Hi @lamppost and welcome!

Posted by: @lamppost

I have attempted to think of the series as a whole narrative, but please do let me know what I've missed and what doesn't fit.

As far as I can see, I think what you've missed and what doesn't fit is that C.S. Lewis was a committed Christian and deliberately based all the Narnia books (and everything else he wrote, really) on Christianity. In particular, he saw Narnia as a "supposal" (as he called it) of what might happen if Jesus Christ appeared in a different form in another world. He wrote about these intentions openly in many places.

(It should be pointed out that he made clear he was not writing allegory — in which every character or event symbolises something in a sort of meta-story behind the story — and he wasn't intending Narnia to be any sort of comprehensive guide to Christian (specifically Anglican) theology. But the Christian basis of all the Narnia stories is essential and unarguable.)

To put it simply, Aslan is — by Lewis's explicit intention — a fictional representation of Jesus Christ in a fantasy world. And given Lewis's devotion to Christianity, there is absolutely no way that he, the author, would have his Jesus-figure lie and tell people that they were dead when they weren't.

Nor would Lewis have conceived the idea of Aslan having some kind of secret elaborate behind-the-scenes scheme that we're not told about in the books and that we as readers have to try to deduce by decoding. That is not the way he wrote (he was clear about that as well), and again, it is not something he would have had his Christ-character do. It would be equivalent to portraying God as lying and manipulating people by false pretensions for His own purposes. I think it's safe to say that from Lewis's perspective, that would be blasphemy.

I realise it's popular these days (especially with online fandoms) for fans to come up with their own elaborate "headcanons" that are in some cases far removed from what the original author wrote. If a fictional story really engages people's imagination so much, well, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I do think it's only fair to realise that this is simply making stuff up for one's own entertainment. If it blatantly goes against everything we know the author intended, then it cannot be what the story "really" means — and I'd venture to say it's not respectful to the author, either. 

@courtenay Thank you for being forthright with your reply. It has helped to see how I might have missed the wood for the trees, so to speak. Please understand that I greatly admire this forum and the utter devotion to everything about Narnia. I certainly had no intention of getting C.S. Lewis's works to fit my theory, and had read in many places about Narnia being a supposal, and not an allegory.

Perhaps I did rather get carried away a bit, and for that I am really sorry, especially as I did not intend any disrespect or offence. I would absolutely not indulge in blasphemy of any sort. I was merely thinking of The Silver Chair, when I had suggested that maybe Susan could attempt to piece together what happened, as Aslan had instructed Jill to follow certain signs in that book.

I am very mindful of Narnia and its Christian identity, and I truly tried to explain this theory of mine as best I could without circumventing anything put forth in the books. Given that Aslan is Christ, and that Narnia was as close as was possible to an ideal earthly realm, where He could appear among His people and be recognised, I had simply wondered whether the concept of 'death' and 'Heaven' and others had perhaps, a meaning that He wanted those from Earth to appreciate fully, without putting it in terms such as 'parting from this world' or having 'lost one's life'.

It's just that in Narnia ( the country ), we have no evidence of any altar-worship of Aslan ( except perhaps Aslan's How, which is more of a sacred spot that has been preserved to remember His sacrifice, as it should be given the enormity of what He underwent ), so that got me thinking whether Narnians had a far deeper connection to the Lord than the other worlds had. Could it have been a cause of portals opening into Narnia from other worlds, as it was as close to a perfect land as was possible, and therfore evil was bent upon corrupting it ( as with the original designs by evil upon God's creation in the Garden of Eden ) ? I am truly grateful for the sheer amount of information discussions here have elicited, and I am quite sure that there indeed are glaring inconsistencies with my theory when taking the canon of books and Lewis's writings as a whole into account. This was simply an attempt of mine, to maybe, shie away from what I felt was a rather solemn aspect of the series's end. Thank you and please do point out any aspect of all this that is problematic, or any other addition, really. I sincerely hope to clarify any misunderstandings.

