WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:11.439 Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom 2 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:15.160 on the past between primary secondary worlds. I'm doctor Andrew Snyder, 3 00:00:15.400 --> 00:00:22.519 and I'm glad that you're here. Hey there, welcome back. Today, 4 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:24.719 we're going to be continuing with our material from the 5 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.760 fictional Philosophy of C. S. Lewis course with the main 6 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:31.160 content on Parilandrum. Now, before we get to that, I 7 00:00:31.199 --> 00:00:34.079 do want to remind you that my current course on 8 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:37.960 Plato' Stoicism Until we Have Faces is now underway, and 9 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.280 so if you want to get that lumped in with 10 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:42.359 the courses that are coming up, make sure that you 11 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:45.560 become a Tier three annual member this week. 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Become a 28 00:01:28.879 --> 00:01:32.000 twier three annual patron, get access to this course, the 29 00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:35.159 platostosis until we have faces, and all courses that begin 30 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:38.120 within that yearly term, as well as of course, full 31 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:41.120 access to the discord, all of our Mythic Mind podcasts 32 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:43.680 delibered into one feed, and so forth. But for now, 33 00:01:43.719 --> 00:01:46.760 let's go ahead and get into perilandrum, beginning with a 34 00:01:46.840 --> 00:01:50.879 rendition of C. S. Lewis's Evolutionary Hymn performed by Hannah Gilmore, 35 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.879 the same Hannah Gilmore who just wrapped up a Latin 36 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:55.760 course for us, and so if you want to learn 37 00:01:55.799 --> 00:01:58.480 introductory Latin, make sure that you check out Hannah's course. 38 00:01:58.519 --> 00:02:00.719 I'll link that in the show notes, and patrons of 39 00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:02.760 Mythic Mind get half off her course, and so make 40 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:04.719 sure they check that out. Send me a message. If 41 00:02:04.760 --> 00:02:07.519 you need information about that the fread let's go ahead 42 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:09.599 and get into perilandru. 43 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:18.520 Lead us save lotion, lead us up of futures and 44 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:29.439 lister chop us, change us protas sweet us for sagnationest 45 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:41.520 spare growing gassing yet prograssing lead us. Nobody knows where 46 00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:53.759 wrong gorgeous joy sorrow in the present water they while 47 00:02:54.000 --> 00:03:04.439 there's allway shamp to morrow wildly evy onword way, never 48 00:03:05.159 --> 00:03:14.800 knowing where we're going, we can ne go stract to 49 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:20.800 w tever firytion. 50 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:32.479 Or postavy, maturn, hairy, squashy or constation bl the side 51 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:34.080 or square of. 52 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:44.319 Stone, tuskdor toothless, mild, ruthless towards that tnal God we 53 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:48.960 hearn ask not fit. 54 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:53.639 God or travel breathrand. 55 00:03:53.159 --> 00:04:00.439 Lest your words imply static norms of God good and 56 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:04.159 vlasin play. 57 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:15.039 To a throne, don high such calastic candy, elastic abstract yardsticks, 58 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:24.040 sweet night for two long half sages mainly lo lost 59 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:32.199 grade nature simple text. He who runs can read it 60 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:44.000 plainly conasguals. What comes next by evolving life is solving 61 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:53.519 all the questions we per blast oh. Then value means 62 00:04:53.800 --> 00:05:04.519 survival value. If our progeny spreads and spawns and lesage 63 00:05:04.920 --> 00:05:18.360 trival that will prove fstty far from pleasant by present standards. 64 00:05:19.680 --> 00:05:22.040 It may well. 65 00:05:22.360 --> 00:05:58.480 Be hello, welcome back as we get ready for Parlandrum. Now, 66 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:00.319 before we get started, I want to get many thanks 67 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.600 to our own Hannah Gilmour for giving us that great 68 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:06.399 rendition of C. S. Lewis's evolutionary hymn. And we'll be 69 00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:08.000 looking at the lyrics for that and just a little 70 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.560 bit later in this video. And I was kind of 71 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:12.720 debating with myself as to whether I include that for 72 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.720 Perilandra or whether I