The Space Trilogy

**Silent Planet Spoilers**

Totally agree. I love all three of these books, but when you first read Out of the Silent planet, you don't really know what to expect -- especially if you grew up with Narnia, and it is such a pleasant surprise. You find an almost Narnia-like land, but more real authentic/less magical, like a grown up Narnia. It's sweet. And of course the biblical themes are astounding, how Lewis handles them without ever sounding like a Gospel tract, never mentioning Jesus, really, by name. He was an amazing writer.
 
inkspot said:
**Silent Planet Spoilers**

Totally agree. I love all three of these books, but when you first read Out of the Silent planet, you don't really know what to expect -- especially if you grew up with Narnia, and it is such a pleasant surprise. You find an almost Narnia-like land, but more real authentic/less magical, like a grown up Narnia. It's sweet. And of course the biblical themes are astounding, how Lewis handles them without ever sounding like a Gospel tract, never mentioning Jesus, really, by name. He was an amazing writer.
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Inkspot,

The Space Trilogy preceded Narnia! The two sets of works are different from each other but do share similarities with the Christian beliefs of Mr. Lewis and the medieval concept of the great chain of being (the hierarchically structured universe as created from earth to heaven). And given all the complaints about magic ( ! ) do you really want to use that term? (Just me, being acerbic, that's all :p !)
 
inked said:
(Just me, being acerbic, that's all :p !)
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Tee-hee -- I like acerbic. It's a term of endearment. :o
** Silent Planet Spoilers**
I never thought to look at publication dates and did not know the Space trilogy came first. That is interesting. But you can see the similarities with the talking beasts in Malacandra, and the introduction of evil through the human world, but it's more grown up because they come by spaceship instead of by magic, you know?
 
It ws the redemption of "scientifiction" from the clutches of materialism and logical positivism in particular! So yes it was adult as compared to Narnia which was specifically written for children! Interestingly, Mr. Lewis works, even the scholarly ones, reflect the facts of his faith. Demonstrating that the adage "I believe so that I may understand" is not a "blind faith" but a structural bedrock that pervades all of life when it is given its head! Lewis laid to rest the canard that people of faith were mindless simpletons who believed because they were told to. He, along with Dorothy L. Sayers, Tolkien, Chesterton and others demonstrated that it was a coherent system explaining the nature of the Universe. Adult? Of course! Only for adults like these illustrious authors? Nay! Even for children! :D
 
Out of the Silent Planet
Voyage to Venus (or Preleandra or sommit... ask Inky she knows)
That Hideous Strength

I'm gonna get them out too. I wanna read em.
 
Here is the other thread about the Space Trilogy -- Prince of the West started a new one, but this should make the old one pop if he searches New Posts. :)
 
Thanks, Inkspot. How 'bout it? I noticed in the old thread that there was a fair amount of confusion regarding the third book, That Hideous Strength. It took me a long time to get into that myself, but once I did, I found the social critique dead on, and the unfolding story downright prophetic. Keen insight into both social trends and human nature. I know it doesn't get "exotic" quite as quickly as the other two, or as any of the Chronicles, but once it gets going, it's a heck of a ride. What do other think?
 
Oh, sometimes I think THS is my favorite of the three ... I agree with you that the social critique is spot on. Who hasn't come up against people like the chancellor (or provost?) who just wants to perpetuate the college because he feels like he's a big wheel when he's only a little cog -- he has no idea what's really going on or why he's making the decisions he makes, he just likes the intrigue of it and being in charge -- the picture of him at the funeral, superintending his colleague's death just as he did their lives ... it's sad and funny at once. And the scrappy Devine who's just in it for himself and makes no bones about having any high ideals, but even he hasn't any real idea what powers he is serving. And poor Mark! He wants so desperately to be on the inside, and he keeps choosing the wrong circles to penetrate and winds up on the inside of hell.

There are too many wonderful types so clearly portrayed, and I see myself in all of them sometimes. Of course, the references to Arthurian legend and the reappearance of Merlin, those are just gems. For me, it is a real "fairy tale" type story: it starts out in the normal workaday world (like Hansel and Gretel lost in a forest, pretty tame) then springs the magic on you. It's really just very good.

And as you say, a bit prophetic, especially in the portrayal of the press as an engine harnessed by the evil powers, but in the name of what's "right" and progressive -- remember the one "free" newspaper can't be delivered because the workers go on strike when the paper continues to criticize the NICE. It's just like the people in the press today: most of them don't go to church and have no religious convictions, and they feel they have a better handle on morality than those who do, so their careful coverage of only one side of the issues gives the appearance of journalism but is really social engineering. Lewis saw it tending that way, and now it has certainly happened.

I'll shut up now! :o
 
Aw, gee - and I was hoping you'd keep going! All of those are reasons I love the book as well. It is a bit of a shock, though, after the idyllic portions of Perelandara (though the Un-Man prepares you a bit for it.) When my wife re-reads it, she often skips the Belbury portions and only reads the St. Anne's segments.

Your points about the press are well taken. Another prophetic portion is how he shows that modern man, ripped from any moorings for his morality, will stop at nothing in his pursuit of power. The scientist who will do literally anything in the name of advancing knowledge is so typified by Filostrato, and the scheming power-monger who will gladly expolit his weakness (Devine). One chilling thing which struck both my wife and myself, years before we met: Merlin's near-curse of Jane for using contraceptives ("of their own will they are barren"), and thus preventing the birth of a hero who would have "driven the enemies from Logres for a thousand years." Food for serious thought.
 
*** THS spoilers ***

The Merlin character is very strong, and the idea that he would come back with his ancient morality/ideals still intact, what a contrast to modern man! Also, I don't know if Lewis was still a bachelor when he wrote these books, but he has a very interesting take on the love between Mark and Jane, viz a viz their relationship to God. Mark realizes in the end that he has been a boor and without realizing how audacious it was for him to love someone as pristine as Jane, and Jane realizes that in allowing herself to feel contempt toward Mark because of his boorishness, she has contributed to the despoiling of their love. And they both realize that in leaving heaven out of their union, they have left out a huge part of themselves. It's really quite something when they are both abashed by the dis-service they have done to each other ... their relationship is quite a study.

I can't say enough nice things about the book, but I agree that the Belbury part of it is disturbing, but partially because it could so easily happen. All the goals of the NICE sound very high-minded, and good people would rally to them in the name of progress. But when you break them down, they mean nothing, and the means to them are evil. I don't want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but when you look at some of the proposals of the UN, you can see this happening -- the International Criminal Court that would suspend the rights of American military on foreign soil? The goals sound high-minded, but the means are diabolical. That was Belbury, and it could be us. Very penetrating stuff.
 
Well i did go out and finally pick up perelandra, i just need to get to it, lol. I'll let you know what i think of it once i read it.

tg
 
All the books are good, each one has some incredible thing to offer ... In Silent PLanet its the view of a creation where the inhabitants never broke their fellowship with God and how beautiful that could have been ... In Pereleandra its the glimpse of a new creation at the point where they must choose God over temptation -- with the outcome resting upon a seemingly weak and ineffectual human who is the only one there to defeat the tempter and protect the new world ... and That Hideous Strength happens in our world, with so many striking parallels to real things that have happened and continue to happen. All very good. But the books are for adults, not like Narnia.
 
Hmm, looks like I never mentioned this in here, but I finally finished Hideous Strength over the Summer, and it's absoultely BRIILIANT!

What's even better is that we'll be reading it in class in the Spring term, so yay, I'll actually *have* to read it again, HURRAH!!!
 
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