Long-time readers will know that I have VERY IMPORTANT OPINIONS about Susan Pevensie and her fate in the Narnia books. Maybe you also have VERY IMPORTANT OPINIONS about Susan Pevensie! If so, this Twitter thread will bring a scrap of joy to your heart, hardened by the dumpster fire that was 2016.
I mean, it doesn't excuse the fact that if Narnia's going to be an allegory for Christianity, Susan having doubts amounts to holding a VERY BIG IDIOT BALL—I think even the most fervent believers would admit that God and spiritual experiences aren't nearly as immediate and concrete as the physical world. Susan losing her faith is one thing; Susan drastically rewriting her own past is something else entirely. So it's a little clunky, still. But at least it's less spiteful? I hope? Big ups either way for the man to encourage his readers to write their own stories, and also tears to my eyes for all of the children who were so upset about Susan that they wrote their favorite author about it. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
I totally thought of your last Susan post as I was reading this a month or so ago: www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2016/12/i-am-susan.html
ReplyDeleteLots of people have opinions about Susan, I guess!
ReplyDeleteThough FWIW I totally missed the religious allegory angle of Narnia when I was a kid. (I still also didn't like The Last Battle for reasons of its own merit, not Susan's fate.) Not sure how kiddie me would have taken Susan; I didn't get what the books (and therefore her absence from Narnia) really meant until much later.