Hence The Green Book (a fictional name given to what Lewis claimed was a very real book) was written, though its sloppiness in seeking to debunk manipulative appeals put at risk, claimed Lewis, our very ability to properly fight for the values we hold dear.

But these longings were in danger of being manipulated by propagandists, so said the authors of The Green Book, due to wartime propaganda while England and all of Europe were occupied with the Nazis (in 1943 when AoM was written) the specters of a Marxism claiming scientific validity as well as other evolutionary thought also loomed large at the time. “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us … we are far too easily pleased” argues Lewis for the validation of our longings. Joy and desire – hallmarks of Lewis’s unique approach to apologetics – lay the foundation for Lewis’s argument in the Abolition of Man. The themes of AoM – the rejection of natural, revealed morality in favor of a man-made one, the proposed domination of the many by the few, and the sacrifice of humanity for such “accomplishments” – are entertainingly on display throughout the entire Space Trilogy. Further, it is a story full of insights on gender, and we will see that these insights relate to the fundamental message of Abolition of Man ( AoM). Lewis’s Trilogy is thus more than merely entertaining Sci-Fi: “this is a tall story about devilry, though it has behind it a serious point which I have tried to make in Abolition of Man” Lewis states in the preface to THS. In the series, the sinless, unfallen planets of Malacandra and Perelandra endure the arrival of the characters Weston and Ransom from Earth (the Silent Planet), and their fallen ways and proffered temptations (particularly from Weston). The trilogy is set in a series of planetary explorations: first to the masculine-themed Mars (“Malacandra”) in Out of the Silent Planet ( OSP) then to the feminine Venus (”Perelandra”) in Perelandra ( PER), with the finale back on Earth (“Thulcandra” or the Silent Planet) in That Hideous Strength ( THS). Lewis’s ill-named Space Trilogy (‘ill-named’ for reasons that will soon be made apparent) is no exception in this sense.

Whether it be the swashbuckling defense of humanity in Captain Kirk or the divide between reason and emotion of a Commander Spock or Data, space seems to (rather oddly) bring out the humanity in its explorers. All good sci-fi series have at their heart some unique observation about man and his place in the cosmos.

Cosmic trilogy