Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 3)

This is what the God-like, but not-God, character says near the end of the book.

'I see how the lord of the silent planet has bent you. There are laws that all hnau [human-like beings] know, of pity and straight dealing and shame and the like, and one of these is the love of kindred. He has taught you to break all of them except this one, which is not one of the greatest laws; this one he has bent until it becomes folly . . .'

I think one of the greatest strengths in this book is the way that Lewis redescribes some of the things that we value to show how ridiculous they can seem.

Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 2)

I am struggling to find time to read at the moment. I am enjoying this book still, although I find it more demanding to read than more contemporary fiction (so although I may have found it escapist when I first read it, I find it less so now). Ransom has wrestled with the possibility of three dominant inteliigent species on a planet who seem to co-exist and co-operate most wonderfully. He realises that maybe human beings have got some things that they could learn. He is now on the way to 'Oyarsa' some God-like figure who is not God. Every planet has an 'Oyarsa', but not Earth and maybe this is why Earth-dwellers are more 'bent' than those who live on Malacandra.
Hopefully his meeting with Oyarsa will reveal what Lewis is thinking about the nature of good and evil on Earth.

Out of the Silent Planet - CS Lewis (Post 1)

I am rereading this, as I have been meaning to for a couple of years. It is quite old fashioned in style (hardly CS Lewis' fault given that he wrote years ago). I sometimes struggle to enjoy the books that I enjoyed when I was younger (Isaac Asimov for example), but I seem to be getting into this one. I enjoy the way that the author lets us see the struggles that are going on inside the hero's head.
So far, the hero (Ransom) has found himself on the planet Malacandra and has settled in with a native civilisation and is being astounded by the fact that beings different to him can also be intelligent and civilised. Ok, not quite so trivial as that, but I guess it's the bottom line.

[Charli, I know that compared to me you are an expert on CS Lewis - feel free to comment critically!!!]