I was also thinking a lot of The Great Divorce a lot in the scene with Weston trying to "impress"/intimidate the Hross/Oyarsa. It reminded me especially of the vain woman who is attempting to seduce, not realizing how ridiculous she looks.
Having read Tolkien’s letters twice since my first read of this, I had so much fun seeing the influence of Tolkien’s personality and philosophy on this work.
He really loved the first two (and hilariously resisted his identification with Ransom) but rather disliked That Hideous Strength, which he felt bore the influence of Charles Williams’ mythological/philosophical concerns and ultimately ‘ruined’ the trilogy. I have actually marked up his letters where he most discussed the Space Trilogy and would be happy to share more of that!
Kelsie and team - really enjoying your work on the Ransom trilogy! Would be fun to have you on my podcast as a guest and nerd-out on OSP or all 3 books.
One quick thing - the narrator makes his first appearance in the opening paragraphs of chapter 5 with pronoun “I”. Chapter 5 is among my favorite chapters of OSP. So much going on in that chapter…
How did I miss the narrator’s actual first appearance!?! Thank you for the great catch! I actually flipped through chapter 5 for about 3 milliseconds yesterday to see if I’d circled the “I” but forgotten about it when writing the roll ups, but I hadn’t! Looks like I totally missed it. So thank you for the catch!
Yes, I’m sure any of us would love to talk more space/heavens/Ransom :D
Hey Brian! That sounds so fun! Jess is heading up the Ransom books so let us know if you just want her or if you want us all to show up! We’d love to chat!
Great insights, Jess!
I was also thinking a lot of The Great Divorce a lot in the scene with Weston trying to "impress"/intimidate the Hross/Oyarsa. It reminded me especially of the vain woman who is attempting to seduce, not realizing how ridiculous she looks.
Having read Tolkien’s letters twice since my first read of this, I had so much fun seeing the influence of Tolkien’s personality and philosophy on this work.
Agreed! It causes me to have a hunch that Lewis was smiling when he wrote certain lines for Ransom :D
Did Tolkien have strong feelings about these books (in comparison with his Narnia opinions)?
He really loved the first two (and hilariously resisted his identification with Ransom) but rather disliked That Hideous Strength, which he felt bore the influence of Charles Williams’ mythological/philosophical concerns and ultimately ‘ruined’ the trilogy. I have actually marked up his letters where he most discussed the Space Trilogy and would be happy to share more of that!
I would love to hear! That Hideous Strength is by far my favorite so I am very interested!
Kelsie and team - really enjoying your work on the Ransom trilogy! Would be fun to have you on my podcast as a guest and nerd-out on OSP or all 3 books.
One quick thing - the narrator makes his first appearance in the opening paragraphs of chapter 5 with pronoun “I”. Chapter 5 is among my favorite chapters of OSP. So much going on in that chapter…
How did I miss the narrator’s actual first appearance!?! Thank you for the great catch! I actually flipped through chapter 5 for about 3 milliseconds yesterday to see if I’d circled the “I” but forgotten about it when writing the roll ups, but I hadn’t! Looks like I totally missed it. So thank you for the catch!
Yes, I’m sure any of us would love to talk more space/heavens/Ransom :D
Hey Brian! That sounds so fun! Jess is heading up the Ransom books so let us know if you just want her or if you want us all to show up! We’d love to chat!