Into the Wardrobe

Perelandra is on the whole my least favourite of the three, but the Un-Man is a remarkable creation - one of the creepiest images of evil I can recall.

Having (at last!) gotten my hands on, and finished reading, the Space Trilogy, I'd have to agree all the more strongly with this thread. I still can't quite put my finger on it, though.

I think that my favorite was Out of the Silent Planet, if for no better reason than that it was a bit lighter of an atmosphere than the other two. But then, it's a very very very grayish line, because the other two are so excellent, as well.

And even if that's my favorite, That Hideous Strength was more captivating, and a bit more... real. It touched a nerve that none of the others came close to, and the effect was... chilling. The references to Numinor didn't hurt, either.

Overall... it could just be his style. He has a talent that no other writer I've ever come across could even touch... even Tolkien.

Having been involuntarily absent from these forums for quite some time, it's quite possible that what I say have been recently said by others. But anyway.

What is so special about the Space Trilogy? To me, these novels are really like an archaelogical dig: every time you return to them you find gems at an even deeper level. Saying, "Yes, I've read the already" would be like saying, "Yes, I've seen the Cheops pyramid, but I didn't bother to go inside.

Lewis would at times approach subjects in his writings in two alternate, very different ways: one highly scholarly version, and one popular. This is especially evident in the case of the three books comprising the Space Trilogy. The scholarly treatment of the theme popularized in Out of the Silent Planet – the Medieval view of the universe as being not dead and barren but alive – was first put forth in the lectures given in 1928, later edited and published as The Discarded Image. The theme of Perelandra – the fall of man – was first treated by Lewis in three lectures on John Milton´s Paradise Lost given in 1941 at University College of North Wales in Bangor. These lectures formed the basis for Preface to Paradise Lost, which was published in 1942, and the following year saw the publication of Perelandra. The basis for That Hideous Strength was three lectures held at Durham University, that were later published as The Abolition of Man.

It seems Lewis had become increasingly worried about the notions put forth by prominent scientists and philosophers about the importance of the race and the great collective and the consequent unimportance of the individual. This view could be described as a proposition that technically advanced races have the right to supercede less advanced ones, because the supreme moral end is the perpetuation of our own species, and that this end is to be pursued at all cost.

Lewis feared that the implementing of these ideas, which he called “scientism”, would strip our species of all those things for which we value it – of pity, happiness and freedom, and he wanted to show how dreadful the present tendencies might become if allowed to proceed unchecked. Many people believed as a result that he was attacking science, but Lewis said he was criticising not scientists, but what was rather a kind of political conspiracy that used science as its pretext.

He also poses the question: What if there are other inhabited planets and contact with these is indeed possible within not too distant a future? What then will our relationsship to our interplanetary neighbours be? Lewis considered a race indifferent to ethics to be like a cancer in the universe, certain as he was that man would mistreat aliens as he has other races here on earth: “I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism.” (God in the Dock, p. 267). Hence, our world is described as being in a state of "quarantine" as it were.

He was very definitely trying to smash the 19th century female angel. "I believe no angel ever appears in Scripture without exciting terror: they always have to begin by saying 'Fear not'. […] By the way, none of my Eldila would be anything like so high up the scale as Cherubim and Seraphim. Those orders are engaged wholly in contemplation, not with ruling the lower creatures. Even the Annunciation was done by—if I may so put it!—a 'mere archangel.' […] Apropos of horrid little fat baby 'cherubs', did I mention that [Hebrew] Kherub is from the same root as Gryphon? That shows what they´re really like!" (Letters to an American Lady, p. 13).

I see this is already getting long and cumbersome. More later.

Thanks, Stanley, I feel like a Jew returning from the diaspora of Babylon. It's great to be back.

Perelandra has wormed it's way into my unconscious. I love the decent of the gods in That Hideous Strength too. Can not get into Malecandra. Might be because I'm the antithethis of a winter person. Hate winter. And snow. And anything related to snow and winter. :p

Welcome back, Jew of the Diaspora, Bengt-Ove. So glad to see you. Even though you won't remember me, I have saved posts of yours.

:)

Welcome back Bengt-Ove. Although I don't think you were around when I joined the 'Drobe, I have heard a lot of you over the past few years, believe it or not! :) So welcome back.

Bengt got it right. It's the Medieval cosmology that makes the trilogy so special. Of course, you haven't really read the trilogy until you've read The Discarded Image. ;-)