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metonomiaAnd now for PC!
Prince Caspian (aka Called Back By Her Own Damn Horn, She Finds Another Home Destroyed, But Soldiers On Anyway)
Back in Narnia, but not knowing yet if it is Narnia, the Pevensies are exploring, and Susan is, once again, keeping everyone held together.
"I suppose we'll have to make some plans," Susan says. "We shall want something to eat before long," she says. She has three growing siblings, okay. She knows how the four of them eat.
Edmund talks about books and how in them they always find springs of clear fresh water. Susan says hell no, let's not go back into that wood.
She also says, bring your shoes. It'll be cold soon, and we don't want to lose them, and Lucy no don't you dare come running to me if you cut your foot. She is again practical and sensible without being overbearing. I love her.
She is OBSERVANT. This was an orchard, she says. This wasn't a garden, it was a castle.
Our great hall, Peter reminds them of, and Susan remembers "in our castle of Cair Paravel, at the mouth of the great river of Narnia. How could I forget?" she asks. And she remembers so well. She finds that chess piece and remembers all the lovely times they had in Narnia, and it's SAD to her. They are happy memories but she's sad because she can't forget but she can't have it anymore..
Also I find it very interesting that Susan doesn't speak when the others are debating whether it's Cair Paravel or not. Obviously it doesn't say, but inferring from what she's just been saying and doing, I always imagine Susan sitting there, listening, hoping it is Narnia but afraid it's not.
I think she maybe sees ahead of the rest of them a bit.
When they want to look for the treasure chamber, Susan advises waiting til morning. Which incenses Lucy, but Susan says something again as they get the door open. "Oh, what is the good?" she asks. I don't think this is Susan being a bother or a bore. I think this might very well be Susan feeling, if not quite understanding, that if this is Narnia, look at the ruin. I think she does not want confirmation of the time passed and the destruction wrought.
But! When they do confirm it's Cair Paravel, she is right along with them saying 'do you remember do you remember' and when she finds the bow but not the horn, she says 'bother bother,' but she also says 'never mind, I've still got the bow.' Making do, like always.
And then one of my favorite lines in PC. "Archery and swimming were the things Susan was good at." Lewis rarely characterizes things in outright statements like this unless they have to do with Edmund's pre-LWW snottiness or other big things like that. BUT SUSAN. SHE SWIMS AND SHOOTS. I love the strength there, the contrast to the gentleness and parental-ness and practicality she is usually shown with. Swimming is a practical skill, but in the 1940s, archery is not. And I love that, despite leaving Narnia, archery is one of Susan's hobbies. It's whimsical and most likely a self-reminder of her Golden Age, and it is wonderful.
And so soon after that we get what I see as a great coalescence of all these aspects of Susan. She shoots at the soldier and hits his helmet, and then Peter sees that "she was very pale but was already fitting a second arrow to the string." And then immediately she goes in with Peter to get the boat out.
AND THEN.
"I wasn't shooting to kill, you know," said Susan. She would not have liked anyone to think she could miss at such a short range.
SUSAN. KICKASS ARCHER AND ALSO DOESN'T LIKE TO KILL. I rather prefer book Susan to movie Susan in this regard, though I did love that the movie gave her much more to do. But I have always, always loved that Susan didn't ride to the wars, didn't like to fight or kill, but could, if she had to. Had the skill to do so.
We brake for Caspian.
Back to Susan!
Trumpkin says trololol better get back and say no help came, and Susan says OH PLEASE HERE WE ARE.
Then we get to her archery match with Trumpkin, and again, all the skill and all the heart.
"She was not enjoying her match half so much as Edmund had enjoyed his; not because she had any doubt about hitting the apple but because Susan was so tender-hearted that she almost hated to beat someone who had been beaten already."
THEN
"I was so afraid it might be, you know - one of our kind of bears, a talking bear." She hated killing things.
SUSAAAAAAAN. Nobody dare to tell me that this is not the most perfect, wonderful, strong, dedicated, skillful, kind, amazing girl ever.
So then the boys are cutting up the bear, and Lucy asks Susan, what if men back home went wild? And Susan, 'practical Susan,' says, "We've got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia." Once again, focused on what she needs to be.
Then there is the Aslan debacle. I think this is where a lot of the 'oh Susan was always being set up to misbelieve' nonsense comes from. She's certainly painted as the most skeptical here, and maybe Lewis was setting it up, but that view point is taking it as a point of fact that skepticism is a bad thing. As Susan apologizes to Lucy, "None of us except you saw anything." She is tired, scared of what's happening, lost, upset, they're all in bad tempers, and didn't see Aslan. She always saw Aslan before, in LWW. So while I always feel most sorry for Lucy in that scene, I get it, Susan.
And whatever Lewis' views on her difficulty seeing Aslan/being willing to so, I think it makes Susan all the more realistic, I think it makes the story more realistic, and I think it fleshes out the range of characters more to have someone who has experienced all the same wonders of Narnia that the rest did - she was there when Aslan died! - still have difficulty, in this moment, when everything has been thrown askew, believing.
