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+The Problem of Neil Gaiman
+##########################
+
+:date: 2017-03-13T17:33:58
+:category: literature
+:tags: blogComment, feminism, christianity
+
+So, it happened. I read “The problem of Susan” by Neil Gaiman and
+I am completely disgusted by it. Not because Aslan did the White
+Witch proper, or because he ate all those lovely little children.
+Serves them well, and it is certainly the author’s prerogative to
+decide that somebody else’s God is actually a nasty daemon.
+
+What I do object though is that Neil does not seem to understand
+what C. S. Lewis was trying to say about Susan at all which is
+shame given he claims *The Chronicles of Narnia* were the major
+influence on him and his writing. I think I can understand what
+stood behind this part of Susan in Lewis’s mind. I know the
+experience from the Christian context, but I guess it can happen
+in any personally close community, where deep issues of life are
+dealt with (e.g., Alcoholics Anonymous?), or perhaps you are just
+very good friends. There’s that person you knew for years, you
+were very close, crying together, praying (or whatever is
+appropriate) together, and you believed you understand each
+other. And suddenly this person leaves your community for the
+flimsiest possible reasons. He just decides to leave the Church,
+turns back to booze, starts to cheat on his wife. You rack your
+brain and feel horribly guilty that it was some of your
+misbehaviour towards him which send him on the wrong path. But
+there doesn’t seem to be any reason. So, you start to suspect
+some other members of your community they did something. You ask
+questions, offend some, hurt others, but in the end you still
+don’t know about any reason that lead to the nonsense they told
+you before (if they are still talking to you). In the end it is
+a mystery or perhaps they just won’t tell you. Some people just
+leave.
+
+There is certainly pain in that, but if you paint a picture of
+some semi-religious experience (like Narnia), I do believe that
+in order to be realistic, there should be somebody like Susan,
+who just leaves. And it has absolutely nothing to do with her
+being a girl, or sex and nylons. And yes, teenagers do stupid
+things which in the end hurt them, sometimes a lot. I can tell,
+because I left in my fifteen my Scouting community, which was the
+only real life-giving community I knew for a long time before and
+after that, and I still don’t know exactly why I did it. And yes,
+it hurt me for many years, practically until I joined a community
+of Christians.
+
+I am not sure why Mr Gaiman and Mrs Rowling couldn’t see it, and
+I am probably in no position to speculate about that.