Observing the patterns of human history has always led people to imagine the possible patterns of the human future. In the Victorian Era, new theories of evolution, mathematics, and geology opened new vistas to the imagination. To give scope to these vistas, writers created the genre of science fiction, which remains a vital tool for speculation and social commentary. Authors of varying worldviews are in constant conversation through their stories. Second only to Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein in the foundations of such conversations is H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, which has inspired countless sequels, adaptations, and homages.

In this class, we will look at just one such reply: C.S. Lewis’s space travel novel Perelandra. Lewis was a fan of Wells, but he did not share Wells’s worldview, so when he set out to write his own science fiction, his stories answered the same questions from a different angle. Although Perelandra is a work of Christian fiction, we will be reading it as a work of science fiction in conversation with The Time Machine: comparing and contrasting what these two authors had to say about time, human nature, and the remedy for the sad state of the world. This class approaches Lewis’s Christianity through the lens of the secular and religiously neutral discipline of religious studies. Essentially, we will interpret Wells and Lewis as being inspired by different mythologies.

No familiarity with the writings or worldviews of Wells or Lewis is required, nor is prior knowledge of the Book of Genesis, Abrahamic theology, or the works of medieval literature and science fiction that provide background for this class. Although Perelandra is the sequel to Out of the Silent Planet, I do not expect students to have read the latter, since Lewis himself says Perelandra can be read on its own.

Sharing my screen, I will use PowerPoint slides to deliver lecture material. Class consists of interactive lecture and discussion. Each week, students will read certain scheduled chapters and write a reading response (300-500 words) to that week's prompt.

Keywords: fantasy; space travel; time travel; literature; literary analysis; high school; humanist; debate; reading group; book club; novel study