Perelandra: Chapter 13

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. Unless you're the sort of person who likes skipping to the last page, go read the book first.

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To prevent another Fall on Perelandra, Maleldil instructed Ransom to kill the body of Weston, who became possessed by an evil spiritual Force and attempted to introduce evil to the green Queen of Perelandra. Maleldil put all the living creatures of Perelandra into a deep sleep, and after his own night's sleep that left him refreshed and spiritually renewed, Ransom confronted the Un-Man, beginning hand-to-hand combat, presumably to the death, between them. Ransom relied on his boxing skills while the feral Un-Man preferred to claw at Ransom's skin. After a time Weston escaped and rode out to the sea on one of the giant fish that the Perelandrians use for transportation; Ransom mounted another fish and pursued him.

In this chapter, the sea chase continues, with Ransom realizing just how far his pursuit of the Un-Man has taken him from anything like solid ground. He's out in the middle of the sea with no land or floating islands in sight. He spies some mer-men and tries to eat some of the seaweed they are eating, but the seaweed affects his mind, making him feel disoriented and forgetful of his mission; he throws the rest of it away. After a day and night of his fight with, and pursuit of, Weston, he is beginning to have doubts about his mission and the goodness of Maleldil.

In time he is approached by Weston on his fish, and it indeed appears to be Weston, as if he has regained control of his body from the Force. Weston is confused and terrified: that he is trapped on Perelandra, and that Ransom might abandon him. Having been possessed by a devil, he has had a foretaste of death; that, too, terrifies him. As the darkness closes in on them, Ransom tells Weston to stop talking nonsense and to pray to repent of his sins. But he is lifted off his fish and dragged under the sea.

This chapter begins, "Darkness fell upon the waves as suddenly as if it had been poured out of a bottle." It's a nice turn of phrase, and it suggests either that Ransom is somewhere near Perelandra's equator, or that it has a short day. As I noted earlier in the book, Lewis's depiction of Venus reflects the best science of his day, apart from the fantasy elements. There was still a question about the length of the Venerean day, whether it was short or long. Lewis seems to imply that the day is something like a terrestrial day, at least insofar as Ransom seems to have no trouble adjusting to it. Of course, today we know that Venus's solar day is very long, equivalent to 116 terrestrial days.

It's unclear to Ransom (and to us) whether the mer-men are intelligent. They are like men, but also, in his perception, like animals. Perhaps someday they will be intelligent but, for now, Maleldil hasn't put the spark of rationality in them. Lewis briefly introduces mer-men in the Chronicles of Narnia, though in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the Sea People are both intelligent and civilized, and apparently fearful or hostile to the Narnians, rather than indifferent.

The seaweed Ransom eats affects his perception and memory, which is why he throws it away. Is it a psychotropic, like cannabis? Or is it more "magical"? Under its influence he sees the ocean surface as the top of the world, and the floating islands like clouds, inaccessible. In other words, the seaweed gives him the mer-men's view of the world. In Perelandra, as in Narnia, the world of mer-men has nothing to do with the world of humans.

Sitting on his fish in the middle of the Perelandrian ocean, Ransom has a crisis of faith. He realizes he is but a speck on a vast ocean the size of a planet. How could this world have been made for the King and Queen, when most of it was uninhabitable by them? The planet itself was also but a speck in the vastness of space. And where, then, was Maleldil?

This is what is known as the argument from scale: in the grand vastness of the cosmos, humanity is an insignificant atom of no importance. It's actually a very old argument that's been discussed for centuries. Lewis himself frequently cited Ptolemy's second-century astronomy text, Almagest, as proof that the ancients knew Earth was infinitesimal compared to the whole of space. But he did not understand why it only recently had become an atheistic argument against Christianity.¹ But the argument from scale had been used by notable intellectuals such as H. G. Wells, J. B. S. Haldane, and Arthur Stanley Eddington, the very people whose philosophies Lewis was critiquing in the Space Trilogy.

