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metonomiaDay 1! I will be spamming you all with Narnia ladies alllllll week :D I've claimed Susan Pevensie, and today is all her, but my plan is to do something with another lady from Narnia each day along with the daily SUSAAAAN.
For today through Sunday, I'm going to look at each of the three books Susan physically appears in, and then on Monday I'll discuss my feelings about her lack of appearance in LB. After that, who knows! I might share the Susan happy-sad playlist I've been listening to lately. There might even be fic (don't hold your breath).
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (aka Everyone Tries to Stereotype Susan But She is Too Awesome For That)
Let me say right off that, at least in LWW, I don't find much of a problem specifically in Lewis' portrayal of Susan - as long as we're looking at this book as it's own, and as the first written. It is, certainly, expressive of many of the faults a feminist reading of The Chronicles of Narnia uncovers, but part of what I love about LWW is that they are all equally awesome. Lucy and Edmund get the majority of screentime, and it is more than true that when we then look to Peter and Susan, Peter gets way more attention and dialogue than Susan, but in this one book, the only one, Susan is written as just as important and good as any of her siblings. So, many many hearts for LWW.
When we first meet Susan, she is trying her hardest to comfort her siblings and keep them to familiar routines in the midst of a world that has gone utterly out of whack, both in the grand scheme of things and in their own personal bubble. Edmund accuses her of 'trying to talk like Mother,' and maybe she is, but on the other hand, my little brother's favorite thing to accuse me of when he got mad at me was 'being a Mom,' so I'm going to go ahead and say that Susan? Probably not that much of a nag. Certainly she acts the grownup, in order to keep her siblings safe and calm, but the only bad thing about that is that Susan has been thrust into that role so young. Nevertheless, she takes it up with grace, and the next time she speaks, we see yet another positive aspect of her character, one that blends very well with the slightly parental order-keeping - Susan Pevensie is an optimist.
"Do stop grumbling, Ed," said Susan. "Ten to one it'll clear up in an hour or so. And in the meantime we're pretty well off. There's a wireless and lots of books."
I don't know about Edmund, but that seems like a very good older sister to me. Lightly scolding but not in a superior sort of manner, and then offering hope and ideas for fun. It's one of those little things about her that you don't really notice until you're looking closely for her character, but it makes me so happy to see her so focused on the happy.
The next Susan part we come to is when Lucy returns from Narnia for the first time, and I love this passage because so often Susan is default characterized as the nagging, condescending maternal big sis, but! Here it is Peter who does the "she's just making up a story for fun, aren't you Lu" thing. Susan is direct and practical without any of it being overbearing. She doesn't believe Lucy, and says so. They'd only just come out of the room a moment ago. It's an ordinary wardrobe.
And then when Edmund gets in and meets the Witch, and comes back through and is all mean to Lucy, he and Peter go at it, and Susan, my darling Susan, tells them to stuff it because they shouldn't fight, they should go find Lucy.
I LOVE the scene with Peter and Susan talking to the Professor, because Susan gets rather more dialogue than she normally does, especially with Peter around, and we get a fair amount of her POV, too. She is concerned for her sister, she trusts the Professor, she and Peter both generally find Lucy more truthful, she firmly thinks Narnia must be made up, and "she had never dreamed that a grown-up would talk like the professor and didn't know what to think." But she is sure he's not making fun of them, and she and Peter both take his advice to leave it alone.
Which brings me to what I think the central point of LWW is, regarding Susan, and it is a thing that I love. This book is about the re-enchantment of Susan Pevensie. She is a young girl (by Lewis' ages I think she is ~12 in LWW) who has lived the majority of her formative years thus far in a world on the brink of and enmeshed in terrifying, insensible war. Now she's been sent off away from her parents - who she must very well know are still being bombed in London - to live with her four siblings, two of whom are younger than her, in a big house with lots of rules and a couple of very intimidating adults. Not precisely a child who would be looking for much magic or goodness in the world. And yet as I saw above, she DOES have quite a bit of optimism, and she's doing her very best to be as grown up as a little girl can and to look after her family.
And then she gets into Narnia.
"O-o-oh!" said Susan suddenly, and everyone asked her what was the matter.
"I'm sitting against a tree," said Susan, "and look! It's getting light - over there."
I just adore how she goes from knowledgeably discussing camphor and coats one second to realizing she's in a wood the next. And then, contrary once again to the seemingly rampant characterization of her as a total worrywart (movie-LWW, I'm sort of looking at you here, a bit), she leaps into the adventure just as much as the rest of them.
LET'S TAKE THE COATS, Susan says, THEY WON'T EVEN BE LEAVING THE WARDROBE! It's sensible, yes, but a very imaginative and FUN practicality.
