The four Pevensie children, destined to rule Narnia from four thrones, might be construed as a tetrahedron, a minimal system of six two-way relationships (we get dialog along every edge).
Whereas the Ice Queen had many opportunities to kill Edmund, thereby spoiling the prophecy, her job is to test the competence and readiness of the whole system, which is why she's so keen to net the other three and to engage all in battle.
No child vertex is as yet a whole adult, though as a system they're already internalizing parental functions and beginning to assume adult powers. They're in full retreat from a nightmare world, a city under bombardment wherein the grownups have clearly failed at some deep level. The kids are thrown back on their own devices, to cocoon and transmogrify within a fabulously optimized pre-machine scenario. The wardrobe is an alchemist's crucible.
To be frozen is to be paralyzed, stopped in one's tracks along one's inward path. The IQ presides over a world in stasis. However, the minute the children show up, her ruthless / heartless dominion begins melting (shades of Oz). Aslan and Father Christmas befriend humanity, urging him/her to take heart and keep growing.
Meanwhile, the IQ prosecutes the case that humans are unworthy and destined to fail. Edmund provides some evidence the Queen will win, as do the disloyals wielding outward weapons -- bombers etc. -- running amok in Machine World outside, endangering it, betraying the trust of future generations.
Narnia provides enough mythic grist for the mill to enable swift computation, and the children munch through a lifetime of testing in a hurry, emerging in the relative blink of an eye, having trully sampled young adulthood and proved to themselves (the ones most in need of proof) that they're indeed ready for prime time (or will be when the time comes).
Anyway, that's all this particular wardrobe / simulator was designed to provide. This first Narnia fantasy was a dead end eventually, as our foursome had no human otherness to bounce off. Susan is cut out to do more than chase stags for a living. Game over, we've won.
In the process of forging themselves into a true pattern integrity, the humans developed an awareness of synergy (Aslan: wild, surprising, unpredictable), but how this new awareness will unfold is for stories to come.
At any rate, the professor's job is done. The children have been healed.
Whereas the Ice Queen had many opportunities to kill Edmund, thereby spoiling the prophecy, her job is to test the competence and readiness of the whole system, which is why she's so keen to net the other three and to engage all in battle.
No child vertex is as yet a whole adult, though as a system they're already internalizing parental functions and beginning to assume adult powers. They're in full retreat from a nightmare world, a city under bombardment wherein the grownups have clearly failed at some deep level. The kids are thrown back on their own devices, to cocoon and transmogrify within a fabulously optimized pre-machine scenario. The wardrobe is an alchemist's crucible.
To be frozen is to be paralyzed, stopped in one's tracks along one's inward path. The IQ presides over a world in stasis. However, the minute the children show up, her ruthless / heartless dominion begins melting (shades of Oz). Aslan and Father Christmas befriend humanity, urging him/her to take heart and keep growing.
Meanwhile, the IQ prosecutes the case that humans are unworthy and destined to fail. Edmund provides some evidence the Queen will win, as do the disloyals wielding outward weapons -- bombers etc. -- running amok in Machine World outside, endangering it, betraying the trust of future generations.
Narnia provides enough mythic grist for the mill to enable swift computation, and the children munch through a lifetime of testing in a hurry, emerging in the relative blink of an eye, having trully sampled young adulthood and proved to themselves (the ones most in need of proof) that they're indeed ready for prime time (or will be when the time comes).
Anyway, that's all this particular wardrobe / simulator was designed to provide. This first Narnia fantasy was a dead end eventually, as our foursome had no human otherness to bounce off. Susan is cut out to do more than chase stags for a living. Game over, we've won.
In the process of forging themselves into a true pattern integrity, the humans developed an awareness of synergy (Aslan: wild, surprising, unpredictable), but how this new awareness will unfold is for stories to come.
At any rate, the professor's job is done. The children have been healed.
