(no subject)

Both children were quiet for a moment. The drops dripped off the laurel leaves.
"Why were you so different last term?" said Jill presently.
"A lot of queer things happened to me in the hols," said Eustace mysteriously.
"What sort of things?" asked Jill.
Eustace didn't say anything for quite a long time. Then he said:
"Look here, Pole, you and I hate this place about as much as anybody can hate anything, don't we?"
"I know I do," said Jill.
"Then I really think I can trust you."
"Dam' good of you," said Jill.
"Yes, but this is a really terrific secret. Pole, I say, are you good at believing things? I mean things that everyone here would laugh at?"
"I've never had the chance," said Jill, "but I think I would be."

Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole form an alliance in The Silver Chair by CS Lewis

When Narnia was last seen, it was The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Eustace had learned to be less of a (hilarious) jerkass. This means he no longer fits in at his horrible school that allows girls and boys together and has not much to do with religion. The bullies are pretty awful, though.

At his school is Jill Pole, who is rather keen. We meet her crying because she's being bullied, and quickly she forms an alliance with Eustace, as seen above.

I really like The Silver Chair. One, Eustace is still sort of a jerk, and so far Jill's been funny as hell. Especially, as you will see, what she does to Eustace in the illustration below.

I'm around page 50 right now, and what's really sticking out to me is exactly how much they're messing it up. Okay, I guess it's mostly Jill but I'm so charmed by her I feel like heaping blame on Eustace too. It's sort of funny seeing the opposite of the super competent Pevensies. I also feel more inclined to Jill, because it just seems that CS Lewis had it out for girls who weren't Lucy sometimes. And maybe Polly.

I'm also performing a little experiment while I read this, wherein I'm reading it from the perspective that Jill is half Chinese. So far there's nothing in the text that contradicts this, and so I will continue to do it. It's part of making myself not default to white. My reasoning for this is that they *are* going to an experimental school and as someone else pointed out, it might explain why she's getting bullied. When I do this next, Hermione will be mixed race in my rereading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which someone suggested as an interpretation ages ago and I was quite charmed by the idea.


was it... MURDER?