Blaise Pascal famously said, "The eternal silence of these infinite spaces fills me with dread."² But Pascal saw man as occupying the middle ground between Nothing and the Infinite. We are an atom to the whole of the universe, but something very small—a dust mite, say—is that in relation to us. We believe ourselves more capable of comprehending the small things, being bigger than them; but, in fact, "in either case it takes an infinite capacity.… These extremes touch and join by going in opposite directions, and they meet in God and God alone."³ The vastness of space ought to drive us to contemplate God's greatness rather than our own irrelevance. "I do not see how we could have come to know the greatness of God," writes Lewis, "without that hint furnished by the greatness of the material universe."⁴

Lewis writes, "the whole argument from size rests on the assumption that differences of size ought to coincide with differences of value."⁵ But he concludes that this is "an affair, not of reason but of emotion—of that peculiar emotion which superiorities in size produce only after a certain point of absolute size has been reached.⁶ That is, a small man is not morally insignificant compared to a large man, so we shouldn't assume that, faced with the vastness of creation, we are of no significance, either.

Ransom, too, has a sense of this, as we could guess:

Part of him still knew that the size of a thing is its least important characteristic, that the material universe derived from the comparing and mythopœc power within him that very majesty before which he was now asked to debase himself.

The Anglican newspaper, the Guardian (no relation to The Guardian), published "Dogma and the Universe" in two parts in March 1943, less than a month before Perelandra was published. I think it's possible that Lewis was developing both works at the same time, using the arguments of the one as plot points in the other.

In the first chapter, the fictional narrator-Lewis was beset by some sort of unease or fear that tempted him to turn back on his walk to Ransom's cottage. It may have been due to the influence of some malevolent spirits. Who is to say that Ransom's doubts, as he floats on the back of a fish in the endless Venerian ocean, are not similarly influenced now by the same bent eldila?

Weston, too, is terrified of the abyss. As a materialist scientist he had had no use for an afterlife. As a pantheistic believer in emergent evolution, he had an optimistic view of death in which one's consciousness was absorbed into the Cosmic Force. But now he knows his Force is a real evil spirit, who had pushed his own consciousness aside it used his body. He has seen the real horror of death: a prison in which the souls of the dead are packed, retaining a bare minimum of consciousness to feel their own decay, miserable, isolated from God and from all hope. He is horrified.

The thought of death puts Weston in a state of terror: terrified of the darkness, of the waves, of the thought of being abandoned by Ransom or marooned on Perelandra, even though right now he is perfectly safe from danger. Meanwhile, on Earth, Ransom tells him, hundreds of boys face death this very moment in the war. Weston sees death as a horror to be avoided; Ransom sees it as an inevitability to be prepared for. Weston needs perspective, and repentance.

Is this the real Weston? Lewis doesn't specifically say, and Ransom seems to have his doubts. Perhaps it's another trick of the Un-Man. Maybe it's the genuine personality of Weston, permitted to resurface by the evil Force to give Ransom a false sense of security. Either way, Weston drags Ransom into the water, and the battle between them continues in chapter 14.

Footnotes

1. C. S. Lewis, "Dogma and the Universe," in God in the Dock (1970, repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 39.

2. Blaise Pascal, Pensées, trans. A. J. Krailsheimer (London: Penguin, 1995), no. 201 (Brunschvicg 206).

3. Pascal, Pensées, no. 199 (Brunschvicg 72).

4. Lewis, "Dogma and the Universe", 42.

5. Lewis, "Dogma and the Universe," 40.

6. Lewis, "Dogma and the Universe," 41.

Perelandra: Chapter 12

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. If you don't want me ruining the experience for you, put this post down and go read Perelandra now. I promise I won't be offended.

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Elwin Ransom, Cambridge philologist, has been brought to the planet Perelandra (Venus) by Maleldil, the supreme spiritual ruler of the solar system. Here, he met the Venusian "Eve," a green lady, and his enemy, the physicist Weston. Weston became possessed by a demonic entity, and although his own personality apparently ceased to be, the entity inhabiting his body persistently tried to tempt the Green Lady to break Maleldil's one law, which forbade dwelling on Perelandra's lone fixed island.

