XPost: rec.arts.books.childrens, rec.arts.movies.current-films,    
   lt.books.cs-lewis   
   From: djanss@nospam.charter.net   
      
   Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >   
   >>In Paul F. Ford's "Companion to Narnia," (1980) there are plenty of   
   >>words dedicated   
   >>both to the "Sexism" entry and "Susan Pevensie." However, neither   
   >>implies that   
   >>female sexual maturation was what irritated Lewis. I'm afraid I don't   
   >>have time to go   
   >>into detail right now. Do check it out. Ford does point out how Lewis   
   >>becomes less   
   >>sexist in the later books.   
   >   
   > Did anything actually "irritate" Lewis? He pointed out that some people grow   
   > up into airheads, and confuse maturity with sophistication.   
      
   Similar to when Lewis described one colleague who read Lucy's tea party   
   with the faun and said, "Aha, it's a *sexual* metaphor disguised for the   
   age group, isn't it?"   
   Lewis replied that, no, he just thought it sounded like rather a cozy   
   afternoon with tea.   
      
   >>Personally, I sensed as a kid that in "The Last Battle," Lewis was   
   >>simply admitting   
   >>that he'd annoyed many readers in his portrayal of Susan over the years   
   >>and so was   
   >>trying to atone for that by finally making her the outsider in more   
   >>ways than one.   
   >   
   > Lewis acknowledged that as a middle-aged adult, he enjoyed fairy tales. Not   
   > all adults do. He thought they were missing something.   
      
   And specifically, that children who retain their tolerance of   
   fairytales--and the willingness to accept archetypal good-vs-evil   
   morality under unusual circumstances--on into middle-age adulthood   
   manage to keep their willing suspension-of-disbelief perspective well   
   intact towards certain *other* supernatural ideas of right and wrong in   
   our own world--   
   Much longer than those who spent their time wanting to rush out of   
   childhood and become "grown-up" as soon as possible, and finding nothing   
   but mature shallowness waiting for them...The "mature" Susan, of course,   
   now clearly being as shallow as they come.   
      
   (Ironic, in a way, when applied to the "Aha, it's the *lipstick*, isn't   
   it?" whiners looking for an easy PC-deconstructionist fight...)   
      
   Derek Janssen   
   djanss@charter.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)