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Inklings Forever Volume 4 A Collection of Essays Presented at the Fourth Frances White Ewbank Colloquium on C.S. Article 30 Lewis & Friends 3-2004 The iF sher Within the Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis's Perelandra James D. Lopp III Butler University Follow this and additional works at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Lopp, James D. III (2004) "The iF sher Within the Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis's Perelandra," Inklings Forever: Vol. 4 , Article 30. Available at: https://pillars.taylor.edu/inklings_forever/vol4/iss1/30 This Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the Center for the Study of C.S. Lewis & Friends at Pillars at Taylor University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Inklings Forever by an authorized editor of Pillars at Taylor University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INKLINGS FOREVER, Volume IV A Collection of Essays Presented at The Fourth FRANCES WHITE EWBANK COLLOQUIUM ON C.S. LEWIS & FRIENDS Taylor University 2004 Upland, Indiana The Fissure Within The Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra James D. Lopp, III Lopp, James D. “The Fissure Within The Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra.” Inklings Forever 4 (2004) www.taylor.edu/cslewis The Fissure Within The Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra James D. Lopp, III The April, 26 2002 issue of the “International narrative, Lewis re-mythologizes the account of the fall Jerusalem Post” features an article titled, “Sanctity and the reader is presented with the supposal that this between time and space” by: Shilomo Riskin. Riskin time, on Perelandra, there is a joyful turn of events—a states that the Hebrew word kadosh, or holy, literally “eucatastrophe” to use a word that Dr. Tolkien admired. means separate and exalted, an “other” which relates to An epic struggle of good versus evil unfolds as Elwin the most supreme “Other One.” Riskin then writes, Ransom travels from Earth to Perelandra and learns he “Rudolph Otto, in his work The Idea of the Holy, calls has been chosen to avert the fall of the King and Queen the holy the numinous, the mysterium tremendum; mind of this innocent, new planet. In this story, there are wrestles with language to discover a proper metaphor miles of paradisiacal terrain to be crossed and for exploring the aspects of life most related to the Holy wonderful truths to be experienced. Perelandra One.” The numinous allowed Shilomo Riskin to awakens the readers’ five senses and leaves readers experience Kadosh ((the holy) in a sacred atmosphere longing for a thousand more. where discourse between man and the Holy One is In writing Perelandra, Lewis remained at his post possible. When the “Christian Century” asked C.S. to tell his audience that the modern philosophy that has Lewis: “What books did most to shape your vocational been perpetuated by men like Bertrand Russell burdens attitude and your philosophy of life,” Otto’s The Idea of the human soul with questions such as: “What are you The Holy was on the list Lewis gave in response to this going to do when you find out that . all the monumental question (Hooper 752). If Shilomo Riskin inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, ventured to read C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra he could are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar enter through the open door of myth and breath the system, and that the whole Temple of man’s same sacred and mysterious atmosphere that gives one achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the unfettered access to live within the spiritual geography debris of a universe in ruins” (Kreeft 172)? In response of a world where each visitor experiences kadosh to such attacks on the human soul Peter Kreeft states, through many image-laden passages. For, Lewis created Perelandra as an exalted, living embodiment of the ”Philosophical arguments are needed to refute numinous where the reader learns language that allows the philosophy, but philosophical arguments one to venture into “. the aspects of life most related alone will not lift the spell. Only good magic to the Holy One.” defeats bad magic. We need a spell weaver, a With light hearted wit, Lewis circumvents the magician. When Tolkien’s son had to fill out a potentially toilsome endeavourer of placing Perelandra draft induction form, he filled in the blank for within a literary genre and tips his hat to the highbrow ‘father’s occupation’ with the word wizard. pretension within literary criticism by giving his work The same could be said for Lewis, especially the simple title, a “supposal”: for Perelandra asks the in Perelandra” (173). reader to suppose many things. First the reader is asked to suppose that two undefiled children of God live on a Lewis is a word-wizard of the highest order. He planet called Perelandra. Next Lewis supposes that the demonstrates the power of his pen by weaving a unique two children of God are destined for a temptation that spell that works deep within the human imagination to may lead to a fall that parallels the Biblical account of transport the willing to Perelandra where the reader is Adam and Eve’s fall on Earth. Yet unlike the Genesis permitted to travel with Ransom through the spiritual The Fissure Within The Spiritual Geography of C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra ● James D. Lopp, III geography composed of supra-rational terrain. Kreeft seeing the beam, not seeing things by it. Then states that we need mythmakers as well philosophers to I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. build the new ‘joyful cosmology.’ He writes: “. I Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. know of no one, except perhaps Tolkien, who has I saw no Toolshed, and (above all) no beam. contributed more to the building of this cathedral than Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at Lewis—especially in his fiction, more especially in the the top of the door, green leaves moving on “space trilogy,” still more especially in Perelandra” the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, (169). Lewis’s contribution in building a joyful ninety-odd million miles away, the sun. cosmology does not come through the role of the Looking along the beam and looking at the philosopher. His contribution comes from his beam are very different experiences (God In wellspring of imagination. The genesis of Perelandra The Dock 212). came through mental pictures of floating islands and seven lines of undated verse that mentions, “The alien Lewis continues: “We must on pains of idiocy deny Eve, green-bodied, stepping forth / To meet my hero from the very outset the idea that looking at is, by its from her forest home / Proud, courteous, unafraid, no own nature, intrinsically truer or better than looking thought infirm / Alters her cheek” (Hopper 220). along.” This is true; but then Lewis claims, “One must Perelandra is a world of images, mental pictures that look both along and at everything” (Italics mine 215). opens the door through which the reader may encounter This last statement is rich in wisdom when applied to the Wholly Other. These images go beyond the natural most circumstances. Yet, one does not need to look at bounds of fiction; they form a cohesive, progressive myth to encounter the truths myth conveys. To keep the sensory experiences which have the capacity to become reader within the light of the text is the objective of a a part of the reader’s life experience and may take their mythmaker. place next to one’s images of a childhood encounter The “Meditation In a Toolshed” analogy with the seashore, or a trip to the Scottish Highlands demonstrates that there are two perspectives one can where the sting of joy remains a memory of a memory. use when looking at the same thing. This dual In Perelandra, Lewis brings the numinous to the perspective view illustrates why there is a fissure in reader as he bypasses the need for rational explanation Perelandra. Being brought into the myth is analogous and conveys truth through myth by communicating “. to seeing by the beam of light. The rational dialogue is the sense of that which is not only grave but awe- analogous to looking at the beam of light and seeing inspiring” (Gibb 81). It is this awe-inspiring space of “specks of dust floating in it.” In deeply imaginative myth in Perelandra that permits and entices one to literature such as Perelandra, looking at the beam of personally move unfettered within the narrative and light from the outside works against the reader’s ability experience a unique stab of longing for paradise. Yet to fully enter into and remain inside the story. It is when the myriad encounters with the numinous one gains the reader is looking along the beam of light; that he or through reading Perelandra are interrupted by she is permitted to personally enter into the space of the impersonal philosophical dialogue between Ransom, myth within the story. the Queen, and the evil Dr. Weston. Lewis’s decision to Stella Gibbons, in her essay, “Imaginative incorporate this change in literary style imposes upon Writing,” from the book Light On Lewis, gives her view the image-driven current that teaches and delights the of what Lewis accomplishes in the imaginative sections reader. The reader becomes an impersonal bystander of Perelandra: instead of an active participant who is able to move freely within the height, width, and depth of the text.

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