Perelandra {III}

"And now the experiences of the past day and night began to make a direct assault upon his faith... It was all very well to talk of Maledil: but where was Maledil now?... Knowledge remained an abstraction. Mere bigness and loneliness overbore him."

Remember Lewis' definition of faith: "The art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods." Bad days happen. Sometimes several bad days happen in a row. It's easy to forget what we once knew when all we feel is loneliness or depression.

"Say a child's prayer if you can't say a man's."

 "There was, no doubt, a confusion of persons in damnation... they were melted down into their Master, as a lead soldier slips down and loses his shape in the ladle held over the gas ring." 

This is a horrible (and probably accurate) conception of Hell... elsewhere in Mere Christianity and The Screwtape Letters Lewis has expressed his opinion that, "Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been," and that the goal of the devils is to devour and consume humanity. Real personality, real individuality can only be found in Christ.

Perelandra {II}

"Were all the things which appeared as mythology on earth scattered throughout other worlds as realities?" 

This betrays Lewis' great love of myth, and the fact that myth led him to a belief in Christianity makes this sentence intriguing to me.

Thinking about when Ransom is drenched with "an ice-cold shower bath," that brings to his mind the phrase, "die of a rose in aromatic pain," I think it represents baptism.

"Such was the refreshment that he seemed to himself to have been, till now, but half-awake. When he opened his eyes... all the colours about him seemed richer and the dimness of that world seemed clarified... The golden beast at his side seemed no longer either a danger or a nuisance." 

It's cool to think of baptism in that way.

Ransom christens the trees, just as Adam was charged with naming all the creatures in the Garden of Eden.

Interesting thought:

"This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards... was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself - perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defence against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film."

Perelandra {I}

In Perelandra, Ransom "described us as being in a state of siege, as being, in fact, an enemy-occupied territory, held down by eldils who were at war both with us and with the eldils of "Deep Heaven," or "space."" This is the exact same term that Lewis used in Mere Christianity when he said, ""Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is." :)

Of the fallen eldila - "Oh, they'll put all sorts of things into your head if you let them," said Ransom lightly. "The best plan is to take no notice and keep straight on. Don't try to answer them. They like drawing you into an interminable argument." This is both like and unlike the devils of The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape advised Wormwood that their best work was sometimes done keeping things out rather than putting things into the heads of mortals. However, I feel that there is still a similarity between the tempting eldila and the devils.

"If you mean, Does my reason accept the view that he will (accidents apart) deliver me safe on the surface of Perelandra? - the answer is Yes," said Ransom. "If you mean, Do my nerves and my imagination respond to this view? - I'm afraid the answer is No. One can believe is anesthetics and yet feel in a panic when they actually put the mask over your face. I think I feel as a man who believes in the future life feels when he is taken out to face a firing party. Perhaps it's good practice." This is very much like what Lewis said in Mere Christianity - "Faith... is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods."