Canon aside, what would you see as a happy ending in the Narnia 'verse? From any point in the series (except for Magician's Nephew; you know I don't count that as canon).
i've been on an alanis kick lately. this is due to the fault of "wunderkind", which i love to listen to when i walk around on sunny days because it makes me feel like QUEEN OF THE FUCKING WORLD. oh narnia, how you have insinuated yourself into my life.
i was totally going to read more durkheim but now LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO
and lucy, radiant with happiness, can't seem to decide whether she wants to take susan's hand or run ahead of her, and she dances back and forth as old stories tumbling from her lips: this is where we had a picnic once, this is where the maenads taught us their wild dances, this is where this, this is where that. do you remember?
and susan does, of course, but she is content to be led through her past, now her present once more, solid beneath her feet and warm to the touch. the only things slipping through her fingers is lucy's hair as her little sister wraps her arms around her like she had so many years ago, laughing and exultant and all do you remember, do you remember without expecting an answer. queen susan has returned to narnia, and this is answer enough.
the narnia of aslan's country is narnia as susan has always remembered it to be. it is not like in life, where you return to find always the cracks that memory has mended, the rust that time has covered up, all the dust swept under the carpet. a new coat of paint over everything. it is the arithmetic of memory: what is added, what is taken away. but in the end math and memory were just abstract models, incapable of keeping you warm as you watched one two three four five (and so on, so many) coffins being lowered into the ground.
but things are as they should be, here.
"it's like death is just a rebirth," edmund tells her as they walk through the orchards, always in season, red apples on every branch.
"like a second chance?" asks susan.
edmund considers this. "more like a last chance. oh, but that makes it sound so gloomy. the thing is, you don't need chances here, su, not a second one, not a last one, not anymore. it is enough that we are here, don't you see?"
they hold hands as they walk, and this makes susan's heart flutter for they had not held hands for a long time, not even when edmund was alive, those last years in england.
she smiles and says, "i do."
he reaches up and picks an apple as they walk past, offers it to her, and when she moves to take it he moves his hand further and further away. rolling her eyes, susan leans over and reaches, and edmund slips his arm around her waist and pulls her close, his breath warm on her cheek. "don't get kicked out of eden this time," he says.
i love alanis! she is all over my narnia fanmixes, along with vanessa carlton and kasey chambers. this (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanismorissette/youlearn.html) is a very zen edmund song, i feel.
queen susan has returned to narnia, and this is answer enough.
DAMN STRAIGHT HONEY. ALL YOU BITCHES BETTER RECOGNIZE OH WAIT WRONG NARNIA *cheers* and oh, edmund. but doesn't peter get in on the reunion? *bats eyelashes*
OH HE WILL. considering that this is pretty much real fic (OXYMORON?!?!) that will end up as an Actual Post later, 'cos it's 3/4 done or something, almost. it's like i don't write fic anymore unless it is in comments, and i'm kind of fine with that, 'cos not only do i write it faster, i write more of it 'cos i write it faster. oh languishing calormen and white stag fics!
"it's mind-boggling to think that three quarters of a century have gone by," says peter, slouched in a most unkingly fashion in his desk chair. "yet here you are, so they must have."
"a little less," susan corrects from where she is curled up on his bed. "i had a long life, but not that long."
it is an old habit, watching him from the refuge of his bed as goes about his business in his room. in england, watching him write letters and assignments, watching him chew his pencil as he reads intimidating leather-bound volumes, as he paces, practicing french with her and completely glazing over when she explains for the hundredth time how to conjugate the subjunctive. in narnia, not so different, except it was high calormene he practiced and glottal stops that he seemed to adamantly refuse to understand.
"there is nothing here to divide time, you see, except sunrise and sunset, and even then they barely mean anything more than a lights show. the nights are as gentle as the days, the days as cool as the nights. a day blurs into a week until such words lose all meaning. have you noticed there are no clocks or calendars here?"
she hums a noise that means yes, burrows deeper into his sheets.
i'll come back to this, i've got to hunt a TA down.
i have to admit, the idea of aslan's country kind of scares me. i don't know why; it's just the concept of it not being real, of nothing mattering. nothing's played for keeps. i don't know.
although i have to admit, i do kind of want to write the peter/now-in-human-form!narnia reunion in aslan's country. my narnia is basically scarlett johansson, like peta.
