Tammy’s Reviews > Out of the Silent Planet > Status Update

As he cuts, chips of stone fly off. The crude picture shows their spaceship and three humans, all based on Ransom’s portrait. They aim for idealization, not realism. He asks how all three creatures have the same speech. They actually have their own language but choose to speak the language of the hrossa, not because they rule but because they are poets and singers. It does not understand his Earth-bound speaking.

He looks down at the sound of tapping and a pfifltrigg makes a stylized picture of him. Later generations will only believe it if it is stylized. Pfifltriggi are the most alien of the three. It looks like an Arthur Rackham dwarf. Oyarsa has ordered the pfifltrigg to make a portrait of Ransom who laughs at the thought of posing. The creatures carries around tools suited to its work. Its body is made for mining.

He studies the stylized drawings of sorns, hrossa, and pfiffltriggi. There’s a curious wavy, flamelike figure with wings. Birds from early times are shown. The Oyarsa is directing the creatures to make furrows. Each of the three hnau had a different role in the process of making channels. He studies a diagram for some time before realizing it’s a diagram of the solar system. The Oyarsa is cut out of Earth’s picture.

He watches ten sorns wade up to their waists. A lot of visitors are arriving so this eases the burden on the hrossa. He feels like a new boy at school and does not mix with the crowd. He eats some groundweed and decides to walk some more as it cools down. The sorns wander around the coastlines so he decides to move further up and in. He finds a grove near an avenue of monoliths with curious carvings.

He is uncomfortable walking up the hill, so Ransom sticks to the perimeter and makes a loop. The grounded is cushiony and soft. He senses the silvery voices of the eldila. The groundweed rustles because of the eldila. He feels like the island watches him, and he is eembarrassed. He is hungry and tired. He is tempted to take a nap outdoors. He watches passengers come onto the island.

A gong and mallet! Augray strikes the gong which floods Ransom with excitement. He studies metal etchings that remind him of prehistoric drawings and Norse or Celtic jewelry. It seems to tell a story. A hross paddles a boat to them and Augray introduces Ransom from Thulcandra. The hross is not surprised. As Oyarsa has not called for Augray, Ransom offers him his watch. Augray wonders humans can’t use nature’s clock.

There are tall, yellow flowers that are the size of trees. The architecture and the grove of trees have a classical appearance. The sky is pale blue. This was, of course, Meldilorn. He hears falling water and smells a very light sweet fragrance. They come to a path leading into the purple forest and he sees a gong and a mallet made of greenish-blue metal. Augray strikes the gong.

Ch. 17 Ransom sees a red cloud on the horizon. Augray tells him that sandstorms kick up in the northern desert. Sometimes they descend on the handramit and choke the hnau. Fortunately, that one heads into the desert. Sometimes Ransom asks to be put down so that he could walk and stretch his numb legs. In the valley he sees a sapphire lake, 12 miles in diameter. In the center is a red island, rising from the water.

The sorns see that they cannot rule themselves without Oyarsa and eldila. Moreover, only having one kind of hnau makes them limited in perspective. Engaging with an other gives the hnau on Malacandra more sympathy. Ransom is embarassed even though he knows what they say is true.

They visit a cave with books which are rare. The hrossa stopped making poetry books because it kills poetry. Ransom asks what happens if they forget but Augray tells him it is better to remember and Oyarsa always remembers and will remind them if necessary. Their host is a scientific sorn and they ask Ransom probing questions to learn about life on Thulcandra. Ransom realizes that humans are flawed in their eyes.