"There must have been something else wrong with Susan," says the young journalist, "something they didn’t tell us. Otherwise she wouldn’t have been damned like that, denied the Heaven of further up and further in. I mean, all the people she had ever cared for had gone on to their reward, in a world of magic and waterfalls and joy. And she was left behind."
"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.
It was adapted into a comic book by Dark Horse Comics in 2019.
Tropes:
- Action Survivor: Greta at the end determines that Susan was this, surviving the events of Narnia as well as a God that betrayed her.
- 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: A cat leaves a mouse head and a paw on Professor Hastings's porch mat. And there's Neil's take on Aslan within Greta's dream.
- 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).
- Deconstruction Fic: Of The Last Battle, questioning the implied view of morality in the original Narnia universe.
- 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 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 an Expy for Susan Pevensie.
- 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: Well, Aslan and the White Witch are both jerks, and eventually they unite against the children.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?"
- 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.
- 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.
