Long ago, before the great lion Aslan bounded onto bookshelves, C. S. Lewis wrote a science fiction novel set on mythological Mars. From there, the sequel carried Dr. Elwin Ransom by angels to the sister planet Venus. And from there … the Ransom/Cosmic/Space Trilogy descended to the dull world of corrupt college boards, inner-ring politics, and a secret technocracy bent on world domination with the aid of mad science and demons and everything. Eighty years after That Hideous Strength, we explore why C. S. Lewis created this earthbound and weird and wonderful pre-political supernatural thriller.
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That hideously obscure front cover image.
1. The temptations to wield inner rings
- The Ransom Trilogy really includes all three fantastical genres.
- It starts with sci-fi, continues to fantasy, ends in supernatural.
- Stephen would have appreciated knowing this before this book!
- Because that fact, plus the cover, will affect your expectations.
- More than the other two, Hideous Strength feels a weird hybrid.
- For instance, it begins on Earth and feels “grown-up,” even dull.
- Who is Mark Studdock and Jane? Why do we care about them?
- And where is Dr. Ransom and the creatures of books 1 and 2?
- But here Lewis is addressing some deep and personal enemies.
- One of them is the “inner ring” villain he writes about elsewhere.
- Call this “the room where it happens,” that seat of power.
- Right now some conspiracists claim to “expose” secret inner rings.
- Yet more often they’re trying to make new “rings” themselves.
- This “normal,” subtle threat marks the first real evil of the story.
- Mark, a social-climbing sociologist, craves to reach this influence.
- Then he gets there … and discovers it’s run by the greater threat.
2. A not-so-N.I.C.E. secular technocracy
- Enter the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments.
- It’s a social movement, an actual autocratic state bent on power.
- They’re all about science, social engineering, efficiency, machines.
- These theorists take the worst of evil ideologies and mix them up.
- And for Lewis, this represents the worst corruptions of academia.
- They destroy natural land like Saruman. Hijack history like IngSoc.
- And they take over newspapers in plain sight like any petty tyrant.
- Some have different aims/ideas, such as a truly scary revelation about what exactly has gone wrong with the sterility of the Moon.
- Others are so poisoned by elitism that they “naturally” fall into evil.
- That’s why we call this a pre-political story. Yes, it’s about politics and has overlapping theme, but is about the ideas beneath this.
- N.I.C.E.’s goal: the subjugation of the human race to macrobes.
- From here, Lewis finally explains the recurring visions of Jane Studdock (revealing the conspiracy) and a holy resistance order.
- And, lest there be any doubt, we soon learn the worst threat of all.
3. Devils vs. power to demolish strongholds
- At last, Dr. Ransom enters the story, leading a small diverse group.
- He’s recruited
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