not quite but basically down to the last minute
Title: The Eisegesis of Retelling: Susan Pevensie and the Power of Story-Telling
Author: metonomia
Summary/Abstract/Thesis Statement: Fan fic writers modify the characters and plots they seek to explore through their choices of what to keep, leave out, or change, and in animus_wyrmis’ Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved, Susan does the same, modifying her own character in her updated versions of what happened in Narnia. These stories, and the surrounding presentation of Susan’s character, reflect the ways in which animus reads the Narnia series, and what she pulls from it.
Recipient and links to original fic: animus_wyrmis Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved
1162 words. Thanks to lady_songsmith for glancing it over, and apologies to animus for the incoherence. As with all essays, I wish a) I procrastinated less and b) I had more time, because there is so much more I would love to look at.
In Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved, animus_wyrmis creates an eisegesical retelling of key relationships in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, reflected in Susan Pevensie’s own retelling of her tales. The fic highlights the most basic commonality among fan fiction writing; namely, revision of the source material through story-telling. Fan fic writers modify the characters and plots they seek to explore through their choices of what to keep, leave out, or change, and in animus’ story, Susan does the same, modifying her own character in her updated versions of what happened in Narnia. These stories, and the surrounding presentation of Susan’s character, reflect the ways in which animus reads the Narnia series, and what she pulls from it.
It is perhaps impossible to ever fully separate or conflate authorial voice from narrative voice - although certainly easier in fandom, where instant feedback and contact between writer and reader is integral - but in this story, it is easy to read Susan’s voice as that of animus. Susan’s retelling of her encounters with Rabadash and Caspian are her own revisions, but ultimately come from animus, both creatively and sympathetically. In an interview from earlier this year, animus says, “Susan is more interesting to me in terms of what she says about gender roles and fandom and religion than what she says about Susan herself”(1). Bearing this in mind, we may set aside a certain amount of concern over the conflation of author and narrative, and find much of animus’ own reading of Narnia in her rewriting of it.
Superficially or, more accurately, on a character level, Susan’s fairy stories based on her adventures in Narnia seem to act only as a fleshing out of her character. Whereas the series, written in third person and never focusing much on Susan, rarely gives us her point of view, animus’ story looks back at the romantic events centered upon Susan and centers the narrative on Susan herself. Susan’s retelling of them increase the romance - she uses flowery language and reshapes events to make happy endings and keep her listeners happy; whereas Lucy’s tales of Narnia are true, “Susan's stories were happier and safer, and the girls of St. Finbarr's liked them better for that” (2). She presents her ultimately disastrous entanglement with Rabadash as perfect love at first sight, and her brief flirtation with Caspian as an epic true love in the style of Sleeping Beauty. However, once we move a layer out from Susan’s stories to animus’ larger story, these supposed romances - one written by C.S. Lewis, one canonical only in the Prince Caspian movie, a fan-derivative work itself - become darker, more complicated, and more realistic than Lewis would ever have written them.
In this addition of Susan’s own feelings about events that, in the books, are barely touched upon by Lewis - who never gives her any other reaction to Rabadash other than one-dimensional handwringing over the revelation of his true nature - animus critiques such treatment of not only Susan’s character but of women in Narnia in general. Whereas Lewis is content to leave Susan’s The Horse and His Boy role as a small, weak, one-dimensional presence, animus populates her story nearly entirely with girls, all as different as may be, and delves into Susan’s and, peripherally, Lucy’s views on the matter. Susan and Lucy both understand the difference between fairy tales and real life; whereas Lewis glosses over adult matters and any sort of realistic romantic conflict, Susan and Lucy see that reality is more complicated. Susan understands that stories are meant to end happily ever after, and so she twists her memories of Narnia to fit that bill, even as she privately derides the schoolgirls she tells them to for lacking imagination and maturity. She is much more affected by the memory of Rabadash than she lets on in her fairy tale, and much more dismissive of Caspian. Lurking beneath the changes she makes to her tales are the facts the reader of animus’ larger story know - the way that Rabadash was no knight in shining armor, the way that Susan and her siblings had to leave Narnia rather than staying with Caspian and ruling, the fact that Susan has lived as an adult and truly knows the exaggerations of fairy stories. The modifications Susan makes reflect the ways in which remembering her true experiences in Narnia are painful and difficult - much more complicated, and this complexity and sadness reflects animus’ own thoughts about the sadness and difficulty of how Narnia affects and uses the Pevensies.
In Susan’s modified tale of Prince Caspian, she conflates it with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, presenting Jadis’ Winter as occurring during the Pevensie’s reign, an event they work around by sending the kingdom into an enchanted sleep. As Susan tells it, Aslan comes and beats back the winter, but "when he had defeated the Witch, the Lion left again, the same way he had come; and he did not wake the inhabitants, nor did they even sense his presence. Perhaps he meant to release them from their slumber, and merely forgot; perhaps he was punishing them for failing to protect the land he had given them. Perhaps he thought they were happier, dreaming enchanted dreams"(3)" In the story Susan tells, this is but a moment, and is swept away almost immediately by the bravery of Caspian and his romance with Susan. In animus’ story, however, it becomes just as important as any romance. Susan and Lucy debate her characterization of Aslan later, with Lucy feeling that she “made Aslan out to be cold and careless and mean,” but once again, Susan sees the world and her experiences as much more complex; she hopes that Aslan has always tried and meant to do right by Narnia and by the Pevensies, but notes that “it hurts all the same” (4). In her interview, animus asks, “What kind of horrible god...is like, oh well, guess I’ll just plant a tree for awhile, and I’m sure this won’t go wrong?” (5). She goes on to clarify, realizing more nuanced thoughts about the various ways in which Aslan could be seen as a cruel and capricious god or merely as someone less almighty than he often seems, but the crux of the matter is that in her view, the fairy story of Narnia as presented by C.S. Lewis - and the movie franchise - glosses over many questions and complexities which, when fleshed out in Susan’s retelling and animus’ own version, can provide a new eisegesis which pulls from and reads into the source material to create an alternate truth and a new way of looking at an old story.
1. AsCast Episode 14.5
2. Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved
3. ibid.
4. ibid.
5. AsCast Episode 14.5
Author: metonomia
Summary/Abstract/Thesis Statement: Fan fic writers modify the characters and plots they seek to explore through their choices of what to keep, leave out, or change, and in animus_wyrmis’ Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved, Susan does the same, modifying her own character in her updated versions of what happened in Narnia. These stories, and the surrounding presentation of Susan’s character, reflect the ways in which animus reads the Narnia series, and what she pulls from it.
Recipient and links to original fic: animus_wyrmis Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved
1162 words. Thanks to lady_songsmith for glancing it over, and apologies to animus for the incoherence. As with all essays, I wish a) I procrastinated less and b) I had more time, because there is so much more I would love to look at.
In Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved, animus_wyrmis creates an eisegesical retelling of key relationships in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, reflected in Susan Pevensie’s own retelling of her tales. The fic highlights the most basic commonality among fan fiction writing; namely, revision of the source material through story-telling. Fan fic writers modify the characters and plots they seek to explore through their choices of what to keep, leave out, or change, and in animus’ story, Susan does the same, modifying her own character in her updated versions of what happened in Narnia. These stories, and the surrounding presentation of Susan’s character, reflect the ways in which animus reads the Narnia series, and what she pulls from it.
It is perhaps impossible to ever fully separate or conflate authorial voice from narrative voice - although certainly easier in fandom, where instant feedback and contact between writer and reader is integral - but in this story, it is easy to read Susan’s voice as that of animus. Susan’s retelling of her encounters with Rabadash and Caspian are her own revisions, but ultimately come from animus, both creatively and sympathetically. In an interview from earlier this year, animus says, “Susan is more interesting to me in terms of what she says about gender roles and fandom and religion than what she says about Susan herself”(1). Bearing this in mind, we may set aside a certain amount of concern over the conflation of author and narrative, and find much of animus’ own reading of Narnia in her rewriting of it.
