by paminala » April 5th, 2010, 7:20 pm
Reading many of the posts here I became quite curious about the Space Trilogy books. To be honest I had not been aware of them before seeing them here. I finally got my hands on a copy of the series last week and I must say I'm enjoying it tremendously. So far I'm through the first 2 books and about to start the third.
I'm noticing something that I often notice when I read books written in periods markedly prior to our "technological" age. There are times that something the author must certainly have meant to convey one thing (and would have to his contemporary audience) leaves for a moment a very different picture in my mind before I say to myself, "oh no, of course not!"
This hit me quite strongly when I got to chapter 19 (I think) of Silent Planet. Weston is refusing to answer questions put to him by the Oyarsa. The Oyarsa orders him taken away to have his head dunked in cold water several times (14 as it turns out) in the hope that he will come back more cooperative than before.
Certainly Lewis' 1938 sensibilities could have meant many things by that little exchange.
Unfortunately my very American 21st century imagination, upon reading it flew in only one direction--waterboarding!
"oh no, of course not!"
Am I the only person who has ever had a moment like that?
How much of a barrier is it, do you all think, for the average reader's understanding of an author's intent that it was written in a time so different than their own?
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
~ Galileo Galilei