7.8 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date 1945 Originally published 1945 Preceded by Perelandra Country United Kingdom | 3.9/5 Goodreads Series Space Trilogy Pages 384 pp Publisher The Bodley Head | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Media type Print (Hardback and Paperback) Genres Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fantasy, Speculative fiction Similar Works by C S Lewis, The Space Trilogy books, Science Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C s lewis that hideous strength fostering the spark god gave mankind
That Hideous Strength (subtitled A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups) is a 1945 novel by C. S. Lewis, the final book in Lewis's theological science fiction Space Trilogy. The events of this novel follow those of Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus) and once again feature the philologist Elwin Ransom. Yet unlike the principal events of those two novels, the story takes place on Earth rather than in space or on other planets in the solar system. The story involves an ostensibly scientific institute, the N.I.C.E., which is a front for sinister supernatural forces.
Contents
- C s lewis that hideous strength fostering the spark god gave mankind
- Plot summary
- Context in Space Trilogy
- Characters
- NICE
- St Annes
- Philosophy
- Reception
- In popular culture
- Publication history
- References
The novel was heavily influenced by the writing of Lewis's friend and fellow Inkling Charles Williams, and is markedly dystopian in style. In the book's preface Lewis acknowledges science-fiction writer Olaf Stapledon and his work: "Mr. Stapledon is so rich in invention that he can well afford to lend, and I admire his invention (though not his philosophy) so much that I should feel no shame to borrow."
In the foreword, Lewis states that the novel's point is the same as that in his non-fiction work The Abolition of Man, which argues that there are natural laws and objective values, which education should teach children to recognise.
The novel's title is taken from a poem written by David Lyndsay in 1555, Ane Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour, also known as The Monarche. The couplet in question, "The shadow of that hyddeous strength, sax myle and more it is of length", refers to the Tower of Babel.
Plot summary
The book, written during the final period of World War II, takes places at an undetermined year "after the end of the war".
Mark Studdock is a young academic who has just become a Senior Fellow in sociology at Bracton College in the University of Edgestow. The fellows of Bracton are debating the sale of a portion of college land to the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), whose staff already includes some college faculty. The sale is controversial since the land in question (Bragdon Wood) is an ancient woodland believed to be the resting place of Merlin. After the deal is struck, an N.I.C.E. insider called Lord Feverstone proposes a possible post for Mark at the Institute. (It is gradually revealed that Feverstone is the new title of Richard Devine, who accompanied Professor Weston on the trip to Mars in the first volume of the series, but not in the one to Venus in the second volume.)
Mark's wife Jane (a PhD student at the university) has suffered a peculiar nightmare involving a severed head. She meets Mrs. Dimble, the wife of one of her former tutors, who is being evicted due to sale of land to the N.I.C.E. When Jane talks about her dreams, Mrs. Dimble leads her to seek counsel from a Miss Ironwood who lives in the Manor in the nearby town of St. Anne's. An argument between Jane and Mark shows how their marriage is deteriorating.
Lord Feverstone introduces Mark to the N.I.C.E., where he becomes acquainted with the top brass at their headquarters at Belbury, near Edgestow. Here and throughout his time with them, Mark can never find out what his place in the organisation is; he has no office or duties and seems to be alternately in and out of favour. A scientist named Bill Hingest, who is resigning from the N.I.C.E., warns Mark to get out. As he drives home that night, Hingest is mysteriously murdered.
At the same time, Jane works up the courage to visit Miss Ironwood at St. Anne's. Miss Ironwood, who is dressed in black just as Jane had dreamed of her, is convinced that Jane's dreams are not psychological but visions of genuine events. Later, Jane is introduced to Dr. Elwin Ransom, the protagonist of the first two books in Lewis' space trilogy. He has become the legitimate king or Pendragon of the nation of Logres, the heir of King Arthur and Director of the group living in the Manor at St. Anne's. He is in communication with the Oyéresu (singular "Oyarsa"), angelic beings who guide the planets of the Solar System and thus correspond to the Greek gods and goddesses. Earth has been in quarantine: its rebellious Oyarsa (who is the Devil) and his demons could not travel beyond the orbit of the Moon, and the other Oyéresu could not come to Earth.
