Or 'The One with the Lost Prince'
Caution: A few minor plot spoilers may lurk beneath the discussion points.
I'd forgotten what a meaningful and very cool quest tale this is.
Eustace Scrubb is back in Narnia, this time with his school friend, Jill Pole. Several Narnian decades have lapsed since his first visit, and the boy King Caspian is now a very old man. Eustace and Jill have been given the task to track down his missing son, Prince Rilian, heir to the throne. They'll have to embark on a dangerous journey to the north beyond the land of the giants. Puddleglum, a pessimistic marsh-wiggle who lives in a swamp, agrees to be their guide.
What I loved even more than before
1) This seems to be the only intentional, human-induced whisking off to Narnia on record, so to speak. Eustace and Jill actually set up quite an elaborate ritual by requesting to be taken, at a most vulnerable moment when they're both fed up with bullies and their depressing co-ed school. I guess we can regard the result as an act of grace, for Eustace knows full well that nobody can order Aslan about. They can only ask. It turns out to be a wooing from the other side, too. Before long, Aslan tells Jill,'You would not have called me unless I had been calling you.'
2) Many of Lewis' girls are feisty, and Jill has a particularly abrasive streak that makes me smile. Her prickly pride and disposition to show off is the reason why Eustace falls off the cliff at the outset, and if it had been a normal plummet as she thought, she would have killed him! All through the story, she keeps a secret eye on Eustace's reactions, forever comparing them to her own. If she feels she comes out better, she gets a tickle of pride. But if he appears to come out top, she's quite woebegone. There's always an attitude of something to prove, if only to herself. She's quite a character.
3) I totally understand the distracting effect on both children as soon as they hear about Harfang, the supposed oasis of the gentle giants, where they will enjoy fantastic hospitality. They can think of nothing but the short term comforts of soft beds, tasty food and warm fires. I don't blame them in the least after their cold trek, but Lewis' point is clear. Temporal comfort wins the day with Jill and Eustace. They stop looking at the bigger picture, completely sidetracked by the quick fixes they're anticipating. They forget to rehearse the signs Aslan has given them to keep their minds on the quest to find Prince Rilian. It's his little nudge for any of us inclined to forget the broader picture of our lives and goals. (And in the case of our little trio, they were lucky to escape with their lives.)
4) The description of the underworld is wonderful! Their descent puts us readers right in the picture so we can almost see the weird forms of growth, smell the dank, close earth and experience the hush of the solemn underground city. And their ascent later on is most tense and eventful.
5) The chapter with the titular Silver Chair is among my favourites of any story ever. What a conflict of interests! What a test of faith! What a convincing appearance of extenuating circumstances! How easily they could have reasoned their way out of obeying Aslan's final directive to them. What curly plot twists, and final proof that enchantment was indeed happening, but just not the way they expected. Aslan did warn them that it's important to know the signs by heart and pay no attention to appearances. But how close they came to being sucked in.
6) Directly after this is the brilliant incident in which the green witch does her best to convince them that the world they know so well is a mere dream. She uses the old trick of trying to make them believe there is no reality beyond what their physical senses can make out from their limited environment. This mirrors another theological lesson of Lewis'. Because we can't detect a greater realm than planet earth with our tangible senses, some people are convinced that such speculations are akin to fairy tales. And Jill, Eustace, Puddleglum and Rilian almost succumb to the same reasoning.
7) I like how Rilian and even Eustace are so keen to venture down to the land of Bism at the world's bottom, with the tempting gnome Golg as their guide. It's clearer to them later that it's just pride and hankering for personal glory that caused them to delay their all-important trip back toward the world's surface. Just because something sounds awesome, doesn't mean we should drop everything and do it.
8) Puddleglum!! What a hero and legend. I wish I had a marsh-wiggle for a friend. I read that Lewis based him on his long-term gardener and friend, F.W. Paxford, who he described as, 'an inwardly optimistic, outwardly pessimistic, dear, frustrating, shrewd countryman of immense integrity.'
9) This is just a speculation of mine, but I'm sure if Lewis were alive, he would think the whole world has turned crazy like Experiment House, that up-to-date school he considered so dodgy. He drops several hints in the form of little digs. For example, Eustace and Jill are bemused when referred to as a Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve, because their school curriculum includes no teaching about Adam and Eve. And later, both kids bow to the giants of Harfang, because Jill hasn't been taught to curtsey in her environment of equal opportunity. Whatever we might think of our current PC era, I'm pretty sure Lewis wouldn't have been a fan.
10) Caspian's death scene is one of the finest and most uplifting I've come across.
What I wasn't a fan of this time round.
1) Okay, although I love Eustace and Jill, I feel this begs to be said. All through the story, the real hero of the quest turns out to be Puddleglum. It is always he who makes the wisest decisions, and refuses to succumb to the human weaknesses of his two young companions. So as far as the quest is concerned, why not simply assign the saving of Prince Rilian to the marsh-wiggle in the first place? Jill and Eustace might as well have stayed home. They were a liability to Puddleglum in the same way he was a benefit to them. I would have loved to see these two come up with some heroic stuff off their own bats and save the day just once. As it was, they were just along for the ride for the most part.
2) I was a bit disappointed that at no point did Aslan address Jill's automatic habit of comparing herself to Eustace every step of the way. I'd expected the great lion to help her confront this default reaction of hers and learn to stop the pointless game of comparison. It would have been fun to read.
Some great quotes
Puddleglum: We've done the silliest thing in the world by coming here at all, but now that we're here, we'd best put a bold face on it. (At the giants' doorstep.)
Giant King: After them, or we'll have no man pie tomorrow.
Witch: Your sun is a dream, and there is nothing in that dream that was not copied from the lamp. The lamp is the real thing, the sun is but a tale; a children's tale.
Witch: You have seen lamps, so you imagined a bigger, better lamp and called it the sun. You've seen cats, and now you want a bigger, better cat and it is to be a lion. Well, it's a pretty make-believe, though to say truth, it would suit you all better if you were younger. Look how you can put nothing into your make-believe without copying it from the real world, this world of mine, which is the only world.
Puddleglum: Supposed we have only dreamed or made up all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and Aslan himself. Then in that case, the made up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play world which licks your read world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play world. I'm on Aslan's side, even if there is no Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can, even if there is no Narnia
Narnia's oldest dwarf: And the lesson of all is, your Highness, that those Northern Witches always mean the same thing, but in every age they have a different plan for getting it.
Stick around, because we'll soon conclude with The Last Battle.
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