I consider CS Lewis to be one of the most interesting thinkers
of the 20th century. I've read an interesting biography of his, see:
https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/cs-lewis-a-life.
As for his fiction, his
Chronicles of
Narnia series was a huge part of my life from childhood onwards. Therefore
it has struck me as strange that I've never read Lewis' other famous fiction
series, the Space trilogy, three science fiction novels he wrote before
Narnia, between 1938 and 1945. I have
now read the first of that trilogy,
Out
of the Silent Planet. It follows the unwilling adventures of a man called
Elwin Ransom. He is kidnapped by two scientists and forced onto a spaceship to
join them on a mission to Mars; an interesting beginning considering his name. When
Lewis wrote this book, very little was known about our neighbouring planets. It
was only when unmanned spacecraft started exploring Mars, most recently the Perseverance
rover, that we found out what the planet was really like. Lewis imagines it as
a lush living planet with a breathable atmosphere. It is covered in plant and
animal life which he describes in great detail. There are three intelligent
species on Mars which form a symbiosis. There are the
Hrossa, who are semi-aquatic creatures resembling otters who use
simple tools and live a hunter-gatherer lifestyle; yet they are very artistic
and poetic. There are the
Sorn who
are tall land animals slightly humanoid who are great practical philosophers
and scientists. Finally the frog-like
Pfifltriggi
which are strong, tenacious and reliable, they do most of the manual work like
mining and stone sculpture. None of the three species alone, or even two of
them, could maintain their civilization. They all understand that all three are
necessary working together. They describe themselves collectively as
Hnau. They call their home planet
Malacandra and have languages which are
described in some detail, not as much as those in the Tolkienverse, but still
the reader learns a lexicon of several dozen words. Most interesting of all,
there are beings called
Eldila who
are non-corporeal and invisible. They seem to be semi-supernatural and are akin
to ghosts or angels. They communicate with the Hnau, and also humans,
telepathically. There is a governing Eldil on Malacandra called
Oyarsa whom the characters interact with
on an island in the heart of a temple that is described as being like a
European Neolithic monument; except the stones are covered in pictures carved
by the Pfifltriggi. All three human characters are interrogated by Oyarsa in a
dialogue that reminds me of the human characters' discussions with the lion
Aslan in the Narnia series. The two
other humans represent different attitudes. Dr Weston is a ruthless
expansionist who wants humans to conquer the solar system and then the galaxy
beyond, terraforming every planet and plundering its resources; and then simply
moving on. Ransom's other companion, Dick Devine, is greedy and only interested
in gold, like the American Conquistadors. By that time Ransom has spent many
months living with the native species of the planet and has "gone
native". He even finds the appearance of the other humans alien when they
are reunited. He recommends that all humans be prevented from visiting Mars,
even if it means killing him and his companions. Weston and Devine are
permanently exiled from Malacandra and Ransom leaves with them voluntarily. This
scene, and other themes of the story, reminds me of the film
Avatar, see:
https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2012/03/some-of-them-are-on-our-side.html.
The journey back to earth is far more difficult than the
journey there because by then the two planets are at their greatest distance in
their mutual orbits. The spaceship has to pass close to the sun and almost
overheats. They also nearly run out of food, water and oxygen. At one point
they have to divert to avoid crashing into the moon. Weston and Devine's
spacecraft is described as being spherical in shape, like that depicted in HG
Wells'
The First Men in the Moon, a
story Ransom refers to regularly. It works by some kind of unusual solar
radiation, but the propulsion system and power source are never explained in
detail. It doesn't appear to use "Carvorite", the antigravity effect
that drives Wells' lunar module. It does appear to have internal artificial
gravity though, which shifts in aspect when it interferes with a planet's
gravitational field, creating a lot of inconvenience for the crew. At the end,
there is an epilogue in which the author inserts himself into the story in a
form of docu-fiction. He reveals that he knows Ransom and that the two have
written letters to each other. The Martian creatures call earth
Thulcandra, meaning "silent
planet", hence the novel's title. This is because the earth has apparently
been taken over by a "bent" Oyarsa, an evil spirit. This might be
analogous to Satan. I have no doubt, knowing Lewis, that this story has deeper and
more subtle features that I did not spot from an initial reading; this was certainly
the case with Narnia. A few years before he wrote this book, CS Lewis underwent
a transformation of his life that today is often called a "spiritual
awakening". He had been a lifelong atheist since his childhood in
Northern
Ireland and began by promoting atheism when
he went up to
Oxford. However,
after a few years he began attending his college chapel. Being a prolific
writer and essayist, his feelings of being "born again" have all been
preserved and are considered some of the most important literature of its kind
on the subject. No doubt this influenced him when he wrote
Out of the Silent Planet in ways I have yet fully to comprehend. I
look forward to reading its two sequels.
See here for
background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2008/07/everyone-knows-what-happened-on.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2016/06/did-christopher-hitchens-become.html.