@lamppost 

9 Now, the Narnian friends have embarked on their course of action, with the rings in possession, and then the railway incident takes place - Aslan, then quickly rescues all of them ( the ones He has deemed worthy of entering Narnia ; not that Susan isn't, only that He doesn't wish to impose His will on her, but more of that below ) and they enter Narnia, truly. This does not mean He had any hand in the accident. He did what He could to mitigate circumstances.

Hello & welcome, @lamppost,  No, Aslan did not have anything to do with the accident as you say in section 9 of your post. But C.S. Lewis did base the Narnia accident on a very real accident in Southern England, when a train derailed and mounted the railway platform, where were waiting many people (including Peter & Edmund ) & then overturning, thus blocking the railway. These accidents in many cases may be due to faulty equipment, overdue maintenance & all too often, human error due to carelessness or recklessness. 

@courtenay has explained well the Christian side of Narnia, & C.S. Lewis' intentions & I am ever so glad that she did. From my point of view as someone who has had very real memories of such accidents happening in the city of my birth, such as the 18 January 1977 Granville disaster, where another train derailed, colliding with bridge pillars & bringing down the bridge, and when more than 83 people died, as a result, I wouldn't even think to consider that the Pevensies were singled out somehow. The ones in the train were sitting together, the 2 on the platform were also together, but not all of the Seven Friends of Narnia, intending to travel on that Bristol train, were aware that Mr & Mrs Pevensie were on that train, too.

And as for Susan, I think it would have been terrible for her, just as it was for the families of all the people killed in that 1977 Granville accident, still remembered every year. In fact, when in the book, the Last Battle, it was explained that Mr & Mrs Pevensie were travelling to Bristol, I thought it was even likely that they could very well have been on their way to meet Susan, for all sorts of reasons, once her interests changed to what Susan might consider more appropriately grown-up pursuits. Bristol, of course, is an important British city and also a port. I'm glad that C.S. Lewis said in his letters, that as she was left alive (quite possibly because she was already at Bristol) that she might still come to Narnia in her own time & in her own way. But you have to also realise that she is still a fictional character, just like her whole family, and it would be very awkward to be a real person called Susan Pevensie in real life.  

I can sympathise to an extent with the OP as on first reading TLB I was also saddened and rather shocked by the abrupt end to the original Narnia. It is tempting to think that maybe Narnia didn't really end at all. But that completely flies in the face of Lewis's purpose.

I think one of the main difficulties people have with TLB is how unexpected it is that Narnia should end so abruptly. After the Calormenes had captured Tirian and overrun Cair Paravel, Narnia is in a pretty desperate situation but surely not much worse than under the rule of Jadis in the 100 years winter or after the Telmarine conquest. But that very unexpectedness echoes what Lewis had written about the end of our world.

In his essay The World's Last Night, Lewis interprets Christ's words about coming 'like a thief in the night' to indicate the utter impossibility of predicting, either from Biblical exegesis or world events, when the end of our world will come. To quote from that essay (probably rather loosely as I don't have the text to hand)

There will be wars and rumours of wars and every sort of disaster, as there always are. Everything will be in that sense normal, until the moment when the end comes and the heavens are rolled up like a scroll.

In writing TLB as he did, Lewis was just taking his thoughts about the prophesied end of our real world and applying them to his fictional world of Narnia.

For me TLB is by far the best Narnia book. I love all seven but TLB is the crowning jewel of the Chronicles. One of the reasons I think that is that the more often I read TLB the more RIGHT it seems. it's not something that impresses me on first reading but on later ones shows flaws, but a book that after the initial shock of it is over, convinces me it was written with supreme mastery and could not possibly have been different.

In truth, I haven't read Lewis's other works, so I must admit the level of insight the various replies showcase is quite informative, and the reason I'd registered here in the first place. So, thanks so much to all of you.

