# Susan, Queen of Narnia, nylon-clad Floosie of post war Britain **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2010, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023 "2010-03-27T15:58:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/61 "2010-03-30T03:27:24Z")
> [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](#): > > So she’s left because we need to have someone ‘left behind’? Think of what we were spared for over 50 years because Lewis was too good a writer to give in to the tendency to write another series that would be nothing but Christian glurge! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/62 "2010-03-30T06:09:26Z")
> [@Electric\_Warrior](#): > > Okay, but we also have the data point of the White Witch being a woman who uses seduction to get her way. And isn’t she a stand in for the devil, or was I missing something? Ah yes, she tempted Edmund with her magic vagina. If you go through the text and substitute “vagina” for “Turkish Delight”, that is. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/63 "2010-03-30T09:57:14Z")
I just had a new thought, something that perhaps adds another layer to this question. One could argue that, before Susan rejected Aslan, Aslan rejected Susan. She and Peter are the first two to be told they won’t be coming back to Narnia.\* Though Aslan did not mean for it to be taken that way, might not being (in effect) forbidden to come back to Narnia have started Susan down her path to unbelief? It didn’t affect Peter that way, but Susan was a different person, weaker in faith and prone to self-absorption. Maybe Susan need more direct connection for her not to reach that lapsing point. She hadn’t been guided quite far enough to stay on the path, so to speak. Maybe, maybe not. Just something I’m throwing out there. (This, I think, speaks to your solution to the question, **Malacandra.** Because… why would Susan conclude that, as you said, “the nearest thing to being a Narnian Queen she would ever experience again was to network herself into becoming a Hollywood starlet,” if not for her being told she would never go to Narnia again? If your story is online somewhere, I would be intrigued to read it.) \*The first two both in terms of the order of the books, and chronologically in the history of Narnia. I haven’t read _TMN_ in a while, but I don’t recall Digory and/or Polly being sent back with any specific prohibition. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/64 "2010-03-30T15:14:25Z")
Well, if anyone would have some insight into that point, **Not A Tame Lion** , it would be you! ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/65 "2010-03-30T21:07:24Z")
> [@shantih](#): > > Well, if anyone would have some insight into that point, **Not A Tame Lion** , it would be you! Yeah, true enough. I always had it in for that Susan chick. What can I say? She just bugged me. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/66 "2010-03-30T21:55:20Z")
> [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](#): > > I just had a new thought, something that perhaps adds another layer to this question. One could argue that, before Susan rejected Aslan, Aslan rejected Susan. She and Peter are the first two to be told they won’t be coming back to Narnia.\* Though Aslan did not mean for it to be taken that way, might not being (in effect) forbidden to come back to Narnia have started Susan down her path to unbelief? It didn’t affect Peter that way, but Susan was a different person, weaker in faith and prone to self-absorption. Maybe Susan need more direct connection for her not to reach that lapsing point. She hadn’t been guided quite far enough to stay on the path, so to speak. > > Maybe, maybe not. Just something I’m throwing out there. > > (This, I think, speaks to your solution to the question, **Malacandra.** Because… > > why would Susan conclude that, as you said, “the nearest thing to being a Narnian Queen she would ever experience again was to network herself into becoming a Hollywood starlet,” if not for her being told she would never go to Narnia again? > > If your story is online somewhere, I would be intrigued to read it.) > > \*The first two both in terms of the order of the books, and chronologically in the history of Narnia. I haven’t read _TMN_ in a while, but I don’t recall Digory and/or Polly being sent back with any specific prohibition. Well, Aslan only told Susan and Peter “No more Narnia for you” because they were meant to start learning to know him in our world (it says so somewhere). That would mean some dull times compared to the thrills and spills of the magical world - but the long-term reward was to experience the true Narnia, and the true Earth too, in the fullness of their maturity. That’s a theme Lewis revisits in some of his other work, such as _Screwtape_ IIRC. I may find some quotes if you like. ---
**Author:** ![Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e36b37/32.png) [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Not_A_Tame_Lion)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/67 "2010-03-31T06:16:14Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Well, Aslan only told Susan and Peter “No more Narnia for you” because they were meant to start learning to know him in our world (it says so somewhere). That would mean some dull times compared to the thrills and spills of the magical world - but the long-term reward was to experience the true Narnia, and the true Earth too, in the fullness of their maturity. That’s a theme Lewis revisits in some of his other work, such as _Screwtape_ IIRC. I may find some quotes if you like. I see what you’re saying. I think you’re right about the sense in which Aslan (and Lewis) meant for that “ban” to be taken. But I think the key there is, “in the fullness of their maturity.” The record seems to indicate that Susan, at the time of that break, was nowhere close to fullness of maturity, and from her perspective, that long-term reward was unforeseeable. Sometimes, the lesson can’t be learned until the pupil is ready to learn it. So it goes. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/68 "2010-03-31T06:28:06Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Ah yes, she tempted Edmund with her magic vagina. If you go through the text and substitute “vagina” for “Turkish Delight”, that is. :dubious: I think he was just pointing out the archetype. Females tempting males is a very old trope. Remember, while a serpent tempts Eve, Eve tempts Adam. I guess that also is the archetype for a female to be the one that is drawn away… ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/69 "2010-03-31T09:22:58Z")
If you work hard enough, you can fit anything into some archetype somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/70 "2010-03-31T20:33:06Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Lewis did have a few issues with women. > > * * * > > I loved his Space Trilogy in high school but don’t know how it will hold up to re-reading. Still love _Till We Have Faces_, though. He certainly did. Read _That Hideous Strength_ and you’ll see. I, too, read it in high school. Then I re-read it as an adult. Entirely different book, practically. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/71 "2010-03-31T20:45:47Z")
> [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](#): > > Yeah, true enough. I always had it in for that Susan chick. What can I say? She just bugged me. Calvinist. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023/72 "2010-03-31T22:02:55Z")
> [@Not\_A\_Tame\_Lion](#): > > Yeah, true enough. I always had it in for that Susan chick. What can I say? She just bugged me. > [@FriarTed](#): > > Calvinist. Sounds more Hobbsian, if you ask me…😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/susan-queen-of-narnia-nylon-clad-floosie-of-post-war-britain/534023.md?page=3)