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C. S. Lewis's Perelandra , livre ebook

The Kent State University Press - Judith Wolfe & Brendan Wolfe

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179 pages

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The first single-volume study of an important Lewis novel C. S. Lewis considered his novel Perelandra (1943) among his best works. A triumph of imaginative science fiction, Perelandra-the second volume of Lewis's "Space Trilogy"-is also theologically ambitious. C. S. Lewis's Perelandra: Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos explores how the novel synthesizes the three traditions of cosmology, mythology, and Christianity. The first group of essays considers the cosmological implications of the world Lewis depicts in Perelandra while the second group examines the relationship between morality and meaning in Lewis's created cosmology of the planet Perelandra.This work brings together a world-class group of literary and theological scholars and Lewis specialists that includes Paul S. Fiddes, Monika B. Hilder, Sanford Schwartz, Michael Travers, and Michael Ward. The collection is enhanced by Walter Hooper's reminiscences of his conversations with Lewis about Perelandra and the possible provenance of the stories in Lewis's imagination.C. S. Lewis scholars and devoted readers alike will find this volume indispensible to the understanding of this canonical work of speculative fiction.

Sujets

Fantasy (canción de Mariah Carey)

Science fiction

Fantasy

Informations

Publié par	The Kent State University Press
Date de parution	01 octobre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781612777191
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	3 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1150€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra

Reshaping the Image of the Cosmos

Edited by J W andB W

T K S U  P Kent, Ohio

A version of “Perelandrain Its Own Time: A Modern View of te Space Trilogy,” by Sanford Scwartz, originally appeared as “Wy Wells Is from Mars, Bergson from Venus: Mapping Evolution in teSpace Trilogy” inC. S. Lewis: Views from Wake For-est, edited by Micael Travers (© Zossima Press, ).

A version of “Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat toPerelandra,” by Micael Ward, was originally publised as part of capter  (“Venus”) inPlanet Narnia: e Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis,by Micael Ward (), and appears ere by permission of Oxford University Press, USA.

L  C C--P D C. S. Lewis’s Perelandra : resaping te image of te cosmos / edited by Judit Wolfe and Brendan Wolfe. pages cm  ---- (ardcover) ∞ . a Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), –. Perelandra. I. Wolfe, J. E. (Judit Elisabet), – editor of compilation. II. Wolfe, B. N. (Brendan N.) editor of compilation. PR.EP  '—dc 

    

    

Contents

Introduction: he Scope and Vision of his Study   Abbreviations for Works by C. S. Lewis C. S. Lewis and te Antropological Approac  

THE PERELANDRAN COSMOS Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat toPerelandra   “For te Dance All hings Were Made”: he Great Dance in C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra  .  Perelandrain Its Own Time: A Modern View of te Space Trilogy   Surprised by te Feminine: A Rereading of Gender Discourse in C. S. Lewis’sPerelandra  .  he Center and te Rim: Inversions of te System of te Heavens inPerelandraande Discarded Image  

MORALITY AND MEANING INPERELANDRA Perelandran Diction: A Study in Meaning    Myt, Pluralism, and Coice:Perelandraand Lewis on Religious Trut   Frigtful Freedom:Perelandraas Imaginative heodicy  . 

vii xvi





















Free to Fall: he Moral Ground of Events on Perelandra  

List of Contributors Index



 

Introduction

e Scope and Vision of is Study

        

Perelandrais unparalleled among C. S. Lewis’s works in te audacity and grandeur of its conception. his collection of essays brings togeter a world-class group of literary, teological, and Lewisian scolars to examine te scope of tis conception and work out some of its practical implications. Lewis is a scolar wose originality is indivisible from is commit-ment to tradition, bot Cristian and literary; is work is te ﬂower of an imagination inseminated by ancient trut. OfPerelandra,Lewis said tat it ad all begun wit a “mental picture of te ﬂoating islands. he wole of te rest of my labours in a sense consisted of building up a world in wic ﬂoating islands could exist.”¹ Wat kind of world tis would be was overdetermined from witin a diverse range of sources: literary, religious, istorical, and scientiﬁc. hat it sould be Venus was suggested by a curi-ous convergence: te scientiﬁc belief, in Lewis’s time, tat te surface of te planet Venus was liquid, and te classical imagination of te goddess Venus as Aprodite Anaduomenê, te goddess rising out of te sea. hat tis newborn world of Venusian beauty sould be a version of te Judeo-Cristian paradise was suggested by bot literary and religious istory. In literary terms, te bordered isles were natural versions of te enclosed pleasure gardens of Elizabetan life and literature, temselves conscious imitations of teparadise—literally “enclosed garden”—of Ancient Near Eastern myt. And tis inescapably brougt wit it te religious idea of a new Eden—a world not (yet) fallen into sin. Once all tese associations were given sape, “of course te story about an averted fall developed. his

