The Space Trilogy

Yes, there were numerous scenes in the Space Trilogy in which I really felt I could "see" what was happening. Like Ransom joining in the hunt for the Hnakra monster in the first book, Ransom finding his way through the caverns in the second book, and Mark Studdock being called on to commit sacrilege in the third book.
 
Malacandra said:
Numenor is Tolkien's version of Atlantis - a huge island in the ocean where a particular nation of Men, rewarded for their virtue, founded a highly advanced enlightened civilization. Eventually it went rotten, they foolishly invaded the "Undying Lands" where the gods lived, the small-g gods kicked that one upstairs to the big-g God who sank Numenor beneath the sea as punishment. Some loyalists who had not taken part in the invasion were allowed to flee by ship and came to Middle-Earth where they founded Gondor and Arnor; the latter kingdom, which was in the North, fell after a while but Gondor endured until the War of the Ring.
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That's the final version, incorporated into the Myths of Middle-Earth, but Tolkien originally wrote of Numenor as the literal Atlantis; he was writing a time-travel science fiction, which he never finished. It was thence that Lewis originally got the word "Numinor", and that is why he used it as a name for Atlantis.
 
Copperfox said:
Yes, there were numerous scenes in the Space Trilogy in which I really felt I could "see" what was happening. Like Ransom joining in the hunt for the Hnakra monster in the first book, Ransom finding his way through the caverns in the second book, and Mark Studdock being called on to commit sacrilege in the third book.
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I started the Space trilogy in January and just finished That Hideous Strength.

I am really glad I read them all, but they certainly aren't an easy storybook read. Especially with the last book, I figured out that they have to be read in an allegorical or symbolic sense, trying to understand the spiritual meaning behind each scene or event. The imagery is especially amazing, as Copperfox says, there are certain scenes in which I feel I can really "see" what is happening. One of those scenes is Bill Hingest's funeral, in which the coffin covered with flowers practically floats into the chapel of its own accord, trailing the dense fog along with it from the outside. There is some chilling symbolism in that scene, with the fog trailing even into a church accompanied by Belbury's latest victim. Others have mentioned the Room in Belbury where everything was just slightly off, the architecture and the artwork were just a touch out of alignment and nothing was properly centered...

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Tennyson's Idylls of the King, but this is really my only base for the Arthurian Legend, and of course I was drawing heavily on Tennyson's poetry as I tried to incorporate Merlin into a modern England and what he represented. Lewis' mind fascinated me as usual with his scene of a real Merlin from the pages of ancient myth leading a false Merlin from the streets of today through Belbury. They left a new type of confusion-- one to rival the symbolic fog of earlier chapters-- with the curse of Babel and the freeing of the animal kingdom.

I loved my gradual realization as to what was happening as the language became confused. I compared Genesis 11 to Acts 2 when the apostles spoke in 18 different languages. One story seems to be the cursing of a people due to their unrighteousness and one seems to be the reversing of that same curse due to the sending of the Holy Ghost the day of Pentecost. I think the events at Belbury on its last day helped me a bit to understand the connection between these two Biblical accounts better.

As hard as it was to get through, I think That Hideous Strength is my favorite of the three books, I will be learning from it for weeks and months to come.
 
Frank Peretti has written several novels which depict evil conspiracies like that of Belbury; and the eventual downfall of the villains in each novel bears a resemblance to the downfall of Belbury.
 
nice to see you here gsm. i am so glad you got through the books -- they are among my favorites. i like your reflections on the language confusion ... never thought of that in connection with pentecost. nice.
 
Thanks, Inky... for some time I have pondered the meaning of the symbol of the cloven tongues of fire which appear on the day of Pentecost above each of the apostles' heads. The cloven or forked tongue seems to me a symbol of the ability to speak in more than one language, but there is an association there also with the Holy Ghost which is given that day. Perhaps language barriers become less of a barrier through the Holy Ghost, or perhaps we are taught in a symbolic way to learn the language of the Spirit, and all of us are commissioned in a way to become "bilingual" and seek for that cloven tongue of fire (fire being associated in scripture also with the Holy Ghost).
 
The descending fire on Pentecost was the shekinah glory, which hitherto had descended on the Temple (see 2 Chron 7:1), descending on the Temple of the New Covenant, i.e. the Church herself. In a mystical vision Ezekiel saw it depart the old temple (Ezekiel 10), and there is no record of it ever descending again under the Old Covenant. The next time fire descended from heaven, it was on Pentecost Sunday.

