Literature / The Problem of Susan

2 Following

"The Problem of Susan" is a 2004 short story by Neil Gaiman which is part-homage to The Chronicles of Narnia, part-homage to "the power of Children's Literature".

A young journalist profiles a retired professor of children's literature. During the ensuing conversation, both consider the influences that literature has had on them.

The story can be read online here.👁 Image

It was adapted into a comic book by Dark Horse Comics in 2019.

Provides examples of:

• Action Survivor: After spending some time mulling on the whole issue with Susan, Greta eventually concludes that the Professor was Susan — an ordinary girl who survived both the horrific events of Narnia and a God that betrayed her.
  It’s true, Greta thinks, irrationally, in the darkness. She grew up. She carried on. She didn’t die…
• Adaptational Villainy: Aslan goes from a noble lion willing to sacrifice himself to save Susan and her siblings from the evil White Witch, to a monster who eats the children and bones the White Witch.
• Aesop Collateral Damage: The Professor, who is a stand-in for Susan, describes having to identify her siblings' bodies and that Susan would've had to do the same after such an accident, making her exclusion from heaven worse than C.S. Lewis would lead one to believe.
• Bittersweet Ending: Greta finds her answer — that Susan survived the events of Narnia as opposed to being left out of heaven — but she finds it after a horrific nightmare. The professor also dies in her sleep finally, but in her dream, she finds books that help her Face Death with Dignity and look on her life happily.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Instead of the divine Aslan killing the Wicked Witch, here they negotiate a peace agreement and seal their pact by sacrificing the children.
• Cats Are Mean: Cats in general are treated in a negative light, given the story is a Deconstruction Fic of The Last Battle. In the beginning, the Professor's next-door neighbor's cat leaves a mouse head and a paw on her porch mat, which she cleans up with distaste. During Greta's interview, the Professor compares a god who'd harshly punish Susan for enjoying nylons and lipstick to a cat getting enjoyment from hunting a mouse. Then there's Aslan; rather than the Big Good he was in the books, he's depicted as a vicious predator who sides with the White Witch and subjects Susan and her siblings to horrific fates. The end of the story has Greta comparing death to a lion stalking its prey, killing off the Professor's family and saving her for last in a mirror of what Aslan did to Susan's.
• Celebrity Paradox: Greta during her interview makes reference to the Narnia books and actually derails it by ranting about the Problem of Susan. It's later hinted that the professor doesn't keep those books in the house.
• Cerebus Retcon: It's discussed in the Narnia books that Aslan is not a "tame lion" in reference to how he stays as long as he's needed and leaves when he likes. Here, it's established that Aslan is still a lion within Greta's dream, and has a taste for human flesh.
• Coming and Going: Aslan seals his pact by eating Lucy and Susan, then having sex with the White Witch (he licks the Witch out first, so you could say he eats all the girls).
• Cruel and Unusual Death: The train crash is described as grisly to those who were caught in it. The Professor recalls having to identify her deceased sibling's bodies after the crash, all while flies buzzed around them; her oldest brother looked alright, but her younger brother and sister were less so, with "Ed's" head having been decapitated. And the whole time, the Professor kept hoping her family had survived.
• Deconstruction Fic: The Problem of Susan presents a brutal deconstruction of The Last Battle and its treatment of Susan through Susan's perspective. As a young girl, Professor Hastings' entire family was killed in a train crash and she had to identify their bodies. All her years onward were spent trying to cope with the grief, trauma, and loneliness that came with being the sole survivor of her family. Greta, the journalist who came to interview Hastings, suspects that the old professor is Susan from the books; after Hastings dies of old age, Greta concludes that Hastings is an Action Survivor who was sadistically betrayed and punished by a cruel god for something as trivial as embracing the idea of growing up.
• Different World, Different Movies: In the dream is Mary Poppins Brings in the Dawn, which P. L. Travers had "never written while alive".
• Disproportionate Retribution: Professor Hastings says that it was cruel if a god punished Susan for liking nylons by killing off all her family and leaving her as the Sole Survivor.
• Dying Dream: While sleeping, Professor Hastings dreams that she is reading a Mary Poppins book that was never written, and then her own obituary. She also finds an old copy of the Narnia books.
