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Perelandra Chap. 12

An archived study of the second book of Lewis' theological science fiction Space Trilogy.

Perelandra Chap. 12

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 29th, 2005, 3:10 am

Synopsis - Ransom awakes to find that everyone except for the Un-Man and himself are sound asleep in the daylight. A savage fist fight begins and continues much of the day. Finaly Ransom has the Un-Man on the run and a mad chase across the golden waters ends the chapter.

After awaking with reassurance from Maleldil, Ransom resigned himself to his fate. But none of Perelandra's unfallen beings would witness the violence happening around them for their sake. Maybe even witnessing such a battle would destroy their innocence.
Ransom initiates the fight when the Un-Man refuses his order to drop a dead bird. After Ransom's first punch even the Un-Man is stunned. His only reaction is to threaten Ransom by exclaiming, "Do you not know who I am?". I loved Ransom's retort - "I know what you are"... "Which of them doesn't matter". All the evil one can do is make an empty threat that Maleldil will do nothing to help him win a physical fight against himself. He goes so far as to quote, or rather remember the last words of Jesus on the cross in Aramaic : "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabachthani" - "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?". The Un-Man wants Ransom to belive that Maleldil was about to abandon him as well, the spiritual battle was still on. Ransom's only choice was to jolt the evil one out of Weston's body with brute force.
As they fight on it dawns on Ransom that God would not set a burden before him that he could not bear. As terrible as the fight is, Ransom begins to get the better of the Un-Man who is stuck with Weston's middle aged body. For all his evil tricks he has not made Weston's body any stronger, only less alive. It was that "living death" that frightended Ransom at the start, and now, except for the metal finger nails, it has proven to be a sham. God knew the emptiness of the Un-Man's threat, but for some good reason (possibly to keep Ransom wary of his foe) He only gave Ransom reassurance, not inside information about the fight.
C.S. Lewis gives a horribly realistic blow by blow description of this hand to hand fight. And yet as Ransom gains the upper hand and pins down the Un-Man he can't help reciting a line from "The Battle of Maldon", a poem about a Viking raid on the Essex shore in the year 991. Looking it up, that line must have been the reply of Byrhtnoth the Alderman to the Viking's demand for tribute :
"Hearest thou, seafarer, what this folk sayeth?
They will to you a tribute of spears give,
deadly points and time-tested swords,
such war-gear that you in battle will not profit from."
It reminds me of a line from a John Wayne movie where some bandits tell him to hand over the gold. The Duke replys that he has no gold to give, but he can give them a load of lead (from out of his six-shooter). Unfortunatly this bit of bragadiccio gives the Un-Man a chance to break away from Ransom's grip.
Eventualy the Un-Man gives up the fight and dives into the water to catch a ride on one of the large fish (not all of Perelandra was asleep). What happens next is a fantastic chase scene with Ransom mounted on his own friendly fish and a whole school of likeminded sea creatures aiding the pursuit. Talk about a cinematic moment! This particular chapter would fit very well into one of today's action adventure films. It begins with intriging dialogue, then goes to a no holds barred fight ending with a chase on the high Perelandran sea. Lewis must have been in tune with pop-culture, pulp fiction in this case to write such an action sequence.
so it goes...
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Re: Perelandra Chap. 12

Postby .Ælfgifu. » April 30th, 2005, 3:48 pm

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Battle Fatigue

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 30th, 2005, 4:47 pm

so it goes...
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Re: Battle Fatigue

Postby .Ælfgifu. » April 30th, 2005, 7:10 pm

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Pure hatred.

Postby Ebbingkneeser » May 28th, 2005, 11:57 am

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