Mark is finally given work: his main duty is to write pseudonymous newspaper articles supporting the N.I.C.E., including two for use after a riot they intend to provoke in Edgestow. The riot takes place as planned, allowing the N.I.C.E.'s private police force to take over the town. They arrest Jane, whom the N.I.C.E. are interested in (as revealed later) for her psychic abilities, which they fear will get into their opponents' hands. The head of the N.I.C.E. police, a woman known as "Fairy" Hardcastle, starts to torture Jane but is forced to release her when rioters turn in her direction.
Mark is once again out of favour in the N.I.C.E., but after a conversation with an Italian scientist named Filostrato he is introduced to the Head of the Institute. This turns out to be a literal head – that of a recently guillotined French scientist (as Jane dreamed) which Filostrato erroneously believes he has restored to life by his own efforts.
From Jane's dreams that people were digging up the grave of a long-buried man and that the man had left, Ransom concludes that the N.I.C.E. is looking for the body of Merlin, who truly is buried in Bragdon Wood, though not dead but in a timeless state. Jane will guide members of the group to the place she dreamed of.
The N.I.C.E. bosses now try to strengthen their hold over Mark by showing him trumped-up evidence that he murdered Bill Hingest. This however backfires, as the moment of crisis finally gives Mark the courage to leave Belbury. He returns to Edgestow in search of Jane only to find their apartment empty and the town under N.I.C.E. control. Later he meets Cecil Dimble, one of the St. Anne's community, who despite his misgivings offers to help him. Unfortunately Mark deliberates too long over Dimble's proposal and he is found and arrested for Hingest's murder.
That night, during a heavy storm, both the company of St. Anne's and N.I.C.E. personnel are on the trail of Merlin, who has apparently revived. He has taken the clothes of a tramp through his powers of hypnosis and acquired a wild horse. He meets the company of St. Anne's but rides away. Members of the N.I.C.E. capture the tramp, believing him to be Merlin.
Mark, while contemplating his upcoming trial and execution, discovers that he has not been arrested by the real police but by officials of the N.I.C.E. who (he now guesses) are the true murderers of Hingest. Much to his surprise he is now told that he is to be initiated into the group's inner ring. In preparation for this he begins a bizarre program of training intended to cultivate absolute objectivity by relegating emotion to the status of a chemical phenomenon. He outwardly participates in these rituals (knowing that he will otherwise be killed) but inwardly begins to reject everything the N.I.C.E. stands for.
Merlin arrives at St. Anne's ahead of his pursuers, where he and Ransom converse in broken Latin. Ransom reveals that there are Satanic forces behind the N.I.C.E. and that Merlin is to be possessed by the Oyéresu; since the forces of darkness broke the lunar barrier in the earlier books, the heavenly beings may also cross the barrier and intervene in human affairs. Jane then has two mystical experiences; the first with the earth-bound counterpart of the Oyarsa of Venus, and the second with God. After discussions with Mrs. Dimble and the Director, she becomes a Christian.
Merlin, now possessed by the Oyéresu, disguises himself as a Basque priest and answers the N.I.C.E.'s advertisement for an interpreter of ancient languages. He hypnotises and interviews the tramp (whom the N.I.C.E. still believe may be the real Merlin) and the two of them are brought to a banquet. There Merlin pronounces the curse of Babel upon the assembled N.I.C.E. leaders, causing all present to speak gibberish, and also liberates the many animals on which the N.I.C.E. were experimenting. The bigger animals kill most of the N.I.C.E. staff.
As earthquakes destroy the building, Lord Feverstone flees to Edgestow but is killed when that too is engulfed. Merlin helps Mark escape and sends him to St. Anne's. The Oyarsa of Venus lingers at the Manor, as Ransom is now to be transported back to that planet. When Mark arrives, a vision of Venus leads him into a bridal chamber that Jane has been preparing for him.
Context in Space Trilogy
Elwin Ransom, introduced in this story in Chapter 7, is the protagonist of the first two books in Lewis's space trilogy and his point of view dominates their narrative. Lord Feverstone (formerly Dick Devine) was a villain in the first novel who, along with Professor Weston, had abducted Ransom to Mars in the mistaken belief that the Martians required a sacrifice. When Feverstone speaks in That Hideous Strength of Weston having been murdered by "the opposition", he is speaking of Ransom having killed Weston on Venus in the second novel. The first two books fully explicate Lewis's mythology (based on a combination of the Bible and medieval astrology) according to which each planet of the solar system has a guiding angelic spirit that rules over it. This mythos is re-introduced gradually in this story, whose protagonists, the earthbound Mark and Jane Studdock, are unaware of these realities when the story opens.
