Lament for Susan Pevensie

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Why would she know they were in Narnia? Why would Narnia come into it, at all?

Susan was a materialist. Even if she "believed" in Narnia, she didn't know about the "after rapture" Narnia displayed in the last book. They'd been told they couldn't come back, and, as far as she knew, they didn't.

The somewhat precious "pre-lapsarian" view of childhood in the story is kind of an artifact of it's time. To be really consistant, there's no way Eustace could have been brought through to Narnia, ever. I even have my doubts about Digory. Lewis postulated a sort of 'period of innocence' that gave children free-access, but precluded them from participating as adults, presumably so they could be tested and serve as good examples in their 'own' world. That's his solution to the problem of pain, more or less.

But it's not tidy or elegant, imo.

I think he killed the parents understanding that child readers would NOT be happy about going to Narnia if their parents weren't going. Too bad for Susan.

[Empress_Flynn]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Why would she know they were in Narnia? Why would Narnia come into it, at all?

Susan was a materialist. Even if she "believed" in Narnia, she didn't know about the "after rapture" Narnia displayed in the last book. They'd been told they couldn't come back, and, as far as she knew, they didn't.

The somewhat precious "pre-lapsarian" view of childhood in the story is kind of an artifact of it's time. To be really consistant, there's no way Eustace could have been brought through to Narnia, ever. I even have my doubts about Digory. Lewis postulated a sort of 'period of innocence' that gave children free-access, but precluded them from participating as adults, presumably so they could be tested and serve as good examples in their 'own' world. That's his solution to the problem of pain, more or less.

But it's not tidy or elegant, imo.

I think he killed the parents understanding that child readers would NOT be happy about going to Narnia if their parents weren't going. Too bad for Susan.

That's a good point... if Aslan tells them they're too old, they can never come back to Narnia... why wouldn't she start focusing on other things? She might even subconsciously try to forget that Narnia was ever real in the first place and treat it as just one of those childhood "games" to minimize her sadness over not being able to go back...

Not saying that for sure... just saying it's possible...

And then her entire family gets killed and she has to worry about everything else in life, getting by, and her own isolation from everyone she ever loved... of course she wouldn't be focusing on Narnia at that point!

It seems like a rather clumsy plot point when you think about it...