to one and you’re the youngest,” said Susan. --- “Oh, come on,” growled Edmund. “We’ve got to go. There’ll be no peace till we do.” He fully intended to back Lucy up [.] (Pg. 384) (Technically three to two, since Edmund had already agreed to go with her. Susan doesn’t know how to count, lol.)

Even in Narnia, Susan’s first instinct is to tell Lucy, “You’ve been dreaming. It isn’t real.” Edmund fully backs her up; Peter doesn’t completely doubt her. Susan plays it off as make-believe because she can’t see Aslan with her own eyes.

Susan is the last of the Pevensies to be able to see Him -- and for good reason.

This time Edmund saw him. “Oh, Aslan!” he cried, darting forward. But the Lion whisked round and began padding up the slope on the far side of the Rush. --- “Peter, Peter,” cried Edmund. “Did you see?” --- “I saw something,” said Peter. (Pg. 385)

[A]nd always the glorious, silently pacing Beast ahead. Everyone except Susan and the Dwarf could see him now. (Pg. 385, emphasis mine.)

“I see him now. I’m sorry.” --- “That’s all right.” --- “But I’ve been far worse than you know. I really believed it was him - he, I mean - yesterday. ... I mean, deep down inside. Or I could have, if I’d let myself. ...” (Pg. 286, emphasis mine.)

Then, after an awful pause, the deep voice said, “Susan”. Susan made no answer but the others thought she was crying. “You have listened to fears child,” said Aslan. (Pg. 386)

Edmund could see Him by the time they crossed the river. Peter could see Him before they got to the top of the other side of the gorge. Susan couldn’t see him until they were well on their way after getting to the top again. Why did it take her so much longer? Because even in Narnia -- when she could see the world before her -- her faith in Aslan was weak. She said it herself: that she could have believed if she’d let herself. But other things -- fear in this case -- got in the way, and those fears were only swept aside after she could physically see Him with her own eyes.

In summary: Susan spends the majority of their time in Narnia the second time doubting Aslan is there, even though fifteen years of experience should have told her otherwise.

“Or, I could have, if I’d let myself.”

Susan didn’t just forget Narnia. She didn’t really believe in the first place. I don’t think she really wanted to believe, either.

From the very beginning, she had been dragged in, kicking and screaming the whole way. She adjusted to her life there by forgetting England. Then, suddenly, she was back in England again. I suppose maybe, just like her siblings, she had hoped to one day get back. But after she was told she could not return again? It didn’t matter if she remembered if she was never going to be able to go back. That knowledge wasn’t practical in England; it had no use for her, so she didn’t need to remember it.

During their second trip in Prince Caspian, she was in Narnia, she could see it with her own two eyes, and yet she didn’t believe when Lucy had said she saw Aslan. Even when Edmund and then Peter said they could see Aslan, she still could not because she didn’t believe He was there. It took her a long time to be able to see what was right in front of her the whole time. (What changed in that time? We don’t know; CS Lewis didn’t tell us her thoughts anymore than he gave us her definite fate. But, at some point, she relented to the fact that Aslan was there, probably because of her siblings and no other reason, just as she only ever really believed anything because of her siblings.) 

From the very beginning, she couldn’t bring herself to believe something existed unless she herself could see it right in front her.

And if, while in Narnia, she couldn’t believe Aslan was right there in front of her, why would she be able to believe when all of that was stripped away?

Including her siblings. Her only remaining tie to Narnia.

She has forgotten, she can no longer see it with her own eyes, and her siblings aren’t there to remind her of what once was.

Without going back again herself, there is nothing to bring her back to the place she once loved, even if she actually wanted to be there.

Susan Pevensie is never reunited with her siblings and Aslan.

[sideblog-for-thoughts]

