A few very good questions

[rthstewart]

Some very good questions

 

  

 

Did Lucy hear their Dead from behind the Wall of water and lilies?

 I didn’t think much about this until two reviewers asked.  The answer came to me as I was thinking of Jalur, Edmund’s Tiger Guard, waiting for him, knowing his King was near, and yet not coming across.  Briony, Lucy’s She-Wolf Guard, would be surprised when Jalur speaks of this because Briony feels she has a connection with Lucy, even across a long age and a world’s distance.    So, Lucy, living as she does with one foot in the world of spirit and light, has a connection already that the others do not.  She hears the Dead, and always has.  Take this too far and we end up with “I see dead people,” so we’ll stop right there.

 

 

Will Asim and the Russells, Jill, Polly and Digory be in the story again?

Yes, absolutely.  Part 2, The Queen Susan in Tashbaan, is Susan’s story, and, by extension, though to a much smaller extent, Edmund and Peter’s story as well.  In theory, it will all come together in Part 3, as I move ahead to 1945-1949 and The Train Crash. 

 

 

 

What about Susan’s story?

I’m telling it now, and will tell it further in Part 3.  If you read, carefully, the scant paragraphs in TLB where Susan is discussed, it is Eustace, Jill, and Polly who heap the most abuse upon her.  Peter flatly says she is no longer a “friend of Narnia” and then he changes the subject.  Elecktrum points this out in her NFFR interview (As Cast from Narnian Fanfiction Revolution, http://ascastpodcast.com – check it out!).  Edmund and Lucy say nothing.  Further, at that point, the characters do not themselves know they are dead.

 

Additionally, just because a character says something does not mean it is True, save, in this universe for Aslan.  A character may be lying, a character may be wrong.  A character may not know the whole of the facts.

 

It has become convention in fan fic that Susan forgets and abandons, turns away from Narnia.  It is typically dated from her time in America.  We have read it so much, it has become accepted as canon. While the text of TLB supports this interpretation, others are possible as well.  What is posited in The Stone Gryphon is another possible interpretation. 

 

 

Lhanae noted that there has not been, so far, much interaction between Susan and Peter.  I’ve thought about this and so far, no, there has not.  They are together in one flashback in Part 1, hunting the hag with Ibiza.  I really like the hints of their managerial relationship in that flashback. 

 

I know where and why it gets wrong footed (Susan not being a “Friend of Narnia”), but for that to mean anything to any of them, I have to establish the closeness first.  The same is true for Lucy and Susan.  It might work well with some true Narnian flashbacks in Part 2 – if I can keep them distinct.  Or, I can do this in Part 3…

 

I need to do more there and thank you for the reminder.  Let me see how I can address it in the chapters ahead.

 

 

 

The stone gryphon has made an oblique appearance two or three times in Part 1.  Part 3 explains it more fully and Edmund will give him a name.  I don’t have many surprises in the story, and I suppose this is one of them.  The clues are all there and if you really want to know, email or PM and I’ll let you know. 

 

In Part 2, Bardon was turned to stone in the Witch’s courtyard, a fact which I need to have him say at some point. 

 

Miniver had pointed out to me that Gryphons are actually much larger than depicted in the films.  I’ve sort of run with that and they are big enough to ride, as well as fight, more like winged horses with knights on their backs, or even dragons with riders aback.

 

 

Comments

[andi-horton.livejournal.com]

All right, just because I feel the need to blather at you with my conclusions: I am going to run with at least part of what you have mentioned about what certain of the characters say in TLB, but it will still dovetail with the rest of Susan's piece. It's just, part of what has held me back from starting this is I couldn't wrap my head around HOW Susan got to the point that is described in the seventh book. Surely somebody who hated to hurt people would find it painful to wound everybody with her behaviour that way!. I just couldn't imagine it. Then something you said sort of made a few things click perfectly into place, so I now have my explanation, and suddenly this thing can actually be written!