Thoughts On The Trilogy
I thought it was really interesting how the story of Earth was played out. I liked the analogy of the "silent planet" given to Earth due to her fallen nature. The way "Lucifer" (or whom I symbolized to be Lucifer) was cast out to the moon was also incredibly interesting. I just loved all the analogy and metaphor for who represented Jesus and God. It gave a new life to an old myth -- but it didn't make the myth any less true. The new twist on the universe that Lewis gave was great. Often in science fiction the view we give Earth and her inhabitants is very superior to that of others. Earth seems to be depicted, and I suppose it, very narcissistic. Which, in my opinion, inhibits growth. I believe Weston should this very well and epitomized the "greater than thou" attitude of humanity at times. Weston believed in the greater good -- but who says what the greater good is? By which value system and hierarchy are we judging the value of one life against the next? Weston exemplified human's greed and need to over come nature. Is it because nature is uncontrollable so that humans feel we must contain it so that it doesn't "harm" us or is it that nature possesses a power that we crave? Are humans jealous of the power of nature and angry that they can't figure out it's causes and happenings?
The largest thing that I took from this book and the class discussions was just the symbolization in the book as it relates to the story of God and Jesus and the fall of man but also how it defined human perception. In my studies I look a lot at perception and the way society influences it. Lewis brings a lot to the table in the discussion of human perception. Lewis, through the different languages of the planets, shows the importance of language in naming symbols and assigning meaning to things and objects. Knowledge of things and then being able to not only name them but include others in this naming allows for us to create meaning and, most importantly, create culture based on that shared meaning. Like the book says, we cannot see things accurately, or at all even when faced with it, unless we know what they are. There has to be a filter by which we process images and assign meaning. We process things through a filter that is added to and taken away from as we go through life. It is our history and our experiences that maintain the filter by which we see the world. Therefore, if we have not seen something or experienced it there is no way for us to know it.
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