hold it off for that hideous strength, 73 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:18.759 and in the end I settled on both. Really, we 74 00:06:18.839 --> 00:06:22.759 see one continuous theme building throughout this series. In Out 75 00:06:22.759 --> 00:06:24.879 of the Side of the Planet, you know, Weston is 76 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:29.639 portrayed as this scientific progressive right He's concerned about the 77 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.879 next step in human evolution. What is it going to 78 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:36.519 mean for humanity to evolve, to progress, to turn into 79 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.079 whatever it is that comes next. We saw a lot 80 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:41.920 of that really come out during Wesson's conversation with Oyarsa, 81 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:45.240 when oars brings up the fact that Weston seems to 82 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:49.360 have this great love for humanity and for progress, but 83 00:06:49.399 --> 00:06:52.639 he doesn't seem to actually love any particular humans. So 84 00:06:52.680 --> 00:06:56.920 he has this love, this worship, this idolatry for simply 85 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:01.199 man in the abstract and progress in the abstract without 86 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:04.879 any clear understanding as to where it is that he's going. 87 00:07:05.319 --> 00:07:07.839 I think of that horrifying scene in Willy Wonka on 88 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:10.480 the older one Gene Wilder, where they're going through that 89 00:07:10.519 --> 00:07:13.319 tunnel and he's singing things about you know, there's no 90 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:16.480 knowing where we're going. The flames of hell keep growing, 91 00:07:16.720 --> 00:07:19.120 and so we're just kind of progressing, we who knows where, 92 00:07:19.399 --> 00:07:23.439 but ultimately we aren't really progressing, we're actually descending. And 93 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:26.480 we're going to see that play out in Perilandra that 94 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:31.279 in Weston's vain pursuit of reaching upward, he is in 95 00:07:31.319 --> 00:07:34.759 fact actually being pulled downward, and so what he sees 96 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:39.079 as transcendence is actually a descent. It's a being brought 97 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:42.920 low rather than being brought high. Those who most grasp 98 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:46.360 for power are typically grasped by power. And remember at 99 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.319 the end of Out of the Silent Planet in that 100 00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.920 final chapter, and then in that PostScript, you know, Lewis 101 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.759 comes out and tells us that Weston, which are put 102 00:07:54.759 --> 00:07:57.360 in quotation marks, and then he says, or the forces 103 00:07:57.439 --> 00:08:01.040 behind Weston are going to continue to play a leading 104 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:03.879 role in the decades to come unless we do something 105 00:08:03.959 --> 00:08:07.000 about it. And so what are those forces that are 106 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.319 at play in Weston? Well, and out of the silent planet, 107 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:13.560 it seems to be something like unbridled science, you know, 108 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:15.720 science for the sake of science, advancement for the sake 109 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:17.920 of advancement, without asking the question what is it that 110 00:08:17.959 --> 00:08:21.560 we're advancing toward. And then we're gonna see in Perilandrum 111 00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:25.360 that the forces at work behind Weston might be something 112 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:29.720 more diabolical, maybe even demonic. And so, really, the leading 113 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:33.559 forces behind Weston, it's not just this scientism, it's actually 114 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:37.720 something demonic. It's actually something diabolical. And then of course 115 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:40.600 in that hideous strength, you know, I've spoilers at this point, 116 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:43.159 but we're gonna see those threads really come together where 117 00:08:43.159 --> 00:08:45.279 we say, okay, maybe the pursuit of progress for the 118 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:49.080 sake of progress and the demonic are actually one and 119 00:08:49.240 --> 00:08:52.320 the same. I mean, in many ways, Satan really is 120 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:57.720 the quintessential progressive. He is moving away from established reality, 121 00:08:57.840 --> 00:09:00.600 trying to pave new paths, and that's that we're going 122 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:03.120 to talk about moving forward. But I mean, if you 123 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.639 know you're Milton, this is especially going to sound like 124 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:11.000 Satan from Paradise Lost right. He is the freedom fighter 125 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:13.120 of swords. He is somebody who falls in love with 126 