C.S. Lewis & H.G. Wells: Utopian Visions

C.S. Lewis (L); H.G. Wells (R)

(380 words) I had to capture the quote below by science-fiction writer Robert A. W. Lowndes from his introduction to H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon (Airmont Publishers, 1965).

I bought this used-book based upon C.S. Lewis' recommendation to one of his students & Inkling (R. L. Green, Dec 28, 1938, who attended Lewis' 'Prolegomena' lectures) as well as his acknowledgment to Wells in the beginning of Out of the Silent Planet; the 1st in his "Space Trilogy".

I found this particular copy for $1.50 at a used book store (original price: 60 cents...I remember those days) but there appears to be either (1) some black mold in the binding or (2) some cigarette ash from who knows when.

Nevertheless, my wife & I agreed to dispose of it.

Before I do...I'm concerned I'll never find another copy with Lowndes' 5-page biography of Wells which includes the following comparison with Lewis:

Like [Jules] Verne and so many others who started with the dream of science reforming not only the material world, but man himself, H. G. Wells grew increasingly bitter toward the end of his life. Strangely enough, Verne, too depicts dictatorship of the dedicated as the only hope for humanity--but this is little more than hinted at in his final novel, The Matter of the World, which was a story , first of all (Airmont, 1965).

His limitations are those common to people who seek utopias and, in their early enthusiasms at least, oversimplify the problem of human perversity, ignorance, laziness, and outright malice. Such people have little patience with the necessity for slow developments and they hold their own convictions with such tenacity and vigor that they cannot be patient with others who hold differing convictions. In the end, the course of history shows how cruelly they deceived themselves with their over-simplified solutions.

It is interesting to compare the career of H. G. Wells and C. S. Lewis, a contemporary author on religious subjects, who examined and wrote about the same human problems as Wells, in his Perelandra trilogy of science-fiction novels. Lewis lived to see far greater evils than Wells, who died in 1946; but Lewis knew there was no utopia, no simple solutions to human ills, and showed far deeper understanding of the human condition. Wells died in despair; Lewis never despaired.

Robert A. W. Lowndes