Since Digory is supposed to be Tolkien, who brought Lewis to faith, I think he played a big role in the others finding Jesus or "Aslan in our world". He and Polly probably solved the puzzle relatively quick, as they witnessed the creation of Narnia and probably saw more of the lion's pure power and majesty than any other friend of Narnia. He's mentioned as tutoring Peter in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, so the Pevensies definitely stayed in contact with him after the Blitz. Maybe he also tutored them theologically, tried to drop hints even before they heard about the other name themselves. As the person who believed Lucy in LWW from the start, they would come to him anyway to talk about Narnia once in a while. He refused to tell any of them the truth right away, before Aslan told them about his other name, as he felt they needed to find their journey in their own time and he especially refused telling Edmund and Lucy before their last journey to Narnia. Peter had a long discussion about this with him after his own last time there and again after Susan had drifted away from faith, since his own urge was always to teach his siblings and keep them close to faith since he found out the importance of it. The Pevensies also asked Digory what to do with Eustace after he heard them talk about Narnia and kept ridiculing them. Digory assured them that Eustace would have his own journey and need it, and that all they could do now was treating him with love. Edmund didn't always manage that, but he and Lucy both tried during their time in Cambridge. Lucy suggested telling Eustace the truth after his first adventure, but again Digory reminded her that Eustace would be told this part another time, as he still could go to Narnia again. Those friends of Narnia that knew already would regularly meet up as often as war allowed and have bible study together, usually hosted by Polly and Digory. Once in a while, they'd invite Eustace and Jill although their journey wasn't over yet. Susan was also still invited but she always refused. This is what Tirian saw them at when he envisioned them in The Last Battle right before Eustace and Jill came to his help.

Discussion #10

At the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Aslan tells Lucy and Edmund that he has another name in their world and that they must come to know him by it. We can assume the same thing was told to Peter and Susan, and by extension, this mission was probably passed on to the other Friends of Narnia. How do you think these characters discovered Aslan’s identity in our world? Who do you think found Him first? How do you think this revelation affected the rest of their lives in England?

[queenlucythevaliant]

Because it’s been on my mind a lot lately, let’s talk about recompense

The Professor’s country house was destroyed in our England, but the Pevensies find it again in the New England in the final pages of The Last Battle. As Mr. Tumnus tells them, “in that inner England, no good thing is destroyed.”

In Revelation, Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing recompense with me.” Recompense does not merely mean reward, as some translations put it; it means that every sad thing becomes untrue and that all our suffering on earth is paid back to us in joy.

I love love love how Lewis gives us a glimpse of this. The Professor’s house has not been destroyed and it will not ever be destroyed. It will stand forever because it is Good, and everything evil has been fully extricated from it.

Lucy mourns for Narnia-that-was at the stable door. It is good and right that she does this; the old Narnia was full of much that was good and noble. The all the works of Narnian hands perished behind that door, perhaps walls and towers that she herself had commissioned during the Golden Age. Yet they were bound up with the evil that has existed in that Narnia since the moment of its founding. They must perish, if evil is to be fully destroyed; they must be covered by the dark, uncaring waves of the sea, but they are still worth mourning.

Yet all those things, noble and good and fair, will stand forever in the new Narnia as they were meant to be: the works of human hands will flourish without taint of evil. The Professor’s house is perhaps a little different. Maybe some of the décor was made by subjugated Indian people while Digory’s father lived there with the British military. Now that ill is mended, replaced by something good and beautiful and untainted by anything wrong or evil. The house stands, made new, made perfect.

Cair Paravel, they find, is a winding patchwork of the first Cair Paravel, as it stood in the days of the first Queen Swanwhite before the White Witch’s conquest, and of the Cair Paravel of the Golden Age just as Peter and Edmund and Lucy remember it, and of Caspian’s rebuilt Cair Paravel, and of Tirian’s Cair Paravel before the Calormen’s razed it, and of every Cair Paravel in between. All the good remains. Every window that let in the morning sun, every lamp and chandelier that cast light about the ballroom, every tapestry. Yet it is not merely a patchwork of old things: there are rooms and lights and windows grander than anything any of her kings and queens could have imagined. No scar of battle or neglect can be found.

The castle of the Telmarines is more different still. The land on which the castle was built after the Telmarine conquest is still there, wild and free and uncorrupted. Yet so too is the astronomy tower where Caspian learned the truth of old Narnia. Yet this tower is not a blight upon the wild Narnian landscape. It bears no reminder of the brutal conquest that lead to the construction of the tower Caspian remembers, either in its placement or its architecture. This tower is part of the landscape, lovely and tall and fair and free.  

In New England, Jill and Eustace find the door behind the gym where they first entered Narnia. They find the empty classroom where they started a Bible study, and the office of Jill’s favorite teacher. Yet the gym itself where Jill was bullied is gone, and so it the head’s office; they are replaced with an enormous library and a series of bright, airy classrooms where all matter of fascinating subjects may be taught. Outside the school are the high cliffs and the river where Jill first encountered Aslan. They are far higher and lovelier than she remembers. Eustace stands at the very edge without fear. 