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:15.919 his own reason, his own creativity, and in so doing 127 00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:18.440 seeks to become his own God. And we in turn, 128 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:21.559 as the terrestrials living under this fallen Arkhan, tend to 129 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.879 do the same thing. We tend to follow his influence, 130 00:09:25.039 --> 00:09:27.440 and so it makes sense to include that evolutionary hymn 131 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:30.720 in Perilandra as well as in that Hideous Strength. But out, 132 00:09:30.759 --> 00:09:35.399 let's go ahead and get moving Perilandra. By the way, 133 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:38.000 just I love these old, you know, eighties looking sci 134 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.519 fi covers in the older editions. All right, so Perilandra. 135 00:09:42.279 --> 00:09:43.639 Now we start off with what I think is just 136 00:09:43.679 --> 00:09:48.879 a brilliantly well done creepy scene as C. S. Lewis himself, 137 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:52.399 as the character in his story, is going to visit Ransom, 138 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:57.440 and along the way he just starts to feel at disease. 139 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.679 He starts to feel anxious. He says, I was shocked 140 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:04.960 to find that I mentally use the word afraid up 141 00:10:05.039 --> 00:10:07.399 till then I tried to pretend that I was feeling 142 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.000 only distaste or embarrassment, or even boredom, But the mere 143 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.840 word afraid had let the cat out of the bag. 144 00:10:15.480 --> 00:10:19.360 I realized now that my emotion was neither more nor less, 145 00:10:19.720 --> 00:10:24.000 nor other than fear. And so he's met with fear. 146 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:27.159 It's a very haunting walk from the train station to 147 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:32.519 ransom cottage, and he tarries to talk about why now 148 00:10:32.519 --> 00:10:35.000 there are at least a couple things going on here. 149 00:10:35.320 --> 00:10:37.840 One part is that, okay, we know, as the readers 150 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:41.240 and Lewis himself would discover soon in the story, that 151 00:10:41.519 --> 00:10:44.200 one reason for his fear is that he is quite 152 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.600 literally being haunted. He's being haunted by these bent Eldla, 153 00:10:47.919 --> 00:10:51.039 by servants of the devil that are trying to keep 154 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:55.080 him from reaching Ransom's cottage. But also he's just sort 155 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:57.440 of dwelling on all of these things that are wrapped 156 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:02.120 up in who Ransom is now, and especially his engagement 157 00:11:02.159 --> 00:11:06.879 with the community of spiritual beings, the Oyarsa of Mars, 158 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.399 the Ildeala that have continued to visit with Ransom. And 159 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:14.159 he finds this all very unnerving because it's kind of 160 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.559 like a you know, fairy tales becoming real. And when 161 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.679 fairy tales become real, your understanding of what reality is 162 00:11:20.799 --> 00:11:23.039 starts to fall apart, and in turn, you start to 163 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:25.840 lose a context for who you are and for the 164 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:28.279 things that are valuable. As we're going to see in 165 00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.799 conversations toward the end of the story, you start to 166 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:34.480 lose your center, you start to lose perspective over what 167 00:11:34.600 --> 00:11:37.360 is actually valuable, and you start to enter into the 168 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:40.440 perilous realm, as Tolkien would call it. This is the 169 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:44.200 realm where the categories that you have are upset and 170 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:46.039 you have to find a new path and you have 171 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:48.600 to find out how this fairy telle logic works. So 172 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:50.639 what is real? How do you even operate in this 173 00:11:50.759 --> 00:11:53.759 kind of setting? And so not only is he being haunted, 174 00:11:54.039 --> 00:11:57.840 but he's thinking about what it means to live in 175 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:01.519 this strange new world that he's find himself in. I'm 176 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:04.519 going to try to refrain from reading long passages in 177 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:07.840 this video because well, you've already read this yourself, but 178 00:12:08.039 --> 00:12:09.519 I do want to read this because it gets out 179 00:12:09.519 --> 00:12:12.480 an important theme that we see throughout Lewis as well 180 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:16.120 as perhaps particularly in the Ransom series. So Lewis writes, 181 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:19.159 The truth was that all I heard about them, that is, 182 00:12:19.200 --> 00:12:22.360 the Eldela, served to connect two things which one's mind 183 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:25.320 tends to keep separate, and that connecting gave one a 184 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:27.679 sort of shock. We tend to think about non human 185 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:32.960 intelligences and two distinct categories, which we labeled normal and supernatural, respectively. 