Such a concept only further enforces that there is no real meaning to anything, there is no purpose, at least, it is not a purpose that we have any place in. With such a view our connection to the Universe becomes inconsequential, with the Universe seen as something cold, unknowable and ultimately dead or dying. This “empty space” became a so-called fact with the advent of the “modern sciences”. Whether deterministic or random in view, the goal of 20 th century modern science was the same, to promote a concept of the Universe that had no governing purpose, no directionality and no morality, that it was essentially a mechanism, discoverable by a few simple mathematical laws. Thus, it is only until relatively recently that we have regarded the Heavens as “empty space”. Before that, what we now call “Outer Space” was in fact known for millennia and likely since the dawn of civilization as “the Heavens.” Though it is really common today to think this way, this viewpoint really became popular as a consequence of the Enlightenment. The universe was depicted as cold, detached, and in the midst of death. His approach to science fiction about “Outer Space” started the gendre of regarding “Outer Space” as a dark abyss, a black void of nothingness. However, despite Wells being heavily influenced by such works, he differed in one particularly striking way. Wells drew much upon the work of Jules Verne, and likely had also read Kepler’s Somnium, the first fictional work on “Outer Space,” and Christiaan Huygens’s Cosmotheoros, which I believe is the first work of fiction on inhabitants of other planets, in other words, aliens. Lewis also directly mentions the scientist (Cavor) in Wells’ “The First Men In the Moon” in his own novel “Out of the Silent Planet.” As we will see, Lewis’ character Weston is modelled off of Wells’ character Cavor. Wells, as will become evident in this lecture.

Wells several times in his “Out of the Silent Planet,” and has a note at the very start of the book acknowledging that he is fully aware that his story will “borrow” from the work of H.G. Wells’ “The First Men In the Moon” (published in 1901) where Lewis refers to H.G. It is clear that Lewis’ “Out of the Silent Planet” was a response to H.G. And Lewis was very insightful as to how this was being engineered by such writers as Wells and Huxley (for more on this refer here and here). The world was clearly entering into an increasingly dystopic disposition, in both reality and fantasy, for what lay ahead in the future. Lewis’ sci-fi trilogy is within the timeframe of the publications of Huxley’s Brave New World (published in 1932) and George Orwell’s “1984” (published in 1949). For those who are unaware, Lewis wrote a three-part sci-fi series in response to Wells sci-fi novels and the rising transhumanist ideology.Īs you can see the timing of C.S.

The First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells