Silent Planet Report Was Looking

¶ … Silent Planet Report was looking for a good book to read, and someone recommended the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. I knew he had written the Chronicles of Narnia and other good books, so I started with the first one, Out of the Silent Planet. The others are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. Out of the Silent Planet was a very unusual book, and when I was asked to do a report on a book, I immediately chose this one. The book is memorable because it has characters that are believable and could actually live in the little English town described. The main character, Elwin Ransom, has a former friend, Professor Weston, who has built a rocket ship. Weston drugs Ransom and puts him on a rocket ship, which, when he awakes he realizes is heading into outer space. He escapes from Weston and his helper, Devine, as soon as they land on Malacandra, which is the Red Planet, and has some fantastic adventures there. I think the real reason this book is memorable is because the character thinks, as I would, that landing on another planet is scary and would put me into a world where nothing was the same as on earth.

C.S. Lewis' descriptions of the planet and the environment he walks around in are vivid and imaginative. He describes everything as if he were actually looking at it with new eyes. The unusual colors and inhabitants are described, as well as the landscape, very well. He gets mixed up with some of the inhabitants of the planet during the course of the book, and barely escapes with his life in order to return to earth.

The plot is that after arriving on Malacandra, Ransom escapes from Weston and Devine, runs off into the fantastic countryside, encounters a "hross" named Hyoi and lives in his village, learning the language of the "hrossa." He also learns that there is much gold on the planet and that is one of the reasons why Weston and Devine have gone there. Ransom helps the hrossa hunt a hnakra and is told that he needs to meet with Oyarsa, the "eldil" in charge of the whole planet. He refuses, but after killing the hnakra his friend Hyoi is killed by Weston and Devine and he goes to meet Oyarsa. On the way he meets the dreaded sorn, but the sorn is friendly and takes him to Oyarsa. Oyarsa tells him that Earth is the "silent planet" and wants to know more about it. Ransom is embarrassed that he does not know more than he does about the earth and the humans, who seem very foolish when he describes them to Oyarsa. Meanwhile Oyarsa has captured Weston and Devine and brings them in. Oyarsa tells Ransom he can stay on Malacandra, but Ransom misses the earth and wants to go home. The three are again put on the space ship and sent back to earth (a very difficult journey). When he returns to earth, Ransom remembers he is entrusted with the mission of stopping Weston from doing any more evil.

The tone of the writing is very elegant, as everything is described as if you were walking through the English countryside. Ransom's description of being inside the space ship and seeing a planet (which he takes for the full moon) out of the skylight, for example, is meticulously detailed and realistic:

disturbance of silver light, almost a pale and miniature sunrise, at one corner of the skylight, drew his eyes upward again. Some minutes later the orb of the full moon was pushing its way into the field of vision. Ransom sat still and watched. He had never seen such a moon -- so white, so blinding and so large. 'Like a great football just outside the glass,' he thought, and then, a moment later, 'no -- it's bigger than that.' By this time he was quite certain that something was seriously wrong with his eyes: no moon could possibly be the size of the thing he was seeing (Lewis 21-22).

The intent or purpose of this book was originally intended to be a science fiction written to meet a bet, but it ended up being the first book in a trilogy with the theme of describing how pitiful human beings are and how far from our original purpose on the earth - that is to tend it and make it plentiful, and to care for one another. C.S. Lewis was a Christian and this Christian theme permeates all of his novels. The theme of the book is that earth is seen by inhabitants of another planet as being valuable, but the humans are a problem when they think of inhabiting our planet. Oyarsa may be an angel and seems to care for the earth and sends Ransom back with a mission to make the earth better. This theme of bettering the planet Earth is the main one, plus Lewis has a chance to compare the pitiful characteristics of selfish, greedy humans with the more idealistic characters that Ransom meets on Malacandra. In addition, Lewis has the inhabitants of Malacandra agreeing to follow one leader in order to save their planet, in contrast with earthlings, who would rather fight each other to the death instead of agreeing to fight against things that would destroy us.

The subject matter, though fictional and about foreign world, is definitely political. Lewis is teaching his readers ethics in this book. C.S. Lewis' attitude and insight into dealing with another world or a foreign culture is well-intended, as he depicts the inhabitants of Malacandra as being much like humans so he can compare them with earthlings.

If I were to analysis what I found in Lewis' the Silent Planet, it would be that it is a commentary on earth's politics and the shortsightedness of mankind. Lewis finds most men to be basically greedy and selfish and those who have higher ethics to be superior and admirable. He makes allusions to Satan and the Christian story of Jesus, who may be Oyarsa's superior in this story. In this way he can make comments on how far we have come and what the results would be if we had followed Jesus' teachings instead of, like Professor Weston, following "the Bent One" (Satan).