I'd read 'The Chronicles...' quite a while back now, and that too just the one time, so I do appreciate the details provided here such as the bit about Bristol. I'd simply mentally filled in the blanks that perhaps as they'd all travelled down together, it would have been awkward if the others disappeared, since I'd presumed the parents were aware of their presence. Thank you @waggawerewolf27 for pointing this out. I was clearly unaware of the real history behind the train accident nor of the occurence of the later one you'd described, so please accept my apologies for bringing up such painful memories as this was farthest from my mind when writing. I never intended for the subject of this post to hit a nerve - it was simply an exploration to possibly find an interpretation within the Christian context, yet with Narnian overtones, but of course I understand now I'd been too preoccupied with reconstructing a few aspects, that it led to being ignorant of just how dissonant it rendered the story.

What @hermit has pointed out, with examples from Lewis's writings has enabled me to think about the story anew, and appreciate its profound gravitas. Suffice it to say that the utter and immutable nature of the ending serves to show how empty and hollow all the trickery and deceit of the villainous characters really has been. And that though we are never told why that world ends at just that time, we are made aware how it ends, and that is quite telling in itself, for in those moments the varied reactions of different characters to what is happening around them, provides as stark a portrait as is possible, of Narnia at the time. It truly is an invaluable lesson that all will be laid bare with a fierce brilliance, so one might as well be good and true, and the best possible version of oneself.

@lamppost   It could be conceived that their original clothing, the rings and such were left behind?  Perhaps these are signs that Aslan would expect Susan to spot and understand exactly where everybody vanished to and turned up at.

Well maybe, readers might well have come to those conclusions. But then did they read The Last Battle, to the very end? Now I have some horrible reading habits, though they served me well at times. One is to start at the very beginning, then at some point where I might get overly involved in some distressing crisis, I keep my place & go to the very back pages to see where all this is heading. And then, if still interested, I will go back to where I last left the storyline and read the rest of the book to see what the author is driving at. The back pages aren't always boring, even in textbooks, when they might contain indexes which guide readers to the specific information they want to get out of textbooks, though that isn't true of novels, let alone children's fiction, which may still have epilogues, & may prompt a re-read to find out the twist that I might have been missing. 

But, as @hermit said   "one of the main difficulties people have with TLB is how unexpected it is that Narnia should end so abruptly. After the Calormenes had captured Tirian and overrun Cair Paravel, Narnia is in a pretty desperate situation but surely not much worse than under the rule of Jadis in the 100 years winter or after the Telmarine conquest. But that very unexpectedness echoes what Lewis had written about the end of our world".

The text (and primary source) that @hermit refers to is Matthew 24: 6-13, which I quote below. (Though I corrected the American spelling. )  Yes, people might well turn off reading the rest of the book, because of that abrupt ending of Narnia, but whilst the process was going on, time stood still for the 7 friends of Narnia, & the reader. Narnia was finished, not by magic or by reckless ambition, but by Shift's jealous fakery of so-called progress, betraying Narnia to commerce & Tash's values of money, malice and slavery.  

⁶ You will hear of wars and rumours of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.⁷ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.⁸ All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other,¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold,¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

I found out about that horrific train accident in Southern England, some time ago, well, by "accident". Maybe by reading about C.S. Lewis' life, but I was also aware of such a thing happening, when Aslan also spoke up towards the end of TLB, telling the 7 friends, "there was a real accident". As for the Granville Disaster, information about which would be on Wikipedia, Sydney, (NSW) was paralysed at the time for quite a few days, though I think that @courtenay would have been too young to have heard about it. I am more distressed last night for my daughter, who was mercifully rostered elsewhere at the time, to learn about how some bloke crossing the tramlines between carriages was killed, caught under the wheels, when the tram started up again, yesterday, & so, a really dangerous thing to do. 

The problem of Susan has been all these people saying she had been left out of heaven because of her liking nylons & lipstick, which was actually wrong, & based on a conversation in which just about everyone except Lucy and Edmund had something to say about her. That is the second point at which people seem to turn off the book.