So it goes, on and on. Old things are present in their truest, most beautiful form. There is nothing left in them to remind one of anything evil. New, glorious, unimagined things are intertwined with those that existed in the old world. As they ascend, further up and further into the mountains of Aslan, they find rivers pouring down. The water, they find, is for the healing and reconciliation of the nations. The deserts of the New Calormen overflow with it, but it does nothing to tame the rugged beauty of the landscape.  

The friends of Narnia do not grieve for Susan. If she, in her own time, comes back to faith (as I am convinced that she will), then no sooner do the Seven Friends of Narnia finish the mountain’s ascent do they find Susan standing beside them. She is very old, but she grows young before their eyes, or perhaps they grow older, or maybe it is both. None of their bodies are those that they left behind in the train station; they are all stronger and fairer and deliciously comfortable.

(And if she does not join them--then when they reach the top of the mountain, Aslan wipes away their tears. “Grief is great,” he says, “but the time for weeping has passed. Here is fullness of joy.” From that point on, they think only of the wonderful times they shared with Susan. There is no more mourning. But as I said, I do not think believe this is how Susan’s story ends)

There is cultivation yet to do. There are great, unexplored lands beyond the mountains, full of adventures and the most pleasant, fulfilling kinds of work. Aslan’s mountain always remains in sight, scattering darkness away. 

In the presence of Aslan, at the throne of God, each of them is certain that they have never known a moments’ sorrow in their lives.

[treasureplanetsheep]

I’ve finished ‘The Last Battle!’

I can offically rank these babies!

From WORST to BEST imo:

7. Prince Caspian–eeeehhhhh??? Good to see the Pevensies again, sad to see Peter and Susan go, largely forgettable though.

6. The Magician’s Nephew-I think most people tend to read LWW first (or maybe it’s the only one they read) because it’s the most famous, so I though it was cool to see how Narnia began including the White Witch stuff and Diggory and Polly. Pretty forgettable though.

5. The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe-the first one I read out of the series, solid.

4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader-pretty much in the middle of my rankings. I know a lot of people usually have this ranked higher up on their lists because they like the island hopping adventure aspect. It’s solid but I just like some of the other books more.

3. The Last Battle- i’m surprised this ended up ranking as high as it is. I actually didn’t care for it when I started reading. The tone was definitely different from the other books. Bonus points for including Tash, Jill & Eustace. Tirian is one of my favorite princes out of the books and his friendship with Jewel the Unicorn is one of the purest things ever. Minus points for the Susan stuff. Specifically Polly and Lucy basically trash-talking her AS THEY ARE ABOUT TO GO TO HEAVEN. LIKE ???? REALLY????? HOW IS THAT OKAY?? you guys are legit about to get into heaven and you have the gall to complain about how she’s obsessed with lipsticks and nylons?? I would have drop-kicked Lucy and Polly outta that doorway in a heartbeat. Which basically makes me a terrible person, but the need to defend Susan is real. At least I can take solace in the fact that CS Lewis basically said she’d most likely find her way back to Narnia eventually.

2. The Horse and His Boy-I liked how it took place during the Pevensie’s reign. It also involved horses as the main companions to the two leads. And it took place in Calormen and Archenland. Shasta/Cor and Aravis were a good team.

1. The Silver Chair-where to start with this one?????

A) PUDDLEGUM- my favorite narnian companion ever. Love love love him he was so great. B) EUSTACE AND JILL-my favorite pair out of the books. They worked great together. I really liked them. Eustace had grown from his last experience and Jill was pretty awesome. Put them together with Puddlegum… C) THIS TRIO the three of them were fantastic together D) PRINCE RILIAN-my second favorite prince outta the narnian princes after Tirian. Sorry, Caspian, you’re my least fave but I don’t hate though. E) I liked how the trio struggled and screwed up a lot but they still managed to pull through in the end. F) we got to see the Wild Lands of the North!!!! I liked the locations of this book a lot. The owl counsel, the ettinsmoor, heck we even went underground!

Funnily enough my top two books didn’t really take place in Narnia.

[wasgentle-archive-blog]

narnia characters i would kill bribe someone to see on my dash: 

PETER PEVENSIE!!!! (please. P L E A S E. i will love you forever)  jill pole  eustace scrubb  caspian  jadis/the white witch professor kirke  tirian ramandu’s daughter aravis cor pevensie parents?? maybe?? that could be fun  listen do you UNDERSTAND the potential for OCs in narnia? let’s DO this so many okay there are SO MANY just..all of them.