186 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:36.080 We think in one mood of mister Wells's Martians or 187 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:38.840 his Selenites. In quite a different mood, we let our 188 00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:42.320 minds loose on the possibility of angels, ghost fairies and 189 00:12:42.360 --> 00:12:44.919 the like. But the very moment we are compelled to 190 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:48.080 recognize a creature in either class is real, the distinction 191 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.600 begins to get blurred, and when it is a creature 192 00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:54.279 like an Eldell, the distinction vanishes all together. These things 193 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:57.480 were not animals to that extent one had to classify 194 00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.679 them with the second group. That they had some kind 195 00:12:59.720 --> 00:13:03.120 of a material vehicle whose presence could in principle be 196 00:13:03.240 --> 00:13:06.960 scientifically verified. To that extent they belonged to the first group. 197 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:10.399 The distinction between natural and supernatural in fact broke down, 198 00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:13.039 and when it had done so, one realized how great 199 00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:15.679 a comfort it had been, how it had eased the 200 00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:19.559 burden of intolerable strangeness which the universe imposes on us 201 00:13:19.559 --> 00:13:22.080 by dividing it into two halves and encouraging the mind 202 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.600 never to think of both in the same context. What 203 00:13:24.679 --> 00:13:26.440 price we may have paid for this comfort, in the 204 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:29.120 way of false security and accept a confusion of thought 205 00:13:29.320 --> 00:13:31.320 is another matter, and I think I talked about this 206 00:13:31.399 --> 00:13:33.639 in the Out of the Silent Planet video where in 207 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:37.120 on Stories Lewis talks about how there are really at 208 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:40.120 least two different kinds of fears we can have. We 209 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.600 can have a fear of what something might do to us, 210 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:46.240 but we can also just have a fear that something 211 00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:49.440 is that the very existence of something, you know, say 212 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:53.279 a ghost, a fairy, maybe even an angel. Right, even 213 00:13:53.320 --> 00:13:56.600 those of us who might say confessionally we believe in angels, 214 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:01.120 that's a very different thing than actually believing that angels 215 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.639 are in the primary world, That there are spiritual realities 216 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:07.759 taking place around us and in the cosmos that we 217 00:14:07.799 --> 00:14:12.639 can't neatly classify into our material understanding. Because again, even 218 00:14:12.679 --> 00:14:17.120 those of us who aren't necessarily materialists philosophically speaking, very 219 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:19.120 much live like we are a lot of the times. 220 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:22.720 If we're honest and so coming to terms with the 221 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:25.360 fact that there really are things that we can't neatly 222 00:14:25.440 --> 00:14:29.159 categorize in material terms. That is kind of upsetting. It's 223 00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:32.440 upsetting to our understanding of reality. It's upsetting to our 224 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:35.360 understanding what's really going on, of what is valuable, of 225 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:38.200 kind of where the center of things is to be found. 226 00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:42.600 But Lewis is constantly trying to upset this In Planets Imperiled, 227 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:45.960 David Downing says, but Lewis wants to subvert the reader's 228 00:14:45.960 --> 00:14:50.320 certainty about the barriers between the natural and supernatural, between 229 00:14:50.360 --> 00:14:53.799 myth and history. He is hoping that after finishing the 230 00:14:53.879 --> 00:14:57.480 Ransom trilogy, readers may give every peculiar slant of light 231 00:14:57.559 --> 00:15:01.720 a second look and think, perhap, why that's only the 232 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:05.440 moonlight flittering through the trees and yet for a moment, 233 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:09.519 And so Lewis wants to give us this enchanted worldview 234 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:14.000 where