A Theory on the Problem of Susan
In his space, the question arose as to why people have a problem with Susan.
Here is the full quote. It is brief:
‘Sire,’ said Tirian, when he had greeted all these, ‘if I have read the chronicles aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?’
‘My sister Susan,’ answered Peter shortly and gravely, ‘is no longer a friend of Narnia.’
‘Yes,’ said Eustace, ‘and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, “What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’
‘Oh, Susan!’ said Jill. ‘She’s interested in nothing nowadays except nylons and lipstick and invitations. She always was a jolly sight too keen on being grown-up.’
‘Grown-up indeed,’ said the Lady Polly. ‘I wish she would grow up. She wasted all her school time wanting to be the age she is now, and she’ll waste all the rest of her life trying to stay that age. Her whole idea is to race on to the silliest time of one’s life as quick as she can and then stop there as long as she can.’
‘Well, don’t let’s talk about that now,’ said Peter. ‘Look! Here are lovely fruit trees. Let us taste them.’
Certain hecklers have attempted, without much success, to interpret this as misogyny, or as the alleged phobic hatred Christians allegedly have toward sexuality, love and romance. Since we live in a world where the non-Christians have sex less often than the Christians, not to mention have fewer children and a higher rate of suicide and suicidal behaviors, I do not think the accusation need be refuted. Why level it?
Here is my theory.
We — all men of good will — are opposed, not with a worldview alternate to the view of Western Civilization (I will resist the temptation to coin a german sounding word like Greco-Roman-Judeo-Christian-Anglo-American ) but with an opposite worldview. In a word, it is a Gnostic heresy, a parasite, which lives and thrives on the host by ultimately seek to kill it.
This worldview as many names: the World, the Flesh, the Devil, Modernism, Postmodernism, Communism, Nihilism, Progressivism, Secularism, Romanticism, Irrationalism, Nietzscheanism, Collectivism, Fatalism, Materialism, and on and on and on. It is largely on the Left, but it is not exclusively on the Left. It is, however, devotedly anti-Christian and pro-Gnostic. We should just call them Death-Eaters.
The essential point of this doctrine in any various forms and mutations is to deny the Christian God. That logically requires the rejection of the one thing that separates Western thought from Eastern — a rejection of pagan fatalism. If you go to hell, it is because you chose death and rejected life.
Now, by the way they live, and what they do, and the way they act, and who they defend and welcome and support, and what they decide to do to civilization when they get the power, it is clear they are suicidal. At some level, they know they live lives not worth living, and they want to die. They want to take us with them, but they love death. See, for example, the debates surrounding euthanasia and aborticide.
Rejecting life means rejecting responsibility. They want it to be God’s fault they go to hell, not their own. They are willing to believe in Freud’s theory that their thoughts are controlled by forgotten sexual traumas, or Marx theory that their lives are controlled by inhuman historical inevitability, or even Nietzsche’s theory that their thoughts are controlled by their own arbitrary will which answers to no one and nothing, hence need be responsible to nothing and no one — but they are not willing to believe they are responsible.
They are willing to believe anything, no matter how self destructive and nonsensical, provided only it alleviated them of responsibility.
The modern version of this Gnostic belief is called Social Justice, which is a fancy word for racism. In this belief system, Negros, by virtue of his skin color, is a victim therefore innocent, and the Caucasian, likewise, is an oppressor therefore guilty, no matter what he thinks,says or does. It is simply not his responsibility. Jews are both innocent victims and guilty oppressors, as the psychological or rhetorical needs of the moment happen to be. The worldview is not consistent with itself, nor is it meant to be.
But Susan, in the midst of a charming children’s story, is shown to bear the responsibility for her decision to seek the world, the flesh, and the devil — in this case, glamour, parties, nylons, boys, and pride.
And the death-eaters cannot stand that idea. It seem ultimately, infinitely, screamingly unfair to them, trapped in their stupid worldview, that a girl should get a fair reward for her free decision. She chose to leave Aslan alone. So Aslan leaves her alone.
So, if the argument is actually about fatalism or collectivism or power-worship or whatever flimsy excuse to escape from moral stature and adulthood that happens to be fashionable this season, then why is all the cawing and clamor about the fact that Susan was interested in nylons and lipstick?
The Gnostic attitude toward sex is the same paradox as their attitude toward all else. Sex within marriage, that is chastity and monogamy, lifelong commitment, sexual reproduction that actually, you know, sexually reproduces the species, all that is as hateful to them as death. They will seek death to avoid it, seeking death in the form of venereal disease — which, by definition, is only found among the unchaste, that is someone who had sex not with his wife, or both of them did not come virginal to the marriage bed.
Sex is not sacred to them, and in fact they hate it — see the debate on aborticide, for example. But unchaste sex is sacred. Fetishes of the things surrounding sex, the symbols of sex without the reality, or, better yet, the physical sensation of organism without any fertility or love — these things are gods to them.
Sex is the earthly counterpart to the divine ecstasy their atheism denies them. It is a poor substitute. But they treat the idol as a sacred goddess, and so they worship all the things surrounding sex that have nothing, other than as a shallow outward sign, to do with sex, such as lipstick and nylons.
The Gnostics are magicians, that is, folk who think that controlling the word that points to a thing, controls the thing. Change the word, change reality.
This insane principle is seen not just in the elliptical way they speak and censor speech, but also in the way they deal with fetishes and sexual perversions — by putting a man in nylons and lipstick, in their world, changes man into woman.
The magicians are creatures of show only. Their magic is not real. They are concerned with names, outward shows, appearances, and this makes them shallow.
Calling things by the wrong names, hiding truth in masquerades, is also wicked, and, because it is unwise and leads to death and hell, it is folly.
And so here, in one sharp sentence, CS Lewis not only topples their most sacred cow, he penetrates through to the very heart of it.
It is a deathly blow to all they hold dear, revealing their shallowness, wickedness and folly all at one blow. How can the wicked fools not scream?
And when they scream, how can they help but scream about the most shallow part of the passage, the one thing that matters least?
Susan is not being punished by Aslan for growing old or for learning about sex. She had reached full maturity as a Queen in the country before, and her hand was sought in marriage. Indeed, Polly is vexed because Susan is not growing old, that is, not acting in a mature and responsible fashion, like a grown up.
No, the reason for her not being with her family when Aslan gathered them in is given quite explicitly at the outset — she is no longer a friend of Narnia.
As you sow, so shall you reap. That bit of Bible wisdom is the one thing all the various forms of modernism and postmodernism and materialism and fakery and blithering all agree upon must never be mentioned, never contemplated, never admitted.
Because Gnostics are magicians, after all. But not good magicians, like Merlin or Harry Potter. They are Death eaters. They think if they call Bible wisdom about not betraying your own soul a Susan did by another name — misogyny, for example, or phobia — they can make it go away.
Is Susan bound for Hellfire? The text says nothing one way or the other, but the magicians would prefer to pretend Aslan is wicked and cruel, because this also means no one need answer to him, and no one need be responsible.
Such is my theory.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
