Out of the Silent Planet

As a linguistics professor, physicist, and Leicester fellow respectively, Dr. Ransom, Dr. Weston, and Devine are all well-educated and hold status in the academic world. All three men have significant scientific knowledge that informs their actions during their intergalactic voyage and on Malacandra. Through these three characters, Lewis explores the roles of spirituality and science in navigating life.

Ransom differs from his fellow men of science in that he does not suppress his spirituality. Weston’s and Devine’s adherence to their rational earthly mindsets prevents them from experiencing the transformative spiritual power of the heavens while aboard the spaceship. While they, too, feel unexpected shifts in mood, they attribute these changes to the physical effects of space travel. While Ransom is aware of the science behind his experiences, he is also open to other perspectives. A key example of this is his decision that the old thinkers were more accurate in their assessment of space as a heaven-like place than modern scientists are in calling it cold and lifeless. His flexible viewpoint allows him to experience a spiritual awakening that begins on the spaceship and continues throughout his time in Malacandra. Along the way, his scientific knowledge guides his discoveries by instilling a sense of curiosity about the natural phenomena he encounters. Ransom’s spiritual revelations and academic interests feed into one another. This is particularly evident in the final chapter and postscript, when Ransom describes his continued search for knowledge about the phenomena he countered on Malacandra. He comes to accept beings like the eldila and Oyarsa as real and powerful while still searching for the science behind their otherworldly bodies. His desire to know more about them does not negate his belief in them as powerful divine figures.

Weston’s approach to science contrasts Ransom’s, illustrating how an unrelenting progressivism without moral purpose can do more harm than good. Weston believes that humanity’s scientific and medical discoveries make humans superior and entitle humanity to subjugate lower life forms. In Weston’s eyes, humans deserve to live forever, and he believes this would justify their violent colonization of other planets. When Ransom first meets Weston, Devine introduces his partner as an accomplished physicist who “has Einstein on toast and drinks a pint of Schrödinger’s blood for breakfast” (15), hinting at Weston’s violent approach to pushing the boundaries of science.

Through the contrasting characters of Ransom and Devine, Lewis denounces cruelty in the name of progress. However, he also demonstrates that science and spirituality are not enemies and can each hold an important place in a person’s life.

One of the most drastic contrasts between humans and the hnau is each species’ attitude toward death. The struggle against death is an aspect of the human experience that has existed since antiquity. In Out of the Silent Planet, Lewis explores this age-old dilemma by examining several alternative attitudes toward death.

Ransom, Weston, and Devine fear death, as all humans do. When faced with life-threatening dangers, they react with a basic human panic that sometimes causes them to act irrationally. Ransom even considers suicide when he first discovers that his captors intend him as a human sacrifice to the séroni. While Ransom comes to accept the possibility of his death during the voyage, Weston and Devine spend their time on Malacandra terrified that they will be killed at the hands of the other hnau. Ironically, they end up killing Hyoi out of panic that their own lives are in danger from the hrossa, unaware that Hyoi posed no threat. This tragedy suggests that paranoia about one’s death is unsustainable and even harmful.

While Devine fears his own death, Weston professes to be concerned with the extinction of humanity as a species. His motive for coming to Malacandra is to colonize the planet, thus allowing humans to survive if Earth becomes uninhabitable. He plans to repeat this process ad infinitum rather than accepting that nothing lasts forever.

The most dramatic contrast to the human attitude toward death is provided by the hrossa, who believe that death is entirely natural and not something to fear. To a hross, death and the subsequent return to the heavens are just as good as life. In the novel’s postscript, it’s revealed that hrossa’s deaths are scheduled—each hross knows from birth what year they will die, barring an unexpected event like the shooting of Hyoi.

The séroni represent a midpoint between humans and hrossa in their attitude toward death. To a sorn, the hrossian attitude toward is careless. Séroni believe in preventing death before its time (using medical interventions like oxygen masks), and they see life as something worth preserving wherever possible. However, like the other Malacandrian hnau, they do not dread death, believing that things cannot last forever because “that is not Maleldil’s way” (100).

At Meldilorn, Oyarsa explains to Weston that Malacandra is nearing the day of its planetary death. Each Malacandrian creature knows of their impending demise, but even the meekest among them is unafraid. Malacandra’s utopian status is partially due each inhabitant accepting their mortality rather than struggling uselessly to forever prolong their existence. Oyarsa’s words suggests that the most beneficial attitude toward death is neither complete carelessness nor terror—instead, it is wise to find a midpoint, allowing the finitude of life to enhance its beauty.