The document discusses C.S. Lewis' depiction of Venus in his 1943 science fiction novel Perelandra. While Lewis was aware of the scientific theories about Venus at the time, which varied in their predictions, he constructed his own fantastical version of Venus as a water world with floating islands and an amber atmosphere. Modern exploration has since revealed that the actual conditions on Venus are extremely harsh, with no liquid water and surface temperatures hot enough to melt lead. However, the document notes that Lewis' depiction in Perelandra effectively blended scientific speculation with creative world-building and spiritual themes.

1. C. S. Lewis' View of Venus
in
Perelandra
Andrew Lang and Joe Ninowski
Oral Roberts University
Science and Science Fiction Conference 2012

2. Overview
1. Novel Summary
2. Early Perceptions of
Venus
3. Lewis' Depiction of Venus
4. What We Know Today
5. Conclusion

3. Summary of Perelandra
Perelandra (aka Voyage to Venus)
is the second installment in C.S.
Lewis' space trilogy. Published in
1943, the story picks up where Out
of the Silent Planet left off and
follows the account of Dr. Elwin
Ransom as he journeys from Earth
to Venus. Upon landing there, Dr.
Ransom discovers the planet is a
New Eden whose King (Adam) and
Queen (Eve) have never known
Evil. The reason for his summons is
soon revealed in the form of Silent
Planet's antagonist, Professor
Weston, who seeks to corrupt Eve.
The novel's main momentum
evolves as Dr. Ransom must
prevent Weston from bringing
about a new Fall of Man on this
uncorrupted world.

4. The Many Faces
of Perelandra

5. Early Perceptions of Venus:
Life on Venus
"Venus...in size, in situation, and in density, in the length
of her seasons, and of her rotation, in the figure of her
orbit and in the amount of light and heat she receives
from the sun, Venus bears a more striking resemblance
to earth than any other orb within the solar system...[and]
on the whole, the evidence we have points very strongly
to Venus as an abode of living creatures not unlike the
inhabitants of earth."
-Proctor R.A. (1870)
from Other Worlds Than Ours: The Plurality of Worlds
Studied Under the Light of Recent Scientific Researches

6. Early Perceptions of Venus:
Rotation and Day Length
Schiaparelli's observations of Venus over several years led
him to conclude that its period of rotation was longer than the
~23h period suggested by Cassini.
In 1890, he was ready to conclude that Venus makes one
rotation in 224.7 days, the same as its orbital period. If true, it
would mean that Venus would have one face perpetually
toward the Sun (like the Moon around the Earth). This view
was supported later by Lowell.
Note: Venus' actual sidereal rotation period is -243 days (retrograde)
but this wasn't confirmed until the 1960s using Earth-based radar
measurements.

7. Early Perceptions of Venus:
Atmosphere and Vegetation
"We must therefore conclude the everything on Venus is
dripping wet...A very great part of Venus is no doubt
covered in swamps...The temperature on Venus is not so
high as to prevent a luxuriant vegetation. The constantly
uniform climatic conditions which exist everywhere result
in an entire absence of adaptation to changing exterior
conditions. Only low forms of life are therefore
represented, mostly no doubt belonging to the vegetable
kingdom."
-Svante Arrhenius, Nobel Prize-winning chemist (1918)

8. Did Lewis Care About the Science?
[1] Lewis: The starting point of the second novel, Perelandra, was my
mental picture of the floating islands. The whole of the rest of my labours
in a sense consisted of building up a world in which floating islands could
exist. And then of course the story about an averted fall developed.
Aldiss: But I'm surprised that you put it this way round. I would have
thought that you constructed Perelandra for the didactic purpose.
Lewis: Yes, everyone thinks that. They are quite wrong.
-Transcript from Unreal Estates featuring C.S. Lewis, Kingsley Amis, and Brian Aldiss
[2] "I took a hero once to Mars in a space-ship, but when I knew better I had
angels convey him to Venus. Nor need the strange worlds, when we get
there, be at all strictly tied to scientific probabilities. It is their wonder, or
beauty, or suggestiveness that matter."
-Quote from C.S. Lewis' On Science Fiction

9. Lewis' Depiction of Venus in Perelandra:
Ransom's thoughts before Perelandra:
"There’s a man called Schiaparelli who thinks she [Venus] revolves once
on herself in the same time it takes her to go once round Arbol—I mean,
the Sun. The other people think she revolves on her own axis once in
every twenty-three hours. That’s one of the things I shall find out.”
“If Schiaparelli is right there’d be perpetual day on one side of her and
perpetual night on the other?”
He nodded, musing. “It’d be a funny frontier,” he said presently. “Just
think of it. You’d come to a country of eternal twilight, getting colder and
darker every mile you went..... Of course if they have a scientific civilisation
they may have diving-suits or things like submarines on wheels for going
into the Night.” (23)
Ransom's thoughts after Perelandra:
“That idea of Schiaparelli’s is all wrong,” he shouted. “They have an
ordinary day and night there..." (27)

10. Lewis' Depiction of Venus in Perelandra:
The Atmosphere
"The sky was pure, flat gold like the background of a medieval
picture. It looked very distant as far off as a cirrus cloud looks from
earth." (32)
"He had somehow turned on his back. He saw the golden roof of
that world quivering with a rapid variation of paler lights as a ceiling
quivers at the reflected sunlight from the bath-water when you step
into your bath on a summer morning." (32)
"The water gleamed, the sky burned with gold, but all was rich and
dim, and his eyes fed upon it undazzled and unaching. The very
names of green and gold, which he used preforce in describing the
scene, are too harsh for the tenderness, the muted iridescence, of
that warm, maternal, delicately gorgeous world." (32)