• Et Tu, Brute?: In Greta's dream, Aslan and the Witch make a deal to split up the boys and girls — Susan included — among themselves. Aslan eats up the girls, leaving Susan's head for last, while the Witch changes the boys into monstrous things.
• Expy: Lampshaded in the end, but Professor Hastings is based on Susan Pevensie, with hints that Hastings might be the Susan.
• Fan Disservice: In the aftermath of the battle, Susan can't help fantasizing after seeing the naked corpse of a virile centaur with a Slashed Throat.
• Forced to Watch: In Greta's dream, Susan's head after Aslan eats her body is forced to look on her sister getting eaten, her brothers getting forcibly changed, and the lion and the witch having sex. Talk about Too Much Information.
• God and Satan Are Both Jerks: In Neil Gaiman's take on The Last Battle, the White Witch is still a villain, but Aslan is depicted as a vicious predator who has a taste for human flesh and betrays the children to the White Witch. In-Universe, Greta and the Professor discuss Susan's treatment in The Last Battle, with the Professor pointing out that a God who punishes a little girl for liking nylons, lipstick, and parties by killing off her own family must be enjoying it too much.
• Identifying the Body: The elderly professor recalls having to go to the school where her relatives, victims of a terrible train collision, were taken after death, to identify them, and says Susan of the Narnia books must have gone something similar as well.
• I Was Quite a Looker: Professor Hastings cannot believe she looked so young in her old photographs.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Deconstructed. The story calls into question what kind of morality it would require for someone to harshly punish a girl like Susan for liking nylons, lipstick, and parties, with both Greta and Hastings musing that a god who behaved like that would have to be incredibly cruel and sexist. Hastings also mentions that, being the Sole Survivor of her family, she was too poor to even afford the things that Susan was accused of liking.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Technically, nothing supernatural happens in the real world. Half of the story is a conversation between Greta and Professor Hastings, while they discuss Susan and the professor being the Sole Survivor of her family. It's never confirmed one way or the other if Professor Hastings is the Susan, since the Narnia books exist in their world. The other half details the dreams that the women have, where Greta imagines being Susan and betrayed by Aslan, and Professor Hastings finds one last book to read, as well as her obituary. Greta also thinks that the professor needs to avoid her spare room with the wardrobe, and the Professor is implied to die in her sleep there. Italicized passages hint that Greta's dream was real because the story ends with one after Greta wakes up, detailing the White Witch riding Aslan.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In Greta's dream, the Witch takes charge of the boys and turns them into a "twisted thing." A Forced Transformation? Fusion Dance? A Fate Worse than Death? Just plain death? Gaiman doesn't dwell on the matter…
• Oh, Crap!: The Pevensies when they realise that Aslan and the White Witch have struck a deal. Susan tries to run, but Aslan quickly chases her down and eats her.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the graphic novel adaptation, there is a panel showing a swirl of dried frosting on the professor's plate that looks like a blood stain, as she says, "I suppose you've never had to identify a body, dear?" when talking about how her siblings died in a train crash.
• Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter: Inverted; Hastings says that a god that would punish her for "liking nylons and parties" is "enjoying himself a bit too much, isn't he?"
• Sole Survivor: Susan was the only one who survived in her family because she wasn't with them on the train when it crashed. It's implied the Professor is her, going from her grim recollections of having to identify her siblings' mangled bodies and the stark reality of living alone with no financial support.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To The Chronicles of Narnia. Specifically, Gaiman explores the Fridge Horror implications of the ending of The Last Battle (namely, Susan having to come to terms with the death of her family), and questions Aslan's benevolence in the light of this.invoked
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The professor describes the reality of being the only survivor of a family caught in a train crash; she not only had to identify the bodies, but also had to live on her own with few luxuries.
• Trademark Favorite Food: The professor loves chocolate cake.