Or 'The One with the Dressed Up Donkey.'
Note: This discussion is full of spoilers beneath the headings, so tread carefully.
Hooray, 'Further up and further in,' is the motto of this story. We've made it to the end of our Narnia Business with this suitably shocking and somewhat controversial finale.
In Narnia, some wicked chicanery is afoot. A heartless ape named Shift discovers a lion skin and decides to dress his gentle donkey friend Puzzle up as the great Lion Aslan, to fool the masses. The future of honest Tirian, the young current king, is in jeopardy as a result of this stunt.
On earth, seven friends of Narnia, who have all had major roles there in the past, sense that things might be amiss. They're anxious to find a way for some of their number to help, and guess that it might have to be Eustace and Jill, the youngest and most recent visitors among them.
What I enjoyed more than before.
(Okay, just to make this super clear, for the first few characters on my list, I don't enjoy the dudes themselves, but the wonderful way they're written, which is too good to place them beneath my 'What I wasn't a fan of...' heading. I don't like them one little bit, but I do love their roles in the story.)
1) Shift the ape. This guy is completely depraved, of course. He's a villainous cheat who preys on the trusting nature of the general public with deliberate intent to hoodwink them for his own benefit. But Shift's eventual plight is a great example of the proverb, 'What goes around comes around,' or, 'He who lives by the sword will die by the sword.' Shift treats Puzzle as his puppet, then lo and behold more crafty and cunning minds than his own wise up to him and decide to exploit him in the exact same way. He becomes fodder for the god Tash. It's what he deserves.
2) Puzzle the donkey. Lewis clearly nudges us to feel sympathetic affection for this woeful little pushover, but I find it hard to muster. Shift knows that any of Puzzle's objections mean absolutely nothing, so he's putty in those big old ape hands. People like Puzzle, who let their friends do their thinking for them, are dangerous. Feeling dumb is no excuse for having no backbone. Even when you feel thick as a plank, you can still say, 'Nope, I hate the feel of this, so count me out.' In fact Eustace begins to point out this very thing, but Jill shushes him in Puzzle's defense, because he's such a cute, furry little donkey! Come on Jill, anyone who lets his mate dress him up as the anti-Christ deserves a bit of straight talk.
3) Rishda Taarkan and Ginger the cat. I admit to a grudging respect for this duo, because of their class act and their style. But they are heartless crooks who make the fatal mistake of being way, way, way too presumptuous. People such as these guys who consider themselves superior and enlightened may be in for a shock. Be careful of what you dismiss as archaic or irrelevant, especially if you go through the motions of calling on its name!
4) Emeth the Calormene soldier. (Now, I really did love this guy, so my amendment is finished from here on out.) I'm certain he has offered relief and hope to anxious and perplexed readers ever since Lewis wrote him in at the very end of Narnia. The state of a person's thoughtful, seeking heart is stronger than mere semantics. Lewis seems to suggest through this earnest and devout young man that whoever chooses to focus on the beauty and truth evident before them as their guiding light, may safely trust everything will work out okay, because Aslan IS beauty and truth. That sounds so controversial but maybe the simplest and most comforting suggestions often do. Emeth is a breath of fresh air and I love this book just for him. He's a great case in point for anyone who's ever considered that some apparent 'baddies' (mentally fill in your own label) seem more pure-hearted and righteous than other apparent 'goodies' (once again, add your label).
5) I appreciate the fact that all the nonsense about Aslan and Tash being one and the same was such a red flag for Tirian and his gang. For, 'How could the terrible god Tash who fed on the blood of his people possibly be the same as the good Lion by whose blood all Narnia was saved?'
6) The positive slant on the heavenly twist. No matter how shocked we may feel about discovering the Pevensies and Co were all killed in a violent train smash, Lewis has given us an analogy of heaven worth holding on to. There's such a lot to love about it, from the fact that they initially don't even realise they're deceased, to each unfolding vision of new Narnia being an even more perfect image than the one before, like a set of Babushka dolls. Then there's the cool way everyone discovers they can run up massive waterfalls without getting puffed out. I love how Lucy challenges the others to try to feel afraid, and Eustace actually puts it to the test and fails, to his great delight.