But the accident which also killed Peter, Lucy and Edmund's parents, sent them to heaven also, but not necessarily Narnia heaven. Nor did they have any notions of what happened to their children in Narnia. When Edmund was the only one who seemed to know about his parents' plans, he was also the one who had to intervene in Tashbaan to get Susan to escape from a marriage to Rabadash, back to Cair Paravel. Thus, it was highly likely, to me, at least, it is Susan, whom her parents had wanted to see in Bristol. I think what C.S. Lewis was driving at in TLB, was that life is certainly not meant to be easy, that heroes don't win battles all the time. That people once considered friends, turn to other interests, preferring to "go with the flow".  And most importantly, that even when disaster really arrives, death is not the final end, & also, life must still continue. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

As for the Granville Disaster, information about which would be on Wikipedia, Sydney, (NSW) was paralysed at the time for quite a few days, though I think that @courtenay would have been too young to have heard about it.

Courtenay was still a few years off being born at that time, not that that detail is at all relevant to this discussion!!

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

But the accident which also killed Peter, Lucy and Edmund's parents, sent them to heaven also, but not necessarily Narnia heaven.

The book makes quite clear that they're in the same heaven (Aslan's country) as their three children — Lucy sees them in the "real England", waving to her as she gazes out from the "real Narnia", and Mr Tumnus assures her that they can easily reach each other, as all these different "real countries" are "spurs jutting out from the great mountain of Aslan." It's already been hinted that time and space and distance and indeed the laws of physics don't mean the same things in Aslan's country as they do in the mortal worlds (the Shadowlands), so I expect it doesn't take any real effort for the inhabitants of Aslan's country to visit any other part of it or to find the people and places they love. 

@waggawerewolf27 Thank you for being so enormously patient and for poring over relevant material that would help with this discussion. I cannot overstate the fact that I simply hadn't expected the subject of the crash to rake up unpleasant memories of the past or bring about a state of anxiety at the present time. Please do forgive me for having upset you so.

Much of what I had written had been drawn from other posts and discussions elsewhere, so it is certainly possible that many readers ( like myself ) haven't really any recollection of the many layers there are to TLB, having read through it just once, or in some cases, not even that. So, yes, I do admit a compelling story such as this merits more than one perusal. I understand from the ending, as you have rightly highlighted, that the qualities of being steadfast, true and loyal are so very important, for one's resolve is that much the stronger for them. Edmund, more than any of the others, would have been keenly aware of how imperative it was to hold onto one's values, and I'm struck by how you've shown his determination in Tashbaan and his awareness of his parents's travels to be proof of just how far he'd come since we first got to read about him. It is thus of note that those who knew Susan best refrained from any comment, ( Peter simply wished to explain away her absence at the 'table of the seven friends' where Tirian appeared to them ) and those that did refer to her, did more so out of a desire to avoid awkward questions about her different bearing in relation to Narnia ( which was for reasons that were deeply personal ), and it was that conversation itself, rather than Susan, that was meant to sound shallow. It is an affirmation of sorts that she isn't in the wrong, but simply apart, at the time - to provide a relief of a kind against the predominantly Narnian backdrop, that the Earthly world does exert an influence after all. 

@courtenay It's very helpful that you've clarified the fact that all of them are in the same vastness of Aslan's Country, which, even while writing or reading about, is indescribable, and therefore it is explained that one might reach any of the other places across, without any real elaboration on just where they fit in. It is as though such matters reflexively cease to be of concern.

I have already come by such a wealth of information through all these discussions. So, thank you.

@lamppost  I cannot overstate the fact that I simply hadn't expected the subject of the crash to rake up unpleasant memories of the past or bring about a state of anxiety at the present time. Please do forgive me for having upset you so.

