Random CS Lewis question

[tree_and_leaf]

I was thinking - mid washing-up - about Voyage to Venus, specifically about the way in which the plot requires Ransom to kill Weston, or at least to kill his body if we assume that Weston's soul really is gone and not capable of being restored.

Why isn't some kind of exorcism a possible solution, and why doesn't it even occur to Ransom that it might be?

I mean, yes, the series is full of plot holes, even if you prefer to pretend that That Hideous Strength didn't happen, or alternatively that the Director isn't actually Ransom at all given that he isn't actually all that much like him, Symbolic Wounds aside*, and could have benefited from a rigorous beta reader. But that one seems particularly odd.


* In the immortal words of Dorothy L Sayers, "I liked Ransom better before he took to lying on sofas like the Heir of Redclyffe", though I think she was actually being a little unfair to Yonge there.

Comments

[caulkhead]

Can you exorcise something if the exorcisee actually invited it in (I seem to remember Weston did, though I might be wrong)?

On a Watsonian level, that's all I can think of. Even so, you'd think Ransom would at least consider it, though.

[legionseagle]

I think it's explained in the book that the Un-Man is NOT precisely Weston possessed; it's more like Weston's a zombie. After all, his transformation included his biting the neck off a brandy bottle and swallowing the broken glass. So I think (which is very convenient for Ransom, of course) that Weston has already been "engulfed" by the forces of Evil beyond hope of recall before the whole attempt to tempt The Lady begins.

[philosophymom]

It's called Voyage to Venus on your side of the pond? I'm disappointed in me for not knowing that, since Perelandra is my favorite of the Ransom books.

Is CSL on the record regarding exorcism?

[serriadh]

I wondered if CSL just didn't consider exorcism part of a modern, robust Christianity, but if Ransom is (at least partly) inspired/patterned on Tolkien, surely an exorcism would have been something he'd consider.

[kivrin]

Tangent to say I've just started reading Yonge in the past year and a half or so - hooray, Project Gutenberg - and though I have yet to read the great classic Heir of Redclyff I enjoyed Pillars of the House so very much. I've also read The Daisy Chain, The Trial (I wasn't expecting a legal trial to feature in it along with spiritual trials!), and The Young Stepmother. I couldn't really get in to Dyvenor Terrace but I'm still toting it about on the e-reader. Do you have any favorites?

[molniya]

*delurks* May I ask what you mean when you say 'Watsonian' in this context?

In any case, now I want to reread Out of the Silent Planet!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Weighing in very late to say that I think Sayers was probably thinking of Charlie Edmonstone as the sofa-lyer, not the actual Heir.