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Chanticleer, v. 1, issue 3, December 1945
Page 15
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WILLY LEY: Two Books by C.S. LEWIS Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, two novels by C. S. Lewis, New York, 1943 and 1944, respectively, published by the Macmillan Company, $2.00 each. When, some four months ago, Mr. Clive Staples Lewis' novel Out of the Silent Planet was published I decided, after reading it, to be a nice boy and keep quiet about it. But now a sequel by the title of Perelandra comes along, and now something has to be said about these two novels. And it is entirely Mr. Lewis' fault of this "something" turns out to be nasty. These two novels are not the first of Mr. Lewis' literary endeavors. The book jacket of the first states that Mr. Lewis, who was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898 and is since 1925 Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, England, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1936 with a book The Allegory of Love. I don't know this book, nor do I know his Screwtape Letters which are said to have been received with enthusiasm in this country. And after reading Perelandra I wonder whether I would like to find out about these two earlier works. Out of the Silent Planet may be classified as a science-fiction story. Its hero is one Dr. Ransom, a philologist of Cambridge, who unexpectedly encounters two old school friends during a hiking trip. These two, after ascertaining that nobody will look for him for quite some time, abduct and drug him and when he awakes he finds himself on board of a spaceship bound for Mars. It transpires that the two, of whom only Dr. Weston is important, have been on mars before, that they encountered an intelligent or semi-intelligent race which demands a human sacrifice before it lets them have their way on Mars (whatever that way may be). The hiking philologist is to be that sacrifice and accepting the error of the other two as fact he behaves rather foolishly at first. However, he quickly comes to an understanding with the intelligent races on the rosy world of Malacandra (Mars). There are three, the seal like inhabitants of the canyons, representing literature and poetry, the tall and oddly semi-human Sorn of the highlands who represent scientific and abstract thought, and the small and hardly identified Pfiffltriggi, representing mechanical aptitude. Once having entered upon the road of symbolism the story, as a story, begins to deteriorate. Then two things happen to enliven it again. One is that the other two earthmen, mainly Dr. Weston, behave abominably. The other is that suddenly a fourth and invisible race makes its appearance, the eldila. The eldila, one quickly guesses, are really angels. There are ranks among them and the top for the planet is represented by Oyarsa, the archangel of Mars. While the earthmen, except for the hero, of course, behave badly, the story builds up to a climax, the judgement passed upon them by the wise Oyarsa. But the speech of the wise Oyarsa is an awful letdown. It is, as Hitler's biographer Konrad Heiden has said of the Fuhrer, both "terrible and banal", one cannot help but feel that there was no need for a trip to Mars to hear philosophical
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WILLY LEY: Two Books by C.S. LEWIS Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, two novels by C. S. Lewis, New York, 1943 and 1944, respectively, published by the Macmillan Company, $2.00 each. When, some four months ago, Mr. Clive Staples Lewis' novel Out of the Silent Planet was published I decided, after reading it, to be a nice boy and keep quiet about it. But now a sequel by the title of Perelandra comes along, and now something has to be said about these two novels. And it is entirely Mr. Lewis' fault of this "something" turns out to be nasty. These two novels are not the first of Mr. Lewis' literary endeavors. The book jacket of the first states that Mr. Lewis, who was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898 and is since 1925 Tutor of Magdalen College, Oxford, England, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1936 with a book The Allegory of Love. I don't know this book, nor do I know his Screwtape Letters which are said to have been received with enthusiasm in this country. And after reading Perelandra I wonder whether I would like to find out about these two earlier works. Out of the Silent Planet may be classified as a science-fiction story. Its hero is one Dr. Ransom, a philologist of Cambridge, who unexpectedly encounters two old school friends during a hiking trip. These two, after ascertaining that nobody will look for him for quite some time, abduct and drug him and when he awakes he finds himself on board of a spaceship bound for Mars. It transpires that the two, of whom only Dr. Weston is important, have been on mars before, that they encountered an intelligent or semi-intelligent race which demands a human sacrifice before it lets them have their way on Mars (whatever that way may be). The hiking philologist is to be that sacrifice and accepting the error of the other two as fact he behaves rather foolishly at first. However, he quickly comes to an understanding with the intelligent races on the rosy world of Malacandra (Mars). There are three, the seal like inhabitants of the canyons, representing literature and poetry, the tall and oddly semi-human Sorn of the highlands who represent scientific and abstract thought, and the small and hardly identified Pfiffltriggi, representing mechanical aptitude. Once having entered upon the road of symbolism the story, as a story, begins to deteriorate. Then two things happen to enliven it again. One is that the other two earthmen, mainly Dr. Weston, behave abominably. The other is that suddenly a fourth and invisible race makes its appearance, the eldila. The eldila, one quickly guesses, are really angels. There are ranks among them and the top for the planet is represented by Oyarsa, the archangel of Mars. While the earthmen, except for the hero, of course, behave badly, the story builds up to a climax, the judgement passed upon them by the wise Oyarsa. But the speech of the wise Oyarsa is an awful letdown. It is, as Hitler's biographer Konrad Heiden has said of the Fuhrer, both "terrible and banal", one cannot help but feel that there was no need for a trip to Mars to hear philosophical
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