Reading C.S.: That Hideous Strength
August 3rd, 2007 | by Scott |In 1945 Lewis would conclude his space trilogy closing out the tale of Ransom begin with Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. Despite the fact that the reviews of this book were the weakest of the three I think that I enjoyed this one the most.
Although Ransom does return in this, he is no longer the main character, nor is it set in outer space. The locale this time is the planet Earth. One of the reasons I loved this one more than the others is the dystopian bent that it has.
The fallen eldila have taken over a British university town. The changes that wreaks on the community and their desire to leave behind all traces of subjectivity are at the heart of this novel. Once again, I won’t go too much into plot details because I whole-heartedly and unreservedly encourage you to read this trilogy.
This book is most likely Lewis’ most forthright political work pointing out in turn the dangers of materialism, nihilism and Imperialism. In addition, there is a tremendous debt that is owed to Arthurian legend, the tower of Babel (from whence comes the title) and the dystopian thrillers of that era.
Two select excerpts:
“Theology!” said Mr. Straik with profound contempt. “It’s not theology I’m talking about, young man, but the Lord Jesus. Theology is talk–eyewash–a smoke screen–a game for rich men. It wasn’t in lecture rooms I found the Lord Jesus. It was in the coal pits, and beside the coffin of my daughter.
You do not fail i obedience through lack of love, but have lost love because you never attempted obedience.
I’m not always comfortable with Lewis’ conclusions and his poorly painted egalitarian picture of St. Anne’s fails to overcome his somewhat oppressive portrait of the book’s heroine, Jane. In addition, I think the book somewhat flounders in the last third.
Overall, however I give the book a solid A
I’m now trying to decide how long a break to take on Lewis before I begin the final push of 7 books until Narnia.
3 Responses to “Reading C.S.: That Hideous Strength”
By Greg Brooks on Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
Ha ha ha HA HA!! I like this one best! It’s one of my favorite books ever! SOLID A!!
Anyway. Let’s start a blog just to discuss how good That Hideous Strength is.
My only grief with the whole trilogy (in fact with all of Lewis’ books) is that it makes me feel a little stupid because I haven’t read, and MEMORIZED, every line of poetry ever written in English, Latin, and probably French. So I don’t get any of the quotes.
Other than that, though, SOLID A!!
By Greg Brooks on Aug 3, 2007 | Reply
oops. solid bold type. Sorry
By Scott on Aug 6, 2007 | Reply
The book was great and now that I have read his “Abolition of Man” I understand more about his motivation for writing it.
There is a decided post-human element that begins to pervade his work during this time. I think much of that is his disdain for the thought of eugenics and other seeming advances that seek to crowd our subjectivity.