Fascinans and the Forbidden Fruit - Blake Bauserman

 Rounding out the illustration of the transcendent concepts of beauty, we come to the fascinans illustrated in the scene where Ransom eats the fruit.

"His reason, or what we commonly take to be reason in our own world, was all in favour of tasting this miracle again; the child-like innocence of fruit, the labours he had undergone, the uncertainty of the future, all seemed to commend the action" (28).

Here Ransom finds himself engulfed with the fruit he has just tasted. The book initially describes it as a new genus of pleasures that have been made known to him. For a few brief moments, his existence revolves around the fruit. He begins engulfed in the mystery and miracle and finds himself drawn to it again after experiencing it.

If perhaps no other, this episode truly demonstrates the transcendent concept as Ransom is drawn to the fruit, repelled from it after experiencing it, and beholds it like a miracle and having a child-like innocence. It is so far beyond him it raptures his attention and consumes him entirely, yet to continue to do so would make it vulgar or common.