History Literature / Perelandra

* EvilIsNotAToy: Weston learns this lesson in the hardest way possible. Inbetween books, he consorts with demons while convincing himself that there is no difference between God and Satan, and they are merely two sides of the same all-encompassing spiritual Force. In his usual pompous fashion, he deliberately calls the Force into himself, at which point [[DemonicPossession his will is immediately subsumed by the devils]]. His last comprehensible words as himself are utterly terrified.

That being said: considering the later plot events following from even that one essentially non-malicious lie, and that he needs [[spoiler: Ransom]] explicitely to ''counteract'' the influence of TheCorrupter to prevent the end of Perelandra, [[spoiler: Maleldil]] has ''very'' [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness good reason]] to enforce CannotTellALie on [[spoiler: Ransom]] towards Tinidril. When [[spoiler: Ransom]] [[NoSell tries to]] lie to [[spoiler: Maleldil]] ''directly'' half a book later, the latter much less drastically just gives him a very disappointed Look until [[spoiler: Ransom]] stops it - and even gets ''the snark on'':

* {{Retcon}}: ''Perelandra'' turns one of the Martian languages from the first book into the language of every (non-terrestrial) planet, Old Solar. The problem with that is that the first book established that Mars has plenty of languages besides "Old Solar," so unless the CurseOfBabel selectively hit Mars, there's no reason for those languages to exist. The AuthorAvatar notices this discrepancy and finds it best to ignore it.

* ThePowerOfHate: An interesting example, in that it's justifiably used by the ''hero''. There's a moment when Ransom is physically battling the evil Dr. Weston [[spoiler:who just happens to be possessed by the Devil]] discovers not just a moment of Perfect Hate, but also just what to do with that hate, which allows him to actually overcome a far stronger enemy. Or to put it another way: knowingly, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu Yes He Did Just Punch Out Cthulhu]]. This is given a [[{{Justified}} theological justification]] as to why Ransom can do this and morally remain a good guy: Weston is [[spoiler:possessed by The Devil, and thus is pure evil, and pure evil is the only thing that righteously deserves to be hated]]. Note that hate is clasically defined as desire for a thing not to exist.

* TheDevilIsALoser: Or at least a disgusting child. As in his earlier novel ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'', Lewis was pretty intent on deconstructing the idea of Satan as a suave MagnificentBastard and [[{{invoked}} tried portraying him]] in ''Perelandra'' the way he thought a truly pure evil being would be like. Ransom comes to the realization that for demons, intelligence is a trait that they can put on or remove at will -- it's like clothes they wear rather than an innate characteristic. And based on the Un-Man's petty behavior whenever he isn't "working", it's clear he would rather be as unintelligent as little as possible. At one point, Ransom even specifically thinks that he would much rather face a suave Mephistopheles-type of demon than the thing he has to put up with. Lewis also wanted to make the point that, having renounced the source of all good, Satan has to renounce all good things, intelligence being one of them. His philosophical/ontological position is inherently insane, like a man sawing off a tree limb he's sitting on, but his rhetoric is clever enough to muddy the issue.

* TheDevilIsALoser: Or at least a disgusting child. As in his earlier novel ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'', Lewis was pretty intent on deconstructing the idea of Satan as a suave MagnificentBastard and [[{{invoked}} tried portraying him]] in ''Perelandra'' the way he thought a truly pure evil being would be like. Ransom comes to the realization that for demons, intelligence is a trait that they can put on or remove at will -- it's like clothes they wear rather than an innate characteristic. And based on the Un-Man's petty behavior whenever he isn't "working", it's clear he would rather be intelligent as little as possible. At one point, Ransom even specifically thinks that he would much rather face a suave Mephistopheles-type of demon than the thing he has to put up with. Lewis also wanted to make the point that, having renounced the source of all good, Satan has to renounce all good things, intelligence being one of them. His philosophical/ontological position is inherently insane, like a man sawing off a tree limb he's sitting on, but his rhetoric is clever enough to muddy the issue.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: The Un-man may be an ancient creature from the depths of space, but when it appears in ''Perelandra'', it has the appearance of a human body. The problem is, its body is always a little un-lifelike, as if its a corpse operated by a puppeteer (a good visualization is the primary villian in ''[[Film/MenInBlack Men in Black]]'') [[spoiler:After all, the Un-man is the very human Weston possessed by a being of pure mind.]]

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Ransom's thoughts about the upcoming physical fight with the Un-Man, pretty much - which he perceives as a SuicideMission. [[spoiler: Maleldil]] comforts him about it while telling him what he has to do by telling him he's got his back and that they are NotSoDifferent [[spoiler: ("my name is also Ransom")]] - though considering [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} who]] He is and how literal this name is there]], it borders on AssuranceBackfire.

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act ''itself'' of telling a lie becomes [[CorporalPunishment physically]] rather painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - the narration compares it to a vomit tearing all through him - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The hero has to prevent TheCorrupter from tempting alien Adam and Eve. He first tries to do this through debate, but the Un-Man relentlessly keeps "winning" the arguments through cunning lies, half truths, obfuscation and diversion. [[spoiler: By [[MissionFromGod direct command]] from God,]] the hero then settles matters [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim more physically]].

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Ransom's thoughts about the upcoming physical fight with the Un-Man, pretty much - which he perceives as a SuicideMission. [[spoiler: Maleldil]] comforts him about it while telling him what he has to do by telling him they are NotSoDifferent [[spoiler: ("my name is also Ransom")]] - though considering [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} who]] He is and how literal this name is there]], it borders on AssuranceBackfire.

