by Theo » March 19th, 2006, 4:19 pm
Lewis actually responded to this criticism himself, and cheerfully admitted that the "science" part of the books was mostly bollocks. In the essay, "In reply to Professor Haldane", an unfinished reply to Haldane's scathing review of That Hideous Strength, he starts out by admitting flatly that his science is bogus - but he also notes that this science is also fictional and part of an adventure story. He even gets in a nasty dig at Haldane himself, pointing out that some of his essays contain sweeping and inaccurate generalizations about history - (quoting from memory) "the difference being that my faulty science is part of a fictional book, while his faulty history is part of an essay intended to be believed".
The essay - it's reprinted in "In Other Words", if I remember correctly - is very interesting and gives a lot of insights into both the ideas and preoccupations of Lewis at the time of writing THS, but also into how he saw his books. For instance, he refers to the sci-fi trilogy as "light, holiday fiction" and (to me at least) appears slightly bemused that they are being taken so seriously, if only by a hostile critic.
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