Many mystics have seen the correlation between the dividing of the languages of men at Babel and the reversing of that at Pentecost, when in the Church men were once again gathered into one family.
 
Part of the genius of that scene at Belbury when the language gets confused is that all along the Belbury people have been using real words that don't have a real meaning. The way Wither in particular natters on, with words that are understandable but a meaning that's absent or obscure -- it's as if they have already forfeited the right for their language to make any sense. It's a while into the nonsensical speech before anyone even realizes that it's not real words because they're so used to non-speak. It is as if they had already asked for the meaning of their words to be taken away, because they'd already begun using their words to mean nothing, certainly nothing worthwhile. It's reminescent of the kitty in "The Last Battle" who loses her ability to speak, to be a rational animal, by choosing to use her rationality to serve an evil master. Lewis had such a keen mind regarding language ... well, duh.
 
inkspot said:
Part of the genius of that scene at Belbury when the language gets confused is that all along the Belbury people have been using real words that don't have a real meaning. The way Wither in particular natters on, with words that are understandable but a meaning that's absent or obscure -- it's as if they have already forfeited the right for their language to make any sense.
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Inky, an excellent observation. I loved Wither's speeches for that very reason, they were such a lot of hot air with no meaning, they must have been fun to write, they are such fun to read.

New word for the day: "Natters"
 
Lewis' irony here is rich. You'll notice that one of the marks of Wither's speech throughout the book is that it is fluffy and meaningless. He specializes in florid speeches and catchphrases (what we today would call "buzzwords") that serve to shroud and confuse. This is using language for the opposite purpose than it was intended, i.e. to reveal and convey truth. The ability to speak is one of the marks of the Image of God in man, and Belbury twists it to selfish ends.

Wither is the archetype of this, but you'll see it as a mark of the other characters, too. Filostrato pushes his particular philosophical agenda masked by scientific phrases - science that is supposed to reflect Creation. Fairy Hardcastle shrouds her power manipulation in the language of justice, which is intended to reflect Divine Justice. Straik employs the phraseology of faith and revelation to push his apostasy and idolatry. Feverstone says whatever advances his particular interests at the moment without regard for truth. Doubtless Lewis ran into much of this in his corner of academia during his time, seeing the gift of language twisted and perverted to serve man's idolatries.

St. Anne's, on the other hand, is a bastion of language properly used. Proper words deployed properly is the mark of the Kingdom of God. Even the beasts, one they have had their "talk" with the Director, fall into the dance. Jane's first meeting with the Director is marked by discussion of literature (the Curdie books), and language plays a distinctive role in the "campaign" they wage against That Hideous Strength. They have the "secret weapon" of the language of the angels spoken by Ransom, and it is by a ploy involving language that their agent is able to enter the enemy's stronghold.

The language used and abused is one of the foundational themes of Strength (in fact, that's an idea for a paper, come to think of it...), so it comes as no surprise that the climax of the story involves language. Even Merlin's curse strikes directly at the heart of language. ("They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.") Notice the double entendre - the City of Man despises not only the "words" of God, in the sense of His directions and laws, but also the Word of God Himself.

For more on the idea of language, pick up Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power by Joseph Pieper - a brief volume drawing upon Plato's dialogue between Socrates and Gorgias, and discussing the purpose and meaning of language.
 
George Orwell certainly devoted a lot of effort to exposing the way that tyrannies distort language in order to trick people out of resisting enslavement.
 
That's a good point, too - Orwell's "Newspeak" was a satirical device designed to highlight that very mechanism used by governments to control their populace.

Hmm - wonder where I've seen some of that recently?
 
Very good points, PoTW, I had not thought it through to that extent. One thing I loved, and remember, from THS is when Jane hears the Old Language for the first time, it sounds to her like "castles" dripping from Dimble's lips (or the Director's, I forget who is speaking it). I love that because it reminds you of the power of words, that God created the universe by speaking.
 
I really enjoy The Space Trilogy! The first time I read them I thought Out of the Silent Planet started kind of slow and was hard to get into but once you get past the slow part it was really, really good. I think I like that Hideous Strength the best, but Perralandra was really good too! I like how Lewis alluded to Tolkien’s writings with the Numenor comment in That Hideous Strength.
 
You should read them all again -- Out of the Silent Planet may seem to start slow, but it's like any fairy tale ... Once upon a time a professor was out on a lonely march through the countryside ...
:)
 
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