The Space Trilogy

PrinceOfTheWest said:
It's so realistic that I find myself wondering - is there a Pendragon? And if so, who is he?
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I wonder that too...in fact...I kind of think that it's possible, in some way...:D
Copperfox said:
I really think Mr. Tolkien was too snobbish and picky.
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That's possible...I don't know...but he is one of my pet authors, so I feel biased. :D At any rate, personally I wouldn't be terribly happy if someone "stole" my idea and tied it up in their book -- even if it was my friend...:D
 
I prefer C.S. Lewis over Tolkien. Tolkien spends too much time going into the niddy griddy details that arn't so important. C.S. Lewis is practical, and imaginitive always giving you the ability to imagine it yourself.

Note: I'm going to try not to spend much time in this thread, because I don't want to spoil the story.
 
i prefer tolkien to lewis though both of them our marvelous authors. i do like how lewis's works show a pure message of salvation. i am reading screwtape letters right now. it is so good!
 
I love both Lewis and Toliken, but I find Tolkien's works to be more dark and sometimes really depressing especially the new Children of Hurin (Which I have read very little of). I like how C.S. Lewis is more blatent with his messages of salvation and how in his stories even when It's dark you can still seen the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
I loved cs lewis from when i received my first copies of the Narnian chronicles i did not discover the space trilogy until like 3 years ago a friend of my that is seminary now recommended it to me and said if i like stuff like that sci fi and Arthurian legends i would like it and it amazes me how so many of the scenes of that space trilogy are parallel to what we are going thru today and Jeff is right you can always see the light at the end of the tunnel and jack tries to let us think for ourselves instead of pushing stuff on us.
 
I read Out of the Silent Planet about a year ago. Today I bought Perelandra and That Hideous Strength today, and I got caught up in reading the latter. I'm now on the chapter "Fog". It rocks because I was just thinking of a lot of these subjects prior to reading it. I feel a lot like Mark sometimes.

EDIT: Fairy Hardcastle is pretty much the best villain I've read in a book since... well, the Emerald Witch.
 
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Narnia, Lord of the Rings and Out of the Silent Planet:

I think now that Narnia and Lord of the Rings is tied for me. Their both so different in nature. Both tell the endless struggle of Good vs. Evil, but each has it's own unique quality. For example C.S. Lewis' approach is a more spiritually blatant, while Tolkien's is more subtle. Lewis identifies Aslan as Christ in Narnia and through his Chronicles there are more spiritual references and allegories from Bible revealed. Tolkien's approach is by teaching deep morals of love, friendship, loyalty, devotion, long suffering, trust, faithfulness, and the nature of power and it's corruption. Both their works are impacting and worthy of being awarded the titles of the best books in literature/Fantasy/Fiction.

I will say however that of the two: The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, that Narnia still leans heavy to being my favorite due to the Spiritual richness of it and the fact that I’ve read through them all.

Now back to the subject, I have somewhat slacked on reading Out of Silent Planet. Just recently I pick it up again and began reading chapter 6. So far I am more intrigued and curious to how the story will further develop.
 
Copperfox said:
I really think Mr. Tolkien was too snobbish and picky.
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I think Mr. Tolkien was dead-on concerning literary quality, and plenty of people agreed with him. You have to admit that all Mr. Tolkien's pickiness paid off -- he was just as demanding on himself, and he produced some of the best literature ever written in the twentieth century, with which That Hideous Strength doesn't stand a chance of being compared (um... weird convoluted grammar, sorry). However, the concepts behind That Hideous Strength are what makes it important. It's a creative way of getting a point across, and I think what's important in terms of this book is not so much the literary quality (though that always helps!) but the statement Lewis was trying to make about the way society was going.
 
Im nearly finished "Out of the silent plant"...I'm not as impressed with it as much I thought i would be. Maybe thats because i normally dont prefer reading sci-fi type of books. But since it was something else written by my fave author i thought to give it a try. Im not saying I didnt enjoy reading it, but it wasnt as thrilling as i hoped. But it was still an okay book, i plan on reading the second and then eventually the third soon.

As a topic above about who prefers certain authors the more. I'd with out a doubt say Lewis. I could barely read Lord of the rings, Tolkiens writing I find is so detailed you sometimes forget what was even happening. But with Lewis he gets to the point and allows you to use your imagination and get right on with the story.
 
Silent Planet is the simplest of the trilogy, and doesn't compare to Tolkien as literature - though even that casual effort on Lewis' part still stands head and shoulders above most of what's produced today. In my opinion, the genius of Planet lies in its subtlety - how Lewis uses Ransom's language learning to bring out all manner of things we don't think about. For instance, his discussion of the difference between longing (wondelone) and longing (hluntheline) (chapter 12), and the description of the interplay between the different races. The "translation" of Weston's speech to Malacandra in chapter 20 is a masterpiece if you understand the predominant "progressive" philosophies of the early 20th century. Lewis uses the translation device to lay bare what these high-sounding words are really saying, and it's pure genius.

Don't let one pass through deter you. Though each story stands alone, Lewis' narrative builds through the trilogy, and it took me several readings to grasp the depth of it. In particular don't give up after a chapter or two of That Hideous Strength. That's what I did for years, and didn't know what a gem I was foregoing.
 
I haven't read these yet. Last summer I found them in the library, and I actually checked out the huge volume with all 3 books combined in it. I was reading a lot of other things at the time (including the CON and a few Jane Austen books), so that, along with the fact that the book was several inches thick and very intimidating, I never even started it. But I hope to read them all sometime soon.
 
LOL -- get them as separate books. Our of the Silent Planet is really very slim, and Perelandra is only a little bit longer. But THS may be my favorite, and it is the longest. Like PoTW, I found I had read them several times each and was still finding new insight each time. They are beautiful.
 
I found "That Hideous Strength" not only compelling, but, in a sense, REALISTIC in its depiction of how evil people GET to be so evil. The characters of Wither, Frost and Straik were especially vivid in the portrayal of the willful self-deception by which they chose not to know the truth.
 
Young Mark was the one I identified with. He was drawn into evil things just because he wanted to belong, to be the one on the inside. When he was asked to write tomorrow's news today because his lot were the ones engineering it, he knew it was wrong, in the back of his mind. But he imagined himself as a grandpa with a peerage laughing with his grandchildren about the time he stayed up all night writing the front page before the riots even happened ...

The moment of his choice between good and evil passed him by in a rush so that he did not even see it as a momentous choice. He just did what he wanted and in his mind made it seem not only not evil, but downright amusing.
 
In reading them now. Thjey are truly awesome books. It real make you look at thing in a difrent light and realling think about things. I love them.
 
Narborg, when you get into "Perelandra," or on another go-through if you've already read it, pay close attention to the way Weston tries for awhile to convince the Venusian Eve that he is on the SAME side as Ransom, even though Ransom's intent is exactly opposite to Weston's. One of evil's chief tricks is to pretend it ISN'T fighting against good.
 
When you read "That Hideous Strength," note a reference to a place called "Numinor." That was a misspelling by Mr. Lewis of Numenor. Mr. Lewis was actually making his story part of the same reality as "Lord of the Rings," giving Merlin a connection with the same Numenor from which Aragorn's family came. Mr. Tolkien didn't like Mr. Lewis doing this; but since Tolkien's Numenor is also vaguely identified with Atlantis, modern author Stephen Lawhead picked up the ball and ran with it by having HIS version of Merlin be a descendant of Atlantis/Numenor.
 
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