Dawn
ENGL 3850-02N
Sci-Fi Lit
Dr. Coats
Feb. 27, 1997
Out of the Silent Planet
I have always enjoyed C.S. Lewis, so I knew before I opened this book that it would be very entertaining. I was not disappointed. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet was a very good read. I enjoyed the whole story and I didn't think that it went too slow. It actually was a pretty fast paced book, except when Ransom, the main character, dwelled on some aspect of the adventure that fascinated him.
The depiction of Mars in this book was completely opposite of H.G. Wells and E.R. Burroughs. These creatures were friendly and not violent towards each other or newcomers to the planet. In fact, everyone got along just fine with the exception of Dr. Devine and Dr. Weston, who just didn't "get" this culture and had some very mistaken attitudes and beliefs about these Martians. Dr. Weston, especially had a lot of things wrong.
The scene that stood out most for me involved Dr. Weston and his bizarre ideas. The scene started with the hrossa bringing Devine and Weston to Oyarsa because they have killed three hrossa, one for no reason. Oyarsa questions the men as to why they killed the hrossa. Weston, because he can't see Oyarsa believes that the voice he hears is a hrossa witch doctor doing ventriloquisom. He notices a sleeping hrossa and believes it to be the witch doctor and starts talking like an Oriental. He thinks he intimidating the "natives," when in fact he looks so silly to them. At one point he dances around showing them the pretty string of beads he'll give them in return for their total obedience to him (otherwise he would kill them with his gun or as he put it: "pouf!, bang!, we kill. . ."). This causes every creature there to laugh at him. He even mistakes the rumble of laughter to be them trying to scare him! It ends with Oyarsa ordering Weston to be dunked in cold water several times because, as Oyarsa says, "there is too much blood in it." It is a hilarious scene and I laughed so hard when I read it. Weston's obvious misunderstanding of the Martians (Malacandrans, from the Martian point of view), makes that a scene I will not soon forget.
All in all, this is a great book and I hope to someday finish the whole trilogy. As usual, C.S. Lewis's work is very entertaining and I highly recommend this book to everyone.