And then they find Tumnus' house all smashed up, and they read Maugrim's notice, and Susan, my poor, dear Susan, says "I don't know that I'm going to like this place after all." SUSAN. See above - she's just come from a world in which governments are ruining peoples homes, and then they found this amazing magical world, and now it's all here, too. It can be just as ugly, and I love her for realizing that. IT DOESN'T SEEM PARTICULARLY SAFE AND ---IT LOOKS AS IF IT WON'T BE MUCH FUN EITHER---- Susan says.
But in her very next piece of dialogue - she doesn't want to go a step further, and wishes they'd never come. "BUT I THINK WE MUST TRY TO DO SOMETHING" for Tumnus. WE MUST. Susan knows about necessity, and she does not like it, she is scared and cold and hungry and sees that all of those problems will only get worse. But she will go on anyway.
Next I want to rhapsodize over Susan's reaction to the name of Aslan, because it is my favorite. "Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her." SMELLS AND MUSIC, Y'ALL. I just really relate to that one specific tiny instance. A lot of my favorite, or big and important things, I experience connected to senses, and music especially. So I just really love that of the four, Susan is the really sensory one.
And then, well, we have a lot of Mr and Mrs Beaver exposition, and Susan doesn't really say much for a while. It is in this section that I find the most credence to the characterization of her as, well, I wouldn't put it this way, but as a worrier. She is nervous about meeting a lion. When they find Edmund gone, she wishes they had never come.
And yet, I cannot see these as signs of her being less Narnian or less worthy or just less in any way. IT'S A LION, I WOULD BE KIND OF SCARED TOO, OKAY. And Susan, Susaaaaan, who has been working so hard to keep the four of them together and happy and in harmony, to find Edmund gone. I would also wish to never have come to a place where not only are people dying and homes being destroyed, but also where HER BROTHER IS GONE.
Presents! I kind of really liked the movie addition where she gets her gifts after Lucy and gives Father Christmas that sassy "What happened to 'wars are messy'", because in LWW the book, she gets her gifts but isn't allowed to have a reaction. Still, the gifts! This is again very indicative to me of Susan's 'don't want to, am scared, but must, so I will' attitude. Father Christmas goes on about how blah blah blah women shouldn't fight, but he gives Susan (and Lucy) a weapon. I'm pretty sure that's the last thing Susan wants. But she takes it. And she'll use it, if she has to.
and then and then AND THEN.
When Edmund returns and the Witch is on about blood magic, SUSAN. SUSAAAAAAN.
"Oh, Aslan!" whispered Susan in the Lion's ear. "Can't we - I mean, you won't, will you? [give Edmund up, that is] Can't we do something about the Deep Magic? Isn't there something you can work against it?"
And Aslan shoots her down with a frown. BUT SUSAN. She just wants her brother. She can't fathom Aslan letting Edmund be killed. SHE WILL GO AGAINST THE DEEP MAGIC FOR HER FAMILY. I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE HER.
Susan's final big part in LWW is the witnessing of Aslan's death and resurrection. This is one thing the movies changed that I don't love that much, coming from a Susan angle - in the book, it's Susan pov. "This feeling [the good times, having just begun, drawing to a close] affected Susan so much that she couldn't get to sleep when she went to bed." And so she tosses and turns and then hears Lucy sigh, and they chat about it and idk I agree with the characterization in which Lucy is much more attuned to Aslan than the rest of her siblings, but I dislike any intimation that Susan experienced that night in LWW any less than Lucy. I really like that Susan and Lucy are there together throughout it all, so sad and so lost and so angry and scared. It's horrible, and it would be that much more horrible if one of them had to see it alone.
And then when Aslan returns, Susan asks all these questions which I love. "Is it magic," she asks, and then the returned Aslan says 'yes!' and REENCHANTMENT SEE. It takes even more terrible, horrifying things, but Susan also gets to experience this wonder and awe. "But what does it all mean," she asks Aslan. It's an overwhelming, utterly strange and wonderful moment right on the heels of possibly the worst night ever, and I love Susan for asking questions and wanting to know more. SUSAAAAAAAAN.
Finally, the end. AND SUSAN, SUSAN SUSAN. She is Kassandra, here. They all feel this foreboding, and so Susan, darling Susan, Gentle Susan, Susan who has always done her best by her family and tried to keep them safe and happy and together, Susan who does what must be done, says "by my counsel we shall lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further." But when all her siblings say no no, we can't back down from a challenge, Susan, who would rather stay with them than cause a fight, says, "if ye will all have it so, let us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us."
TAKE THE ADVENTURE THAT SHALL FALL TO US.
And that right there is the basis of my Susan. Come what may, she will forge onward, she will keep going, she will adapt to whatever adventure comes, no matter how scared or nervous she is. She will take care of her family, and she will take care of herself.
