"'For one thing, the two sides, as you call them, have begun to appear much more clearly, much less mixed, here on Earth, in our own human affairs - to show in something a little more like their true colours.'
"'I see that all right.'"
CS Lewis, Perelandra IN Lewis, The Cosmic Trilogy (London, 1990), pp. 145-348 AT 2, p. 162.
"'If these days his agents, demons and such, can operate more openly than they were able to for a long time, why, then, we're better able to spot them at it and outwit them.'"
-Operation Luna, 5, pp. 40-41.
A Difference
"'The other thing is this. The black archon - our own bent Oyarsa - is meditating some sort of attack on Perelandra.'"
-Lewis, op. cit., ibid.
"'Look,' I said, 'we know the Adversary's active in every universe, or at least in every one where fallen human beings live.'"
-Operation Luna, p. 41.
Literary and Explanatory Notes On The Above Quotations
(i) In Perelandra, Elwin Ransom converses with CS Lewis whereas, in Operation Luna, Steven Matuchek converses with his brother-in-law.
(ii) The second passage quoted from Perelandra immediately follows the first such passage whereas the second passage quoted from Operation Luna immediately precedes the first such passage.
(iii) An "Oyarsa" is a planetary angel. "Perelandra" is Venus. The Oyarsas of certain Solar planets were previously regarded as gods, and one goddess: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
(iv) The word, "bent," is used to express the view that evil is a distortion of goodness, not an equal and opposite power.
(v) The Adversary mentioned by Matuchek is "active in every universe" whereas the bent Oyarsa of Thulcandra (Earth), confined to his planet, is able to attack Perelandra only through a human agent.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm more dubious than not of what Steven Matuchek said. I think the Adversary would prefer that his agents be able to hide their true nature and goals, the better to corrupt and deceive human beings. The Johannine Church got as FAR as it did because so many believed it had been founded by the Highest. I don't see all that MANY people being willing to knowingly serve ultimate EVIL.
Compared to the actively malign and malevolent Morgoth, the Satan figure of Tolkien's Middle Earth mythos, I find Lewis' "bent Oyarsas" rather weak and unconvincing. Morgoth is far more like the Adversary.
Ad astra! Sean
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