My Dear Pyrrho,
I bet that you think that you’re really special, don’t you? And, why not? After all, I only assigned you to your patient after you graduated from Temptation University. And it was only my brilliant suggestions that got that punk, who has unfortunately become one of the Enemy’s most annoying accomplices, to stand on the sidelines during my recent battle against Him. So, obviously, you deserve all the credit for keeping him off the battlefield.
Now, tell me, have I got that right? Of course, I do.
Of course, if I was really going to consider you a competent employee, I’d have to forget that you dealt with a very similar situation when your patient was younger and you totally blew it. I mean really, if you’d kept him off the battlefield back then, he probably wouldn’t have met those four awful Human varmints from another world who used to rule the Enemy’s chosen country but are now banished from this world. It is also quite likely that he wouldn’t have met the Enemy either.
Well, I’m just glad to see that my Corrections Department tortures have stuck in your mind all these years because your patient forgot about the Enemy’s claim to be the same throughout the ages and thus he stayed sidelined this time with an infection of one of my great tactics: Despair. I’m telling you what, if he had remembered the Enemy’s exaggerated claims about Himself, He might have gone looking for Him and, obviously, that would not have been productive.
I’m telling you what, can you believe what the Enemy did this time? He brought back that Male who was so amusing before he flipped on my last time. I really don’t know why He would bring that jerk back so I can only assume it’s so He can rub it in about how He cheated last time. I mean really, that worthless punk was clearly having more fun doing the things I like until He hoodwinked him.
I mean really, that Human varmint was clearly brainwashed the last time he was here and because of his and your colleague’s, Barb’s, delightfully miserable patient’s influence over that new Female, she wasn’t permanently swayed by my great suggestions about rest and relaxation even though my new friend did her best to make it sound tempting.
But, isn’t that just like the Enemy? He claims that His burdens are light and easy, but then He just works the vermin to the point of death. And, of course, when my new friend makes the perfectly legitimate suggestion that they should take it easy and recharge, He interferes so that they’ll continue being His brainwashed slaves.
Does He seriously think anyone who believes His claims about being in His service making a varmint’s life easy and smooth? I’m telling you, no one should believe that hogwash; they should just join my side because I’ll let them do what they want all the time.
But, I digress so let me get back to your patient. Oh my me, you were awfully lucky to have remembered what my Corrections Department taught you so that you could prevent him from seeing the Enemy’s answer to one of my most spectacular moves. I’m telling you what, I’m still laughing about that because your patient, like every other miserable varmint in the Enemy’s chosen country, has been pleading with Him to make a move for a long time and when He finally did decide to cheat, your patient was delightfully distracted so he didn’t even notice.
You should have given your colleague, Cataract, some insight into the tortures you received from my Corrections Department because he is undoubtedly headed for the same treatment. I mean really, when everyone else in the Enemy’s chosen country was bumbling through the darkness of my great tactic of Despair, his patient was still looking for the Enemy’s cheating move and, unfortunately, he saw it.
I mean seriously, why can’t you buffoons coordinate with each other more effectively? After all, the Enemy expects His ranks to help each other so it seems like I would get more production if my employees made suggestions that seemed to come from Him.
Well, no matter, I’ll be writing to your colleague next and, if he is smart enough to listen, I have no doubt that I’ll be able to blind his patient with the same dark Despair that your patient has sunk into.
Of course, I’m not saying that your patient doesn’t have a perfectly legitimate reason to fall into Despair. After all, he is clearly well past his prime and he will, undoubtedly, leave this terrible world in a delightfully worse state than it has been for much too long. I mean, if the state of this awful world doesn’t render the Enemy’s rumored claims about taking care of His ranks false and His self-proclaimed so-called control over all things impotent then I don’t know what does.
I’m telling you what, when I saw the Enemy’s cheating move, I was concerned that you would be really stupid and let history repeat itself by letting your patient met that Male who flipped on me the last time that he was here. I’m just certain that, if the Enemy had been given the chance, He would have cheated again and helped that worthless Male convince your patient that He sent him and that new Female to find your colleague, Absin’s patient, and take away my new friend’s control over him.
Oh, my me, I’m just relieved that your patient didn’t have that awful older Female ruler’s old weapon with him because, undoubtedly, that weapon would have affected the great blind spot I put on him.
Naturally, you can assume that I’ll write to your colleague, Pavo, again to lecture him on the importance of keeping his terrible punk away from that weapon. If he is smart enough to listen, I have no doubt that I can still salvage the complete wreck that he has made of his assignment.
