Narnia: Writing Narnian Fanfiction Part I

10/2

I wanted to dedicate a blog to my thoughts regarding the Narnia writing assignment. I think it will be helpful for me to explain the symbolism I used. Some if it is used to represent different aspects of a faith journey, others are personal motifs from my own life and perspective.

First off, I grew up in Narnia. One central reason I chose to lengthen Lucy’s story is because I always perceived her to be the one who always believed: in Narnia, in Aslan, in hope when all seems lost. Countless times she is shamed when others doubt her, not just in TLTWTW, but later in Prince Caspian. I empathize with how distraught she felt, and the resilience of her belief surpassed any lengths I imagine myself to go were I in her situation.

The concept of Lucy having doubts was an unfathomable question, at first. The more I explored her character, the more natural her questioning became. Not because of anything particular about Lucy, but because of something particular to every daughter of Eve.

Everyone has doubts. I think C.S. Lewis had his reasons for maintaining consistency with Lucy’s character throughout the series. However, I wanted to explore Lucy’s feelings after first entering Narnia, but before her return in Prince Caspian. I’m hindsight it is natural to conclude that the Pevensie children were always destined to find Narnia. I imagined even Lucy may have developed doubts in the year between their Narnian adventures.

I wondered what kinds of daydreams she must’ve had while sitting back in an English schoolroom.

I wondered if she always made sure to check the backs of wardrobes; how could she not, after one War Drobe was the gateway to the greatest adventure of her life?

In imagining ow Lucy’s inevitable doubts would creep in, I tried to maintain Lucy’s youth, playfulness, and darling younger sister nature.

The main point I wanted to do justice for is describing how Lucy would have handled such doubts. This led to an exploration of Susan, who serves as a useful contrast.

In the full canon we know the fate of Susan, but I couldn’t help but explored some potential sources of Susan’s later downfall. I imagine that the time between adventures must have been difficult for all the children, and I tried to create a reason for Susan to develop the feelings of bitterness and abandonment earlier on the series. Although she returns with her siblings in Prince Caspian, I wanted to plant a reasonable seed of doubt that would grow to eventually distort her perspective. One thing I did not understand is the abruptness of Susan’s ultimate rejection of Narnia. Lewis had his reasons, of that I am sure. The explanation I added for Susan a way of letting her down gently, with a more understandable cause.

If anything, I echo Lewis’ reasoning for writing Narnia in the first place: “no one’s writing the stories I want to read, so I must write them”

Not meaning that this story isn’t the one I want, but this aspect of doubt is one I need more explanation for in order to understand Susan's alleged ultimate denial (although I do not ascribe to the camp of thought, personally) This piece was a way of me attempting to explain and incorporate doubt in a character like Lucy, who did not characteristically seem to struggle with faith. I wanted to humanize her, and still incorporate her eventual triumph over doubt. It is also an attempt to imagine the potential depth of Susan’s suffering that could be the cause for her to eventually lose sight of Narnia. In this process, I do not want to devalue the weight of their individual power to choose belief despite their doubts.

As you can imagine, some tell stories to remember, some listen to forget. Perhaps after hearing such stories, Susan was disoriented, too full of wishing for something that one cannot have. This made her prone to forgo the good bits in the middle rather than be left with the bittersweet end. In my version, Susan has irreconcilable differences with her past, which would leave her disoriented and looking for life in all the dead places. For, inevitably, stories must return us back the present moment, where we began. For Susan, that would have been too unbearable, so she would try to dull the pain of the past by being bitter towards the One who failed her in her moment of need (Again, this is all hypothetical motivation, because I believe in Susan's redemption).