lewis was a messy and lazy storyteller. he was too caught up with the precision of his analogies and getting the message across to tell a good story. so, aslan's country is just like... ARGH. i don't even. i know i know, lewis is a product of his generation and his circumstance, whatev, SO AM I, and this is what i say. i've written 2 fics set in aslan's country and the thesis in both of them was "THIS IS A FUCKING CREEPY PLACE"
on a vaguely related note, i have an original fic that is basically narnia set in modern times, from the pov of the four kids' older brother who's just come back from iraq. er, that part's not important. i was going to either write fic or channel everything into that novel. the fic won out.
i am a little terrified to do a wordcount on all my narnia fic and see if i actually wrote more for narnia than i did for the 100K novel i did for my senior project.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 05:29 am (UTC)i was totally going to read more durkheim but now LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO
and lucy, radiant with happiness, can't seem to decide whether she wants to take susan's hand or run ahead of her, and she dances back and forth as old stories tumbling from her lips: this is where we had a picnic once, this is where the maenads taught us their wild dances, this is where this, this is where that. do you remember?
and susan does, of course, but she is content to be led through her past, now her present once more, solid beneath her feet and warm to the touch. the only things slipping through her fingers is lucy's hair as her little sister wraps her arms around her like she had so many years ago, laughing and exultant and all do you remember, do you remember without expecting an answer. queen susan has returned to narnia, and this is answer enough.
the narnia of aslan's country is narnia as susan has always remembered it to be. it is not like in life, where you return to find always the cracks that memory has mended, the rust that time has covered up, all the dust swept under the carpet. a new coat of paint over everything. it is the arithmetic of memory: what is added, what is taken away. but in the end math and memory were just abstract models, incapable of keeping you warm as you watched one two three four five (and so on, so many) coffins being lowered into the ground.
but things are as they should be, here.
"it's like death is just a rebirth," edmund tells her as they walk through the orchards, always in season, red apples on every branch.
"like a second chance?" asks susan.
edmund considers this. "more like a last chance. oh, but that makes it sound so gloomy. the thing is, you don't need chances here, su, not a second one, not a last one, not anymore. it is enough that we are here, don't you see?"
they hold hands as they walk, and this makes susan's heart flutter for they had not held hands for a long time, not even when edmund was alive, those last years in england.
she smiles and says, "i do."
he reaches up and picks an apple as they walk past, offers it to her, and when she moves to take it he moves his hand further and further away. rolling her eyes, susan leans over and reaches, and edmund slips his arm around her waist and pulls her close, his breath warm on her cheek. "don't get kicked out of eden this time," he says.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 01:04 pm (UTC)queen susan has returned to narnia, and this is answer enough.
DAMN STRAIGHT HONEY.
ALL YOU BITCHES BETTER RECOGNIZE OH WAIT WRONG NARNIA*cheers* and oh, edmund. but doesn't peter get in on the reunion? *bats eyelashes*(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 06:50 pm (UTC)"it's mind-boggling to think that three quarters of a century have gone by," says peter, slouched in a most unkingly fashion in his desk chair. "yet here you are, so they must have."
"a little less," susan corrects from where she is curled up on his bed. "i had a long life, but not that long."
it is an old habit, watching him from the refuge of his bed as goes about his business in his room. in england, watching him write letters and assignments, watching him chew his pencil as he reads intimidating leather-bound volumes, as he paces, practicing french with her and completely glazing over when she explains for the hundredth time how to conjugate the subjunctive. in narnia, not so different, except it was high calormene he practiced and glottal stops that he seemed to adamantly refuse to understand.
"there is nothing here to divide time, you see, except sunrise and sunset, and even then they barely mean anything more than a lights show. the nights are as gentle as the days, the days as cool as the nights. a day blurs into a week until such words lose all meaning. have you noticed there are no clocks or calendars here?"
she hums a noise that means yes, burrows deeper into his sheets.
i'll come back to this, i've got to hunt a TA down.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 07:03 pm (UTC)although i have to admit, i do kind of want to write the peter/now-in-human-form!narnia reunion in aslan's country. my narnia is basically scarlett johansson, like peta.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 08:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 09:04 pm (UTC)on a vaguely related note, i have an original fic that is basically narnia set in modern times, from the pov of the four kids' older brother who's just come back from iraq. er, that part's not important. i was going to either write fic or channel everything into that novel. the fic won out.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 09:25 pm (UTC)CURRENT LIFE MOTTO
(no subject)
Date: 2008-10-10 09:36 pm (UTC)