I think I finally get Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet

That was pretentious. Let me try again: I finally think I understand something about Out of the Silent Planet.

Much better. Most of this excellent book was lost on me when I read it in high school, but I’ve really enjoyed it my second time through. At first my impression was that it is a science-fiction book about science-fiction. His jabs at H.G. Wells and the general ‘tentacled-monster’ mood of early 20th century sci-fi led me to believe this. He asks why our imaginations bring forth hideous beasts and malicious creatures when we picture the inhabitants of the skies. It seems to be a critique of the dominant style of contemporary science fiction.

As the book progressed, however, I realized that the scope was broader. Lewis writes not only about science fiction, but about our whole cosmology. His background in Medi346val studies (see The Discarded Image) led him to question the prevailing materialist cosmology of naturalism in which any life out in the reaches of space would likely be hostile.

Lewis saw the heavens as a glorious place and Earth as a pocket of rebellion and corruption amidst the grand Field of Arbol. The heavens revolve in perfect harmony, and the intelligences set to govern each planet approach human greed and petty quarrels with a fitting innocence and naieve wonder that any creature could be so ‘bent.’ In the second book Perelandra the mere idea of wanting something in excess was foreign and exceedingly difficult to explain.

Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong places, but it seems to me that our current culture lacks a strong coherent cosmology. A good cosmology would be scientifically sound, yet allow for the world to be the intricately designed system that it is. Naturalism fails to explain the inherent harmony and order (albiet subject to decay and entropy) present in the cosmos. The Med346val worldview is beautiful in its internal consistency, but things like geocentricism conflict with our observations. Without a cohesive cosmology, there seems to be a barrier between science and the Primum Mobile. Lewis tries to cross that barrier.

I think I get it. I get something, anyway.