Ransom soon determined that his own reason for being on Perelandra was to cofront the Un-Man, the thing inside Weston, and prevent Perelandra's Fall. However, he had neither the persuasive power nor the sheer persistence of the Un-Man, who did not require sleep. Maleldil revealed to him that his only recourse is to kill Weston's body. It was no accident that he was called Ransom: he was the one responsible to stop sin from entering Perelandra.

When Ransom awakens, after bathing and eating, he searches for the Un-Man. He finds him in the act of maiming a bird, and starts the fight by punching Weston's body in the jaw. Though they are evenly matched, man to man, their fighting styles are different: Ransom is a superior boxer, while the Un-Man claws and tears. In his mind, the fight's outcome boils down to whether he could pummel Weston's body to death before losing too much blood.

Perelandra: Chapter 11

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

Ransom, brought by the Oyarsa of Malacandra to the planet Perelandra, encountered his enemy, the physicist Weston, there. Only Weston was no longer himself, having become possessed by the "Force" he reveres—really Satan or one of his fallen angels—and become what Ransom termed the "Un-Man." Weston was there to tempt and corrupt the Green Lady, the unfallen Eve of Perelandra. He did this by relentlessly trying to appeal to her sense of vanity and to persuade her that the one law on Perelandra, against dwelling on its fixed island, was made to be broken. Ransom attempted to dissuade her from heeding Weston. Fortunately, the Lady seemed resistant to the Un-Man's persuasive skills.

After days of this, Ransom sits against a tree and questions divine justice. He has made no headway against the Un-Man. If the Enemy was there in person, where is the representative of Maleldil to counter him? The answer that comes back to him in the dark is that, of course, he is Maleldil's man: an idea that he almost dismisses as blasphemy. But he realizes that Maleldil has been with him all along. His own arrival on Perelandra was as miraculous as Weston's. The fate of Perelandra is left in God's hands—and he and the Green Lady are those hands.

Perelandra: Chapter 10

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend you support your local bookseller or public library, and read the book first.

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Philologist Elwin Ransom, brought to the planet Perelandra (Venus) by Oyarsa, the spiritual ruler of Malacandra (Mars), encountered his old enemy Weston who had abducted him to Malacandra, while exploring Perelandra's sole fixed island with the Green Lady, the planet's only woman. Weston's personality is gone: Ransom believed he had become an Un-Man, an animated corpse possessed by the malevolent spirit Weston had called the Force, but which Ransom believed to be one of Satan's allies, if not Satan himself.

Ransom later found the Un-Man by following a trail of tortured animals. He was trying to tempt the Green Lady, into violating the one law decreed by Maleldil, the ruler of the universe: not to live or spend the night on the island. After Ransom dissuaded the Lady from listening to the Weston-thing, that was Weston, it engaged in psychological torture on him, calling his name for no reason to keep him awake all night.

Perelandra: Chapter 9

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend reading the book first. It's short, I promise.

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Ransom and the Green Lady of Perelandra were exploring the Fixed Land, the one solid island on the planet, when they encountered Weston, who had abducted Ransom to Mars in Out of the Silent Planet. Weston tried to persuade Ransom of his newfound belief in emergent evolution, directed by an impersonal, spiritual "Force." In doing so, he allowed himself to become possessed by this Force.

Ransom followed Weston off the Fixed Land back to the mats of floating vegetation that comprise most of the "land" on Venus. There, in the dark, he overheard Weston trying to persuade the Green Lady that the ban on staying on the Fixed Land, imposed by Maleldil, was not as severe as she assumed. It was permissible for her to imagine living there, as it would make her wiser.

When Ransom awakens, he walks along the "shore" of his island, where he encounters one of Perelandra's native animals. However, something or someone has torn the colourful frog-like thing apart. With difficulty, Ransom puts the still-living animal out of its misery. He then continues his walk, following a trail of mutilated frogs, until he comes across Weston in the act of gutting one before he escapes again.

Perelandra: Chapter 8

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. If you don't want me ruining the experience for you, put this post down and go read Perelandra now. I promise I won't be offended.

