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Random ff.net review for my Narnia/Stargate SG-1 crossover remix ficlet, plus reply:
Review: I love this. I thought I was the only person who wondered about Susan.
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Reply: Oh no, MANY people wonder about Susan! My personal take is that she's actually the person who exits the series in the best shape, seeing that she's the only major character who isn't dead. +wry+ A lot of other people think she was hard done by, though, and are angry at Lewis for shutting her out of heaven or some-such. This has never made sense to me, because of the whole "she's not dead! how is survival a punishment?" issue, and also because Lewis's own theology is pretty explicit on the notion that as long as you're alive, there is always time to find god or whatever, but a number of people seem to interpret getting into Aslan's country as a one-shot deal -- you miss your single chance in "The Last Battle" and too bad, so sad, no heaven for you!
...
I dunno, mostly I just think Susan is awesome and practical and if she wanted to live in England while she was stuck living in England, so what? That's just rolling with what life threw at her. But anyway, the Problem of Susan is such a big issue in Narnia fandom that, as you can see, it has its own name complete with Ominous Capital Leters of Portentous Doom. Pretty much everyone who writes Narnia fanfic has a take on it and has probably written a story dealing with the issue at some point.
Cheers,
Liz
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It's always a little shock to remember that no, fandom is NOT mainstream culture, and even within fandom, things that are taken for granted by one subset will be completely obscure to most other subsets. I mean, the Problem of Susan is a phrase I knew before I even knew about Narnia fandom... and yet. Clearly not a universal constant!
(Also clearly not a universal reaction -- as you can see, I mostly consider Susan's survival a problem because of other people's reactions to it, not because I think being alive is an inherently awful fate when compared to, say, dying in a hideously painful train crash. But maybe that's just me.)
Review: I love this. I thought I was the only person who wondered about Susan.
-----
Reply: Oh no, MANY people wonder about Susan! My personal take is that she's actually the person who exits the series in the best shape, seeing that she's the only major character who isn't dead. +wry+ A lot of other people think she was hard done by, though, and are angry at Lewis for shutting her out of heaven or some-such. This has never made sense to me, because of the whole "she's not dead! how is survival a punishment?" issue, and also because Lewis's own theology is pretty explicit on the notion that as long as you're alive, there is always time to find god or whatever, but a number of people seem to interpret getting into Aslan's country as a one-shot deal -- you miss your single chance in "The Last Battle" and too bad, so sad, no heaven for you!
...
I dunno, mostly I just think Susan is awesome and practical and if she wanted to live in England while she was stuck living in England, so what? That's just rolling with what life threw at her. But anyway, the Problem of Susan is such a big issue in Narnia fandom that, as you can see, it has its own name complete with Ominous Capital Leters of Portentous Doom. Pretty much everyone who writes Narnia fanfic has a take on it and has probably written a story dealing with the issue at some point.
Cheers,
Liz
---------------
It's always a little shock to remember that no, fandom is NOT mainstream culture, and even within fandom, things that are taken for granted by one subset will be completely obscure to most other subsets. I mean, the Problem of Susan is a phrase I knew before I even knew about Narnia fandom... and yet. Clearly not a universal constant!
(Also clearly not a universal reaction -- as you can see, I mostly consider Susan's survival a problem because of other people's reactions to it, not because I think being alive is an inherently awful fate when compared to, say, dying in a hideously painful train crash. But maybe that's just me.)
