Out of the Silent Planet

Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. The other volumes are Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. A fragment of a sequel was published posthumously as The Dark Tower.

According to biographer A.N.Wilson, Lewis wrote the novel after a conversation with J.R.R.Tolkien in which both men lamented the state of contemporary fiction. They agreed that Lewis would write a 'space-travel' story, and Tolkien would write a 'time-travel' one. Tolkien's story only exists as a fragment, published in 'The Lost Road and other writings' (1987) edited by his son Christopher.

Synopsis

The story begins with Elwin Ransom, a professor of philology, on a hiking trip in the English Midlands, knocking on the door of an isolated cottage in an attempt to find sleeping accommodations. The cottage is occupied by Ransom's former schoolmate Devine, whom Ransom remembers having cordially disliked. Devine, however, enthusiatically welcomes Ransom and offers him a room and a meal. As it turns out, Devine and his associate, Professor Weston, have ulterior motives: Weston is a scientist who has discovered a way to travel in space and the two men need another person to take with them on their next journey. Before he can consider escaping, Ransom loses consciousness, the result of having been surreptitiously drugged. When he wakes, he finds himself on a ship travelling though space (which Ransom sees as "Deep Heaven") to the planet Malacandra. While on the journey Ransom overhears Weston and Devine talking about whether they should again drug Ransom before they turn him over to the aliens on Malacandra, the sorns, or allow him to stay conscious. He decides to escape as soon as he gets a chance.

Soon after the three land on the strange planet, Ransom gets his chance to run off into the unknown forests. He wanders around, finding many differences between Earth and Malacandra, such as that all the lakes, streams, and rivers are warm, the gravity is significantly less, and the plants and mountains are strangely tall and thin.

Ransom runs into an intelligent native of Malacandra, a hross named Hyoi. He becomes a guest for a couple of weeks at Hyoi's village, where he uses his philological skills to learn the language of the hrossa and finds out about their culture. Then he is asked to participate in a hnakra (plural hnéraki) hunt. After killing the hnakra, Hyoi is murdered by Devine and Weston, who are trying to find Ransom. Ransom is then told by an eldil, a creature made of very faint light, that he needs to meet Oyarsa, the eldil in charge of the planet. On the way, Ransom runs into the creature that he has feared ever since he heard of them, a sorn. He finds out, though, that the séroni are peaceful and kind. The sorn, Augray, ends up taking Ransom the rest of the way to Oyarsa.

Once Ransom gets to where Oyarsa lives he meets another one of the species on Malacandra, a pfifltrig. Eventually Ransom gets his meeting with Oyarsa, a peaceful being who merely wants to have a conversation with him. Through the conversation Ransom finds out that there are Oyérasu (the plural) for each of the four inner planets in our solar system. The Oyarsa of Earth, called Thulcandra (the silent planet) by Oyarsa, has turned evil and has been restricted to Thulcandra by Maleldil, the ruler of the universe. Ransom is ashamed at how little he can tell Oyarsa about Earth and how foolish he and other humans seem to Oyarsa. While the two are talking, Devine and Weston are brought in guarded by hrossa because they have killed three hrossa. Oyarsa humiliates them by dissecting their characters and beliefs.

Oyarsa lets Weston and Devine leave the planet and try to get back to Earth, as long as their supplies do not run out. Ransom goes along on the dangerous trip, and in the end they all make it home. Ransom then questions whether all that happened was true or he only was dreaming. He returns to believing his trip to be true when a friend writes him asking whether he has heard of the medieval Latin word "Oyarsa" and knows what it meant. Ransom then dedicates himself to the mission that Oyarsa gave him before he left Malacandra: stopping Weston from further evil.

Themes

Obviously, the eildils are meant to be angels. Oyarsa is the planet's archangel, and Oyarsa's superior, Maleldil, the creator of Mars, is meant to be God. One of the issues in Out of the Silent Planet is that Earth's Oyarsa became "bent," destroyed all life on the Moon and most of the life on Mars, and was forcibly banished inside the Moon's orbit. Since the eldils, who fill space (or "the heavens," which are depicted as warm and bright due to the Sun) know nothing about what goes on inside those boundaries, Earth is called Thulcandra, "the silent planet." While Earth has fallen into evil, Mars has not. This represented one of Lewis's concerns about space travel; that fallen humanity would have nothing to offer other life in space other than our depravity.

While Devine's depravity is simply greed, Weston's is more complex. Weston has "bent" self-preservation and the well-being of others into an ideal of preserving humanity—though he admits he has no idea what form humanity will take in the future, or even if the future of humanity is another, non-human species. To Weston, this does not matter. The preservation of humanity is the important thing; and if necessary he will destroy every inhabitant of Mars in favor of his species. He will also sacrifice Ransom—it is the ideal, not people, that matters.

The concepts of space and other planets in this novel are largely taken from medieval cosmology. For more information on it, see C.S. Lewis's The Discarded Image, a series of lectures on this cosmology that were published after his death.

Hrossa, Séroni, Pfifltriggi

The hrossa (singular hross) resemble otters except that they are somewhat taller and thinner than humans. They live in the low river valleys and specialize in farming, fishing, and performing arts such as dancing and poetry. Their technical level is very low, simply because they are not interested in raising it. The boats that they build are similar to our canoes.

The séroni (singular sorn; the plural is sometimes given as sorns) are thin, fifteen-foot-high humanoids with coats of pale feathers and seven-fingered hands. They raise livestock on the high plateaus above the valleys, where they breathe much thinner and colder air than man. They are the scholars and thinkers of Malacandra, specializing in science and abstract learning. Their technical level is futuristically high, though they usually just design the machinery, which is then built by the pfifltriggi. Similarly, they do not write or compose written works of history or fiction as they feel the hrossa are superior at it.

The pfifltriggi (singular pfifltrig) have tapir-like heads (with a bulge at the back containing the brain) and frog-like bodies; they lean their elbows on the ground when at rest and sometimes when working with their hands. Their movements are quick and insectlike. They are the builders and technicians of Malacandra. They build houses and gadgets thought up by the sorns. They also are miners who especially like to dig up "sun's blood" or gold. They are the only species to wear a form of clothes and even wear goggles to protect their eyes.

The eldila (singular eldil) are creatures made of a very faint light—though even this doesn't quite work as a description, as we find in the sequel, Perelandra. They can move all around the planet and even out into "Deep Heaven". They are almost invisible to the human eye, but all the species on Malacandra can see them. Those on Malacandra work for Oyarsa as messengers and maintainers of the planet.

All four of these races are "unfallen": free of the tendency to evil and sin that plagues humans. Ransom describes the emotional connection between the races as a cross between that of equals and that of master to pet, something he feels is unattainable to fallen humans.