What I wasn't a fan of this time round.
1) The Problem of Susan. This was the name of a short story by Neil Gaiman, and since his phrase instantly pops up on search engines, I'm obviously not alone in feeling bad. All through this series, I've related to anxious, motherly Susan and identified with her personal weakness for letting fear get the better of her. She was a true follower of Aslan, present to comfort him before his slaughter at the hands of the White Witch, and as beloved a monarch as her brothers and sister. To read such an off-hand announcement that she's decided to forget all about her life in Narnia in favour of 'nylons, lipsticks and invitations,' is a cruel cut from Lewis.
To begin with, it seems vaguely misogynistic, because many young women are interested in these things, which surely doesn't signify their spiritual health is in jeopardy. After all we've been through with Susan, it seems a poor reason to consider a formerly beloved sister and comrade a write-off. And it bothers me that none of her loved ones even seem to care that Susan has been left behind, but simply dismiss and criticize her before galloping off to enjoy the new heavenly Narnia without her.
I suspect whatever point Lewis was trying to make about backsliders, he let down many fans of Queen Susan the Gentle. He surely didn't mean it to come across as callous and wholesale abandonment on their part, but it feels this way for Susan fans. He sacrifices a main character to make one of his points without realising how much many of us readers love her!
2) The negative slant on the heavenly twist. I cried as a kid, over these deaths, and considered it a mean trick of Lewis' to all his readers. The odd references to the sharp jolt and excessive speed of that train were leading to a bombshell with big repercussions. Our main characters were denied the chance to reach adulthood, although Lewis might shrug that off in light of the grand scheme of things. But in addition, I couldn't help imagining the implications for loved ones left behind when their lives were cut so tragically short.
I guess Susan will inherit everything in her parents' will, because there's no Peter, Edmund or Lucy to benefit, but imagine her grief at losing them all in one freak swoop. (Indeed, Gaiman imagines her going to the morgue to identify all their bodies.)
There's also poor Harold and Alberta Scrubb, who have just lost their only son; a heartache we wouldn't wish on anyone, even tiresome parents like those two. Same with Jill Pole's parents. The whole scenario is so brutal that all these years later, I still wish Lewis had taken a more merciful approach, and let the characters return to live out their full lifespans, die of natural causes, and then be reunited with Aslan in the new Narnia way down the track. After all, in Narnian/heavenly time, it doesn't matter one iota.
Some great quotes.
Tirian: Do you think I care if Aslan dooms me to death? Would it not be better to be dead than to have this horrible fear that Aslan has come and is not like the Aslan we have believed in and longed for? It is as if the sun rose one day and were a black sun.
Shift: What do you know about freedom? You think freedom means doing what you like. Well, you're wrong. That isn't true freedom. True freedom means doing what I tell you.
Tirian had never dreamed that one of the results of an Ape setting up a false Aslan would be that people would stop believing in the real one.
Poggin: Ho, ho, ho, it'll be a surprise for the Ape. People shouldn't call for demons unless they really mean what they say.
Jill: I'd rather be killed fighting for Narnia than grow old and stupid at home and perhaps go about in a bath chair and then die in the end just the same.
Jewel the Unicorn: If Aslan gave me my choice, I'd choose no other life than the life I have had, and no other death than the one we go to!
Mixing a little truth with a great lie is very effective.
Bear: But I thought... Shift: You thought! As if anyone could call what goes on in your head thinking.
Tirian: Eustace, do not scold like a kitchen girl. No warrior scolds. Courteous words or else hard knocks are his only language.
Tirian: Courage, child. We are all in the paws of the true Aslan.
Peter: My sister Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia. (Saddest words of the whole series to me.)
Aslan (to Emeth): Child, all the service thou hast done to Tash, I count as service done to me. He and I are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.
Emeth: But I have been seeking Tash all my days. Aslan: Beloved, unless thy desire had been for me, thou would'st not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.
Jewel: This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it til now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.
Thanks to anyone who's read along with me!
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