The Space Trilogy

Someone mentioned making films out of the space trilogy, but wouldn't that be hard, at least with Perelandra, as Ransom and Tinidril are in the nude for almost the entire book? To clothe them would take away from the original story. I must admit That Hideous Strength is also my favorite. Although the ending is always better ten times over than the begining. Its different than the first two, but in the same sense better. It does take some patience though.
-DoLW
 
The Dark Tower

Okay, if you guys want a really interesting read, pick up The Dark Tower and Other Short Stories. Why? Because The Dark Tower takes place between OSP and Perelandra! No joke. Unfortunately, Lewis never finished DT, but it's really interesting. It's got Ransom, Lewis, and MacPhee. I'd say it's about as good as OSP, so it's worth the read.
 
Unfortunately, The Dark Tower and Other Stories is widely regarded as not being written by Lewis, but by Walter Hooper, who is a sketchy character to begin with. I flipped through it and read some of it - it reeks of bad fan fiction, there's no way it's Lewis.
 
What makes you say that? I read it and thought it was good. Granted, I probably haven't read enough of Lewis to know his style like the back of my hand. The other stories, in it, though, were quite definitely by Lewis.
 
Do you think so? I'm taking a class and I learned about this from my professor, who's a medievalist and who of course loves Lewis. We read some articles about Hooper and his connection to The Dark Tower. I have read quite a bit of Lewis, and I think that if you read him consistently you will see a stylistic difference. Not only that, but there are thematic differences, and some very iffy ideas in the Dark Tower.
 
:eek: Wow :eek: , you are clearly the expert between the two of us. I tried to get my professor to teach a Lewis class, but it doesn't look like one is coming. My brother took it at his school and said it was the most challenging, but most rewarding course he ever took. In regards to DT, there is a stylistic difference. I do wish that Lewis wrote a book on time travel, just to see his take on it. So, you are probably right.
In regards to the other stories, though, I'm pretty sure that those are Lewis' works. There was The Man Born Blind, The Shoddy Lands, After Ten Years (unfinished), Ministering Angels, and Forms of Things Unknown. ATY sounded like Lewis, and two of his friends commented on it after the story. The other short stories were all published, according to the book. So I'm pretty sure that those are legit, or is the whole thing one big fan fiction? :confused:
 
I'm no expert, just making an educated guess. :) The Lewis class I'm taking is very rewarding as well as challenging - where does your brother go to school? There was a Lewis/Tolkien seminar at my school, Geneva College, when I went there (though I was too young to take it :( )

I'm not sure about the other stories - I haven't read any of them. When this class is over and I've been throroughly steeped in Lewis' ideas and writing style, I'll give them a look at let you know what I think.
 
Well, the class offerred here was called "C.S. Lewis and Friends", so I guess that means that we would have read some of Tolkien as well. What a terrible thing ;) . I think he took that class, and he went to Tabor, which is pretty small. Sigh, if only they made a Lewis class a required course :rolleyes: .
 
I just started reading Out of the Silent Planet yesterday morning, and I find it absolutely, brilliantly fascinating!! I love this book!!!!! I want to finish it ASAP!

DryadofLanternWaste said:
Someone mentioned making films out of the space trilogy, but wouldn't that be hard, at least with Perelandra, as Ransom and Tinidril are in the nude for almost the entire book? To clothe them would take away from the original story.
-DoLW
Click to expand...

Probably one of the first thoughts that entered my head was that this needed to be made into a movie. Nudity is'nt much of a problem; just film above the waste!

Maybe we could get Dragon interested in this, and then it'd go somewhere!
 
Space Trilogy

Have read all three books in the trilogy many times, and love them all. I will say ... I think many of you folks are much younger than me, and that may be why some of the concepts in That Hideous Strength aren't easy and/or interesting for you. For instance, the relationship between Jane and Mark, which comes to be seen eventually by Jane as her way of giving herself wholly to God (by following the path He has set for her, even when it means returning to a man who has disappointed her and failed in many ways) is an idea that takes years to bend your mind around -- and it helps if you are married. The themes are a very adult way of presenting the same sort of truths as in Narnia, and you may just need a few years before they resonate. But do read all three books, they are well worth it. And then read them again a few years down the road -- you will be surprised how much more they have to say to you. The Arthurian connection in THS is just outstanding, especially for Anglophiles, and the character development is superb.
 
I just read the Space Trilogy, the first 2 last year, and the 3rd this year. I really liked them. The 1st one is a little slow-paced at first,in my view, the 2nd is good. My favorite of all was that Hideous Strength.
 