<333333333333 Susan.
For today through Sunday, I'm going to look at each of the three books Susan physically appears in, and then on Monday I'll discuss my feelings about her lack of appearance in LB. After that, who knows! I might share the Susan happy-sad playlist I've been listening to lately. There might even be fic (don't hold your breath).
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (aka Everyone Tries to Stereotype Susan But She is Too Awesome For That)
Let me say right off that, at least in LWW, I don't find much of a problem specifically in Lewis' portrayal of Susan - as long as we're looking at this book as it's own, and as the first written. It is, certainly, expressive of many of the faults a feminist reading of The Chronicles of Narnia uncovers, but part of what I love about LWW is that they are all equally awesome. Lucy and Edmund get the majority of screentime, and it is more than true that when we then look to Peter and Susan, Peter gets way more attention and dialogue than Susan, but in this one book, the only one, Susan is written as just as important and good as any of her siblings. So, many many hearts for LWW.
When we first meet Susan, she is trying her hardest to comfort her siblings and keep them to familiar routines in the midst of a world that has gone utterly out of whack, both in the grand scheme of things and in their own personal bubble. Edmund accuses her of 'trying to talk like Mother,' and maybe she is, but on the other hand, my little brother's favorite thing to accuse me of when he got mad at me was 'being a Mom,' so I'm going to go ahead and say that Susan? Probably not that much of a nag. Certainly she acts the grownup, in order to keep her siblings safe and calm, but the only bad thing about that is that Susan has been thrust into that role so young. Nevertheless, she takes it up with grace, and the next time she speaks, we see yet another positive aspect of her character, one that blends very well with the slightly parental order-keeping - Susan Pevensie is an optimist.
"Do stop grumbling, Ed," said Susan. "Ten to one it'll clear up in an hour or so. And in the meantime we're pretty well off. There's a wireless and lots of books."
I don't know about Edmund, but that seems like a very good older sister to me. Lightly scolding but not in a superior sort of manner, and then offering hope and ideas for fun. It's one of those little things about her that you don't really notice until you're looking closely for her character, but it makes me so happy to see her so focused on the happy.
The next Susan part we come to is when Lucy returns from Narnia for the first time, and I love this passage because so often Susan is default characterized as the nagging, condescending maternal big sis, but! Here it is Peter who does the "she's just making up a story for fun, aren't you Lu" thing. Susan is direct and practical without any of it being overbearing. She doesn't believe Lucy, and says so. They'd only just come out of the room a moment ago. It's an ordinary wardrobe.
And then when Edmund gets in and meets the Witch, and comes back through and is all mean to Lucy, he and Peter go at it, and Susan, my darling Susan, tells them to stuff it because they shouldn't fight, they should go find Lucy.
I LOVE the scene with Peter and Susan talking to the Professor, because Susan gets rather more dialogue than she normally does, especially with Peter around, and we get a fair amount of her POV, too. She is concerned for her sister, she trusts the Professor, she and Peter both generally find Lucy more truthful, she firmly thinks Narnia must be made up, and "she had never dreamed that a grown-up would talk like the professor and didn't know what to think." But she is sure he's not making fun of them, and she and Peter both take his advice to leave it alone.
Which brings me to what I think the central point of LWW is, regarding Susan, and it is a thing that I love. This book is about the re-enchantment of Susan Pevensie. She is a young girl (by Lewis' ages I think she is ~12 in LWW) who has lived the majority of her formative years thus far in a world on the brink of and enmeshed in terrifying, insensible war. Now she's been sent off away from her parents - who she must very well know are still being bombed in London - to live with her four siblings, two of whom are younger than her, in a big house with lots of rules and a couple of very intimidating adults. Not precisely a child who would be looking for much magic or goodness in the world. And yet as I saw above, she DOES have quite a bit of optimism, and she's doing her very best to be as grown up as a little girl can and to look after her family.
And then she gets into Narnia.
"O-o-oh!" said Susan suddenly, and everyone asked her what was the matter.
"I'm sitting against a tree," said Susan, "and look! It's getting light - over there."
I just adore how she goes from knowledgeably discussing camphor and coats one second to realizing she's in a wood the next. And then, contrary once again to the seemingly rampant characterization of her as a total worrywart (movie-LWW, I'm sort of looking at you here, a bit), she leaps into the adventure just as much as the rest of them.
LET'S TAKE THE COATS, Susan says, THEY WON'T EVEN BE LEAVING THE WARDROBE! It's sensible, yes, but a very imaginative and FUN practicality.
And then they find Tumnus' house all smashed up, and they read Maugrim's notice, and Susan, my poor, dear Susan, says "I don't know that I'm going to like this place after all." SUSAN. See above - she's just come from a world in which governments are ruining peoples homes, and then they found this amazing magical world, and now it's all here, too. It can be just as ugly, and I love her for realizing that. IT DOESN'T SEEM PARTICULARLY SAFE AND ---IT LOOKS AS IF IT WON'T BE MUCH FUN EITHER---- Susan says.
