Book Study - 1/21/25 at 7:00 PM

PERELANDA, by C.S. Lewis 1944

Available in several low-cost paperback editions (Thriftbooks, Walmart, Target, Amazon).

Led by Ian Burrow and Pastor Beth Scibienski

Perelandra is the second of Lewis’ three Science Fiction novels, together with Out of the Silent Planet (1938), and That Hideous Strength (1945). In these works, Lewis explored the struggle between good and evil through captivating stories set on three planets: Mars (Malacandra), Venus (Perelandra), and Earth (Thulcandra). Alternately charming, thrilling, and painful to read, these books present a thought-provoking view of our place in God’s order of things.

All three books are available in one volume, The Space Trilogy

These are some of the basic linking premises of all three novels:

1. The Universe is good and harmonious, with one exception.

2. There are other sentient beings (hnau) in the Solar System:

On Mars (Malacandra) there are three species of hnau who live in harmony together.

On Venus (Perelandra) there is one species of hnau. They are identical to humans (except they are green!). At the time of the Perelandra, there are only two: one man and one woman (hint, hint).

3. Each planet is in the care of its own chief eldil or Oyarsa, who has authority over the hnau and the planet itself, and who is in communion with all the others except one.

4. All of these entities are subjects of Maleldil, Lewis’s term for the Christian God.

5. In an inversion of much of science fiction, the Earth is the oddball. It is Thulcandra: “the Silent Planet”. Earth is almost cut-off from the rest of the universe because its Oyarsa became “bent” at the beginning of time. It is effectively imprisoned on the Earth where it continues to create sin and evil.

6. The trilogy is essentially the story of three efforts of the bent Oyarsa of Thulcandra to extend its power. In this it is thwarted chiefly through the unlikely agency of Elwin Ransom, a linguist from the University of Cambridge in England.

The background to the Perelandra story

In Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom was kidnapped by Professor Edward Weston and taken to Malacandra in Weston’s spaceship. Weston intended to colonize, subjugate and eventually exterminate the inhabitants of Mars, but before he could proceed with his plans he believed (wrongly) that he must provide its inhabitants with a human sacrifice (Ransom: pun intended).

Ransom escaped from Weston, and after many adventures with the Hnau of Mars met with the Oyarsa of Malacandra. From it, he learned what had happened to the Earth to make it “silent”, and how Weston’s discovery of spaceflight threatens to unleash the power of the Bent Oyarsa of Earth out into the Solar System. Ransom and Weston, together with the latter’s utterly amoral companion Devine, are permitted to return to Earth. The spaceship is completely destroyed by the eldila soon after it lands, but not before all three humans have escaped from it.

Perelandra

A few years after these events, Ransom is transported from Earth to Perelandra, without any inkling of what he is to do there. He meets up with The Lady, one of the only two human-like creatures on the planet. She is alone, having lost contact with her partner The King. Ransom soon understands the true and fearsome nature of his task when Professor Weston lands in a new version of his spaceship.

Shortly after meeting Ransom and The Lady, Weston is possessed by the demonic forces by whom he has been guided for years. He becomes the Un-Man: a personification of evil in Weston’s body. The Un-Man devotes all its energies to seeking to corrupt and tempt The Lady, taking the role of the serpent in a second version of the Garden of Eden story.

Reading and Discussion.

Please read chapters 8 through 11, and the first part of chapter 12 as far as “which was unlike nearly all the other hatreds he had ever known, for it increased his strength.”

Some discussion points:

• How does the Un-Man “tempt” the lady?

• How does Ransom respond to the Un-Man’s arguments?

• How is the situation resolved? How do you react to that resolution?

• What is our responsibility when faced with a great wrong?

• How does Ransom try to rationalize and argue his way out of the situation?