where maybe things are not always exactly as they seem. 235 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:17.679 Maybe there is a richness to this cosmos that does 236 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:21.519 not fit neatly within the boundaries of our typical ways 237 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:26.080 of understanding. Remember, the rebble of fairy is the world 238 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.480 that contains things that live kind of on the borders 239 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:33.279 of perception, the borders of understanding, and maybe, just maybe 240 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:36.320 we live in a kind of fairy tale that our 241 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:41.879 modernist presuppositions are simply unable to see. And then Donnie 242 00:15:41.919 --> 00:15:44.480 goes on to say throughout the Ransom trilogy as well 243 00:15:44.480 --> 00:15:47.519 as the Narnia Chronicles, Lewis's strategy is to make readers 244 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:50.320 sense that his fantasy world is more real than they 245 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:54.120 might have supposed, and that their quote real world is 246 00:15:54.240 --> 00:15:57.519 more filled with a fantastic than they might have supposed, 247 00:15:58.320 --> 00:16:02.960 including this week's module essay Myth Became Fact, which pairs 248 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:06.759 very well with Tolkien's essay on Fairy Stories, and when 249 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:10.759 she says that the Gospel contains a fairy story. But 250 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.039 what Tolkien and Lewis are both getting out there is 251 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:16.000 not saying that the Gospel isn't real. What they're saying 252 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.679 is that the Gospel is the true fairy story. It 253 00:16:18.759 --> 00:16:23.039 is the ultimate melding of the supernatural and the natural, 254 00:16:23.399 --> 00:16:27.200 of the spectacular and the mundane. It is the myth 255 00:16:27.360 --> 00:16:31.559 that became fact in history. So Lewis talks about how 256 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:34.840 there are many different pagan myths of some god dying 257 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:37.720 and rising, who knows when and who knows where But 258 00:16:37.799 --> 00:16:41.200 what we get in Christianity is the real thing. We 259 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:45.639 get the transcendent God who enters into the natural sphere 260 00:16:45.919 --> 00:16:48.600 at a specific point, at a specific time, in a 261 00:16:48.679 --> 00:16:51.440 specific place, and say, what we have here is the 262 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:55.399 ultimate melding of the fantastical and the mundane, the supernatural 263 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.600 and the natural. And so if you're operating under the 264 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:01.879 Christian worldview that always has, then we should absolutely have 265 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:06.400 enchanted vision. We should absolutely recognize that the natural world 266 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:09.400 is by no means simply natural, that the natural world 267 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:13.559 is nested into a supernatural reality, and that that is 268 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:16.799 the most real thing. And then continue this theme about 269 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:19.559 how simply the existence of something might be upsetting might 270 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.440 cause a certain mood within us, regardless of what it 271 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:26.480 actually does. On stories, Lewis says the dangerousness of the 272 00:17:26.599 --> 00:17:30.119 giant is, though important, secondary. In some folk tales, we 273 00:17:30.119 --> 00:17:32.880 meet giants who are not dangerous, but they still affect 274 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:35.839 us much the same way. A good giant is legitimate, 275 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:40.519 but he would be twenty tons of living earth, shaking oxymoron, 276 00:17:41.000 --> 00:17:44.880 the intolerable pressure, the sense of something older, wilder, and 277 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:49.480 more earthly than humanity, which still cleave to him, and 278 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:52.680 he goes on to say that there's a certain reality 279 00:17:52.880 --> 00:17:56.119 to giants, that there should be such a thing that 280 00:17:56.160 --> 00:17:59.559 instills with us the kind of mood, the kind of feelings, 281 00:17:59.559 --> 00:18:02.240 the kind ofs that a giant would instill within us. 282 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:05.000 And for that reason, there is a kind of reality 283 00:18:05.079 --> 00:18:07.880 to the idea of giants. Regardless of whether or not 284 00:18:08.279 --> 00:18:11.920 you know factual giants ever lived, the idea of a 285 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.799 giant is something real. It is something that should impose 286 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:16.960 a certain mood, a certain feeling upon us. And so 287 00:18:17.000 --> 00:18:19.279 I just bring this in to talk about how again, 288 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:22.559 the existence of something, regardless of what it does, you know, 289 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:24.400 whether it's good or bad. In the case of giants, 290 00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.200 simply the existence of a giant, the supposed existence of 291 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:29.559 a giant, should do something within us, and that is 292 00:18:29.599 --> 00:18:32.119 a real and that is a natural relation that it causes. 