Characters
N.I.C.E.
The National Institute of Coordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.) is a scientific and social planning agency, furtively pursuing its program of the exploitation of nature and the annihilation of humanity. The Institute is secretly inspired and directed by fallen eldila, whom they refer to as "Macrobes", superior beings. Their takeover of Edgestow and its surrounding area shows the manner in which they use human pride and greed to get what they want. After the N.I.C.E. would achieve its ends, the earth would only belong to the "Macrobes".
St. Anne's
Philosophy
The main human antagonists of That Hideous Strength believe in scientific materialism, that is, that nothing exists apart from physical matter and energy. They also believe, somewhat like the early Gnostics, that the human body is frail and corrupted. Like modern transhumanists, they believe that humanity can be perfected by migrating out of its body of flesh and blood and into a machine. Lewis portrays the consequences of these ideas in a highly dystopian manner. Lewis' attack is not on science as such, or scientific planning, but rather the kind of planned society which first Adolf Hitler and then European Marxists had instituted: "the disciplined cruelty of some ideological oligarchy."
In contrast, Lewis portrays reality in the book as supporting essential Christian beliefs, such as the inherent sinfulness of humanity, the impossibility of humans perfecting themselves apart from God, the essential goodness of the physical body (though currently corrupted by sin), the omnipotence of God against the limited powers of evil, and the existence of angels and demons. Within this Christian framework, Lewis also incorporates Roman mythological figures into the hierarchy of angelic beings who serve God, as well as elements of the legend of King Arthur, which according to the book derive from true stories of human interaction with angels and demons. In this way, Lewis essentially presents an integration of Christian, Roman, and British conceptions of reality, true to his identity as a British Christian student of antiquity.
A significant element (Lewis rated it as "second in importance") is to illustrate the destructive folly of desiring to gain the power and prestige of belonging to a ruling clique or inner circle.
In chapter 12 Ransom makes a passing reference to Owen Barfield's "ancient unities" when discussing the feelings of the bear "Mr Bultitude".
On a lighter note, MacPhee expounds in Chapter 8 on the impossibility of men and women collaborating on housework, since "women speak a language without nouns".
Reception
Some two years before writing Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell reviewed That Hideous Strength for the Manchester Evening News commenting: "Plenty of people in our age do entertain the monstrous dreams of power that Mr. Lewis attributes to his characters [the N.I.C.E. scientists], and we are within sight of the time when such dreams will be realizable". The review was written shortly after the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which it refers to.
However, Orwell argued that Lewis's book "would have been stronger without the supernatural elements". Particularly, Orwell objected to the ending in which N.I.C.E. is overthrown by divine intervention: "[Lewis] is entitled to his beliefs, but they weaken his story, not only because they offend the average reader’s sense of probability but because in effect they decide the issue in advance. When one is told that God and the Devil are in conflict, one always knows which side is going to win. The whole drama of the struggle against evil lies in the fact that one does not have supernatural aid".
Leonard Bacon, reviewing That Hideous Strength, described the book as "a ghastly but in many places a magnificent nightmare". He criticised the character of Studdock as uninteresting, noting that "it is hard to get excited about the vagaries of a young, insecure and ambitious academic figure whose main concern is to get into an inner circle, any inner circle", but praised the plotting of the book: "The hunt of Ransome's remnant for the real Merlin while the villains capture the false one is as vivid as a passage in Stevenson." Although Bacon regarded the book as somewhat inferior to its two predecessors, he concluded: "This is just the sort of thing that pleases Mr. Lewis's admirers. And they are right to admire him. Win, lose or draw—and the reviewer doesn't think that this book is wholly victorious—Mr. Lewis adds energy to systems he comes in contact with".
Floyd C. Gale wrote that the book "bears the authentic stamp of its creator's awesome imagination".
J. B. S. Haldane published two essays attacking Lewis' negative views on science and progress, as he saw them; these have been published in several formats, the original being “Auld Hornie, F.R.S.”. For the full text of Haldane's essays and a list of Haldane's anti-Lewis publications, see A Scientist Strikes Back. For a summary of Lewis' response (unpublished in his lifetime), further discussion of Lewis' attitude to science, and other related criticism of Lewis, see C. S. Lewis: Science and Scientism by Henry F. Schaefer III.