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Ransom and the Green Lady were exploring the Fixed Land, Perelandra's only solid landmass, when they observed a spherical object fall into the sea. On the beach, Ransom was surprised to find his nemesis Weston, who had abducted him to Mars (in Out of the Silent Planet); likewise, Weston was surprised to see Ransom. Maleldil, the spiritual ruler of the Solar System, has forbidden the Green Lady and her male counterpart, the King, from spending the night on the Fixed Land. Therefore, Weston allowed her to leave, but he kept Ransom on the beach at gunpoint.

Weston told Ransom that his philosophy had changed since they were on Mars. There, he had been a materialist and a colonialist, believing that it was humanity's destiny to expand to the stars. Anything that stood in their way, including the rational inhabitants of Mars, was expendable. Since then, his beliefs had evolved to embrace emergent evolution directed by an impersonal, amoral spiritual essence he called the Force. In spite of Ransom's warning that all spirits are not good, Weston called this Force into himself, apparently allowing himself to be taken over by it, before lapsing into a coma. Left alone on the Fixed Land, Ransom slept on the beach.

Perelandra: Chapter 7

So, as I was saying…

Perelandra: Chapter 6

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend you support your local bookseller or public library, and read the book first.

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Ransom has been sent on a voyage to Perelandra, or Venus, by the Oyarsa of Mars. There, he discovered that Venus is an ocean planet with giant floating mats of vegetation that serve as land. There, he also met a green-skinned woman, and through conversing with her in Old Solar, the lingua franca of the solar system outside of Earth, discovered that she is destined to be the mother of all Perelandrians: the Venusian Eve, as it were.

The archipelago of floating islands have joined into a temporary continent. Still exploring, Ransom comes to the edge of the "land" and, across the sea, spots what appears to be proper land: an actual island with a giant stone column or mountain. The Lady calls it the Fixed Land, and informs Ransom that while she may visit it, Maleldil has forbidden her or the King to sleep there. She is confused, and somewhat horrified, when Ransom informs her that all the land on Earth is fixed, and they have no such rule there.

Perelandra: Chapter 5

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend reading the book first. It's short, I promise.

Yes, late yet again. I should just aim for Sunday and make the official release date Tuesday. (Except then I'll probably slip until Thursday.)

Elwin Ransom, philologist, was sent to Venus by Oyarsa, the spirit that rules Mars, which planet Ransom visited in captivity in Out of the Silent Planet, the first volume of the Space Trilogy. Venus (known outside of Earth as Perelandra) is an ocean world with giant floating vegetation mats. On his first day he discovered forests with trees bearing food; on his second, he became acquainted with a dragon-like creature that also inhabited his island. He also discovered that Venus has intelligent life: a green woman visiting a neighbouring island, who apparently mistook him for someone else. They could speak to each other in the universal tongue of the solar system, and he resolved to visit her island.

September, again

It's September, and that means it's time for the annual science-fiction moratorium. Originally I thought this idea up because my reading diet was almost exclusively sci-fi; however, this year, of the approximately 60 books I've read so far, only 10 of them have been. So as I branch out my literary interests, a moratorium seems to become increasingly irrelevant; but it's a habit I keep up, nonetheless.

Typically, I use September to broaden my literary horizons a bit: try something I've never read before or wouldn't pick up on impulse. This year, I've decided to keep it simple: get through William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It's a classic work of World War II history that weighs approximately one anvil. I've owned my paperback copy for somewhat over 20 years and never read more than the first few chapters.

I just started Patrick O'Brian's The Surgeon's Mate, one of the volumes in his Aubrey-Maturin series of naval historical novels. I'll finish that before digging into Shirer. In the unlikely event that I finish Rise and Fall prematurely, I've still got about half of Ishiguro's The Unconsoled to finish off, and a whole bunch of classic Westerns I have yet to sample.

This won't affect my readthrough of Perelandra. The spirit of the rule is to open my mind a bit more, not to be abstemious, and not to cut short any projects I happen to have already in progress. I'm working on the installment for chapter 5 now, late as ever, and it should be posted shortly.

Let September begin!

Perelandra: Chapter 4

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

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Late again! My fault, this time. Sorry.