It does get kind of nasty. "Susan was the worst. 'Supposing I started behaving like Lucy,' she said. 'I might threaten to stay here whether the rest of you went on or not. I jolly well think I shall.'" And that is a fault of hers. Not that she doesn't believe - I cannot think that a person who doesn't believe in...whatever isn't as good as anyone else - simply that she doesn't trust Lucy, and that she is mean about it. But I like her for having that fault. I like her for struggling with herself. I like her for, when she sees Aslan, apologizing to Lucy.
And I like her the most for admitting to Lucy and herself that she did believe that it was him (" - he, I mean -" and isn't her grammatical prowess just the MOST PRECIOUS?), deep down, but didn't want to admit it and..."oh, I don't know." She doesn't know. Sometimes you just don't know. Sometimes you are afraid. And she has gone on through that all and it is so hard and I think it must be even harder when the object of your damaged faith shows up right there in front of you. It must be terrible to be faced with the physical fact of being wrong, and of having doubted, when it is then slammed in your face that your doubt was wrong. And yet she faces Lucy, and she faces Aslan, and she remains brave and good and strong.
And that's basically Susan's last big bit in PC. She Romps, which I love, despite it being, once again, the girls going off safely with Aslan while the boys fight. But the things they see! And I think it must be wonderful for Susan, after having such a horrible time at first in Narnia this round, to see all these wonders and joys she has missed so much.
BUT HEY, SUSAN, JK, YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM, GOTTA GO.
I hate that only Peter gets to say that it's alright, that he thinks he can bear it, because what about Susan? But she seems fine. She says "Nice fools we'd look on the platform of an English station in these." She has gotten the bad news, and I like to think that she and Peter really are fine, for some level of the word. I think in a lot of ways, she is more fine with it than the rest of them. She is already looking forward to England. This has been a visit, and it has had both good and bad parts, and she has done what she was called to, and now she has been told she will not come back. It is an exile, but I think for Susan it is also a promise. It's a promise that she won't be jerked between worlds anymore. She can have England as home, she can stay there, she won't be torn from a place she is making hers again but can be safe in the knowledge that she can make a life for herself.
I think saying goodbye to Narnia for what she knows is the last time must be heartwrenching. But I think for Susan the ending of Prince Caspian is not very sad. England, after all, is "a little flat and dreary for a moment after they had been through, but also, unexpectedly, nice in its own way, what with the familiar railway smell and the English sky and the summer term before them." Susan has closure, and will be alright. No matter what comes (and I'll come to that tomorrow with the non-Susan Susan parts of TLB), Susan will make herself alright.
Prince Caspian (aka Called Back By Her Own Damn Horn, She Finds Another Home Destroyed, But Soldiers On Anyway)
Back in Narnia, but not knowing yet if it is Narnia, the Pevensies are exploring, and Susan is, once again, keeping everyone held together.
"I suppose we'll have to make some plans," Susan says. "We shall want something to eat before long," she says. She has three growing siblings, okay. She knows how the four of them eat.
Edmund talks about books and how in them they always find springs of clear fresh water. Susan says hell no, let's not go back into that wood.
She also says, bring your shoes. It'll be cold soon, and we don't want to lose them, and Lucy no don't you dare come running to me if you cut your foot. She is again practical and sensible without being overbearing. I love her.
She is OBSERVANT. This was an orchard, she says. This wasn't a garden, it was a castle.
Our great hall, Peter reminds them of, and Susan remembers "in our castle of Cair Paravel, at the mouth of the great river of Narnia. How could I forget?" she asks. And she remembers so well. She finds that chess piece and remembers all the lovely times they had in Narnia, and it's SAD to her. They are happy memories but she's sad because she can't forget but she can't have it anymore..
Also I find it very interesting that Susan doesn't speak when the others are debating whether it's Cair Paravel or not. Obviously it doesn't say, but inferring from what she's just been saying and doing, I always imagine Susan sitting there, listening, hoping it is Narnia but afraid it's not.
I think she maybe sees ahead of the rest of them a bit.
When they want to look for the treasure chamber, Susan advises waiting til morning. Which incenses Lucy, but Susan says something again as they get the door open. "Oh, what is the good?" she asks. I don't think this is Susan being a bother or a bore. I think this might very well be Susan feeling, if not quite understanding, that if this is Narnia, look at the ruin. I think she does not want confirmation of the time passed and the destruction wrought.
But! When they do confirm it's Cair Paravel, she is right along with them saying 'do you remember do you remember' and when she finds the bow but not the horn, she says 'bother bother,' but she also says 'never mind, I've still got the bow.' Making do, like always.
And then one of my favorite lines in PC. "Archery and swimming were the things Susan was good at." Lewis rarely characterizes things in outright statements like this unless they have to do with Edmund's pre-LWW snottiness or other big things like that. BUT SUSAN. SHE SWIMS AND SHOOTS. I love the strength there, the contrast to the gentleness and parental-ness and practicality she is usually shown with. Swimming is a practical skill, but in the 1940s, archery is not. And I love that, despite leaving Narnia, archery is one of Susan's hobbies. It's whimsical and most likely a self-reminder of her Golden Age, and it is wonderful.
