Words of Charn

I want to expend a few posts upon CS Lewis' The Magician's Nephew, Narnia's prequel. I'll get to my final thoughts later; for now, I concede that here Lewis wrote some of the series' best scenes. It happens they aren't in Narnia - they're in that first world visited, Charn.

Lewis developed Charn's name from a possible archaic past-participle of a verb. This world is scorchen, by world-ending magic. As Lewis' home world was created by a Word, so shall Charn end.

When a fan confronted Lewis about Susan in seventh story The Last Battle, whose family backbit her so harshly, Lewis meekly admitted he couldn't write that eighth story, which must be an adult story. Lewis opened that project for fans. (Neil Gaiman - sigh - accepted that challenge.) Some fans have pondered to what level Charn too deserved its fate, if everyone in it likewise deserved what Jadis' family - through Lewis' pen - did therein. Archive Of Our Own does not disappoint: "Child of Charn" for instance, which has - like Kressel has - dissidence.

Expect, however, contradictions, as not everyone agrees on detail. Like on the name of Jadis' sister: Jadis, knowing well the power of names, never uttered this one.

In here we read several visions of the Last Word. So far Syrena Of The Lake's "In Word and Deed" proposes Words rooted in Faith, a rather atheistic / Pratchettian vision, to be explored nextpost. "Deplorable" has the Word as a curseword by the reified Fates, encapsulated in a tale for girls, keeping a little more distance from the base text.