Student Question
Can you summarize the Postscript of C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet?
Quick answer:
The postscript of C. S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet reveals that the protagonist, Elwin Ransom, collaborated with Lewis to turn his incredible tale into a novel, as no one would believe his story of space travel to Mars. The narrative merges religious themes with science fiction, contrasting humanistic and technological viewpoints through characters Ransom and Weston, and introduces the concept of divine planetary rulers, or Oyarsa, governing planets under the supreme Maleldil.
Summarize Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis.
Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis is the the first book in a trilogy sometimes called the Space Trilogy or Cosmic Trilogy, consisting of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. In this trilogy, C. S. Lewis merges his traditional religious themes with science fiction. Although the setting is fantastic, and not meant to reflect actual science or scientific speculation per se, it does include space travel to Mars and Venus.
In the book, the protagonist Elwin Ransom is a professor of philology at Cambridge and the antagonist Dr. Weston is a physicist. One represents the humanistic outlook that Lewis favors and the other a narrowly technological and scientific viewpoint.
At the opening of the book, Weston kidnaps Ransom and takes him to Malacandra (Mars) in a space ship. The two humans meet the three intelligent species who inhabit...
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the planet and an Oyarsa, a divine planetary ruler. Each planet, apparently, has an Oyarsa, acting as a deputy for Maleldil, who rules the entire universe. The Oyarsa for earth has become evil, and thus earth has fallen out of touch with the rest of the universe (and thus become the "silent planet" of the title).
Eventually Ransom and Weston return to earth, and Ransom, because no one would believe his story to be true, collaborates with Lewis to write the tale as a novel.