Narnia etc

[liv]

I've been meaning for ages to link to ursulav's brilliant Narnia response Elegant and Fine. It's about Susan, but it's not exactly the traditional Problem of Susan from The Last Battle. The definitive response to that issue is probably Neil Gaiman's 2004 short story, which takes a fairly standard third-wave feminist line that it's possible to be interested in makeup and adornment and sex without being a completely frivolous, worthless person. Rather, it's about the weird gap that happens between The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. I've also read a story I can't remember in enough detail to be able to find again, where the Pevensies' readjustment to the real world after they return from Narnia is used as an allegory for mental illness and the experience of perceiving reality in a way that the rest of the world doesn't accept.

jack has also been posting interesting Narnia discussions. In particular, S. has some good thoughts about reading Narnia as fairy-story rather than realistic novel. Note that S. is notorious for being very belligerent in internet discussions, so that's something to bear in mind if you want to disagree with his take.

I'm really interested in how much Narnia still gets talked about, both so many decades after the series was published, and among people of all ages, years after having imprinted on Narnia as kids. Lev Grossman's The Magicians completely misreads the actual substance of the Narnia series, in a way that I've only ever seen from Americans with absolutely no knowledge of Christianity, but he's pretty good on the way that the books can become a touchstone within geek social circles. rachelmanija is hosting a cool discussion, unfortunately split between LJ and DW, about the market and appetite for Narnia-style portal fantasy today.

Meanwhile, marina, who comes from an entirely different background from the typical geeks-on-the-internet, didn't imprint on Narnia but rather on Lolita. Her essay on what that book meant and means to her is absolutely stunning.

Comments

the market and appetite for Narnia-style portal fantasy today.

[jack]

I thought the guy who seemed to get everyone's backs up actually had a point, not that portal fantasy automatically leads to those things (Ursula Vernon and Pamela Dean obviously doing very very good portal fantasy), but that portal fantasy is sometimes seen as simplistic, because there's several things that historical/inexperienced authors do that portal fantasy can be an easy answer to, so it gets that perception, even though everyone agrees there are very good examples.

* We used to not have secondary world fantasy _at all_, so "person goes on journey to strange place" was the way of telling a story about a strange place
* If you want to write a story about "a child just like me SAVES THE WORLD", dropping the protagonist into another world with a fancy prophecy is a good way of making your Average Child into a Hero Savior.
* As with any travelogue, it can sometimes be an excuse to only build the parts of the world the hero visits and not make a coherent world, although I'm not sure that's actually as common as you'd think.

It also has some connotations of "white saviour", although it obviously doesn't have to. I'm not sure those are the reasons it's not published, if there's any truth to that, but I think it's some reasons people sometimes look down on it.

[(Anonymous)]

I was going to reply to this and then my comment got so long that I turned it into a livejournal entry.

http://shreena.livejournal.com/331591.html

Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[liv]

Ooh, thanks, that's a really cool response. I think you're right that the big problem with Narnia and Susan is betrayal of the reader, not misogyny. And I like your analysis that the reason for the betrayal is Lewis shoehorning theological allegory without regard for what that actually does to the story as story.