Malacandra is the planet Mars, which Ransom previously visited. It was there that he first encountered his nemesis, Weston.
Malacandra Quotes in Perelandra
The Perelandra quotes below are all either spoken by Malacandra or refer to Malacandra. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 16
Quotes
Gender is a reality, and a more fundamental reality than sex. Sex is, in fact, merely the adaptation to organic life of a fundamental polarity which divides all created beings. Female sex is simply one of the things that have feminine gender; there are many others, and Masculine and Feminine meet us on planes of reality where male and female would be simply meaningless. […] Their reproductive functions, their differences in strength and size, partly exhibit, but partly also confuse and misrepresent, the real polarity. All this Ransom saw, as it were, with his own eyes. The two white creatures were sexless. But he of Malacandra was masculine (not male); she of Perelandra was feminine (not female).
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Malacandra Term Timeline in Perelandra
The timeline below shows where the term Malacandra appears in Perelandra. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...Mars’ inhabitants, but also creatures called eldila, including the ruler of Mars, the Oyarsa of Malacandra. The eldila are very different from earthly creatures. They don’t breathe, eat, reproduce, or die,...
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...color he is unable to describe. Lewis is certain he is seeing the Oyarsa of Malacandra, the ruler of Mars.
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Chapter 2
...that the coffin is his vehicle for the journey into space. He’s not returning to Malacandra, though he’d give anything to see it again. Instead he’s being sent to Perelandra, or...
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...for any special reason. It’s probably because, when he was previously kidnapped and sent to Malacandra, it gave him the chance to master the Old Solar language, the old common speech...
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...coffin and then stand by to await his return and unpack him. The Oyarsa of Malacandra will propel the coffin to Perelandra—Ransom doesn’t know how exactly. Lewis feels frightened again, and...
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Chapter 4
...of a nearby tree. The scene reminds him of the garden of the Hesperides. On Malacandra, Ransom had met the original Cyclops. Now he wonders if so-called mythological creatures are actually...
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Chapter 6
...this is why he was sent to Perelandra. Weston failed to achieve his goals on Malacandra, so he’s trying again here. Ransom wonders if, like Malacandra, Perelandra’s eldila might help him...
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Chapter 7
...egoism. He’s then shocked to hear Weston addressing the Green Lady in Old Solar. On Malacandra, Weston had no proficiency in the language. Ransom feels that his sole advantage has been...
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...his holster and tells Ransom that he does him an “injustice.” Since his visit to Malacandra, he claims, he has rethought the whole “interplanetary problem.”
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...the utility of the human race, which necessarily involves interplanetary travel. After his time on Malacandra, Weston reflected that he had always drawn an arbitrary distinction between Man and non-human Nature....
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Chapter 16
...speaking in their bell-like voices and realizes that one of them is the Oyarsa of Malacandra. The Oyarsa is telling its companion about Ransom and his world. Ransom asks to be...
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The Oyarsa of Malacandra explains that today is the “morning day,” the birth of this world. It’s the first...
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...immensely tall human figures burning white-hot, with a halo of indescribable colors. The Oyarsa of Malacandra shines with colder colors, that of Perelandra glows with warmer ones.
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Chapter 17
...of all the universe. And what does this mean for all the other worlds, like Malacandra? Ransom wonders what it’s all driving toward. Tor explains that it will be “The beginning...
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