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Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

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

Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

Postby Kanakaberaka » November 18th, 2004, 6:49 am

Note : Because of the all the details crammed into this chapter I have decided to post it in several parts.

Synopsis : After risking his life in a desperate attempt to reach the Green Lady's floating island, Ramsom awakes to find himself back on his own. But as luck (or is it proidence?) would have it, his island is now floating a few mere feet from that of the Green Lady's. So he's able to cross over to carry on a philosophical conversation with her.

There has to be some significance to Ransom's failed attempt to reach the Green Lady by his own efforts and yet reaching her the next day quite by serendipity. Could it be a demonstration that we must follow God's will rather than our own? Whatever it is I can appreciate the irony that for all his risks, Ransom could have remained right where he was and simply waited for the islands to bump agaist one another.
The most unusual thing about their conversation is that they jump right into the most intelectual part. There is no wasting time with "Me Ransom, You Green Lady" talk. We are not even told the Green Lady's name in this chapter, that will come later. Their conversation begins with the Green Lady mentioning that she was quite "young" yesterday. Ransom does not realize at first that she means growing in knowlege rather than age.
so it goes...
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Re: Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

Postby a_hnau » November 19th, 2004, 8:20 pm

My usual rag-bag of ideas;

- when Ransom wakes, feeling 'such a premonition of good adventure', I am immediately reminded of Jane's first waking at St Anne's, 'there came into Jane's sleeping mind a sensation which ... would have sung "Be glad thou sleeper and thy sorrow offcast, I am the gate to all good adventure"'. I'm not sure if even Lewis would have realised he made what appears to be the same allusion in both places. But it is a wonderful feeling that we will all recognise. It is the counterpart of the feeling I'm sure we all get when Weston's spaceship falls into the sea - as Lewis says elsewhere 'the first stab of pain warning of a serious illness.'
- Lewis's digression to make clear that Ransom's feelings are nothing to do with naked bodies, points forward to Ransom's defence to Weston, a brilliant analogy; "... because Niagara Falls didn't immediately give him the idea of making it into cups of tea."
- 'Maleldil is telling me...'; however abused the phrase "God told me" is on our own planet, this phrase points to the reality of the intimate communion that Adam and Eve had, and of which we fleetingly, perhaps, catch a glimpse in our own most intimate moments with God.
- this newly occurred to me, but perhaps I'm just slow on the uptake; when Ransom refers to Tinidril as 'my Lady', surely Lewis must mean this to point to the medieval courtly relationship of noble lady to inferior knight - after all, the whole combat of Ransom with the Un-man is in a way a Frauendienst, a service on her behalf, and Tor the King is absent, as in so many of these 'myths' - see Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- heart-wrenching; "I loved the furry people whom I met in Malacandra ... Are they to be swept away?" This is (almost) higher, deeper stuff than we mortals are made for.
- overall, I think Ransom copes remarkably well with the Lady's alien (to him) state of mind. One can imagine this as a point along his journey to the (dare I say it) semi-divine, Christ-figure of That Hideous Strength.
- (I stopped at the point where Ransom falls asleep after this first extended encounter with Tinidril)
Urendi Maleldil
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Re: Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

Postby loeee » November 19th, 2004, 9:53 pm

Someone please tell me how to pronounce Maleldil. Where does that name come from? Did Lewis just invent it? I have a problem with the Mal sylable, since in English that is a prefix meaning "bad."
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Re: Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

Postby Stanley Anderson » November 19th, 2004, 11:14 pm

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Re: Perelandra Chap. 5 - pt. 1

Postby Stanley Anderson » November 23rd, 2004, 3:43 pm

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