But in her very next piece of dialogue - she doesn't want to go a step further, and wishes they'd never come. "BUT I THINK WE MUST TRY TO DO SOMETHING" for Tumnus. WE MUST. Susan knows about necessity, and she does not like it, she is scared and cold and hungry and sees that all of those problems will only get worse. But she will go on anyway.
Next I want to rhapsodize over Susan's reaction to the name of Aslan, because it is my favorite. "Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her." SMELLS AND MUSIC, Y'ALL. I just really relate to that one specific tiny instance. A lot of my favorite, or big and important things, I experience connected to senses, and music especially. So I just really love that of the four, Susan is the really sensory one.
And then, well, we have a lot of Mr and Mrs Beaver exposition, and Susan doesn't really say much for a while. It is in this section that I find the most credence to the characterization of her as, well, I wouldn't put it this way, but as a worrier. She is nervous about meeting a lion. When they find Edmund gone, she wishes they had never come.
And yet, I cannot see these as signs of her being less Narnian or less worthy or just less in any way. IT'S A LION, I WOULD BE KIND OF SCARED TOO, OKAY. And Susan, Susaaaaan, who has been working so hard to keep the four of them together and happy and in harmony, to find Edmund gone. I would also wish to never have come to a place where not only are people dying and homes being destroyed, but also where HER BROTHER IS GONE.
Presents! I kind of really liked the movie addition where she gets her gifts after Lucy and gives Father Christmas that sassy "What happened to 'wars are messy'", because in LWW the book, she gets her gifts but isn't allowed to have a reaction. Still, the gifts! This is again very indicative to me of Susan's 'don't want to, am scared, but must, so I will' attitude. Father Christmas goes on about how blah blah blah women shouldn't fight, but he gives Susan (and Lucy) a weapon. I'm pretty sure that's the last thing Susan wants. But she takes it. And she'll use it, if she has to.
and then and then AND THEN.
When Edmund returns and the Witch is on about blood magic, SUSAN. SUSAAAAAAN.
"Oh, Aslan!" whispered Susan in the Lion's ear. "Can't we - I mean, you won't, will you? [give Edmund up, that is] Can't we do something about the Deep Magic? Isn't there something you can work against it?"
And Aslan shoots her down with a frown. BUT SUSAN. She just wants her brother. She can't fathom Aslan letting Edmund be killed. SHE WILL GO AGAINST THE DEEP MAGIC FOR HER FAMILY. I LOVE HER I LOVE HER I LOVE HER.
Susan's final big part in LWW is the witnessing of Aslan's death and resurrection. This is one thing the movies changed that I don't love that much, coming from a Susan angle - in the book, it's Susan pov. "This feeling [the good times, having just begun, drawing to a close] affected Susan so much that she couldn't get to sleep when she went to bed." And so she tosses and turns and then hears Lucy sigh, and they chat about it and idk I agree with the characterization in which Lucy is much more attuned to Aslan than the rest of her siblings, but I dislike any intimation that Susan experienced that night in LWW any less than Lucy. I really like that Susan and Lucy are there together throughout it all, so sad and so lost and so angry and scared. It's horrible, and it would be that much more horrible if one of them had to see it alone.
And then when Aslan returns, Susan asks all these questions which I love. "Is it magic," she asks, and then the returned Aslan says 'yes!' and REENCHANTMENT SEE. It takes even more terrible, horrifying things, but Susan also gets to experience this wonder and awe. "But what does it all mean," she asks Aslan. It's an overwhelming, utterly strange and wonderful moment right on the heels of possibly the worst night ever, and I love Susan for asking questions and wanting to know more. SUSAAAAAAAAN.
Finally, the end. AND SUSAN, SUSAN SUSAN. She is Kassandra, here. They all feel this foreboding, and so Susan, darling Susan, Gentle Susan, Susan who has always done her best by her family and tried to keep them safe and happy and together, Susan who does what must be done, says "by my counsel we shall lightly return to our horses and follow this White Stag no further." But when all her siblings say no no, we can't back down from a challenge, Susan, who would rather stay with them than cause a fight, says, "if ye will all have it so, let us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us."
TAKE THE ADVENTURE THAT SHALL FALL TO US.
And that right there is the basis of my Susan. Come what may, she will forge onward, she will keep going, she will adapt to whatever adventure comes, no matter how scared or nervous she is. She will take care of her family, and she will take care of herself.
<333333333333 Susan.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-10 06:01 pm (UTC)And you should still do it! You can always just do six days, or extend the week by a day.