Perelandra by CS Lewis

This book is the second in the space trilogy series, the sequel to Out of the Silent Planet.  Perelandra is the name of Venus.  In this book, Ransom goes again to space, though this time he goes there.  On Venus there is a new garden of Eden forming, complete with the first man and woman, though they have been separated at the time that Ransom lands.  The book is, to some extent, a remake of the attempt told in Genesis: though Ransom has been summoned to Venus in order to thwart the devil/his subject, who is using Weston's body as a host.  So, Ransom is a Christ-like figure.  He's sacrificing himself to defeat evil, but he's stopping it before it starts so he only gets injured and doesn't have to die.  This book is also told after the fact, as was the last one.  Let's go.

First of all, I think that I figured out what the Oyarsa are.  If you'll recall, I had some trouble getting the eldil and Oyarsa and all together.  The Oyarsa is the name of the 'patron saint' (if you will) of each planet--so the planet Mars's patron saint would be the Greco-Roman god Mars/Ares, but a pure version, having almost nothing to do with what humans made up for them.  From here, they act as archangels, I would imagine.

I got straight-up excited when Ransom refers to the partial-narrator who is recording this story for us as 'Lewis'.  Hmm, wonder who that could be?  And I wonder who Ransom is supposed to be?  CS Lewis does make a point of reminding the audience that Ransom is a philologist.  (Even though he denied that Ransom what supposed to be a caricature of Tolkien, I'm one hundred percent certain that that's who he's supposed to be.  You "borrowed characteristics"?  Yeah, all of them.  Ooh, buuuuurn.)

Oh, and apparently a common figure of speech was being 'knocked up' in the thirties-forties-sometime before today.  I've deduced that it meant looking haggard or something like that, but it's still kind of funny when someone exclaims it.  No, Tolkien, I don't think Clive is... knocked up.  ("You slut! How long has this been going on!?")  In fact, I'm going to go ahead and say that he lacks the necessary parts for that.

When Tolkien Ransom first sees the 'Eve' of Venus, she is nude and green.  In fact, she remains nude and green for the whole novel, except for a brief scene, where 'Weston' tricks her into wearing a robe.  Anyways, he panics--after he meets her he says he is too in awe to feel sexual desire, and never actually does.  (Later, when he sees her in the robe he comes to the conclusion that clothes are what created desire and perversion, because they hide something, and like children, a person tends to desire what they cannot reach, and thus... I cannot remember if I marked that page or not.  But again, he didn't actually feel sexual desire for her at that time, he was horrified, because if you'll recall, that's the first thing Adam and Eve did after they ate the apple--make clothes because they realized they were naked and felt ashamed.)  Anyyyyywaaaays... When he first sees her he gets scared, and wonders if she is not a "Circe or Alcina" (54).  Circe transformed men into creatures (most notably Odysseus's crew after they gorged themselves on the feast she set up for them) and enjoyed sleeping with men and then stealing their "manhood".  Alcina is the one I didn't know--she is apparently a sorceress from an opera by Handel (named Alcina).  Alcina seduces men and has sex with them for a while, but then gets bored and will turn them into animals or rocks.

Now, naivety is often considered cute or pure.  And although it can be beneficial, it often does more harm than good--unknowing and naive (a fool, to say harshly), the green lady would never think of wearing clothes or admiring her own reflection or murder or gluttony on her own.  When 'Weston' appears and starts entreating her to disobey orders set by God/Venus, she at first objects, but 'Weston' is a smooth talker, and she doesn't know any better.  In a few ways her naivety does protect, because she doesn't really get the point of clothing and what mirrors are, but other times it is grating.
One thing that does bother me is when 'Weston' introduces the green lady to stories and poems--descriptions of things that aren't real, but could be, or would be nice.  The lady has never heard of such a thing.  CS Lewis's point is probably that life in her Eden is so great she doesn't need any stories or diversions like that--but that paints a rather frightening picture of heaven, for me at least.  Very Brave New World-ish, if you ask me (though I'm sure Lewis didn't intend it that way at all, and probably would be disgusted if he heard that take on things...  And now I'm wondering what CS Lewis's thoughts on Aldous Huxley were.  Also, I'm starting to really like the name Aldous.)

