"An Expostulation"
Against too many writers of science fiction
Why did you lure us on like this,
Light-year on light-year, through the abyss,
Building (as though we cared for size!)
Empires that cover galaxies
If at the journey's end we find
The same old stuff we left behind,
Well-worn Tellurian stories of
Crooks, spies, conspirators, or love,
Whose setting might as well have been
The Bronx, Montmartre, or Bedinal Green?
Why should I leave this green-floored cell,
Roofed with blue air, in which we dwell,
Unless, outside its guarded gates,
Long, long desired, the Unearthly waits
Strangeness that moves us more than fear,
Beauty that stabs with tingling spear,
Or Wonder, laying on one's heart
That finger-tip at which we start
As if some thought too swift and shy
For reason's grasp had just gone by?
~C S Lewis, Poems
On this date:
1938 Out of the Silent Planet (the first volume of Lewis's Space Trilogy) is published by The Bodley Head, London.
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I have book cover #2 (Macmillan 23rd printing 1978)--that funky green one with the glass spheres and teeny little guy in a space suit. My entire Space Trilogy set is in terrible shape. The pages are almost brown, they are so yellowed, and they are starting to fall out of the binding. *eyes Amazon.com* hmm...looks like I need to look for a new set!
So what do you think? Does Lewis fall prey to the same habit the science fiction writers he is criticizing here? Does he bring along the "same old stuff" to Mars and Venus for his tales?
Hmmm.....I have a shiny new copy....and the one I want is #2....;p
I think thats the first poem I've ever read science fiction. I don't think The Space Trilogy would fall under that catagory, at least Perelandra wouldn't. I've read *alot* of scifi, and nothing has come even close to those concepts.
But that is interesting that he wrote poem against science fiction, I wonder, was it written before or after he wrote the space trilogy? Or even Narnia for that matter.
Oh, and I have #10
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) lists it as first being published in 1959, in the June issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Pretty cheeky to publish it there, I'd say!
I think you are absolutely right, Sandi. I think Lewis isn't particularly skewering ALL science fiction here, just the type of stories we would probably call "pulp science fiction" now. That is, non-science fiction plots, set in space or on a space ship.
I found a link to the book: From Narnia to a Space Odyssey : The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C.S. LewisWhen I read the reviews, it seems there was actually very little correspondence between the two, and it was mostly pretty formal, rather than a "War" as the title might lead you to believe.
Hi Rachel!
Thanks for commenting. Nice to see that Sandi shares her account name ;-)
Have you ever read any of Ray Bradbury's science fiction? I'm specificially thinking of The Martian Chronicles. I really enjoy his writing, first, because he does bring in the:
"Strangeness that moves us more than fear,
Beauty that stabs with tingling spear,"
element really well (so that we marvel at the world of Mars through his eyes). But second, he also manages to show that no matter where man goes, man's problems remain essentially the same.
I love Bradbury's style of writing immensely. Another favorite of mine is Dandelion Wine, sort of a semi-autobiographical look by Bradbury at small-town America in the early part of the 1900's through the eyes of a 12-year old boy. Just an amazing book--I totally recommend it.
Someone could start a blog about Ray Bradbury and have enough material to last years.....hmmmmmm. I'm really looking forward to the remake of Fahrenheit 451 when they get it done. Here is a link to his Birthday letter on his 82nd birthday. Let's see, that would make him 84 now! And still actively writing. Wonderful! He is a national treasure.
Oh, and one more thing--my girls won't share anything with each other. I just meant it's nice to see sisters getting along once in awhile. =)
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