Regan Flieg: Nature’s Meal in Perelandra

I wanted to expand my thoughts on this passage from Perelandra that we discussed in class while my mic wasn’t working and I wasn’t able to contribute all of my ideas.  The passage in question comes from Chapter 12 and reads: “It was strange that he to whom a wood or a morning sky on earth had sometimes been a kind of meal, should have had to come to another planet in order to realise Nature as a thing in her own right” (160).  I have already mentioned that in this moment, Ransom comes to see Nature as a thing in itself instead of merely a means to an end for accessing beauty or pleasure.  However, I think there is more nuance in the wording of this quote.

Firstly, it is not “nature” that has been a meal to Ransom but “a wood or a morning sky” (160).  The specificity here makes it more concrete.  Up until this point, Ransom has only had experiences of nature but no real knowledge of Nature.  This demonstrates the idea from “Myth Became Fact” that we can’t simultaneously experience and know a thing (65).  

Secondly, comparing his previous experiences with elements of nature to a meal in particular implies a specific kind of good.  A meal is often an instrumental good, something that we consume in order to gain nourishment or pleasure but not something we value just for the sake of itself.  Similarly, on earth, Ransom saw the woods and morning skies as merely something that nourished him with enjoyment and beauty.  Now, on Perelandra, he can see Nature as its own intrinsically valuable thing.  

Lewis, C. S. “Myth Became Fact.” God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, edited by Walter Hooper, Eerdmans, 1970, pp. 63-67. 

Lewis, C. S. Perelandra. Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1996.