Out of the Silent Planet

“There was another pause. “Come,” said Weston as last. “There is really no use in continuing this cross-examination. You keep on asking me questions I can’t answer: in some cases because I don’t know the answers, in other because you wouldn’t understand them. It will make things very much pleasanter during the voyage if you can only resign your mind to your fate and stop bothering yourself and us. It would be easier if your philosophy of life were not so insufferably narrow and individualistic. I had thought no one could fail to be inspired by the role you are being asked to play that even a worm, if it could understand, would rise to the sacrifice. I mean of course the sacrifice of time and liberty, and some little risk. Don’t misunderstand me” (Lewis 17).

            This particular passage found in the Out of the Silent Planet, struck me as interesting. With this book being a part of the earlier side of science fiction it shows how much science fiction has not changed. In almost most of the science fiction novels I’ve read there comes a point in the story where the main character or even the reader is required to take an open mind route to something new. It’s as if all sci-fi authors know that the unspeakable cannot be fathomed without an open mind. It is kind of like a child trying to an adult to understand something magical. It seems to be this universal thought between the science fiction and magical world that people cannot wrap their heads around something new or futuristic without putting away preconceived notions about the world. This passage reminds me of Narnia in a way. The children discovered the world of Narnia because they had the ability to believe it in. It seems that Weston had the ability to believe in a world outside of Earth and to the necessary steps to make these claims true. He is now asking Ransom to do the same. Overall this passage shows how Lewis can make magic and science fiction seem interchangeable in a sense.