Ransom has been sent on a space voyage to Perelandra, Venus in our language, by Oyarsa, the spiritual being that rules Malacandra, or Mars. He was propelled through space by supernatural means in a translucent casket. When he landed on Venus, the casket dissolved and he was left afloat in the ocean that apparently covered Perelandra, where the climate is warm and perpetually overcast with golden clouds. Soon he discovered the several large floating mats of vegetation that act as land on Perelandra. Climbing onto one, he found some food, consisting of some delicious golden gourds, and then he slept.

When Ransom awakens, he continues exploring. He finds a grove of the golden fruit, and for the first time discovers animal life: a red dragon-like creature, which appears friendly but not intelligent. Some large flowers whose stalks accumulate bubbles of water serve as an impromptu perfumed shower. He also finds some large berries for food that taste very good and satisfy his hunger, but as with the golden fruit the previous day, he feels an impulse not to overindulge.

As Ransom explores, the dragon (which has been making a nuisance of itself in the meantime) zooms past him and flies to another island floating about half a mile away. He sees that the air and the oceans are teeming with life, and it’s all heading in that direction. In particular, he sees a pod of dolphin-like fish, and on the back of one, a human figure. He gets the being’s attention, and he sees that the figure is a green-skinned woman—who, evidently, was expecting someone else.

Perelandra: Chapter 3

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. Unless you're the sort of person who likes skipping to the last page, go read the book first.

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I'm late! Oh my ears and whiskers.

Narrator-C. S. Lewis was summoned to the country cottage of Elwin Ransom, who informs him he was commissioned by Oyarsa, the spiritual being that rules Malacandra (Mars), to go on a journey to Perelandra (Venus) for reasons as yet unknown. His transportation was a featureless casket, propelled there by Oyarsa himself. Lewis was charged with helping him into the casket, and helping him out again when he returns—if he returns.

Over a year later, Oyarsa summoned Lewis back to the cottage. He and Humphrey, a mutual doctor friend whom Lewis also recruited to help Ransom, witness the return of the casket and help Ransom out again. Ransom began telling the story of his trip to them.

Perelandra: Chapter 2

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. If you don't want me ruining the experience for you, put this post down and go read Perelandra now. I promise I won't be offended.

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The story so far: The narrator (a fictional version of Lewis himself) was summoned by his friend Professor Ransom on "business," which he understood to mean business having to do with Ransom's trip to Malacandra (Mars), as narrated in the previous novel, Out of the Silent Planet. Walking along the darkened road from the train to Ransom's cottage, he experienced a heavy feeling of oppression. When Lewis arrived at the cottage, he found it deserted, but in Ransom's hallway was a translucent, coffin-like box, and a strange shaft of light he recognized as an eldil, one of the spiritual inhabitants of Malacandra, with whom Ransom still communicated.

At the very end, Ransom finally returns to his cottage. He is relieved to learn that Lewis was not hindered by the "barrage" along the way: the oppressive feelings were real, caused by the dark eldila of Earth. He tells Lewis that they have gotten wind of what he is doing. The Oyarsa of Mars is sending Ransom on a voyage to Perelandra (Venus)—conveying him personally—and the vehicle is the coffin in the cottage.

Ransom does not know how long his trip will last or if he will even return. Lewis is there to pack him into the box. Ransom also charges him with coming back to unpack him, if and when he returns, and with recruiting a trusted successor in case Lewis himself is no longer alive. Lewis also decides to confide in Humphrey, a mutual doctor friend.

Perelandra: Chapter 1

Today I begin my readthrough of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, the second book of his Space Trilogy (also known as the "Cosmic Trilogy" or "Ransom Trilogy" in some editions). Sometimes alternatively titled "A Voyage to Venus," this short novel was originally published in 1943.

The story begins with the narrator (a fictionalized version of Lewis himself, presumably) travelling by train, then by foot, to the country cottage of Elwin Ransom, summoned there for "business"—which Lewis understands as something mysterious, and probably having to do with Ransom's previous voyage to Mars, aka Malacandra, as told in Out of the Silent Planet.

The road to Ransom's is dark. Perelandra was published in 1943 and presumably set in about the same time, so blackout regulations were in effect to prevent ground lighting from aiding enemy aircraft. There are darkened cottages and abandoned factories along the road, creating a foreboding atmosphere.

