If I step sideways from myself, I think I see what Lewis was getting at with his "battles are ugly when women fight" business. First, he is invoking the idea of chivalry. Second, if women are fighting as well as men, for most of history that would imply that nobody is home to tend the fields and therefore we are in a total war scenario -- ugly by definition. Third, well, rape. (Men can be and are raped too, of course, but still.) Despite that, I still think it is massively patronizing and sexist, and denies Susan and Lucy free will. I hesitated for a bit over changing the line to "children," since Stephen and Mary are not exactly adults themselves, but it was the best workaround I could find. :-/
I liked tying the bow to Stephen's personality (and therefore Susan's personality) rather than tying it to Susan's sex and gender.
I very badly wanted to give Mary a choice -- a voice in her own destiny -- because she needed to regain her sense of purpose and the understanding that it was fine to be who she wanted to be, not who she thought the world was trying to make her be. And I have always liked the bits Aslan says in other books about telling people their own stories instead of anyone else's, so I liked echoing that phrasing here.
(On a completely different topic, I will try to catch up on "Harold and Morgan" this weekend, now that I seem to be back in a Narnian mood. I am really looking forward to reading about the Lone Islands!)
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Date: 2011-05-27 04:49 am (UTC)If I step sideways from myself, I think I see what Lewis was getting at with his "battles are ugly when women fight" business. First, he is invoking the idea of chivalry. Second, if women are fighting as well as men, for most of history that would imply that nobody is home to tend the fields and therefore we are in a total war scenario -- ugly by definition. Third, well, rape. (Men can be and are raped too, of course, but still.) Despite that, I still think it is massively patronizing and sexist, and denies Susan and Lucy free will. I hesitated for a bit over changing the line to "children," since Stephen and Mary are not exactly adults themselves, but it was the best workaround I could find. :-/
I liked tying the bow to Stephen's personality (and therefore Susan's personality) rather than tying it to Susan's sex and gender.
I very badly wanted to give Mary a choice -- a voice in her own destiny -- because she needed to regain her sense of purpose and the understanding that it was fine to be who she wanted to be, not who she thought the world was trying to make her be. And I have always liked the bits Aslan says in other books about telling people their own stories instead of anyone else's, so I liked echoing that phrasing here.
(On a completely different topic, I will try to catch up on "Harold and Morgan" this weekend, now that I seem to be back in a Narnian mood. I am really looking forward to reading about the Lone Islands!)