The Singularity in C. S. Lewis

This accidentally got posted just to the C. S. Lewis group, but it
related to the early Singularity discussion here so I'm re-posting
it. Sorry for the duplication.

On Jul 24, 4:54 pm, "AJA" <ahnem... DeleteThis @optonline.net> wrote:

> Stanford Schwartz, from Pennsylvania State University, gave a
paper
> entitled "Why Wells is from Mars, Bergson from Venus: The Hybrid
> Worlds of the Space Trilogy". This fascinating paper proposed
that in
> Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra, C. S. Lewis
simultaneously
> parodied and "baptized" two kinds of evolution respectively:
first a
> Wellsian/Darwinian "nature red in tooth and claw" nasty,
> stronger-devouring-the-weaker kind, and second, a Bergsonian
> life-force, developmental, powerful, spiritual, positive
kind.CSL
> parodied these types of evolution by having the antagonist
Weston
> believe in and attempt to propagate Wellsian evolution in OotSP,
and
> Bergsonian life-force evolution in P, and in each Weston is
defeated.

In That Hideous Strength yet another evolutionary theme emerges--
Lewis's take on the Singularity--man evolved to the point of
becoming
godlike, transcending space and time, and creating himself. I
think
Hideous Strength is therefore interesting as an early appearance
of
the Singularity idea in sf, although aside from the Saracen's
Head, we
don't actually see it.

> However, Lewis once wrote that there must be a true principle of
which
> Bergson's ideas were a perversion; Mr. Schwartz proposed that in
the
> Space Trilogy Lewis was imagining what that true principle would
look
> like, and embodied it in the species and landscapes of his Mars
and
> Venus. So on Malacandra, there are three species living in
harmony,
> while the spiritual life of the hrossa depends upon their
mutual, and
> mutually satisfactory, rivalry with the hnakra. This is perhaps
the
> good original of which natural selection and the preying of the
> stronger on the weaker which Darwin proposed is a poor copy. In
the
> same way, on Perelandra the entire planet is in flux, and
Tinidril
> herself is in a state of rapid development. This seems to be a
> Christianized version of Bergson's life-force evolution.

And again, Lewis has his true version of the next stage in
evolution
in mind--Jesus.