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Ransom's thoughts about the upcoming physical fight with the Un-Man, pretty much - which he perceives as a SuicideMission. [[spoiler: Maleldil]] comforts him about it while telling him what he has to do by telling him they are NotSoDifferent [[spoiler: ("my name is also Ransom")]] - though considering [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} who]] He is]], it borders on AssuranceBackfire.

** The eldila are invisible, multi-dimensional aliens who have ruled the Solar System from the darkness of space and the edges of time, in keeping with the will of {{God}} and their love for the universe.

* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: Ransom's thoughts about the upcoming physical fight with the Un-Man, pretty much - which he perceives as a SuicideMission. [[spoiler: Maleldil]] comforts him about it while telling him whar he has to do by telling him they are NotSoDifferent [[spoiler: ("my name is also Ransom")]] - though considering [[spoiler: [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} who]] He is]], it borders on AssuranceBackfire.

* AsskickingEqualsAuthority: The hero has to prevent Satan from tempting alien Adam and Eve. He first tries to do this through debate, but the Un-Man relentlessly keeps "winning" the arguments through cunning lies, half truths, obfuscation and diversion. The hero decides to settle matters with good ol' fisticuffs.

* CannotTellALie: When Ransom tries on Perelandra, it is physically painful for him because - although he doesn't know it yet - he'll be acting as [[MissionFromGod Maleldil's representative]] in the upcoming confrontation; who of course will have none of it. His adversary Weston [[DemonicPossession (or rather, the thing that used to be Weston)]] naturally has no problem with it.

That being said: considering the later plot events following from even that one essentially non-malicious lie, [[spoiler: Maleldil]] has ''very'' good reason to enforce CannotTellALie on [[spoiler: Ransom]] towards Tinidril. When [[spoiler: Ransom]] [[NoSell tries to]] lie to [[spoiler: Maleldil]] ''directly'' half a book later, the latter much less drastically just gives him a very disappointed Look until [[spoiler: Ransom]] stops it - and even gets ''the snark on'':

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act ''itself'' of telling the lie becomes [[CorporalPunishment physically]] somewhat painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - the narration compares it to vomiting - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\

That being said: considering the later plot events following from even that one essentially non-malicious lie, [[spoiler: Maleldil]] has ''very'' good reason to enforce CannotTellALie on [[spoiler: Ransom]] towards Tinidril. He much less drastically just gives [[spoiler: Ransom]] a very disappointed Look until [[spoiler: Ransom]] stops it when the latter [[NoSell tries to]] lie to him himself half a book later.

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act ''itself'' of telling the lie becomes [[CorporalPunishment physically]] somewhat painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act of telling the lie itself becomes [[CorporalPunishment physically]] somewhat painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act of telling the lie itself becomes [[CorporalPunishment ''physically'']] somewhat painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\

* ZenSlap: Done by [[spoiler: none other than Maleldil]] of all ... people, to [[spoiler: Ransom]], for [[ILied lying]] to Tinidril. The act of telling the lie itself becomes ''physically'' somewhat painful and extremely nauseating to [[spoiler: Ransom]] - which quite emphatically conveys the disgust and disappointment. He [[WhatTheHellHero tells him off]] for it through their psychic link, too.\\
That being said: considering the later plot events following from even that one essentially non-malicious lie, [[spoiler: Maleldil]] has ''very'' good reason to enforce CannotTellALie on [[spoiler: Ransom]] towards Tinidril. He just gives [[spoiler: Ransom]] a very disappointed Look until [[spoiler: Ransom]] stops it when the latter tries to lie to him himself half a book later.

* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: As Ransom agonizes over how to deal with the Un-Man on Perelandra, this is what he eventually realizes he must do; he can never completely defeat the Un-Man in argument, since the Un-Man will never give up but will always simply switch to yet another tactic (even returning to previously failed strategies and all the while planting subtle seeds of self-absorption in the mind of the Queen with his endless narration of sleazy romance fiction) but he can kill him physically. Unfortunately, even this is trickier that it seems as there are no weapons or even sharp objects in the area where the first half of the story take place and Ransom has already thrown into the sea the gun that Weston (of course) brought with him precisely in order to ''prevent'' what is about to take place. Ransom is left with his fists and the Un-Man with his very long very ''very'' sharp fingernails. Ransom's efforts to dispatch the physical body of the Un-Man (originally Weston's body) make up a large part of the drama of the latter half of the novel.

* DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu: The eldila are invisible, multi-dimensional aliens who have ruled the Solar System from the darkness of space and the edges of time, in keeping with the will of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and their love for the universe.

* CannotTellALie: When Ransom tries on Perelandra, it is physically painful for him because the planet's purity abhors it. [[DemonicPossession Weston, or rather, the thing that used to be Weston]], seems to have no problem with it.

* ForbiddenFruit: In this [[TheVerse 'verse]], every planet's sapient inhabitants are given a single rule that is not to be broken. Earth's rule was the TropeNamer. Perelandra's denizens are not allowed to sleep on solid ground, and must return to one of the floating islands in the ocean. Lewis' conclusion seems to be that most of [[Literature/TheBible Genesis 3]] is merely window-dressing. All that matters is that Adam and Eve were ''tested'' (and failed); the ''form'' the test itself took (whether eating a literal fruit or sleeping on solid ground) is immaterial.

* HeavensDevils: Ransom mistakes the horrible insects below the Underworld for demons, only to realize that the creatures below the ground are just as much a part of God's creation as those on the surface.