293 00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:36.720 And so too with the Eldeala and with Lewis. All right, 294 00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:39.200 So Lewis or the Lewis character eventually makes it to 295 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:41.839 Ransom's collarage, and he stumbles around to the dark because 296 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:44.720 you know, Ransom is in't there right now, and he 297 00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:47.119 trips over this strange object, which at first he can't 298 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:49.119 really see well in the dark, but eventually he realizes 299 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:53.640 it is coffin shaped, and so this introduces this death 300 00:18:53.720 --> 00:18:55.839 theme that death is going to play an important role. 301 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:59.200 Now take note of the fact that Ransom is being 302 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:02.599 commissioned by the oarsa of Mars Mars, who is the 303 00:19:02.640 --> 00:19:07.200 patron influence over both warriors and over martyrs. Right you 304 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:10.720 can even see Mars the word Mars in the word martyr. 305 00:19:11.000 --> 00:19:15.559 And so this is the influence that gives resolute strength, 306 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:20.480 either in victory in combat or in death in a 307 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:24.400 noble martyrdom standing against the bent forces that are working 308 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:28.079 against you. In either case, your positive relationship with the 309 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:33.440 Martian influence is going to lead you to maintain rigid 310 00:19:33.880 --> 00:19:38.119 straightness against a bent world. And so he is going 311 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:40.599 to both engage in combat, but also he is going 312 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:45.640 to experience a kind of death. Symbolically speaking, Ransom is 313 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:50.359 going to die on Perilandra and be born again, and 314 00:19:50.480 --> 00:19:53.920 in so doing he is going to give life to 315 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:57.920 Peralandra itself. And we'll see that as we move forward. 316 00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:01.079 But right now we just have this as a anticipation 317 00:20:01.279 --> 00:20:04.519 of things that are going to happen. And another thing 318 00:20:04.519 --> 00:20:07.160 I should say on this, because this is actually going 319 00:20:07.200 --> 00:20:11.839 to introduce a theme that we're going to see throughout 320 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.160 Lewis's stories, especially when we get to till we have Faces. 321 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:18.240 And I can also think it's an application here with 322 00:20:19.000 --> 00:20:22.359 lion Witch and the wardrobe as well as the Silver Chair. 323 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:25.319 But more on that when we get there. But for now, 324 00:20:25.359 --> 00:20:27.079 what I want to point out here is the fact 325 00:20:27.119 --> 00:20:30.880 that Okay, so Perilandra is the planet. It is the 326 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:34.519 influence of love of desire. Remember what we talked about 327 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:37.759 with medieval cosmology here, and so she is the plane 328 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.240 of love, of desire, of comfort. She is a feminine ideal. 329 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:47.240 And what we see here is that ransom commissioned by Mars, 330 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:50.279 which is the masculine ideal. Right, He is going to 331 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:55.720 be received into Perilandra, just as a coffin is received 332 00:20:55.839 --> 00:20:58.519 into the Earth. And now I don't want to get 333 00:20:58.559 --> 00:21:00.039 too weird with this. I don't want to get to 334 00:21:00.039 --> 00:21:02.839 to Freudian with this, but as we move on, we're 335 00:21:02.839 --> 00:21:04.519 actually going to see that we're going to move in 336 00:21:04.559 --> 00:21:08.599 a very Unfreudian direction. But I do want to emphasize 337 00:21:08.640 --> 00:21:12.119 the fact that he is being sent by Mars, the 338 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:16.480 masculine planet, to be received into Venus, even as a 339 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:20.319 coffin is received into the ground, and we'll just leave 340 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:21.880 that there for now, but I want to at least 341 00:21:22.160 --> 00:21:25.559 highlight that theme here on the introductory level. But now 342 00:21:25.559 --> 00:21:29.039 we'll keep moving now. As Ransom is explaining to the 343 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:31.720 Lewis character that he's been commissioned for this task that 344 00:21:31.759 --> 00:21:34.519 he doesn't really understand right, he's being sent to Perilandra. 