Susan's Charge by carlanime-bligh (G)

[dragojustine.livejournal.com]

Fandom: CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
Length: >1k
Author on LJ: carlanime_bligh
Why this must be read:

The great elephant in the room for Narnia fandom is the Problem of Susan. Susan is excluded forever from Heaven, and left to live alone as an orphan after all her friends and family are dead, apparently for the crime of growing up and maturing sexually. Much ink has been spilled defending Lewis from a Christian apologetics perspective and insisting that Susan's crime was not actually sexual in nature- but the fact remains that Lewis sacrificed the character of Susan, cruelly and brutally, to make an allegorical point.

I'd say it's impossible to read The Last Battle without needing to face the problem of Susan; either by railing at Lewis, and his sexism and life-denying religion, or by struggling to defend Lewis' choice. carlanime_bligh here takes a third route: she turns Lewis' condemnation of Susan on its head, in a way perfectly consistent with canon and yet so utterly unlike what Lewis did to her. This fic is a beautiful affirmation of life, that allows us to love Aslan again. It might be one of the biggest examples of fanfic "fixing" canon I can think of.

“I thought you hated me,” she said finally, letting all the piled-up misery flood out. “Why did you leave me behind?”

Susan's Charge

Comments

[delurker.livejournal.com]

What a great story! Thanks for reccing it.