Memory vs. Experience in Out of the Silent Planet

Catherine Porter

We discussed in class the memory vs. experience in terms of pleasure. This concept is explored by C.S. Lewis in his story Out of the Silent Planet. It is a Hyoi who says “A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered. You are speaking, Hmân, as if the pleasure were on thing and the memory another. It is all one thing.” The Hyoi brings up a valid point. While an experience can be enjoyable—the laughter, excitement or contentment, peace or the thrill, the experience is soon over and done with. Thus, without the memory, the pleasure ends there. When instead the memory joins with the experience, we are able to have a fuller realization of our experience. In a way, this ties into C.S. Lewis’ ideas in his essay On Stories, where he discusses the whole world in which we are engaged in when reading fairy stories. Therefore we are engaged in the experience of reading fairy stories, while also engaged in the memory of doing so.