Each volume of CS Lewis' Ransom Trilogy
presents a fanciful account of another planet. Lewis' Malacandra, Perelandra and
Sulva, nominally identical with Mars, Venus and the Moon, are imaginary worlds
unlike their counterparts in the astronomical Solar System. All three are
inhabited and humanly habitable. Malacandra has "canals."
Perelandra has oceans. Sulva has a troglodyte race to that extent reminiscent of the Wellsian Selenites. Malacandra and Perelandra are visited from Earth whereas Sulva is merely described by characters who remain on Earth. The lunar race that is great according to one account is cursed in the other. When Lewis tells us of a wondrous realm on the far side of the Moon invisible from Earth, he, of course, presents mythological, not scientifically based, fiction.
Perelandra has oceans. Sulva has a troglodyte race to that extent reminiscent of the Wellsian Selenites. Malacandra and Perelandra are visited from Earth whereas Sulva is merely described by characters who remain on Earth. The lunar race that is great according to one account is cursed in the other. When Lewis tells us of a wondrous realm on the far side of the Moon invisible from Earth, he, of course, presents mythological, not scientifically based, fiction.
By contrast, in "Forms of Things
Unknown," Lewis tries to imagine what the lunar surface might really be like.
His character lands in a crater and ventures out in a spacesuit. The surface is
"...rock, not dust (which disposed of one hypothesis)..." (1) There is of course
no sound. The lack of atmosphere means that the light, whether directly from the
sun or reflected from the rock, is dazzling. Shadows are "...like Indian ink..."
(2) The lack of atmosphere prevents any sense of distance. The remote crater
wall looks as if it could be touched. The peaks look small and the stars near -
although Lewis does not also mention the relative closeness of the horizon due
to the smaller size of the Moon.
Despite all this, I argue that "Forms of
Things Unknown" can be read as consistent with the Ransom Trilogy. Jenkin
transmits to Earth so he has landed on the near side of the Moon. He remains on
the surface so does not see any troglodytes. It is stated in the third Ransom
novel that the eradication of organic life from the surface has been a deliberate
policy of the Great Race. In the concluding paragraph, Jenkin is surprised by
the sudden appearance of a character from Greek mythology on the lunar surface
but the story had begun with a quotation from Perelandra:
"...that what was myth in one world
might always be fact in another." (3)
The mythological being kills Jenkin as
it had killed the members of three previous expeditions, leaving High Command on
Earth with no clue as to their fate. This is consistent with the idea in the
Ransom Trilogy that Earth, the "Silent Planet," is besieged and that
consequently travel beyond the lunar orbit has been banned. Weston was allowed
to reach Mars and Venus but only because this served a greater purpose and
Ransom tells Lewis that "...'Weston' has shut the door..." (4)
"Forms of Things Unknown," considered as
a single fictional work, exists only to shock the reader with its surprise
ending whereas relocating it into a broader narrative context necessitates an
explanation for the manifestation of a myth on the Moon. However, the Ransom
Trilogy, with Ares and Aphrodite respectively presiding over Malacandra and
Perelandra, has more than enough mythological content for this purpose. Here,
"Mars" means both the planet and the deity albeit within Lewis' imaginative
classical-Christian context. Science and myth collide when lunar airlessness
contradicts Jenkin's impression that an approaching figure has long, thick hairs
blowing in the wind...
Like HG Wells and ER Burroughs, CS Lewis presents, in several sometimes indirectly linked works, a Solar System where inhabited planets interact.
Like HG Wells and ER Burroughs, CS Lewis presents, in several sometimes indirectly linked works, a Solar System where inhabited planets interact.
(1) CS Lewis, "Forms of Things Unknown" IN Lewis, The Dark Tower and other stories, London, 1983, pp. 124-132, AT p. 129.
(2) ibid., p. 130.
(3) ibid., p. 124.
(4) CS Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet, London, 1952, p. 187.
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