[ellynneversweet]

Reading TLB at seven (I don’t think I reread it much): this is HORRIBLE?! Shift is really mean to Puzzle? All the horses die? All the dogs die? Narnia dies?! Susan is gone, which is weird and unsettling and seems to be because she’s a girly girl? Tirian is kind of a dickhead, but also seems to be showing off for Lucy in that One Line but aren’t they all, at this point, dead?

Reading TLB now: okay yeah this is still horrible but I do get it as a sort of thematic end to the notion of Christian allegory. Puzzle is being outright abused and Shift’s mother should have tossed him out of the tree at birth. Tirian is slightly less of a dickhead than I remember (not hard) but has no critical thinking abilities. I guess he’s quite young. He’s very Arthurian in that sort of so chivalrous it makes him stupid way. I guess anyone who’s besties with a unicorn must have some redeeming qualities. The poor horses and dogs! Oh wow this is kind of cathartic in its horror. The Susan thing makes more sense than in remember(Polly’s point being that it’s not that she’s feminine it’s that she’s shallow) but it still sucks. Still think there’s a weird romantic overtone to the Tirian and Lucy interaction. Peter’s got a literal golden key to heaven, how very Catholic. The true Narnia/heaven bit goes on way longer than I remembered. It’s a hill? …Oh shit Lucy’s the Beatrice to Tirian’s Dante, isn’t she. Hmmm. Does that make Eustace and Jill (maybe just Jill) the Virgil in this scenario?

Went back and finished the last two Narnia books and now I’m wondering if anyone has done a thesis on the references in The Silver Chair and The Last Battle to the Divine Comedy.

[doverstar]

PART TWO. 002 - Caspian/Lucy. \\ 003 - I don't think you said a single word about Edmund your whole previous post, so, Edmund!

I didn’t say anything about Edmund, but of course he’s wonderful!

How great are you, Charlai, that you would send me a follow-up? You’re so cool.

002 | Lucian (The Chronicles of Narnia)

When I started shipping them: The other day. I’m not kidding. Like two days ago, I was talking to my sister after having just finished re-reading The Last Battle (my favorite book in the series) and gushing about how I ship Tirian with Lucy, and she immediately responded with her deep love for Lucy/Caspian, and proceeded to explain how it made sense. I went on with my not-exactly-in-order re-reading of the series and read some pieces of The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader and…yeah. She’s right. SO cute.

My thoughts: He’s this lovely golden-haired boy king who is so polite and so chivalrous and hardcore, and technically he’d probably be Lucy’s age (though ALSO technically, she’s like generations older than him from Narnia’s viewpoint?). And he’s already in awe of the Queens and Kings of Old (Pevensies). Lucy is so darling and faithful and strong in the best ways, and how can he not be attracted to her? SHE’S THE ONLY GIRL ON THIS BOAT, YOUR HIGHNESS, YOU DON’T MEET A GIRL LIKE THAT EVERY DY-NA-STY. And if it hadn’t been for Lilliandil (daughter of a frickin’ STAR, Caspian’s cold future queen), and had Lucy stayed in Narnia a bit longer, I am confident they would have made an easy, sweet couple who never did anything wrong, ever. And I also have been listening to True Like Your Name by Steve Moakler, and that’s now their ‘song’ to me. I’m such an ear of corn.

What makes me happy about them: I think I just wrote about half of it up there (oops), but while Peter and Susan are not characters I could really ship with anyone (I can’t even handle well-made, believeable OCs, I just don’t ship them, no matter who it is, which is a bummer) I can easily ship Lucy with someone. And Edmund, though I can think of few people for him in Narnia’s map. Lucy apparently was the Queen of Old who every Narnian prince wanted for their king (I know Susan had suitors, too) and Caspian clearly has desirable qualities. I just think they’d be so adorable. Thank you, sister, for endearing me to them. This is all your fault.

