Perelandra will probably never cease to amaze me at the way that Lewis writes it. His intriguing story is only the smallest part of it. The best part for me are the characters.
My favorites being Ransom, the willing if somewhat initially inept hero, and the Evil Weston, who seems to be no longer human in his evil ways. He brings the evil into the world, the "Snake in the Garden" of Perelandra is nonetheless quite convincing in his arguments. He has one argument that stands out to me above all others in the book however, his trying to get the Green Lady to the fixed lands.
He uses the imagination as the gateway to opening the mind of the uncorrupted to the thought of sinning. It is a brilliant argument if i do say so myself. The Green Lady tries to explain to him that Maleldil has forbidden them from going over to the fixed lands, that the moving lands are theirs to keep.
But Weston responds Brilliantly:
"But he has never forbidden you to think about it. Might that not be one of the reasons why you are forbidden to do it - so that you may have a Might Be to think about, to make Story about as we call it?"
He makes it seem as if story telling itself is evil, which it might be. But that is not his point. His thought is to make the Lady think, which she is able to do. Why was she forbidden to go to the Fixed Lands? Was it because Maleldil wanted her to think about what was on the island while never actually going to it. He explains what making a story is to her. While it doesn't work, it plants in curiosity, making her wonder what was there in the fixed lands. Why couldn't she go? And in his mind, the more she thought and imagined, the more she would want to go, to discover for herself if her thoughts on the place was really how the fixed lands were.
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