– vii –

viii



is because, as you know, aving got your people to tis exciting country, someting must appen.”² his trowaway remark already suggests tat te spiritual dimension of Lewis’s book accrued to te cosmological one not in a forced or arbitrary way but naturally. In fact, Lewis tougt tat science ﬁction in general couldn’t function witout a spiritual dimension: “No merely pysical strangeness or merely spatial distance will realize tat idea ofotherness wic is wat we are always trying to grasp in a story about voyaging troug space: you must go into anoter dimension. To construct plausible and moving ‘oter worlds’ you must draw on te only real ‘oter world’ we know, tat of spirit.”³ InPerelandra,te two are indistinguisable. he Cambridge pilologist Elwin Ransom is carried by angelic powers to Venus (or, in te Old Solar tongue, Perelandra), a young planet covered by a golden sea on te surface of wic luxuriantly verdant ﬂoating islands glide in and out of touc, overlooked by only one mass of mountainous ﬁxed land. A ﬁrst man and a ﬁrst woman, majestic but also cildlike, spend teir days moving freely from island to island—at once te “noble savages” of Romantic literature and te Adam and Eve of Milton’sParadise Lost.he convergence of primitive innocence and Edenic majesty is particularly clear in an early verse draft:

he ﬂoating islands, te ﬂat golden sky At noon, te peacock sunset: tepid waves Wit te land sliding over tem like a skin: he alien Eve, green-bodied, stepping fort To meet my ero from er forest ome, Proud, courteous, unafraid; no tougt inﬁrm Alters er ceek—⁴

Unbeknownst to Ransom, owever, te astropysicist Weston as also traveled to Perelandra, in te service of a vision of emergent evolution and space colonization. Allowing imself to be possessed by te blind Force tat e believes moves te universe, Weston divests imself of is umanity and becomes a medium of evil, an evil wit te monomania-cal aim of tempting te Lady into transgressing te one commandment of er Creator: never to sleep on te Fixed Land. Feeling frustrated and paralyzed by tis onslaugt, Ransom asks ow God can allow tis, only to

introduction

îx

realize tat e imself as been sent to avert tis second fall. First troug argument and ﬁnally troug pysical battle, Ransom tries to overcome te tempter, wose deat in te subterranean caverns of te Fixed Land releases te new umanity from temptation and users in te coronation of te Green Lady and er King as rulers of Perelandra, supplanting te tutelary deity of te spere, Venus.

Wat is remarkable in tis retelling of Genesis – is tat te seminal image of Lewis’s oter world—te ﬂoating islands of Venus—does not give way (like an incidental backdrop) to te increasingly focal religious story of an averted fall but is allowed to inﬂect Lewis’s entire rendering of tat story. his commitment bot to an originary image and to te disparate sets of traditions tat accrue to it—modern and medieval cosmology, classical mytology, and Cristianity—propels Lewis to retink bot te contents and te functions of all four traditions. Not content wit teir coexistence in is novel, e creates a framework for is story tat syntesizes te traditions of cosmology, mytology, and Cristianity, all te wile subtly reimagining eac. he ﬁrst part of tis book is concerned wit tat reconﬁguration. Walter Hooper sets te stage wit an intimate and lively account of te genesis of te Ransom Trilogy. In “C. S. Lewis and te Antropological Approac,” e recounts is ﬁrst discussions aboutPerelandrawit Lewis, empasizing Lewis’s understanding of te way “sources” function in te book. Sources, insists Lewis, are a springboard for, not te deﬁning pa-rameter of, an autor’s imagination: To readPerelandrasolely troug te lens of one particular set of sources is to import (now outdated) antropological metods into literary study, and to distort te object of enquiry from te start. Micael Ward complements Hooper’s biograpical account wit a conceptual one. In is programmatic essay, “Voyage to Venus: Lewis’s Imaginative Pat to Perelandra,” Ward presents Lewis’s tougt about te planet Venus as it is developed in is academic work, is poetry, and even is apologetics, and discusses te inﬂuence of tat oeuvre on te creation ofPerelandra.Ward concludes tatPerelandra,as a story about te planet of love, is best described by te termplenitude. he idea of plenitude is not only imaginatively but also teologically important, for, teologically, Lewis’s book presents our own modern view of te cosmos as merely a sadowy image of te Perelandran, distorted