Samuel Swenson-Reinhold --- Hrossa & an Excess of Meaning

 One thing that stuck out to me in Out of the Silent Planet occurs when Ransom is observing the culture and living of the hrossa, discovering their artistic ways. The hross communicate through the arts, and I found a close connection to what we talked about in class when looking at Malick's films: that poetry and myth have an "excess of meaning". 

What the hross do is communicate via their stories - much like what we've talked a lot about in class - in such a way that it becomes a primary way of carrying on traditions and passing on truths in a narrative way to those around them. One line that stuck out to me in this book was when Hyoi says to Ransom: "How can I make you understand, when you do not understand the poets?" I believe that there's some depth to this statement beyond even what we discussed directly in class. The poet is the one who possesses an innate understanding of the value of the poem - they are the messenger, after all. But Ransom is having this inter-species dialogue wherein he still doesn't completely understand the language nor culture of the hross, so the stories and lessons might be a bit lost because he doesn't understand the narrator's point of view perfectly. 

This connects beautifully to the Star Trek episode we watched in class where Picard and the alien guy have to communicate via myth and metaphor. The hross seem to do this to a certain degree, and even when Ransom moves past the language barrier, there are still lessons lost because he is human, and Hyoi is a hross.