Superficially or, more accurately, on a character level, Susan’s fairy stories based on her adventures in Narnia seem to act only as a fleshing out of her character. Whereas the series, written in third person and never focusing much on Susan, rarely gives us her point of view, animus’ story looks back at the romantic events centered upon Susan and centers the narrative on Susan herself. Susan’s retelling of them increase the romance - she uses flowery language and reshapes events to make happy endings and keep her listeners happy; whereas Lucy’s tales of Narnia are true, “Susan's stories were happier and safer, and the girls of St. Finbarr's liked them better for that” (2). She presents her ultimately disastrous entanglement with Rabadash as perfect love at first sight, and her brief flirtation with Caspian as an epic true love in the style of Sleeping Beauty. However, once we move a layer out from Susan’s stories to animus’ larger story, these supposed romances - one written by C.S. Lewis, one canonical only in the Prince Caspian movie, a fan-derivative work itself - become darker, more complicated, and more realistic than Lewis would ever have written them.
In this addition of Susan’s own feelings about events that, in the books, are barely touched upon by Lewis - who never gives her any other reaction to Rabadash other than one-dimensional handwringing over the revelation of his true nature - animus critiques such treatment of not only Susan’s character but of women in Narnia in general. Whereas Lewis is content to leave Susan’s The Horse and His Boy role as a small, weak, one-dimensional presence, animus populates her story nearly entirely with girls, all as different as may be, and delves into Susan’s and, peripherally, Lucy’s views on the matter. Susan and Lucy both understand the difference between fairy tales and real life; whereas Lewis glosses over adult matters and any sort of realistic romantic conflict, Susan and Lucy see that reality is more complicated. Susan understands that stories are meant to end happily ever after, and so she twists her memories of Narnia to fit that bill, even as she privately derides the schoolgirls she tells them to for lacking imagination and maturity. She is much more affected by the memory of Rabadash than she lets on in her fairy tale, and much more dismissive of Caspian. Lurking beneath the changes she makes to her tales are the facts the reader of animus’ larger story know - the way that Rabadash was no knight in shining armor, the way that Susan and her siblings had to leave Narnia rather than staying with Caspian and ruling, the fact that Susan has lived as an adult and truly knows the exaggerations of fairy stories. The modifications Susan makes reflect the ways in which remembering her true experiences in Narnia are painful and difficult - much more complicated, and this complexity and sadness reflects animus’ own thoughts about the sadness and difficulty of how Narnia affects and uses the Pevensies.
In Susan’s modified tale of Prince Caspian, she conflates it with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, presenting Jadis’ Winter as occurring during the Pevensie’s reign, an event they work around by sending the kingdom into an enchanted sleep. As Susan tells it, Aslan comes and beats back the winter, but "when he had defeated the Witch, the Lion left again, the same way he had come; and he did not wake the inhabitants, nor did they even sense his presence. Perhaps he meant to release them from their slumber, and merely forgot; perhaps he was punishing them for failing to protect the land he had given them. Perhaps he thought they were happier, dreaming enchanted dreams"(3)" In the story Susan tells, this is but a moment, and is swept away almost immediately by the bravery of Caspian and his romance with Susan. In animus’ story, however, it becomes just as important as any romance. Susan and Lucy debate her characterization of Aslan later, with Lucy feeling that she “made Aslan out to be cold and careless and mean,” but once again, Susan sees the world and her experiences as much more complex; she hopes that Aslan has always tried and meant to do right by Narnia and by the Pevensies, but notes that “it hurts all the same” (4). In her interview, animus asks, “What kind of horrible god...is like, oh well, guess I’ll just plant a tree for awhile, and I’m sure this won’t go wrong?” (5). She goes on to clarify, realizing more nuanced thoughts about the various ways in which Aslan could be seen as a cruel and capricious god or merely as someone less almighty than he often seems, but the crux of the matter is that in her view, the fairy story of Narnia as presented by C.S. Lewis - and the movie franchise - glosses over many questions and complexities which, when fleshed out in Susan’s retelling and animus’ own version, can provide a new eisegesis which pulls from and reads into the source material to create an alternate truth and a new way of looking at an old story.
1. AsCast Episode 14.5
2. Fairy Stories, Or Three Men Susan Never Loved
3. ibid.
4. ibid.
5. AsCast Episode 14.5