Pattertwig's Pal wrote:To many people the idea of other worlds seems childish, and Susan does not want to be childish. She is trying to make herself seem grown-up by distinguishing between when she was younger and perhaps by trying to make the others seem childish in comparison to herself
Now this is a terrific point. It explains so much Susan's relationship with Lucy, doesn't it? Lucy, after all, is the baby. Why take more notice of her than big sister Susan? Oh yes, Susan is fond of her sister, but she is also the sort of person who wants to look down on others younger than herself.
Pattertwig's Pal wrote:She might even fear not being accepted by others.
Another good point. Gaiman has her moving around in a rather glamorously high-brow crowd, in which talk of Narnia would seem to be weird. Until the rail accident, of course.
Pattertwig's Pal wrote:After Susan has witnessed Aslan’s death and resurrection, she doesn’t want to talk about. Lucy thinks Edmund should know but Susan doesn’t think so. Susan and Lucy do a lot with together with Aslan but Susan really does not really have any alone time with Aslan. She is afraid to meet Aslan in PC because she doubted.
And I think this is the clincher which has been dancing at the back of my mind. Gaiman's, too, I think. Susan doesn't want to discuss Edmund's near death. She doesn't want to face the reality of the episode of the Stone Table, let alone that Aslan in essence died to pay Edmund's debt to the White Witch. What exactly did Susan see when Aslan leaped on the Witch? Why didn't Susan want to discuss the events with Edmund? And why was she so willing to stop Lucy discussing anything after seeing her cure Edmund with the cordial? Is there something Susan is not facing?
Talking Rat wrote:Wagga -- oops, yes, you're right, that was Edmund and Lucy he said that too. But I think we could assume he said something similar to Peter and Susan.
I'm not so sure. We heard what Aslan said to Lucy and Edmund at the end of Voyage and the Dawn Treader. But when they asked about Eustace, he asked if they really needed to know that. At the end of Silver Chair, Aslan tells Jill and Eustace that the next time they visit Narnia they will have come back to stay. Aslan does tend to dole out information on a 'need to know' basis, doesn't he? He may have said something similar to Susan and Peter, but then he might have said something a bit different. And Pattertwig is right. Where in the books did Susan ever meet Aslan alone, without siblings, cousins or others in attendance?
220CT wrote:@wagga: I think you misunderstood my use of the word "independence." It's not independence vs. dependence. Why? Everyone is dependent on someone or something. Everyone needs some kind of help. None of us are truly independent, for that would make us gods unto ourselves. If we're dependent on one person, we're independent of another.
Well that is one way of looking at the situation, isn't it, from your point of view.
Arguably yes we are. After all, on the Dawn Treader everyone is dependent on the ship to get them where they want to go. But I was seeing Susan from my point of view also. Is she a passenger, passively, even resentfully, taken along, dependent on the skills of the crew, as if she is a captive. Or is she a crew member, actively and independently exerting every bit of will and skill she has to help the ship reach its destination?
In Prince Caspian, although Susan did co-operate at first, she did act more and more like a passive and dependent passenger, and not an active and thoughtful fellow crew person. When they all reached the gorge where Lucy saw Aslan, undoubtedly Susan was too tired to think clearly, and if truth be known, she just wanted to curl up and go to sleep.
Peter thought he had a plan, and Trumpkin felt he should back Peter up, much as he had already backed up Caspian before leaving Aslan's Howe. Peter thought it was the best way to go, even though Edmund mentioned that it would be fair to believe Lucy this time. He even apologised to Lucy for his choice.
But how could he go along with Lucy when Susan took the line she did, making his the casting vote? For one thing Susan was never going to agree with Lucy, if there was someone more senior around, and Trumpkin said he would follow the high king, however he decided. For another thing, Susan just didn't want to think at that juncture. Easier to follow Peter's original plan, however wrong he was, than to admit that Lucy could have been right. I think that it was at this point she had definitely started to 'listen to fears'. And subsequently, after the Narnia romp, she had already learned all she was ever going to from her stays in Narnia.
Edited to add a further thought about Susan: Even by 1949, when C.S.Lewis set 'The Last Battle', UK, in particular, was still having rationing, during what would be known as an age of austerity and scarcity, a consequence of the destruction of WW2 it had endured. Maybe in the light of such general privation, Susan's preoccupations with worldly things did seem a lot worse and more frivolous then than they would be considered twenty years later, in 1969, let alone now.