It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and two Follow Friday Features Bloggers each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
- Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
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- Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
- Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
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I wouldn't change most books. Either a book is generally bad, in which case changing the ending won't make it any better, or the book is generally good, in which case it doesn't need the ending fixed. However, one book that I would change is C.S. Lewis' The Last Battle, which is also the final book in his Chronicles of Narnia series. I wouldn't change the ending - Lewis was clearly intent on writing the Narnian version of Revelations, so the fact that the world ends and everyone who shows up in Narnia ends up going "further up and further in" to reach the Emperor Over the Sea is entirely fitting. Instead, I would change the book's treatment of Susan, the older girl of the Pevensie children. Of all of the Pevensie children, she is the one that doesn't go back to Narnia at the end of the series, because she has supposedly forgotten about it. And why has she forgotten about it? Because she became interested in boys, lipstick, and the other things many teenage girls find interesting. In C.S. Lewis' view of the world, it seems that once a girl turns into a woman, she loses the ability to appreciate places like Narnia, and becomes distanced from that Lewis considered to be "good". If I were to rewrite Susan's part of the Narnia books, she would remain a vital part of them despite (and probably because) she grew up and found boys (and implicitly, sex) interesting. The one truly grating element of the Chronicles of Narnia is the way that Lewis infantilizes women, and that's the part I'd change, starting with Susan.
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I've watched the movies of Narnia but I haven't read any of the books yet so I wouldn't know if I'm disappointed by it or not.
ReplyDeleteHappy FF! Old follower.
@Feli: The movie of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader alludes to Susan's alienation from Narnia when Lucy is tempted and imagines herself as her older sister.
DeleteAlthough I didn't finish the books, I agree. I would have wanted all of the children to stay together as a team.
ReplyDeleteHere is my FF
http://thebooknerd2013.blogspot.com/2014/02/feature-and-follow-friday-feb-28.html
Laura
@Laura Agnella: The thing that sticks out about Susan's absence is that Peter, who is older than she is, does come back, because apparently boys can grow up into teenagers without falling from grace.
DeleteHmm....interesting take on this. I don't really agree. The Last Battle to me was real life. Some people continue to believe (in Jesus/God - in the book seen as Aslan) and others choose to forget and chase after other things. It was a great picture of how people really live. Not everyone will reach "the Emperor over the Sea" but only those who continue to fight/serve their Creator. Those books are definitely top favorites of mine!! I would hope they would make all of them into movies....sadly I'm not sure that'll every happen.
ReplyDeleteOld follower.
Holly @ Words Fueled by Love
"fight for - Aslan/serve - God"
Delete@Holly Harris: As I said, The Last Battle is the Narnian version of Revelations - the equation of Aslan with Jesus is apparent from the first book in the series when Aslan sacrifices himself to redeem Edmund, and since the Emperor Over the Sea is Aslan's father, the equation of the Emperor with God is quite apparent as well. But that just makes the exclusion of Susan worse, not better. The fact that she is dropped is not in itself the problem. The fact that she is dropped because she has the normal interests of a normal teenage girl is the problem.
DeleteI haven't read all the Narnia books yet, but I agree. I don't like that Susan is punished for being a normal person.
ReplyDeleteNew follower :)
My FF
@Hellen: A persistent criticism of Lewis is that his treatment of women is often misogynistic, and it is a criticism that has no little merit. His treatment of Susan in the Chronicles of Narnia is a small piece of evidence that supports this criticism.
DeleteInteresting take!
ReplyDeleteJessi
http://www.thebookcove.com/2014/02/feature-and-follow-12-plot-change-up.html
@Reviewers from the Book Cove: I can't take complete credit for it - as I said before, Lewis' subtextual misogyny has been noted by many people before me, including for example, Neil Gaiman and J.K. Rowling, and Susan's treatment is a part of that.
Delete