February and March

Long Book (kind of....)

Usually during Lent and the end of the winter slump we read a long book, but this year we are going to take the sprit of the category instead of the letter and read a series (the page count will be similar to a long book)! For Lent we are going to read The Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) by C.S. Lewis (or the Ransom trilogy, because Lewis didn’t like the word Space…or maybe we could call it the Cosmos Trilogy. We can discuss options after we’ve read it!) This was another category I let people vote on and I’m so glad this is what you picked because we haven’t read a Lewis book since The Great Divorce (August 2022) and it feels like we’re missing something! I love Lewis, but these are books that I simultaneously love and have some possible criticism of (which I would love to be convinced out of). So I am looking forward to chatting about them with other very intelligent people!

There is a Literary Life Podcast series on Out of the Silent Planet and Close Reads HQ has a series on all three books for paid subscribers (which I am because they provide some of the best literature content on the internet and I am in the practice of self-educating as an adult reader).

With that I am going to leave you with another Lewis lover and let her wax eloquent about The Space Trilogy!

Autumn Kern

of The Commonplace graciously donated her time and talent to help us get excited to read this lesser read series by Lewis. Autumn is a Classical Charlotte Mason homeschooling mom who has so much wisdom about the philosophy of education. I encourage you to check out her podcast, YouTube channel, and maybe even join Common House. She is an inspiration as a mother, homeschooler, and reader! Here’s what she has to say about The Space Trilogy…

Before there was Aslan, there was Ransom.

But, I’m already getting ahead of myself.

—

The name C.S. Lewis rings a bell with most people. If you’re talking to a high schooler, they may mention The Screwtape Letters. Pass by a young college student, they might be marking up a copy of Mere Christianity or bemoaning modernity with The Abolition of Man. Talk to a homeschool mother and/or her children? The Chronicles of Narnia is all the rage.

Lewis’ reach is wide. His mark on a reader, deep. What was it about the Oxford don that made him the everyman able to breathe life into the imaginations of readers from five to ninety-five through story, theology, and academic address? I’m willing to wager it was his ability to enchant.

In the 1930s, when Lewis looked at modernity, he saw an evil enchantment settling in. (It sounds dramatic, I know, but stay with me.) Modern philosophy, theology, science, and war stripped the world of wonder. We reduced the grandeur of God to a planet of natural materials for our gain. We were nearing the Second World War with the memories of the First’s atrocities still fresh in our collective consciousness. We removed mystery and religion from the public spheres and made Rationalism king. With our own hands, we dismantled reality and destroyed objectivity.

What could help at a moment like this? How could we be brought back to a view of the world as a theatre of God’s glory? How could we again see the cosmos as an ordered, harmonious, hierarchical gift? Well, an evil enchantment always needs a counter, a good enchantment. Lewis knew the way to break an evil spell—even one settling deep into the soul of a person or a generation—was through story.

Out of the Silent Planet, the first book in The Space Trilogy, was Lewis’ first successful work of fiction. He would continue to write two more books: Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. Through these books, and a man named Ransom, Lewis re-enchants the world and the story we tell ourselves about Reality. For a moment (or the many days it will take you to read The Trilogy), Lewis pulls back the veil and brings the muddled moments of our days into crisp focus: a wounded world, a cosmic battle, the modern machine, and a Ransom to heal it all.

Even with my love for Lewis and my twinkly-eye way of seeing the world, I fall back into the materialistic notion that this is all there is. The days are loads of laundry and reminders of how to speak kindly and vacuuming the van and making sure someone is being homeschooled. I want to avoid all suffering through convenience and dehumanizing rhythms. I’m too easily enchanted in the wrong way.

What I need—what we all need—is the good enchantment to fight back. A storied soul knows it must act, and what the world needs is for us to choose what is true, good, and beautiful because we believe it matters and stretches beyond our homes and present realities.

So I give you The Space Trilogy and hope it does its magic on you.

If you missed January, here it is!

Stay tuned for April featuring fellow book club member

Mary Tappe

and our yearly detective novel…

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