Out of the Silent Planet

 

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis was published in 1938 by The Bodley Head in the UK and then published in the US five years later. The two sequels, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, were published in 1943 and 1945. This is Lewis' space travel series where he borrowed elements from H.G. Wells and David Linsay. According to biographer A.N. Wilson, Lewis chose to write the book after a discussion with Tolkein about the state of contemporary fiction.

So what's it about?

Out of the Silent Planet follows Ransom, a professor of philology (languages in oral and written records), who is taking a walking vacation through rural England. He chances to meet an old school mate, Devin, and a Dr. Weston who is a physicist. The two of them abduct Ransom and take him on their space ship to a planet Weston calls Malacandra. During their trip, Ransom discovers they plan on giving him to the natives of this planet as an offering or sacrifice. Upon their arrival, he sees the giant beings who have come to meet them and runs away. He spends some time wandering the strange planet until he meets a creature that calls itself a hross. He travels with the hross, named Hyoi, and learns their language. While living among the hross, he keeps trying to understand the planet's culture in terms of imperialism, continuously asking if the sorn are the ruling creatures and being told they are the intellectual or academic species on the planet but they don't rule over anyone because they do not know how to fish or use boats or aren't as good at poetry. 

Eventually, he is told about Oyasa, the divine being who rules the planets. Before he leaves, though, Devin and Weston appear and shoot Hyoi, killing him. Ransom leaves the hross, thinking that might keep the two men away from their village and travels over a mountain where he meets a sorn named Augray. They have a discussion about Oyasa being a being that is not physical in the sense that humans understand it. (Something about traveling faster than light and so being everywhere at once, passing through us as if we weren't there while we only perceive them as a transparent body or even odd shapes of light.) In the morning Augray takes Ransom to Meldilorn to meet Oyasa.

During his time in Medlilorn, Ransom learns there are Oyeresu (plural for Oyasa) for each planet and each one is responsible for the life on that planet. Earth's Oyasa has become evil (become "bent") and a great war was fought to keep them restricted to Earth. This, however, means there is no communication with the other planets, thus it has become the silent planet. Ransom also learns that Weston and Devin misunderstood Oyasa's intentions for having them bring someone to meet him. Oyasa wanted news of Earth and to understand their intentions before they started taking the planet's resources for themselves.

Weston and Devin are escorted to the meeting. They believe they are being held prisoner by the native races and there is a "witch" doctor using ventriloquism to scare them. Weston treats the creatures like many imperialists did, first threatening them with violence and then trying to appease them with trinkets like beads. When this doesn't work, it is up to Ransom to translate between Weston and Oyasa. Weston gives a long speech about invading Malacandra for the good of the human race before going on to claim other planets in the solar system. Oyasa acknowledges his actions are out of loyalty to humanity and not greed, but also points out that Weston does not value the people of earth as they are already; if he valued their minds, he'd be excited about other intelligent species, and he acknowledges that humans are not at an evolutionary point that they could survive on another planet. Weston is loyal to the "human seed" and the people of the future. Oyasa asks why this is an acceptable answer to invasion and genocide and Weston says if Oyasa can't understand it already then he can't explain it.

Oyasa sends everyone back to earth in their space ship, warning them if they do not arrive in 90 days, they will run out of oxygen and die. He also warns Weston and Devin if they try to harm Ransom, he will kill them. The three men do manage to make it to earth, the ship being destroyed as they exit it. 

The rest of the book is a post script where Ransom and Lewis are discussing the best way to let the public know about Ransom's experiences. This implies that the events were real but made to seem like fiction in the hopes of reaching more people with the message, though Ransom is concerned no one will take it seriously. There are also a few extra notes on his travels and the peoples he encountered and a few lines implying that Weston is continuing his work and is looking for another way to preserve humanity with no regard to the humans currently living.

After reading this book, I found myself glad to have read it but a bit disappointed in its contents. I liked that there was a commentary on imperialism within it, though it was limited. I also appreciated that the narrator for the audio book version made Weston and Devin's names sound more like Western and Divine. Lewis' description of the planet and its people was imaginative and interesting. Other than that, I found it lacking in any kind of conflict or tension for the majority of the story. Ransom himself doesn't really seem to have any flaws, though Lewis would probably argue Ransom's fear is his flaw but I'd like to ask who wouldn't be afraid of giant  alien creatures after being kidnapped and told you're going to be a human sacrifice? 

Lewis is also a little heavy handed with his theology arguments towards the end of the book. The characters are literally standing there and talking back and forth about it. Maybe it would have worked if Ransom had to learn all these things himself over a longer period of time or maybe if he started on one end of the argument at the beginning of the book and came to the opposite end by the end of the book, but he didn't. It felt like too much and could potentially turn people off from reading the book or the series.

Apparently, critics are also not sure how to take the book. Peter Nicholls, an Australian literary scholar and critic, calls it "planetary romance with elements of medieval mythology" meaning the point is to explore other planets and nothing else. "Were it not for the theological backdrop . . . Out of the Silent Planet could pass as merely a well-written and exceptionally erudite pulp novel" according to Robert McClenaghan. Meanwhile, John Gosling says it is an "important piece of Martian science fiction."

Overall, this is an okay book. I'm glad I tried it but I don't see myself picking up the rest of the series any time soon. I found it slow and imaginative but nothing really happens. There's no sense of growth or danger or struggle to get back home. Hell, Ransom meets the hross and instantly decides he needs to learn their language so he can write a grammar book. It could just be the difference in times and writing styles that make me want more out of my sci-fi or it could be I just don't appreciate this kind of story. 

Give it a try if you want and if you like it, please let me know what I'm missing in the comments below.

Until next time, travelers.