I'm not upset at all at "unpleasant memories", so there is nothing at all to worry about.   I'm actually flattered at your kind comment, below about Edmund, when, like you, I see that Susan's non-involvement with the 7 Friends of Narnia, is more to do with how she expected her life to pan out, and this would be more a concern for Edmund, in particular, as well as their parents, than it would be for either the reader or the rest of the 7 friends of Narnia, including Peter, who was off fighting giants, when Edmund & Lucy led their forces to the rescue of Anvard in HHB. 

Edmund, more than any of the others, would have been keenly aware of how imperative it was to hold onto one's values, and I'm struck by how you've shown his determination in Tashbaan and his awareness of his parents's travels to be proof of just how far he'd come since we first got to read about him. It is thus of note that those who knew Susan best refrained from any comment.

Other authors who shared their views about writing out fictional characters, do point out the need for a bit of ruthlessness, in disposing of at least some of their characters. Deciding who lives, and why, can be a bit harder to do, and right through the whole Narnia series, there has been plenty of hints here & there about what was planned for Susan in TLB. No, she wasn't some sort of a "fallen woman", as some "literati" have gone out of their way to paint her, beating their own drums, one even publishing his own short story about her. Susan was merely a normal, everyday sort of girl who spent her teenaged years gaining just enough education for a fill-in job, say, as a typist, or hairdresser, before giving it all up to marry and have a family, as girls often were encouraged to do, in the 1950's. If she had been better at schoolwork, she might have gone on to do teacher training or nursing, which would have warranted her staying at school longer.  The world has changed immensely since then. Now we are at the 80th anniversary of VE day this year, on 8/5/2025, and the D-Day fighting of 6/6/1944, commemorated only yesterday, which helped to bring about the peace so longed for at the time. 

Each of the children who went to Narnia had some issue to resolve in the adventures they had, whether it was themselves or the situations they were in, and Susan wasn't any exception. In HHB, my favourite book, she was rushing into a most unsuitable marriage, & it is a bit of a pity, some years later, if she didn't remember "those silly games we played as children", as Eustace mentions in TLB. It might well be because by her late teens, she would be very embarrassed indeed to talk about her little adventure with the no-doubt handsome Rabadash. However, marriage is not something to lightly rush into, for girls barely of marriageable age, or even at 21, the then age of majority in 1956, when TLB was published, as Aravis could have told her.  

Some excellent points have been made by @waggawerewolf27, particularly in relation to Edmund's and Susan's characters. Edmund did come across as rather morally ambivalent earlier on, which was why it made a great deal of sense that, after his transformation, he became 'the Just' - one who would dig in his heels to stand for what's right, while also acknowledging that one musn't be quick to mark out anybody as a lost cause. 

The part about how characters's shades gradually reveal themselves across a story or series is also quite brilliantly put, as, in retrospect, I do believe that Susan did seem the one ( of the four ), whose attributes hadn't been quite as delineated, so therefore, in a sense, perhaps, she always appeared a bit more distant than the rest, which does fit in later. That in itself must tell a reader that it wasn't anything innate about her, but that she simply sought to fit into the world as best she could, just as she had done in Narnia, unlike her siblings who seemed to be more driven ( in different ways ), which would have the effect of making it appear that they were far 'truer'.

Lastly, the point about having learnt something while in Narnia, does indeed let onto an aspect about growing up. What if the lesson Susan did come away with was a certain elusiveness, and hence, being of a more practical temperament, she might have unconsciously distanced herself from 'those rushed experiences of another, more magical world' that were harder to understand ?

I'm sorry for a rather delayed response, and thanks for having been so generous with this discussion.

@lamppost  The part about how characters's shades gradually reveal themselves across a story or series is also quite brilliantly put, as, in retrospect, I do believe that Susan did seem the one ( of the four ), whose attributes hadn't been quite as delineated, so therefore, in a sense, perhaps, she always appeared a bit more distant than the rest, which does fit in later.

