But he discovers that the universe is teeming with life and light and it is earth which is “the silent planet.” He thinks of earth as the bright spot in the universe where there is order and intelligence and beauty, with everything else in the universe being cold and lifeless and dark. He expects the Sorns (inhabitants of Malacandra) to be nasty, but they are gentle and wise. Similarly, he expects Malacandra to be harsh and cold, but it is beauitful. Ransom (the main character who is taken by force to Malacandra) expects space to be dark and empty, but on his journey to Malacandra he finds it is full of light and angels. One thing I particularly noticed is how Lewis deconstructs the notion of the heavens as empty space. Its also interesting to see how early certain themes had settled into Lewis’ writing (it was originally published in 1938). He makes a lot of profound points about the nature of good and evil by contrasting the human characters with the creatures of Malacandra (which is the planet Mars, with un-fallen, intelligent inhabitants).
Its not quite as good as the other two books in the space trilogy, I don’t think – but nevertheless its a lot of fun. I’ve been listening to Out of the Silent Planet this week.
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