345 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:37.920 He doesn't really know why. And he anticipates that the 346 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:41.440 Lewis character might think that, you know, Ransom sees himself 347 00:21:41.480 --> 00:21:44.119 with some kind of meglomania, that you know that he's 348 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:47.839 something really special. And Ransom pushes it back against that, 349 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:49.799 and he says, don't imagine I've been selected to go 350 00:21:49.839 --> 00:21:53.240 to Perilandra because I'm anyone in particular. One can never see, 351 00:21:53.400 --> 00:21:56.200 or not till long afterwards, why anyone was selected for 352 00:21:56.240 --> 00:21:59.039 any job, and when one does, it is usually some 353 00:21:59.240 --> 00:22:02.119 reason that leaves no room for vanity. Certainly it is 354 00:22:02.200 --> 00:22:04.480 never for what the man himself would have regarded as 355 00:22:04.480 --> 00:22:07.440 his chief qualifications. I rather fancy that I'm being sent 356 00:22:07.480 --> 00:22:09.799 because those two black guards who kidnapped me and took 357 00:22:09.839 --> 00:22:13.319 me to Malacandra did something which they never intended, namely, 358 00:22:13.680 --> 00:22:16.960 gave a human being a chance to learn that language, 359 00:22:17.079 --> 00:22:19.200 and so part of the reason why he's being sent 360 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:22.039 to Perlandra, part of the reason why he's qualified is 361 00:22:22.079 --> 00:22:25.079 because he knows Old Solar right. He knows the language 362 00:22:25.079 --> 00:22:27.400 that has spoken on other planets. He knows the language 363 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:31.079 of the heaven. But this isn't something that he acquired 364 00:22:31.079 --> 00:22:32.839 by himself. It is not something he possibly could have 365 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:36.000 acquired by himself unless he were kidnapped and brought to 366 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:39.440 Malacandra to begin with. And this is something that happened 367 00:22:39.920 --> 00:22:43.799 on one hand because bent men Weston and Divine kidnapped him 368 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:46.519 and brought him there against his will. But ultimately even 369 00:22:46.599 --> 00:22:51.359 that was an active divine providence working through bent souls. 370 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:55.160 Remember I talked about in the previous video how when 371 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:59.640 Ransom first encountered Weston, Divine Divine gives us a bye 372 00:22:59.680 --> 00:23:03.319 Joe when he recognizes who Ransom is, And that is 373 00:23:03.559 --> 00:23:06.240 a key to the reader that ultimately what's happening here 374 00:23:06.519 --> 00:23:10.319 is not just blind happenstance. Ransom didn't stumble anywhere in 375 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.400 the grand scope of things, nor was it entirely random 376 00:23:13.680 --> 00:23:17.599 that Western End Divine happened to kidnap him. No, Ultimately, Jove, 377 00:23:17.920 --> 00:23:21.920 Jupiter Christ himself was orchestrating all of these things, using 378 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.400 even bent Hanau in order to make a straight line 379 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:30.759 that would bring Ransom into the great celestial dance and 380 00:23:30.839 --> 00:23:33.279 in so doing allow him to bring others into that 381 00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:35.839 dance as well. And so there is a straight line 382 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:41.119 that's happening, even working through bent souls. And this makes 383 00:23:41.119 --> 00:23:43.559 me think of the Silmarillion, and if you don't know 384 00:23:43.559 --> 00:23:46.400 your Silmarillion, and if you don't know your Simarillion, and 385 00:23:46.440 --> 00:23:49.640 specifically the delay, the beginning section of the Silmarilion, which 386 00:23:49.680 --> 00:23:52.799 tells Tolkien's creation myth. Right, you have all of the 387 00:23:52.880 --> 00:23:56.359 iinor you have the gods. You know. To stick with 388 00:23:56.400 --> 00:23:59.319 our study, maybe we can call him Oyarsu. They are 389 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:03.759 all singing songs together in harmony, in praise of Eru, 390 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.559 that the god figure, and in so doing they are 391 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:12.039 laying the foundation of what will be the created material order. 392 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:15.480 But Melcor, who is the Satan figure, he starts to 393 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:17.799 sing his own tune. He tries to bring the music 394 00:24:17.839 --> 00:24:20.720 in a different direction, one that ultimately centers around him. Right, 395 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:24.200 he is the progressive figure. He is the Satan figure. 396 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:27.200 But Eru, he stops the music and he addresses Melcor 397 00:24:27.440 --> 00:24:30.880 and he says, and thou, Melcor, shalt see that no 398 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:34.000 theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source 399 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.440 in me, Nor can any alter the music in my 400 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:40.240 Despite for he that attempeth this shall prove but mine 401 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:43.440