So far, in filming the Narnia series, we have several versions of some of the books, especially LWW, which has been featured in an animated form, then in the BBC TV productions of LWW, PC, VDT & SC, the Walden versions of the first 3 books in publication order,  though we also have the Family in Focus (with David Suchet as Aslan) & the BBC audio productions (with Stephen Thorne as Aslan). In another thread for discussion of the order in which the books should be filmed, I have the suggestion that the books should be filmed in their chronological order, if possible. In the Walden films, we've seen Susan in LWW, and in the Prince Caspian movie, where she plays a considerable part, even a slightly romantic part, which would have made more sense, given the four-year time lapse between those films, if there had been a production of HHB in between, perhaps using the adult versions of the Pevensies, who went back to being children, & then the right ages in PC. We'd have certainly had a much more delineated character, & a better idea of what sort of person she was. It is only in those three books that Susan is depicted at all: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Horse and his Boy, & Prince Caspian. She doesn't appear in VDT, even though she is mentioned at the beginning, having gone to America with her parents, her father being on a book tour.  And of course, Susan isn't mentioned in The Silver Chair at all. So, we never learn if she stayed on in USA, only returning for family visits.

Or where her post-school career has led her, until that conversation in The Last Battle, where Aunt Polly, Eustace & Jill give us those three hints about what Susan might have been up to, though Peter says that Susan is no longer a friend of Narnia & we hear that she doesn't go to their meetings. At the end of LWW, she & Lucy exchange pictures with princes & kings, before returning to the Professor's House. In VDT at the beginning, we learn that though Susan's schoolwork isn't so great, she was admired for her beauty, to the point that Lucy was so tempted to read the spell that would make her as beautiful. We also learn in VDT that adults commented on how mature she seemed, which contrasts sharply with Aunt Polly's LB comment that she wishes Susan would really grow up when her whole aim was to get as fast as possible to the silliest age, that is to say, the age of majority, where she expected to stay for the rest of her life. Something like that, when I don't have the actual book with me at the moment. 

@waggawerewolf27 You certainly are far better acquainted with the source material and its various adaptations over the years, than I am. For I'd read the books quite a while back now, though that single reading belies the extraordinary impression they've left upon my imagination, and, over time, my perception of just how unique the series as a whole is. As for the adaptations, I've certainly heard of the animated film, an even older TV show, various plays, the two sets of radio dramas, the BBC TV series, and of course the Walden films. But I confess, I''d only actually watched the latest trilogy, around the same time I'd read the books. What tone Netflix might take with the stories remains to be seen. And, yes, you're right - Susan is portrayed more descriptively than in the novels. Though there were some obvious differences, I found the films did attempt to approach the sort of 'warm, quiet sense of awe and grandeur' of the original stories, though, of course, it wasn't entirely like them.

My point was simply that we don't often get to share a scene with Susan ( or much with Peter for that matter ). They're the two siblings more 'talked about' than the younger lot. But, because of the last story, it leaves a certain vague, uninterested image of Susan in the reader's mind which is quite unfortunate, since, after PC, we don't really get to 'interact' with her character - that includes The Horse and his Boy, where we get a glimpse of her conversation from afar, as though of a stranger. Edmund and Lucy, right from the beginning, best represented childhood-led-astray, and childhood-personified really well, and the author portrays Edmund's redemption and Lucy's steadfastness quite intimately which endears them to any reader. In contrast, Peter and Susan are more generic descriptions of the struggle between heeding one's higher self and human nature ( that both characters face ), which actions are more circumstantial than having arisen from any particular trait.

Therefore, it's best any comments about Susan be taken into context of the whole series, in that, after a point, the characters simply don't know her that well, as you pointed out, due to her absence during discussions about Narnia. All of this is just off the top of my head, more based on reading about the series across websites, than any recollection of my original experience, so, if I've committed any glaring mistakes or displayed a lapse of judgement with my opinions, I truly am sorry for having taken up time with this. But, thank you again for your splendid insights.