Of course, 'Weston' and Ransom interact.  In attempting to discredit 'Weston', Ransom looks rather bad himself, and more often than not, do more harm than good.  They are rather like two siblings who are constantly trying to get the other in trouble.  This goes on until an explosive final chase and wrestle (and because this is a trilogy, I think you can figure out for yourself who wins the final fight)... But!  Eventually Ransom comes upon 'Weston' strangling a bird so that he may pluck its feathers.  ('Weston' is never seen eating, and it would be more evil just to kill for the sake of killing--plus earlier in the book 'Weston' would just rip frogs apart for the heck of it.)  'Weston' attempts to shake Ransom's faith by telling him that God will not aid Weston, and lists all the others who waited too long for God to help them and ended up dying because of it--victims of the Holocaust, madmen, Jesus--"'Could He help Himself?'" (153).  This is obviously a reference to the crucifixion, though it is twisted--it was necessary for Jesus to sacrifice himself so everyone else would be saved.  God could have helped himself/his son/however that works, but in doing so he would have abandoned his people.  He goes on to quote Jesus's wailing at the cross (in Aramic): "God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  As you can see from what I've just said (and if you actually read the book, Ransom tells you) that he's used something for his own means, twisting it perfectly.  What is chilling about is that Ransom has the idea that when 'Weston' is quoting the words perfectly--he's not just quoting because he saw them written by some scribe.  He is remembering.
Also, back to "'Could He help Himself?'" (153).  In the Stephen King book Desperation, a monster-demon named Tak attempts to mock David, an eleven-year-old boy whose overwhelming and practically unbelievable faith in God is the only thing that can save him and the people he's with.  Tak tries to make David lose his faith by saying, "'Your God isn't here, any more than he was with Jesus when Jesus hung dying on the cross with flies in his eyes'" (pages aren't listed in this online edition, but the full text appears to be online here, so I guess they aren't really needed.  I urge you to read it.  It is actually a very good book).  It's a tad grislier than Lewis's statement, but essentially the same.

Ransom and 'Weston', like I said, eventually do have a standoff, deep inside the caves of the 'fixed land' (every other piece of land is basically a literal seafoam island)... Ransom and the fake Weston beat the hell out of each other, and eventually they both collapse from exhaustion.  This makes me the maddest--not because they beat each other, although that was very unexpected and disturbing from CS Lewis, it was necessary--but because what had possessed Weston let him go so it wouldn't have to suffer.  All of a sudden Weston is in the middle of nowhere, memories from any time after Mars nonexistent, beaten to a pulp, with a broken leg.  He's crying, whimpering--he begs Ransom not to leave him, and finally explains why he is the way he is: as a child, he saw his large, strong grandmother dead and it frightened him, and he became obsessed with living, for as long as possible, no matter the cost.  During this, his speech gets twisted, and one is able to follow the same pattern that led Weston to be so open for possession.  The thing in Weston slowly returns again and attempts to drown Weston but fails and instead drowns himself.
What Ransom realizes is that fear and evil make you completely one with the devil/evil--he can work through you as if he is you and there is little to no difference, because it came on so gradually and naturally.  "What Pantheists falsely hoped of Heaven bad men really received in Hell.  They were melted down into their Master, as a lead soldier slips down and loses his shape in the ladle held over the gas ring.  The question whether Satan, or one whom Satan has digested, is acting on any given occasion, has in the long run no clear significance.  In the meantime, the great thing was not to be tricked again" (173).  This would be a reference to the ultimate goal of Hinduism, where your goal would be to attain a complete oneness with the rest of the universe.

My last note is towards the end of the book--Ransom recovers in the caves, finds food and a way out... Finalizing Ransom's position as a Christ-like figure is what he sees when he finally gets out of the cave and starts walking around: "There was something white near the water's edge.  An altar?  A patch of white lilies among the red?  A tomb?  But whose tomb?   No, it was not a tomb but a coffin, open and empty, and its lid lying beside it" (193).  What this actually is is the ship he is to return home in--it alternately represents the opened tomb left when Christ was resurrected (because Ransom was basically raised from the dead) and the tomb open yet waiting, because Ransom has yet to go back to earth and be reborn, so to speak.

The book ends with everyone reunited (including the green lady's mate), the true Venus and Mars greet everyone, and Ransom is sent back home, and we're back to the beginning.  I really hope I find the third book soon.  Although this series isn't stellar, it's pretty good.


MLA Citation Information: Lewis, CS.  Perelandra.  Collier Books: New York, 1962.