Lewis himself is gripped by unease. He realizes he has left his pack on the train and his first instinct is to return to the station, in spite of the fact that the train is long gone and there's nothing he can accomplish by returning rather than phoning the station in the morning. He is thinking constantly about the eldila, the incorporeal (spiritual?) intelligences Ransom met on Malacandra and apparently still speaks with from time to time. Lewis's fears, it seems, may not be entirely natural: perhaps some supernatural influence is holding him back.

Introducing the Space Trilogy readthrough

I suppose I may be one of the relatively few people—Christians, at least—who appreciate C. S. Lewis more as a man of letters than an apologist.

Though I'm sure my route to discovering Lewis is the same as many others': I read the Chronicles of Narnia in about third or fourth grade. (Still have that paperback box set, too.) Then, in university, I found a stash of his nonfiction books in the school library: short books like Broadcast Talks and Beyond Personality, two of the three titles that were edited into Mere Christianity. And, of course, The Screwtape Letters, still probably my favourite piece of satire.

But it was in 1991 that I borrowed Lewis's Space Trilogy for the first time from the public library in Huntsville, where I was living that winter. And as much as I appreciated Narnia, it was through Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength that I came to love Lewis as an author.

2024 reading review

It's the year 2525! (Well…2025, but you can't begrudge me a little bit of enthusiasm.) Time to review my year with books (this is not a book blog, I keep reminding myself).

As usual, my annual goal is to read 50 books of any kind. Last year, my final count was in the 70s. This year, it was…120. (My "official" count at Goodreads is 105, but several of those are actually omnibus volumes.) The average page count per book is still around 300, too. I wonder where I found the extra freet time. Maybe I didn't fall asleep as often.

The first book of the year was Emily's Quest by L. M. Montgomery, the final book in her Emily trilogy. Maybe it's juvenile, maybe it's girly, and maybe I started reading Montgomery in my teens to impress a girl. Nonetheless, over the years, Montgomery has become my favourite Canadian author.

The last novel of the year was Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh, which I finished on the weekend before Christmas. This is an SF novel from 1988 (which won the Hugo in 1989) about the implications of mass human cloning and designing human beings for specific functions. (A little bit like Blade Runner in that respect, I guess.) It's long, and I found it slow starting, but I got into it after a while. A good comeback, considering I didn't really enjoy reading Downbelow Station last year.

My newest book was In Too Deep by Lee and Andrew Child. As I said last year, as long as the Jack Reacher books keep coming out in October, and I keep reading them as soon as possible, this is going to be a recurring theme every year.

The oldest was Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en, one of the great Chinese novels. I also finished reading the plays of Aphra Behn, the Restoration dramatist. But Journey to the West was published c. 1592, beating her by almost a century. This was another book that was hard to get into, and (though I'm not quite finished) might also be the longest book I've ever read.

When you've read double your intended goal for the year, it's twice as hard to pick a favourite. I suppose mine for 2023 was Holly by Stephen King, his most recent novel, featuring his neurotic lady detective from the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, etc.). My runner-up, collectively, was the Toradora! series of light novels by Yuyuko Takemiya. I saw the anime last year, and was so affected by it, I watched it again. The novels didn't disappoint, either—surprising since I'm hardly a romance reader.

It's a little easier to pick a least favourite when you devote an entire month to reading something other than genre fiction, which inevitably leads to some rather bleak and depressing literature. This year's "winner" was The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, a fictionalized telling of the story of a Bosnian cellist who risked his life to play an adagio every day for each of the victims of a bombing. The problem with the book is that it wasn't really about the cellist. He was a backdrop to his own story, and it kind of left me cold. The runner-up was its immediate predecessor on my list, Rabbit, Run by John Updike. (Is there a proper literary word for a novel's main character who is just unpleasant in every possible way? "Anti-protagonist"?)

My best new discovery of the year was, A Confederacy of Dunces, the Pulitzer-winning novel by John Kennedy Toole. Again, this was one of my selections for September. Its (anti?) protagonist, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an overweight, unemployed, pretentious pseudo-intellectual who lives with his mother. If Toole had written this novel in the 2020s instead of the 1960s, he'd probably be a terminally-online Redditor.

