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Neil Gaiman's The Problem of Susan - Can anyone explain it?

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EddieValiant,Jr. Not Quite Batman from under your bed. Since: Jan, 2010
Not Quite Batman
#1: Sep 27th 2013 at 6:47:12 PM

Fair warning: extremely NSFW Neil Gaiman stuff ahead.

Okay guys, I need a little help understanding Neil Gaiman's short story "The Problem of Susan" (I hope I'm remembering the title right). It's the one about Susan Pevensie from The Chronicles Of Narnia as an older woman and (again, if I remember correctly—I don't have the book in question) a professor of children's literature who suffers from traumatic dreams about Aslan killing / maiming / eating her siblings and then giving oral sex to the White Witch while she (Susan) is forced to watch.

Yeah.

Okay, so I just read on This Very Wiki that the story is about Susan having embraced her adolescence ("nylons and boys," etc.) whereas the other three Pevensie children didn't, so she retroactively understands her experiences in Narnia as a pagan allegory instead of a Christian one. I don't understand this at all. Neil Gaiman himself has said that most people misinterpret the story, and that the right way of looking at it is through the lens of how adults treat / regard children's literature as they grow older. I don't understand this either.

Can somebody please explain the point or message of this story to me? I get the strong impression that it's supposed to be saying something, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what that's supposed to be. It's a pretty, er, memorable story to say the least, and I've been curious to find out more about it but I've never found a truly satisfying explanation of its themes or message.

I don't need anyone to link me to anything (i.e. this isn't for school), it's just that the thing is starting to haunt me and I really want to finally puzzle it out.

"Religion isn't the cause of wars, it's the excuse." —Mycroft Next
dRoy Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar from Most likely from my study Since: May, 2010 Relationship Status: I'm just high on the world
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
#2: Sep 28th 2013 at 11:21:27 AM

Here is a Neil Gaiman works thread.

Continuously reading, studying, and (hopefully) growing.
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