Lament for Susan Pevensie

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by Midge

Do you mean that I could compare Susan's experiences with Aslan to those who attend church and are "good at it" but aren't truly converted? I think that is exactly what Lewis is doing here.

No, to those who may have originally believed and had everything presented to them but ceased to believe anyway.

This is a funny play on words.. Dwarves, the "sons of earth" are very down-to-earth. Do we know if Lewis based this description of dwarves off how Tolkien created Dwarves in the history of ME?

No, I think they were both drawing on earlier legends like the Nibelungenlied. Dwarfs were traditionally associated with the underground and mining, though, interestingly, while Lewis shows them very liable to backsliding and turning against Aslan, I can't think of any place he mentions them being greedy or loving gold.

[GrayMouser]

Lament for? No, paean to Susan Pevensie:

I come home in the morning light,
My mother says "When you gonna live your life right?"
Oh,mother,dear,
We're not the fortunate ones,
And girls,
They wanna have fu-un.
Oh,girls,
Just wanna have fun.

The phone rings in the middle of the night,
My father yells "What you gonna do with your life?"
Oh,daddy,dear,
You know you're still number one,
But girls,
They wanna have fu-un,
Oh,girls,just wanna have
That's all they really want.....
Some fun....

[inked]

Aww, GM, I was hoping for something more MATERIAListic, like

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!
...Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone
And another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
Shoot it
Hey
Alright

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/q/q..._the_dust.html

[Midge]

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

No, to those who may have originally believed and had everything presented to them but ceased to believe anyway.

Oh. Like the seeds planted on rocky soil which sprang up quickly and then scorched because they had no root. I think we could probably see all kinds of foreshadowing of that, like with Susan in LWW wanting to go home before the adventure even started.

Originally Posted by GrayMouser

No, I think they were both drawing on earlier legends like the Nibelungenlied. Dwarfs were traditionally associated with the underground and mining, though, interestingly, while Lewis shows them very liable to backsliding and turning against Aslan, I can't think of any place he mentions them being greedy or loving gold.

Oh, that's why I don't know that. I wasn't in the English class that read Nibelungenlied, although I remember friends talking about it.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by Midge

Oh. Like the seeds planted on rocky soil which sprang up quickly and then scorched because they had no root. I think we could probably see all kinds of foreshadowing of that, like with Susan in LWW wanting to go home before the adventure even started.

Yes, and as I believe someone mentioned earlier she always seemed to be less attached to Narnia. She was older than anyone but Peter when she first got there, and Peter as High King had more of a special position, (at least relative to those who came after- we see all of them feel awe in the presence of King Frank and Queen Helen; what would Peter's relation be to those kings and queens who came in between?)

Oh, that's why I don't know that. I wasn't in the English class that read Nibelungenlied, although I remember friends talking about it.

Me neither, though my European history prof- he was Austrian- had a movie night in college where we sat and drank wine and watched the old German silent movie- dir. Fritz Lang, 1924, with the greedy dwarfs looking suspiciously ethnic.

[GrayMouser]

Originally Posted by inked

Aww, GM, I was hoping for something more MATERIAListic, like

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST!
...Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone
And another one gone
Another one bites the dust
Hey, I'm gonna get you too
Another one bites the dust
Shoot it
Hey
Alright

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/q/q..._the_dust.html

Actually, I may have gone a little easy on Susan there - she would have been a lot of the girls I disliked in high school, but certainly not due to sexuality or materialism (in the philosophic sense- better to refer to it here as naturalism, to avoid confusion). She would have been in the cheerleader/jock/soc. set, always obsessed with cars and dates (in a North American context).

In those far-off days, I too divided people into two groups, but not the saved and the fallen, at least in the Christian sense. It was more the Acceptors and the Questioners, the Satisfied and the Seekers, of whatever faith or belief system; there were religious and non-religious people in each.

Being one of the old-timers here, I'm sure you remember those ancient days before the Tolkien boom; before the movies or RPGs; before Fantasy took up whole sections in the bookstore- "Part 12 in the never-ending Quest in which Giliard the Searcher and his trusty companions Krrgronk the Dwarf, Swish the Elf and Grandgulf the Wizard confront the Dark Lord and His Evil Black Raiders!!!"
In those days, full scorn was poured on anyone found doing anything as weird or 'fruity' as reading "Fairy Tales."

That's why I particularly dislike what Lewis has done in "The Last Battle"- falsely equating Imagination and Christianity. While there are materialists/sensualists out there totally involved in the things of this world, there are also plenty of Christians deaf to the trumpets of Faerie- and plenty of non-Christians ready to folow the melody into the Hollow Hills.