Perelandra, Malcandra, Thulcandra, and Every other Andra not Mentioned...

The universe is linked in and through Maledil.

That is what I gathered in the last chapter of C.S. Lewis' bizzare novel Perelandra.

Oh yeah, "blessed be he," and welcome to the "Great Dance."

Lines like this one are sure to open some eyes:

The edge of each nature borders on that whereof it contains no shadow or similtude. Of many points, one line; of many lines one shape; of many shapes one solid body; of many senses and thoughts one person; of three persons, Himself (184)

It (dust) is farthest from Him of all things, for it has no life, nor sense, nor reason; it is nearest to Him of all things for without intervening soul, as sparks fly out of fire, He utters in each grain of it the unmixed image of His energy.(185)

Yet this seeming also is the end and final cause for which He spreads out Time so long and Heaven so deep; lest we never met the dark, and the road that leads nowhither, and the question to which no answer is imaginable, we should have in our minds no likeness of the Abyss of the Father, into which if a creature should drop down his thoughts for ever he shall hear the echo return to him. (187)

Hmmm, now that was eh, interesting?

Am I reading Thomas Aquinas or C.S. Lewis (both whom I dislike greatly)?

I mean I am not bashing poetic imagery; I love a good poem. I like imaginative descriptions and sayings concerning the nature of God and many other theological/philosophical subjects. Yet, I find this blather of paintball imagery, utterly absurd and frankly ridiculous. I literally felt as I was reading the last chapter of this novel that I was being sucked into a black hole from whence I would never return...maybe that is what ole Clive intended all along?

I do get what he is saying because I understand what message the eldil (or are they Mars and Venus, Aphrodite or Ares?) are trying to convey. The vastness of Maledil (God) and how small everything is in him and how large everything is made by him. Maledil is what holds the seemingly insignificant (as well as the significant) things together. Ransom is just a small part of a massive story that is so beyond the scale of his mind that it cannot make rational sense (the speech of the eldil certainly did not). The "Great Dance" is a dance between the persons who make Maledil and they only include the rest by his sovereign pleasure and goodwill.

If Ransom had understood this at the beginning, then he would not have fretted so much when the hideous professor/demon/possessed child Weston arrived to try to stir things. Sometimes we must just trust to the goodness and greatness of God and simply let him work in us and through us. That is a difficult thing for our culture of "movers and shakers" to grasp. Ransom's destiny was unknown to Ransom but it was known to Maledil and Maledil had him at the right place at right time.

Why?

Because Maledil knows his universe; his wisdom is beyond measure. Maledil is what cause all to participate in the "Great Dance" in the first place. We are perfectly safe and secure only in the hands of Maledil. He is the only one who really matters anyway. This story is not about Ransom, it is about Maledil's love for a strange world with green people called Perelandra.

If that did not make any sense, then try to read chapter 17 again...good luck.