CS Lewis

Author of Narnia book series. Furry. Usually tells stories at Unicorn Fuck Club.

## In real life

Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), better known as **C. S. Lewis**, was a British author and Christian theologian. He was close friends with JRR Tolkien.

Lewis is most widely known today for the seven-book children’s series *The Chronicles of Narnia*. The books tell the stories of children from our world who find their way to Narnia, a magical land filled with talking animals and mythical beasts, ruled over by a majestic talking lion, Aslan.

As with nearly everything Lewis wrote, Narnia was deeply influenced by Lewis’ theology. Aslan, for example, is an unmistakable analogue to Jesus, voluntarily sacrificing his life to redeem a sinner and miraculously returning to life afterwards.

This led to the so-called “problem of Susan”. The fate that character Susan Pevensie experiences in the last Narnia book deeply upset many readers, on multiple levels.

Nearly all her friends and family are allowed to enter a new, paradisiacal version of Narnia, which is in fact their afterlife - their lives on Earth have been ended in a sudden accident. Susan is specifically noted to not be among them. Neil Gaiman wrote a story exploring the grief and trauma of Susan being left on Earth as a sole survivor; the title of the story, “The Problem of Susan”, has come to be shorthand for general criticism of Susan’s fate.

Beyond the basic harshness of that separation, there are many ways to read the textual clues about why Susan does not enter Narnia with the others, at the same time as the others. Some, such as JK Rowling and Philip Pullman, have specifically simplified the matter to “sex” (Rowling: “… Susan … is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick … because she found sex.”)

Despite massive problems with this interpretation not fitting with the text or Lewis’ other writings (“The Problem(s) of Susan”, Matt Mikalatos) the dubious belief “Lewis denied Susan her chance at Heaven because he didn’t think women should be interested in sex” has nevertheless persisted.

## Midnight Pals character

The Midnight Pals version of Lewis is a furry. His Narnia is what TVTropes calls a Fantasy Kitchen Sink, containing a bewildering variety of fantastic beasts (but no “filthy hyoomans”).

In contrast to his real-life counterpart, MP-Lewis is extremely explicit that Susan’s interest in makeup rendered her unworthy of Heaven.

MP-Lewis and MP-Tolkien have been known to come to blows over the difference between their denominations (Tolkien being Catholic and Lewis being Anglican). This is unlikely to have much parallel in real life, as Lewis’s theology was notably ecumenical.

MP-Tolkien calls Lewis "Jack".

## Appearances in Midnight Pals

First appearance in Midnight Pals:

* 12 Jan 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1349082736863055874

Major appearances in Midnight Pals:

* 13 Jan 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1349398310130368512
* 14 Jan 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1349828597326909441
* 12 Apr 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1381698026645774337 (regarding the Problem of Susan)
* 02 Jan 2022: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1477728892236361730

Other appearances/mentions in Midnight Pals:

* 23 Feb 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1364352698577870852
* 01 Mar 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1366452185802833921
* 04 Aug 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1422946712860061699
* 23 Aug 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1429934668342693909
* 11 Nov 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1458893488842436628
* 16 Nov 2021: https://twitter.com/midnight\_pals/status/1460659129874219009