What makes me sad about them: Lucy has to leave and live a dull life in our world, and Caspian meanwhile lives a lifetime in Narnia, marrying Lilliandil and dying nice and old, and for Lucy that’s just, what? Five years have gone by? Since the last time she saw him? They don’t see each other again till they’re in Aslan’s Country, and that’s no place to be concerned with flighty, silly things like romance. Ew. But yeah, it sucks that they were torn apart like that. It would be more painful, though, if Lewis had given us many hints between the two. Luckily, we were spared.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: STOP MAKING THE CHILDREN KISS. THEY HAVE MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT. HAVE SOME SELF-CONTROL. Also, I know it’s hard not to be jealous of Lilliandil, but Lucy is better than that. Caspian would never leave his country, his people, to go with Lucy to England. And guys: neither of them would blame Aslan. That’s what’s dangerous about writing for Narnia with a ship that canonically doesn’t make it. Lucy would never be angry with Aslan for ‘separating them’. And Caspian wouldn’t either. If Aslan says it’s time to go, you go. Lucy especially. She goes. Aslan is more important than her crush! One of the biggest parts of Lucy’s character is her relationship with Aslan. She represents the faithful Christian. Make her the faithful Christian, and she’ll be accurate.

Things I look for in fanfic: Like every fanfic I actually read, the characters had better sound like themselves. Caspian doesn’t say yeah. He says yes. Lucy doesn’t say great. She says hurray. She’s from the 1940′s, or 50′s. And he’s from a medieval magical land. Also, like I said, I don’t love reading fics that don’t understand the characters. I feel like (I could be wrong) the best way to write for Narnia (if you’re brave enough to tackle it at all) is to write it with the knowledge that this is a Christian story, with Christian themes throughout. Caspian and Lucy are not gonna be all over each other. Aslan is not just some magic kingly lion. He’s the Lion. He’s supposed to be Jesus. If you’re going to put him in there at all, be darn careful how he’s portrayed, even if he’s just mentioned.

My wishlist: I would like for Caspian to magically become fair-haired, the way he’s supposed to be, in the film adaptation of The Last Battle, please? That’s all I can realistically want. Ben Barnes is fantastic. But he never looked like Caspian to me.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Caspian already ended up with Lilliandil, which I guess is fine. We wouldn’t have The Silver Chair if he hadn’t, so I’ll live. And Lu is a good Christian girl who don’t need no man. …But we all know Tirian is enchanted with her, so I wouldn’t mind that!

My happily ever after for them: Chillin’ in Aslan’s Country for eternity with their dearest friends. OHHHH, FISH FISH I GOT MY WISH.003 | Edmund Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia)

How I feel about this character: Edmund is the emotional pinnacle of character development in the series. C.S. Lewis made the perfect redemption story, especially geared towards children, with this one character. First book he’s a little snot–a traitor–and he acts so believably miserable and awful. Like he’s the worst he could be for his age (probably 9 or 10). And he thinks such hateful thoughts and he does such wretched things and he goes through crap for it as consequences. And then he’s rescued by Aslan’s people and he has one conversation with the Lion and it changes him forever. And the Witch comes and is like, yo, he’s a traitor and I get to kill him, and Edmund’s scared but he just keeps watching Aslan’s face, and he’s okay. And Aslan dies for Edmund, in his stead. And Edmund freaking breaks the Witch’s wand in the fight for Narnia (9 or 10 years old and he does this) and doesn’t let anybody stop him, and gets wounded for it. Then he becomes King Edmund the Just (JUST!) and he reigns Narnia with so much wisdom and quiet confidence. And in the rest of the series he’s just divine. He loves his family, believes Lucy when nobody else does, and at the slightest mention or hint of Aslan, he’s excited and joyful and ready and it’s so ENDEARING. Like, he is hard to like when you first meet him–not likeable at all, actually–and the change that is evident after coming into contact with Aslan is so beautifully done! And in Prince Caspian? When Edmund follows Lucy to Aslan, always willing to believe the Lion is really there? AND ASLAN SAYS “WELL DONE” TO HIM?

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Actually, some people ship him with Lilliandil and I’m okay with that. Not that she deserves him or anything. And some people apparently also go with Jill Pole/Edmund, but Jill is much too young for him? No. Also, excuse you, Jill would get with Eustace if she were with anybody–

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: I love his relationship with Aslan. And Lucy. And Peter. (That last one especially in the films.)

My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t like shipping him with Caspian, get behind me, tainted brains. How dare you defile them like that.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish he could have had more scenes on his own with Aslan–just like Lucy. At least after he was saved. But like I’ve said before, no real complaints. It’s all too wonderful.

Favorite friendship for this character: I like his relationship with Caspian! It’s so easy and genuine. But also with Trumpkin, his D.L.F.

My crossover ship: I bet if I really thought about it, I could find one. Maybe Edmund/Hermione? YIKES, I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT. I like thinking what Edmund might be like fancying some girl, but the girl would have to be pretty spectacular, and I can’t think of a worthy one.Thank you, Charlai. You’re a golden friend!