Well, I think I’ve said all that I could possibly say to you, but before I sign off I need to give you one more warning. You may think that you’re hot stuff because you’ve kept your terrible patient off the battlefield this time but he is still alive and if he ever gets wind of how the Enemy cheated, he might yet do something to affect my ultimate goal of sitting on His throne.
So you’d better pay attention and make sure that he stays distracted. After all, as every one of my employees ought to know when they graduate from Temptation University, the Enemy never sleeps so you can’t either.
The Loathsome, Frightening, Power-Hungry,
Tash
(all honor and glory to me)
Author’s Notes: Cataract is Glimfeather’s demon, Barb is with Puddleglum, and Absin is with Rillian.
I want to start out with something that I’ve always found perplexing about this book (and The Last Battle too). That is the absence of Susan’s Horn. Isn’t it strange how none of the Pevensie’s gifts are mentioned after they leave for the final time? But they have to still be there. They wouldn’t have tossed them. And it seems as though prayer is much needed in The Silver Chair so shouldn’t the Horn get a mention?
Well, my theory is that Caspian took it with him when he sailed with the expressed purpose of finding Aslan to ask about what would happen after his death. Since the king doesn’t have a huge role in this book, I’ll claim that’s why the Horn isn’t specifically mentioned.
So, now, let’s look at what’s happened to our DLF. In this letter, I want to contrast his reaction to the coming of Eustace and Jill with his reaction to the Pevensies’ return in Prince Caspian. Young Trumpkin is completely blown away by the miracle return of the Golden Age Kings and Queens, but in his older self is decidedly less enthusiastic.
But, is the coming of Eustace and Jill any less miraculous or any less historically significant for Narnia than the Pevensies’ reappearance? I should think not! So, shouldn’t his reaction be similar?
I think the answer is that Trumpkin, being in the twilight of his life, is looking out at the world and seeing only how bad things have gotten. He also knows that, without a Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve on the throne after Caspian dies, things are likely to only get worse. Maybe he is already seeing a Miraz or White Witch figure in his mind. It must not be an easy thing to know that younger generations growing up behind him aren’t going to have it as good as he did so really, I think, we can sympathize with his glass half-empty mentality.
But we also know, and he should remember, that the same Lion who delivered Narnia in the prior books is also capable of delivering them in this book. Quite frankly, he should also remember that no one from our world can get to Narnia without Aslan calling them so the arrival of Eustace and Jill should bring him great joy and thankfulness. Doubting them is really doubting the one who sent them because He not only sent them, He equips them.
Even if it’s very true that he wasn’t given the opportunity to react with more enthusiasm because the children were advised not to mention who they were or their mission, that fact says a lot by itself. I don’t think that Trumpkin’s friends would have given the children such instructions if there was a chance he would help them. No one was looking to bypass him and gain glory for themselves, they were looking to get the job done and knew he despaired too much to help.
I also recognize the fact that since Trumpkin wasn’t on the Dawn Treader, he doesn’t know Eustace. But, honestly, does that matter so much? Surely the story of Eustace being turned into a dragon and Aslan changing him back is, by the time of The Silver Chair, a classic always told at bedtime and around the campfire. What better way to teach young Narnians about the redeeming grace of the Lion than by that story? So, even if Trumpkin has never laid eyes on Eustace, I think that it’s safe to assume that he has heard of him. It might have taken a little more explaining but, I think, a Spirit-led Trumpkin could have believed that Aslan had sent these two new (to him) children to find Rillian and bring him home. Instead, he seems to mirror Prince Caspian Susan who said, “I really did believe it was [Aslan], or I could have if I’d let myself.”
In Trumpkin’s case, it’s more like, “I could have believed those kids were sent by Aslan to find the lost prince, but my friends knew that I wouldn’t let myself so they bypassed me in order to complete the Lion’s business.”
Now, just one more note on Trumpkin because this episode isn’t eternally fatal for him. Maybe Aslan Himself comes and breathes on him, as He did with Susan in Prince Caspian, ”Are you brave again, Trumpkin?”
Bible Verses: Heb. 13:8; Matt. 7:7, 11:28-30; John 16:33; Ecc. 4:9-12; Phil. 4:19; Col. 1:15-20; Luke 12:11-12; Rom. 8:26-27; Gal. 5:25; Psalm 121:3-4