Talk:Out of the Silent Planet

message: I deleted a sentence saying that Out of the Silent Planet was a theistic answer to the Fermi Paradox.  First of all, sources disagree on when (or whether) Fermi asked "Where are they?" but the earliest date I found was "the '40s", later than OotSP.  Second, no answer is clear in the book.  One can infer that other intelligent races haven't visited us because they know space travel isn't part of Maleldil's plan, and possibly also because Maleldil didn't create any outside of the solar system, but I don't think there's anything explicit.  Lewis seems to have been much more concerned with the argument that humanity's destiny is to colonize space as far as possible.  That's what Weston tries to say and Ransom tries to translate to Oyarsa.  —JerryFriedman 19:51, 7 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Deleted sentence 

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*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20170419012248/http://blog.cslewis.com/out-of-the-silent-planet-cosmic-voyage-as-spiritual-pilgrimage/ to http://blog.cslewis.com/out-of-the-silent-planet-cosmic-voyage-as-spiritual-pilgrimage/
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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article renders with this error text, in red letters: "Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or  templates on this page, but the references will not show without a  template or  template (see the help page)."  This is because a footnote anchored with <ref group=lower-alpha name=theropod> is included in the article. This contains a note about a paralellel between a conclusion in this book and a conclusion in another book. Without a  template, as indicated by the error message, this text can not be rendered into the article.
I noticed that the Notes section previously existed, but was removed by UseR:Sweetpool50 in  , which has the summary "section retitled and rewritten; deleted OR and refocussed species section". Numerous other changes were made in that edit step. Note that this edit did not delete the <ref group=lower-alpha name=theropod> footnote or its content, and that's the root cause of the rendering error.
To remedy the situation, I replaced only the notes section (which includes the  template), plus the notes it defined. Those notes are at least mostly cited.
To my surprise, this edit was reverted. It seems counter-productive to willfully re-introduce "Cite error" problem back to the article, so I assume the reversion was done without actually verifying that the article was rendering correctly. Perhaps the intention is to remove the notes (despite their contained references), the notelist template and the <ref group=lower-alpha name=theropod> footnote, but I don't see a particular problem with that content. As such, I've reverted my correction so that the article at least renders without error.
If the footnote is objectionable, then it should be removed. If it's the last footnote remaining, then the notelist template can be removed too, along with its containing section. -- Mikeblas (talk) 17:37, 6 December 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: I should have explained the reason for my edits after I made them, but generally when I've done that on other occasions there hasn't been any reaction. The main trouble I found with the article was that its treatment of the novel was as part of the so-called Space Trilogy, which it was not when published in 1938; the other 'instalments' did not appear until 1943 and 1945, and therefore contextual discussion and some of the descriptions are WP:OFFTOPIC. Referring to the language of Malacandra as Old Solar and inclusion of the name for Jupiter are anachronistic; they do not appear in the text of Out of the Silent Planet. There were also errors that your reversion restored, such as confusing the novel's final chapter with the epilogue. It's therefore disingenuous to describe your reversion as merely cosmetic, restoring as it does OR and speculation which, however sourced, remains speculation. So I'm again reverting and suggest that we begin again by only repairing the reference error you mention. We can then discuss together anything else you think needs adding back, this time crediting me with WP:GF, please. I began editing (under another name) at the start of 2010, so my experience here is only three years less than yours. Sweetpool50 (talk) 14:13, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing notes section