I met my goal of reading five nonfiction books this year, though no more. The topics were literary criticism, theology, and poetry. The last, in particular (Anglican poet Malcolm Guite's two books Waiting on the Word and The Word in the Wilderness) have sort of sparked my interest in poetry, and I plan to read more this year. (I didn't like poetry when I was in university, leading one of my English profs to remark once—tongue-in-cheek, hopefully—what I didn't deserve an English degree. Better late than never.)

There were two goals that I didn't meet: First, finishing the works of Stephen King. I have one book left, You Like It Darker, which I am about 2/3 of the way through. Second, completing Journey to the West. I read three of the four volumes of Anthony Yu's translation, but just ran out of time. Since my Christmas vacation is usually a good time to blitz through a few books, I would have accomplished both. How was I to know that a medical problem would keep me in the emergency room for so much of my free time? I'll finish with Stephen King soon, though, and then clear the Monkey King off my list a little later, after I've gone through my outstanding library books (why do long-time reserves always come in at once?).

Finally, my reading goals for 2024 include:

• doing a new readthrough. I really enjoyed the experience of blogging my way through Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, and I plan to do a few books regularly. My plan is to start with the final two books in C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy (having already read and reviewed the first, albeit 20 years ago) and if time permits, a nonfiction book to be determined
• with my Stephen King reading project coming to an end, moving on to another author: specifically, Patrick O'Brian, author of the Aubrey-Maturing series of historical fiction
• continuing my habit of reading drama on Saturdays over breakfast, but instead of focusing on a particular author (i.e. Shakespeare and Behn), choose instead from a wide variety of classic plays from the Renaissance to the modern era
• finish up some of the series I've started, but left hanging

Happy 2025, everyone.

The Chronicles of Amber, chapter 14: The conclusion

This is it. The final chapter of The Courts of Chaos and of the Chronicles of Amber. It's been a fun trip.

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

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This last chapter is more of an epilogue. Random, appointed the king of Amber by the Unicorn and attuned to the Jewel of Judgment by Corwin, successfully turns away the Chaos storm. He, too, is now gone, and only Corwin and his son Merlin remain on the field of battle where Amber conquered Chaos.

The Chronicles of Amber, chapter 13

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

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With the defeat of the Chaosians and the death of Brand, the Amberites won the day. But they lost their father Oberon, as well as their sister Dierdre and the Jewel of Judgment. Corwin collapsed and rested by the black road after Oberon's funeral procession passed. When he came to, Dara was riding past and berated him for killing her swordmaster, Borel, then left him to return to her own people. Corwin's son Merlin met him briefly, and they began to talk, but they were suddenly interrupted by the appearance of the Unicorn of Amber.

The Unicorn has the Jewel of Judgment around her neck. She gives it to Random, indicating that he has been chosen as the heir to the Amber throne. Though surprised, he accepts, and the other Amberites lay their swords at his feet.

Science Fiction-Free September '24 wrap-up

Last week I wrapped up the 2024 installment of my annual Science Fiction-Free September. I'm happy to proclaim this year's moratorium on SF novels (and, more broadly, commercial fiction) a success.

I planned for five novels, plus two extras if time remained. I completed six, plus a handful of plays by Aphra Behn and a few Japanese light novels (in English). So overall, I read 14 individual titles this September, with a number of them being short and light reading. But the main selections were anything but light! I noted last year that I'd chosen some heavy-hitting fiction, and the same is true this year.

The Courts of Chaos, chapter 12

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

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Using the new primal Pattern he had created before Brand stole the Jewel of Judgment, Corwin teleported himself to the battleground at the Courts of Chaos. There, Brand took Dierdre hostage as a bargaining chip to force Corwin to help him with his own plans. However, he was shot by a mysterious green-clad archer, causing him, Dierdre, and the Jewel fell into the Chaosian abyss. The archer revealed himself as Caine, who had faked his own murder to get to the bottom of the intrigue in Amber secretly. As they spoke, they were interrupted by three trumpeters on horseback emerging from the black road.