And so soon after that we get what I see as a great coalescence of all these aspects of Susan. She shoots at the soldier and hits his helmet, and then Peter sees that "she was very pale but was already fitting a second arrow to the string." And then immediately she goes in with Peter to get the boat out.
AND THEN.
"I wasn't shooting to kill, you know," said Susan. She would not have liked anyone to think she could miss at such a short range.
SUSAN. KICKASS ARCHER AND ALSO DOESN'T LIKE TO KILL. I rather prefer book Susan to movie Susan in this regard, though I did love that the movie gave her much more to do. But I have always, always loved that Susan didn't ride to the wars, didn't like to fight or kill, but could, if she had to. Had the skill to do so.
We brake for Caspian.
Back to Susan!
Trumpkin says trololol better get back and say no help came, and Susan says OH PLEASE HERE WE ARE.
Then we get to her archery match with Trumpkin, and again, all the skill and all the heart.
"She was not enjoying her match half so much as Edmund had enjoyed his; not because she had any doubt about hitting the apple but because Susan was so tender-hearted that she almost hated to beat someone who had been beaten already."
THEN
"I was so afraid it might be, you know - one of our kind of bears, a talking bear." She hated killing things.
SUSAAAAAAAN. Nobody dare to tell me that this is not the most perfect, wonderful, strong, dedicated, skillful, kind, amazing girl ever.
So then the boys are cutting up the bear, and Lucy asks Susan, what if men back home went wild? And Susan, 'practical Susan,' says, "We've got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia." Once again, focused on what she needs to be.
Then there is the Aslan debacle. I think this is where a lot of the 'oh Susan was always being set up to misbelieve' nonsense comes from. She's certainly painted as the most skeptical here, and maybe Lewis was setting it up, but that view point is taking it as a point of fact that skepticism is a bad thing. As Susan apologizes to Lucy, "None of us except you saw anything." She is tired, scared of what's happening, lost, upset, they're all in bad tempers, and didn't see Aslan. She always saw Aslan before, in LWW. So while I always feel most sorry for Lucy in that scene, I get it, Susan.
And whatever Lewis' views on her difficulty seeing Aslan/being willing to so, I think it makes Susan all the more realistic, I think it makes the story more realistic, and I think it fleshes out the range of characters more to have someone who has experienced all the same wonders of Narnia that the rest did - she was there when Aslan died! - still have difficulty, in this moment, when everything has been thrown askew, believing.
It does get kind of nasty. "Susan was the worst. 'Supposing I started behaving like Lucy,' she said. 'I might threaten to stay here whether the rest of you went on or not. I jolly well think I shall.'" And that is a fault of hers. Not that she doesn't believe - I cannot think that a person who doesn't believe in...whatever isn't as good as anyone else - simply that she doesn't trust Lucy, and that she is mean about it. But I like her for having that fault. I like her for struggling with herself. I like her for, when she sees Aslan, apologizing to Lucy.
And I like her the most for admitting to Lucy and herself that she did believe that it was him (" - he, I mean -" and isn't her grammatical prowess just the MOST PRECIOUS?), deep down, but didn't want to admit it and..."oh, I don't know." She doesn't know. Sometimes you just don't know. Sometimes you are afraid. And she has gone on through that all and it is so hard and I think it must be even harder when the object of your damaged faith shows up right there in front of you. It must be terrible to be faced with the physical fact of being wrong, and of having doubted, when it is then slammed in your face that your doubt was wrong. And yet she faces Lucy, and she faces Aslan, and she remains brave and good and strong.
And that's basically Susan's last big bit in PC. She Romps, which I love, despite it being, once again, the girls going off safely with Aslan while the boys fight. But the things they see! And I think it must be wonderful for Susan, after having such a horrible time at first in Narnia this round, to see all these wonders and joys she has missed so much.
BUT HEY, SUSAN, JK, YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM, GOTTA GO.
I hate that only Peter gets to say that it's alright, that he thinks he can bear it, because what about Susan? But she seems fine. She says "Nice fools we'd look on the platform of an English station in these." She has gotten the bad news, and I like to think that she and Peter really are fine, for some level of the word. I think in a lot of ways, she is more fine with it than the rest of them. She is already looking forward to England. This has been a visit, and it has had both good and bad parts, and she has done what she was called to, and now she has been told she will not come back. It is an exile, but I think for Susan it is also a promise. It's a promise that she won't be jerked between worlds anymore. She can have England as home, she can stay there, she won't be torn from a place she is making hers again but can be safe in the knowledge that she can make a life for herself.
I think saying goodbye to Narnia for what she knows is the last time must be heartwrenching. But I think for Susan the ending of Prince Caspian is not very sad. England, after all, is "a little flat and dreary for a moment after they had been through, but also, unexpectedly, nice in its own way, what with the familiar railway smell and the English sky and the summer term before them." Susan has closure, and will be alright. No matter what comes (and I'll come to that tomorrow with the non-Susan Susan parts of TLB), Susan will make herself alright.
