Perelandra: Chapter 7

So, as I was saying…

When we last left our heroes, philologist Elwin Ransom had been sent on a mission to the planet Venus (also known as Perelandra) by the unseen Oyarsa, the spirit being who rules the planet Malacandra (the native name for Mars; see Out of the Silent Planet). His coffin-like conveyance splashed down on Perelandra, a planet wholly covered with ocean and floating mats of vegetation that pass for land.

The floating rafts and temperate climate provided for all of Ransom's needs. Soon he met other intelligent life: the Green Lady, a young, humanoid woman—green-skinned, unclothed and wholly innocent—whom Ransom recognized as Venus's "Eve." The Green Lady had a personal rapport with Maleldil, the spirit being ruling the solar system. She could not find her male counterpart, whom she called the King. She and the King were the only human(ish) inhabitants of Perelandra.

Ransom and the Green Lady visited the Fixed Land, a rocky island that is Perelandra's only true landmass, initially to explore it and satisfy the Lady's curiosity. However, when they saw an object fall into the sea, only the Fixed Land had high enough ground to observe the object. It was a metal sphere like the one in which Ransom had been abducted to Mars by the physicist Weston in Out of the Silent Planet. On the beach, they indeed found Weston, who had come ashore. He was curious how Ransom too came to be there.

Weston's attitude displays a certain amount of chutzpah, as though Ransom is intruding on his territory. To Ransom's surprise, he now speaks Old Solar, the universal language of the solar system apart from Earth. The Green Lady, mindful of Maleldil's rule against sleeping on the Fixed Land, wants to return to the floating islands. However, Ransom cannot accompany her; Weston prevents him from leaving at gunpoint. Seeing both Ransom and the Lady without clothes, Weston assumes the worst, in spite of Ransom's attempts to persuade him that their nakedness is completely natural and innocent here.

As they gather Weston's things and bring them ashore, Weston tells Ransom he is hurt by his hostility toward him. He says he had been mistaken about the "whole interplanetary problem" on Malacandra. His argument to Oyarsa had been in defence of whatever it took to ensure the biological survival of the human species. He has since rejected the "unscientific dichotomy" between man and nature, become a believer in emergent evolution, and now sees human destiny in more spiritual terms. Evolution is purposefully (though impersonally) driven forward by a mystical life-force. He claims now to serve this Force, which has chosen him as its instrument and guides his actions; he has committed totally to following its guidance wherever it leads.

But when Ransom points out that this total commitment is a point of contact between their moral frameworks, Weston becomes angry, declares, "I am the Universe…your God and your Devil," summoning the Force into himself. After a moment of panic in which he cries out for Ransom's help, Weston convulses and lapses into unconsciousness. Ransom takes Weston's revolver and throws it into the sea. He tries to sleep on the beach—much less comfortable than the floating islands—and wishes he'd never set eyes on the Fixed Land.

This is a very philosophical chapter, and that's probably the main reason why I've stalled on this chapter for so long. (Almost 10 months! I was intending to finish these books by the end of 2025.) Its centrepiece is the dialogue between Weston and Ransom about how the former's philosophy has evolved since Out of the Silent Planet.

That first novel of this trilogy was clearly and openly inspired by the science fiction of H. G. Wells, whom Lewis acknowledges in his dedication). Wells's novel War of the Worlds was a critique of European colonialism. The Weston of Out of the Silent Planet is a materialist and a colonialist: just as Wells's technologically superior Martians had invaded Earth in search of food, Weston used his own advanced technology (the spherical spacecraft, reminiscent of the Cavorite sphere from another of Wells's books, The First Men in the Moon) to invade Mars in search of gold. Like the Earthlings of Wells's novel, the Martians of Lewis's are expendable.

Lewis, in turn, wrote Out of the Silent Planet as a critique of Wells's technocratic utopianism, in which man could be improved through science and social engineering. It was mankind's reponsibility to take control of his own evolutionary future, transcend his biological limitations and expand to the stars. Lewis saw this as scientism: faith in progress without spiritual purpose or moral grounding. Malacandra is the anti-Wellsian planet: it is a Utopia, though not because its rational species had achieved that state through the violence, competition, and technological advancement of evolution, but because they live within a transcendental moral order revealed by Maleldil.

H. G. Wells never responded to Lewis's critique, at least publicly. Of course, at this time Lewis was still relatively unknown, so it's possible Wells neither knew nor cared.

However, when he arrives on Perelandra, Weston is no longer a materialist. Now he is a mystic who claims to serve the metaphysical Force that guides human evolution toward its final purpose. He identifies this Force as Spirit, indeed as the Holy Spirit, though not as the personal and divine Spirit of Christian theology: as Ransom objects, Christians do not believe the Holy Spirit is a "blind, inarticulate purposiveness." Weston discards his objection as one of the "outworn theological technicalities" that Ransom can't let go of.

Weston has embraced a sort of pantheism, or perhaps panentheism¹. He worships the Force because it is pure spirit, as though that in itself made it worthy of worship: though, as Ransom counters, "there are spirits and spirits.… [A] thing might be a spirit and not good for you." But Weston rejects dualism of any kind; there is no difference between good and evil, between God and the Devil. God is the final purpose for which Weston is working; the Devil, he says, is the reaching forward for that purpose. "The world leaps forward through great men and greatness always transcends mere moralism," he says. "When the leap has been made our 'diabolism' as you would call it becomes the morality of the next stage." Just as Weston collapses the ontological distinction between God and the Devil, he also collapses the ethical distinction between good and evil. He avers that if the Force told him to, he would betray England to the Nazis or publish lies as scientific fact.

All this comes to a climax at the end of the discourse, when an exasperated Weston confesses his pantheism: "There is no possible distinction in concrete thought between me and the universe.… Do you see, you timid, scruple-mongering fool? I am the Universe." He reiterates his indifference to good and evil: "I, Weston, am your God and your Devil."

And, finally, he utters the words that are his undoing: "I call that Force into me completely.…” He has a moment of horror in which he pleads for Ransom's help, before going into convulsions and lapsing into a coma. As we shall see in future chapters, Weston has allowed himself to be possessed by something malevolent. As Ransom warned him, there are spirits and spirits, and the Force is the wrong variety. Despite the pretense of Weston's newfound philosophy, the distinction between good and evil, between God and Satan, is in fact very real.

As I said at the beginning of this post, this was a difficult chapter, at least intellectually, and that's the main reason I delayed for so long in getting this post out. I intended to sit back and mull it over for a couple of weeks, and that turned into nearly ten months. Things should go a lot more smoothly now, and you can expect chapter 8 in a week's time—as originally intended.

Footnote

¹ Pantheism says that the divine and the universe are identical. Panentheism believes that the universe is only part of God's total being, and he extends beyond space and time. Pantheists say "All is God"; panentheists say "All is in God."