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Chapter 9 Study

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

Chapter 9 Study

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 3rd, 2006, 3:45 pm

Synopsis: Ransom awakens from his sleep thirsty and hungry. After debating with himself, he risks drinking from the warm spring and finds it to be safe after all. The foliage is inedible though. After pulling himself together mentaly, Ransom resumes his flight and explorations. He come apon some peacefull Malacandrian animal life eating the tops off the odd trees. This gives Ransom a view of what appear mountains. And then a glimpse of a Sorn! Ransom run for his life, hoping that the Sorn has not noticed him. Apon reaching another lake Ransom is surprised by something rising out of the water. He is not sure whether it's intelligent or not. But the creature utters some words in it's own language and Ransom concludes that he's intellegent. The being is known as a "Hross". After sharing some words, drink and food, Ransom begins to think of the Hross as human.
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Ransom begins this chapter in the divided mind mode. It's as if he's watching himself from the outside. In my opinion this is due to loneliness rather than any switching over from modern to medival mindsets. He has been cooped up for a month in a steel sphere with two rotten apples, and now he finds himself in an alien wilderness. Ransom even mentions hoping that he would really be safe in an English asylum rather than in the dangerous situation he found himself. So against his own advise, Ransom drinks what could be poisonous water rather than die of thirst. Not much of a choice, but the gamble paid off. The only trouble with the water was it's mineral taste. Ransom was not quite as lucky with the using the trees as food. Ransom found them usefull only as chewing gum, but at least they were not poisonous.

Next come an encounter with some Malacandrian wildlife. I never really paid very much attention to the fuzzy giraffe like animals the first three of so times I read OOTSP. But I was intrigued with some of the details Lewis gave about them. Especialy the part about them standing up on their hind legs to get at the top leaves of the foliage. It reminded me of the barrosaurous skeleton in the Museum of Natural History, a terribly impressive creature. Then I tried imagining the dinosaur spindley and covered with yellow fuzz and the very idea sounds funny. Of course these animals have a dramatic purpose. They eat away a view through the forest canopy. Ransom is now able to view what he thinks are incredibly high mountains in formations that would fall over on our planet. The view also exposes an ominous sorn to the view of Ransom! Needless to say Ransom runs to avoid be seen by the sorn. His flight takes him back to the lower land near another lake.

While at the lake, Ransom makes his first friendly contact on Malacandra. But he does not even know whether or not the otter like creature in the water is intellegent. It's use of words tip Ransom off. He is so ecstatic about discovering an extra-terrestrial language that he plans on writting a book about it :
"In the fraction of a second which it took Ransom to decide that the creature was really talking, and while he still knew that he might be facing instant death, his imagination had leaped over every fear and hope and probability of his situation to follow the dazzling project of making a Malacandrian grammar. An Introduction to the Malacandrian Language -The Lunar Verb -A Concise Martian-English Dictionary... the titles flitted through his mind. And what might one not discover from the speech of a non-human race? The very form of language itself, the principle behind all possible languages, might fall into his hands."
Sounds crazy to go from fearing for one's life to focusing on philological studies. But as Lewis says,"The love of knowledge is a kind of madness". In a sort of "Me Tarzan, You Jane" fashion, Ransom and the Hross open up a sort of conversation with the help of a lot of gesticulation. It makes wonder if God wanted a master of languages to be one of the first humans to land on the Red Planet. The missunderstanding of Weston and Devine came from their lack of knowlege about Malacandrian speech. I would have thought that explorers of the unknown would have taken the time to understand the native population's tongue, if for no other reason than to get whatever it was they wanted. The two lunk-heads hurt themselves by not bothering to find out what the Malacandrians were really like. Then again, maybe Lewis is trying to show what imperialism is all about. Putting one's own civilization above the indigenous people.

The Hross extends his hospitality by offering Ranson a drink, which turns out to be alcoholic no less. Ransom sure lucks out when it come to finding a drink! But not before some misunderstanding on Ransom's part at first. He notices things hanging from the waist of the Hross and assumes that they are it's genitals. So naturaly when the Hross squirts some liquid into a water filled shell, Ransom thinks that he's urinating into it. Apon closer inspection Ransom realizes that the Hross is wearing things on a belt, sort of like a canteen or wine skin.

Lewis goes into some detail about Malacandrian vocabulary. The Hross shows Ransom some dirt and says "handra". So Ransom mentions the word "Malacandra", and the Hross indicates the whole landscape. Now all Ransom has to do is figure out what a handramit is. It's details like this where Lewis shows off his profession in a most interesting way.

so it goes...
so it goes...
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Kanakaberaka
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Original Chapter 9 Comments

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 3rd, 2006, 4:04 pm

so it goes...
User avatar
Kanakaberaka
Wardrobian
 
Posts: 1030
Joined: Jul 1999
Location: Just outside of Rego Park, NYC


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