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Chapter 10 Study

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

Chapter 10 Study

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 3rd, 2006, 4:10 pm

Synopsis: The Hross invites Ransom into his boat and they go on a long journey away from danger, or so Ransom hopes. Along the way Ransom learns some more Malacandrian vocabulary. Finaly as the sun sets, Ransom and his host arrive at his village to be greeted by dozens of Hrossa.
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The way Lewis discribes how the hross enters his boat reminds me of the way animated cartoon caracters moved back then (and to this day, for that matter):
"He did this head-first like an animal, his sinuous body allowing him to rest his hands on the bottom of the boat while his feet were still planted on the land. He completed the operation by flinging rump, tail and hind legs all together about five feet into the air and then whisking them neatly on board with an agility which would have been quite impossible to an animal of his bulk on Earth."
It's more that just an example of low gravity. It's almost comic and it has me wondering if Lewis was indeed inspired by those old black and white cartoons from the 20's and 30's.
Next comes the boat. In the previous chapter Ransom expressed surprise that it looked like an ordinary boat from Earth. In this chapter he gives a few more details:
"The boat was without seats. It had a very high prow, an enormous expanse of free-board, and what seemed to Ransom an impossibly shallow draught. Indeed, very little of it even rested on the water; he was reminded of a modern European speed-boat."
It reminds me of one of those Venitian gondolas, without the facy seating. Another detail is the "rope" which moors the boat having the consistency of soft toffe. Instead of being untied, the hross pulls it apart. It's a good example of a technology different from ours.

What follows next is a vocabulary and geography (or should I say Malacandraphy?) lesson told along with Ransom's travelog. Ransom surprises the hross by taking off his hat and jacket. So we can be just as odd appearing to extraterristrials as they are to us. I wonder if the hross thought Ransom was molting as he undressed? It becomes obvious to Ransom that they are navigating a river at the bottom of an incredibly long valley called a handramit. The highlands above the valley walls are called harandra. Later Ransom learns that the harandra is in fact the original surface of the planet. The hross tells Ransom that the seroni live there and Ransom assumes they must be some sort of myth. Or then again, he thinks, could seroni be the plural of sorn? This has Ransom worried about whether the hrossa are merely domesticated animals of the sorn. This adds tension to the story and illustrates our own fallen paranoia.

At one point they must leave the river to avoid some rapids. So the hross lifts his boat over his head with hardly any strain. Lewis compares him to a Grecian caryatid. Caryatids are support columns carved to look like like draped female figures. I wonder if there is any special significance to this observation or if Lewis was simply drawing on his knowlege of classic mythology? I remember that in Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" the messianic protagonist is compared to a caryatid because just like the ancient female building supports he does not appear able to support his own heavy "temple". So a caryatid is a beautiful but odd adornment for a building.

Finaly at the end of the day Ransom and the hross arrive at his home village. Ransom is happy to be greeted by so many of these friendly creatures, especialy the young "pups". It is odd how Ransom wishes for the presence of "real" humans, even Ransom and Devine over the attentions of the adult hross. And yet the little young hross reassure him and raise his spirits. Could it be because they are more like what he expects an animal to be like or is there something more going on? ("Unless you become like little children...")

so it goes...
so it goes...
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Kanakaberaka
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Original Chapter 10 Comments

Postby Kanakaberaka » April 9th, 2006, 3:21 am

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


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