11. Lewis' Depiction of Venus in Perelandra:
The Oceans
"The ocean was gold too, in the offing, flecked with innumerable
shadows. The nearer waves, though golden where their summits
caught the light, were green on their slopes: first emerald, and
lower down a lustrous bottle green, deepening to blue where they
passed beneath the shadow of other waves. All this he saw in a
flash; then he was speeding down once more into the trough."
(32)
"There was a wave ahead of him now so high that it was
dreadful. We speak idly in our own world of seas mountain high
when they are not much more than mast high. But this was the
real thing. If the huge shape had been a hill of land and not of
water he might have spent a whole forenoon or longer walking
the slope before he reached the summit." (32)

12. Lewis' Depiction of Venus in Perelandra:
Vegetation
"A horrible crest appeared; jagged and billowy and fantastic shapes,
unnatural, even unliquid, in appearance, sprouted from the ridge ... It
was an irregularly shaped object with many cuves and re-entrants. It was
variegated in colours like a patch-work quilt - flame-colour, ultramarine,
crimson, orange, gamboge, and violet." (32-33)
"And that is the nature of the floating islands on Perelandra ... for they
are dry and fruitful like land but their only shape is the inconstant shape
of the water beneath them." (36)
"At long last he reached the wooded part. There was an udnergrowth of
feathery vegetation, about the heigh of gooseberry bushes, coloured like
sea anemones. Above this were the taller growths--strange trees with
tube-like trunks of grey and purple spreading rich canopies above his
head, in which orange, silver, and blue were the predominant colors."
(37)

13. What We Know Today About Venus:
Exploration History
Venera 3 (1966) - Reached Venus but returned no data. First man-
made object to 'land' on another planet.
Venera 4 (1967) - The descent lasted 93 minutes. The capsule deployed
its parachute at an altitude of about 52 km, and started sending data on
pressure, temperature and gas composition back to Earth. The
temperature at 52 km was recorded as 33 °C, and the pressure as less
than 1 atm. At 26 km, the temperature reached 262 °C and pressure
increased to 22 atm, and the signal transmission terminated.
Venera 5 & 6 (1969) - Corroborations of high pressure and temperature,
but like Venera 4, both probes stopped sending data before reaching the
surface.

14. What We Know Today About Venus:
Exploration History
Venera 7 (1970) - First probe to transmit data from the surface. Lasted
23 mins. Surface temperature: 455 C - 475 C
From 1971-1985 the Russian sent 10 more probes - the longest lasting
(Venera 13) for 127 minutes.
From 1962-1978 the Americans sent orbiters to Venus during the
Mariner and Pioneer programs.
Magellan 1990 (USA) - Orbiter: returned data for 4 years.
Venus Express 2006 (ESA) - Orbiter: still returning data.

15. What We Know Today About Venus:
Basic Facts
Terrain: Rocky, terrestrial planet with 80% surface covered with
smooth volcanic plains. There are 167 volcanoes on Venus that are
100 km across each.
Orbit: 224.65 Earth days around the sun; 243 Earth days around itself
Atmosphere: 95.6% carbon dioxide, 3.5% nitrogen
Temperature: Around 860˚F (Hotter than Mercury)
Surface Pressure: 92 ATM, or 3000 ft below Earth's sea level
Rotation: Venus is the only planet to rotate clockwise ("retrograde")

16. Venus From Space
Venus’ True Color False Color Topography
Image Created Using Data From Image Created Using Data From
Megellan Megellan

17. Surface of Venus:
180˚ Panoramic Pictures from Venera-13
March 1, 1982
Complete Panoramic Transmission From Venera-13, Camera I
Complete Panoramic Transmission From Venera-13, Camera II
Venera-11 Sky Spectra Reading (Color)

18. Surface of Venus:
180˚ Panoramic Pictures from Venera-13
March 1, 1982
"The Venera
panoramas are
spherical projections.
They can be remapped
to perspective
projections and
overlaid to produce
views that give a better
subjective impression
of the Venusian
surface."
-Don Mitchell (2008)

19. Surface of Venus:
180˚ Panoramic Pictures from Venera-13
AND Venera-11 Sky Spectra (Color)
Image Colorized by Bob King (2010)

20. Conclusion:
C.S. Lewis' View of Venus
in a fantasy epic that immerses the reader into
The novel Perelandra is Perelandra
a strange, empyreal landscape of C.S. Lewis' creation. From
information gathered and first hand accounts, it's clear that Lewis was
cognizant of his period's prevailing postulations of Venus. But instead of
sticking rigidly to those suppositions, Lewis constructed his own Water
World, complete with raging oceans, floating islands, and amber
atmosphere.
In comparison to information scientists have gathered over the last 60
years, Lewis' depiction of Venus is nothing like the actual conditions of
the arid planet. In fact, it couldn't be more opposite, for while Lewis
personifies the planet as a tropical Eden devoid of sin, Venus'
conditions are actually closer to modern depictions of hell: no air to
breath, temperatures above 800˚F, and surface pressure equal to being
3000 ft below the ocean.
While his predictions were far from accurate, Lewis' View of Venus
in Perelandra is one of beauty, mystery, and possibilities that brilliantly
merges dated hypothetical notions, true creativity, and spiritual themes
to great effect.