A good friend of mine just finished reading the Space Trilogy, and he said that the books progressively got better. He really loved them, and he knew a little bit about the Arthurian stuff, so it was even more enjoyable for him.
 
what are they about?

what are they about? like i no about space but what goes on, im kinda interested in them, but want to hear what they're like from others points of views
 
My hat's off to everyone who was able to read all three books. Like almost all of you, I enjoyed reading the first two books of the trilogy. However, (hangs head down in shame), it took me three tries to read the third book! And even after I finished, I was (still am) scratching my head to get it all in.

Like: what was it with that talking head?

Very powerful stuff and yet classic Lewis.
 
What goes on

The space trilogy has a protagonist named Ransom who is a British philologist and college prof -- they say Lewis based Ransom on his friend JRR Tolkien. Out of the Silent Planet begins with two antagonists, Devine and Weston, who have discovered space flight (these books take place seemingly during WW II, so there had been no man on the moon yet). After a chance meeting on a country road, the two baddies kidnap Ransom and take him to another planet. What he finds there are rational creatures whose species' seemingly never stepped out of fellowship with God. Their descriptions of their lives, and their logic, provide a winsome picture of how human fellowship with God could have been, if not for our decision to sin in the Garden of Eden. The overseer of this planet is something like an angel (vaguely like, it doesn't have a body as we would define it, he seems to be pure light) and he tells Ransom cosmic history that includes our own planet, which the angels call The Silent Planet, beause our planet's own archon is cut off from fellowship with the rest of heaven ... it is all very intriguing. In Perelandra, Ransom is sent to a different planet at the moment that its Adam and Eve first become conscious -- Weston follows him there and tries to tempt Eve to do what God has forbidden on this planet, so Ransom has to find a way to protect her ... but is it merely that he must persuade her through moral arguments, or might he, a lean middle-aged college prof, be called on to physically fight with and vanquish the devil? It makes you think about what your own part in the spiritual battles on our planet might demand of you ... Both of these books have imaginative and compelling descriptions of other planets which make them worth the read, in addition to the interesting plots. That Hideous Strength takes place on earth, and the plot is quite different from the other two, although Ransom still has a role. They are all very good.
 
That Hideous Strength is Excellent, Mature

Hello!

I just thought I'd offer my opinion about the trilogy, especially That Hideous Strength. All are excellent, but each part has its own unique feel.

To me, Out of the Silent Planet reads much like a very good H.G.Wells book; in fact, I feel that Lewis approached the book, stylistically, almost as a "style study", similar to the way one is asked to write a Shakespearean sonnet in a literature class, or to compose a fugue, in J.S.Bach style, in a music theory class. (I like OSP quite a lot better than any of Wells' work, mind you. But of the three, it is the most similar to Wells' work "in voice".)

Perelandra is glorious from beginning to end, and to me it seems that Lewis is delighting in, and wishes the reader to be immersed in, the beauty of a myth made real, and sanctified by its immersion in (how else could I say it) "the substance by which Maleldil remade the worlds before any world was made." Of the Narnia stories, only Voyage of the Dawn Treader and the final scenes of The Last Battle achieve the brightness of this vision.

Sorry. That last sounded more poetic, and probably more pompous, than I intended. I feel strongly about the...the highness of those books, but, not being Lewis, I'm less equipped to express it.

As for That Hideous Strength:

I didn't really appreciate this book the first time I read it. I found myself needing to "skip ahead to the bits with Merlin in them" in order to remain engaged. This was when I was a teenager.

I am now quite a lot older, and have an entirely different view. I have met the very kind of people whose attitudes are echoed in the N.I.C.E. and in dons of Edgestow. I have also married, and appreciate -- more than I care to say, in fact -- the interplay between Mark and Jane, at once clumsy and needy and guarded, and Mark's gradual shaping into something worth calling an adult man. And I've seen how the world tries to lure one in, with the promise of inclusion in an ever more exclusive "in crowd", toward which one burrows like a worm through the layers of an onion.

All this is to say, I "get it" now. It's an amazing book, but it's a bit difficult (or it was for me) until you've had a certain kind of life-experiences. No matter. If you read it and it doesn't quite "hit home" for you now, put it away and come back to it later. You'll find it a powerful book, then.

They're all powerful, in fact. I read them perhaps once a year.

I didn't intend to write such a long discourse! But I hope you folks find some of it worthwhile.

Cheers,

Dr. Dipwad
 
Very insightful

Welcome, Dr.Dipwad. Very insightful analysis of the Space Trilogy. Your reflections on THS parallel my own.
 
Don't feel bad Wallis. I admit that I had a lot of trouble getting through the third one. There's no denying that it's the longest. It really drug for me in the middle, but the ending made it all worth it. How far did you get? Just out of curiosity.
 
I finished the book after the third try. I don't feel bad admitting that I'm a post-college graduate either. I've enjoyed every novel that C.S. Lewis wrote and had published, but that third book was on doozy! I've tried reading some of his other published works, and they are often tough going. Glad to read I'm not the only one out in left-field some of the time. :)
 
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