Comments | thistlerose: [fic + commentary] In all the world and worlds and in all time

thistlerose

[fic + commentary] In all the world and worlds and in all time

Mar 29, 2007 23:10

In All the World of Worlds and In All Time
with commentary

Fandom: Narnia
Rating: PG
Characters/Ships: Tirian, Lucy/Emeth
Summary: Paradise is missing one thing.
A/N: Annotated for gehayi. The original is here.

( Narnian Heaven bothered me when I was a kid. )

fic: annotated, fic: 2005, fic: narnia

Comments 16

ashkitty March 30 2007, 04:58:41 UTC

I like that little dilemma. Is it possible to become bored in Heaven? Supposedly, it lasts for all eternity. I don't believe in it, but that's what I hear. What do you do all the time? And if you can only be sweet and nice and good, does that mean certain aspects of your personality are automatically suppressed? Is this good?

I don't know what the mainstream view is, but Buddhist text equates evil with ignorance. Following that thought, if you reach Heaven, there is no reason for the more wicked parts of the personality; it's not that they're subverted so much as they're no longer necessary.

I always imagined Heaven as a place where I would read books all the time; I'm probably not alone. *G*

thistlerose March 30 2007, 17:25:52 UTC

I want to be able to have sex in Heaven. If I can't get laid, and read all the books I want, and drink all the coffee and eat all the pie that I want, I'm not going. Also, my cats had better be there.

*g*

Sophie might end up in Purgatory with me.

gehayi March 30 2007, 05:18:21 UTC

Oh, thank you!

I never heard that line of Anderson's before, but it's brilliant. I must remember that.

I hated the dismissal of Susan in The Last Battle. Her siblings were so cold, and Aslan didn't bother to chide them for their lack of compassion. One day, I'd like to write about Susan.

I always thought that The Last Battle contradicted the whole "Once a King or Queen in Narnia, ALWAYS a King or Queen in Narnia" philosophy. Other people have managed to square Susan's dismissal with Susan arriving later, but if I were Susan, I'd still have problems. She has to deal with the death of her entire family. Two brothers, one sister, two parents and one cousin (Eustace Scrubb)--not to mention Professor Kirke (who was, at the very least, a friend of Susan and her sibs), the Professor's friend, Polly Plummer, and Eustace's friend, Jill Pole. That's a LOT of people to lose all at once ( ... )

thistlerose March 30 2007, 17:29:37 UTC

You're welcome!

And thank you. I'd had no idea that you liked this story.

I started writing a story that began with Susan receiving her siblings' personal effects, including the magic rings. She knows what they are and she holds onto them over the course of her life, but she never uses them and ultimately gives them away to a girl who looks like she needs to get away but probably can't afford airfare.

Have you read Neil Gaiman's take? It's pretty damn risque, but I found it very interesting.

surly_sue March 30 2007, 06:48:46 UTC

What happened to Susan?

thistlerose March 30 2007, 17:24:15 UTC

You mean...in the books?

surly_sue March 30 2007, 19:06:48 UTC

Yes, in the books. I haven't read them, but you've mentioned Susan's situatioh a few times before.

thistlerose March 30 2007, 19:17:50 UTC

Why are you reading the fic if you haven't read the books? :)

Well, Susan gets into boys and makeup and eventually turns her back on Narnia, so her siblings turn their back on her. She's mentioned only briefly in The Last Battle, and it's always struck me - and a number of other people - as mean and unfair.

Thread 7

kit_maxel March 31 2007, 00:34:29 UTC

I haven't read past The Silver Chair, and finding out how Susan's been dismissed kind of makes me not want to. Susan was always my favorite... Was it you who was thinking of writing a fic where she was Lily and Petunia's mother?

thistlerose March 31 2007, 22:10:40 UTC

I don't think it was. I'd been thinking of connecting Lily and Petunia with the Evans family in The Dark is Rising sequence.

I love the books, despite their shortcomings. Lewis really wields his symbolism with a sledge hammer in The Last Battle, but the two books before it - The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy - are fun. If you can look beyond his treatment of the Calormenes.

secondsilk January 18 2008, 08:01:42 UTC

Late reply, but chaos_pockets wrote The Made-Up Things if you hadn't seen that. Set after everything in The Last Battle.

secondsilk January 18 2008, 07:57:54 UTC

I get all self-contradictory about The Last Battle (in particular of the chronicles) because I like that Aslan takes Emeth as his own - all the good things you did for Tash, you to me - because it fits my theory of be "good" and God will be happy (even though he doesn't exist). But I felt that it was very unfair that the Calormenes' god was so awful, and, you know, actually evil.

I like the image of heaven as one garden that we all get to. (Ignoring the shiny!Narnia thing.)
And I loved the images in the story.

I feel bad for Susan, too. And when I reread the series a couple of months ago, I was absolutely appalled that Lucy is pleased to be dead.

I'll get out my Northern Lights icon again.

thistlerose January 21 2008, 17:13:30 UTC

One day, I want to do a story about Susan getting on with her life. Someday. Maybe soon...because yeah. Much as I love the Chronicles, I hate the way they all condemn her. Real compassionate, guys.

I have a weird thing about The Last Battle. There are little bits that I love - like Emeth's bravery, Tirian himself, the scariness (though not the evilness) of Tash. But when I think about certain things too deeply, I become disgruntled.