That Hideous Strength
First edition cover Image File history File links CSLewis_ThatHideousStrength. ...
Author	C. S. Lewis
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Space Trilogy
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	The Bodley Head
Publication date	1945
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	384 pp
ISBN	NA (orig.) & ISBN 0-684-82385-3 (recent edition)
Preceded by	Perelandra

That Hideous Strength 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 (a.k.a. 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. Clive Staples Jack Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ... Some notable science fiction novels, in alphabetical order by title: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke 334 by Thomas M. Disch An Age by Brian Aldiss The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton The Atrocity Exhibition by J.G. Ballard... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Bodley Head has been used as an imprint of Random House Childrens Books since 1987. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN redirects here. ... Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis. ... For other uses, see Novel (disambiguation). ... Clive Staples Jack Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ... Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ... Perelandra (also titled Voyage to Venus in a later edition published by Pan Books) is the second book in the Space Trilogy of C. S. Lewis. ... Philology is the study of ancient texts and languages. ... Elwin Ransom is a character from C.S. Lewiss Space Trilogy. ... This article is about the Solar System. ...

The novel was heavily influenced by the writing of Lewis's friend Charles Williams and is markedly dystopian in style. Charles Walter Stansby Williams (September 20, 1886 – May 15, 1945), was a British writer and poet, and a member of the loose literary circle called the Inklings. ... This article is about the philosophical concept and literary form. ...

Plot summary

This final novel in the Space Trilogy is set in post-war England in a small university town, in which The National Institute for Coordinated Experiments, the N.I.C.E., led by fallen eldila, attempts to alter the true nature of mankind through an exploitation of its members' pride and greed. The goal, if mankind continues down its current path, is the conquering of the last remaining piece of nature – human nature – making true man a lost memory. Dr. Ransom represents the watchful Christian, willing to do God's bidding in order to foil the N.I.C.E. And the reawakened Merlin, as a conduit of 'angelic' power, shows that only through the divine can the battle against the forces of darkness end in victory. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... For the community in Florida, see University, Florida. ... The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ...

The story centers around the young university don Mark Studdock, a college fellow at a fictional university, and his wife Jane. The don is targeted for recruitment into the "inner circle" of researchers who associate directly with a vague diabolic intelligence in the N.I.C.E. He pridefully assumes that his recruitment is an invitation into the powerful elite that he has always desired, and deserved. The N.I.C.E.'s true reason for recruiting him is to gain control of his wife, who is plagued by disturbing, clairvoyant dreams which she at first is unable to interpret. Yet Jane is eventually driven (partly by the Institute's failed attempt to arrest her) to join a small community who oppose the N.I.C.E. Clairvoyance, from 17th century French Clair meaning clear and voyant meaning seeing, is a term used to describe the transference of information about an object, location or physical event through means other than the 5 traditional senses (See Psi). ...

The community at St Anne's is nominally led by Ransom, who still suffers from the wound he received from Weston in his climactic fight on Venus. Here he appears as the "Pendragon", the modern inheritor of the role of King Arthur. His Masters' plan is to use a mortal as a conduit for the divine power necessary to stop the Institute. So, Ransom must recruit an older and more ambiguous agent, who has previously dealt with supernatural powers: the reawakened wizard Merlin, whom N.I.C.E. originally also sought with an intention and expectation to make malevolent use of his magic. The St Anne's community is all that holds the hope of Logres, the true England. (*min temperature refers to cloud tops only) Atmospheric characteristics Atmospheric pressure 9. ... Pendragon or Pen Draig, meaning head dragon or chief dragon (referring to a battle standard), is the name of several traditional Kings of the Britons: Aurelius Ambrosius, the son of Constantine II of Britain, is called Pendragon in the Vulgate Cycle. ... For other uses, see King Arthur (disambiguation). ... Merlin Ambrosius (Welsh: Myrddin Emrys (Merlin the Wise); also known as Myrddin Wyllt (Merlin the Wild), Merlin Caledonensis (Scottish Merlin), Merlinus, and Merlyn) is the personage best known as the mighty wizard featured in Arthurian legends, starting with Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae. ...

Ransom's encounter with Merlin is a reversal of roles from "Perelandra". In the earlier book, a Divine Voice spoke to Ransom and ordered him to engage in battle with the Satanic Weston. A reluctant Ransom at first balked and tried numerous counter-arguments, but they were all thrust aside by the Voice and finally Ransom accepted his mission. In this book, it is Ransom himself who orders the reluctant Merlin to do battle with the Satanic N.I.C.E., and who thrusts aside all of Merlin's counter-arguments until the wizard consents to take up the mission.

Characters in "That Hideous Strength"

• Mark Gainsby Studdock — Protagonist; sociologist, obsessed with reaching the "inner circle" of any social environment.
• Jane Tudor Studdock — Protagonist; wife of Mark, and clairvoyant dream-seer.

Clairvoyance, from 17th century French Clair meaning clear and voyant meaning seeing, is a term used to describe the transference of information about an object, location or physical event through means other than the 5 traditional senses (See Psi). ... Seer has several possible meanings: A fortune teller or prophet The fictional character on the television series Charmed The Seasonal energy efficiency ratio standard for air conditioning appliances This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The N.I.C.E. (National Institute for Coordinated Experiments)

• Francois Alcasan — "The Head", a French scientist executed for murder early in the book. His head is recovered by the N.I.C.E. and appears to be kept alive by the technology of man. In reality the Head has become a communication mechanism for the "Macrobes", the fallen eldila.
• John Wither — Long-winded bureaucrat and "Deputy Director" of the N.I.C.E. He is the true leader of the N.I.C.E., and a servant of the Macrobes.
• Professor Frost — A psychologist and assistant to Wither, he is the only other N.I.C.E member who knows the true nature of the Head, and of the Macrobes.
• Miss/Major Hardcastle (a.k.a "The Fairy") — The sadistic head of the N.I.C.E. Institutional Police and its female auxiliary, the "Waips". Torture is her favorite interrogation method, and she takes special pleasure in abusing female prisoners.
• Dr. Filostrato — An Italian physiologist, who has seemingly preserved Alcasan's head. However, he does not understand the Head's nature, believing it to be truly Alcasan. His ultimate goal is to free humanity from the constraints of organic life.
• Lord Feverstone (Dick Devine) — The politician and recently ennobled businessman who lures Mark into the N.I.C.E. Feverstone was one of the two men who kidnapped Ransom in Out of the Silent Planet.
• Reverend Straik — "The Mad Parson". He believes that any sort of power is a manifestation of God's will. This belief, along with other garbled beliefs, makes him a suitable candidate for introduction to the Macrobes. "He was a good man once", but became deranged by the death of his daughter.
• Horace Jules — A novelist and scientific journalist who has been appointed the nominal Director of the N.I.C.E. His minimal understanding of science allows him to be unaware of the true nature of the Institute. He has a strong anti-clerical bias, and objects to Wither appointing "parsons" (such as Straik) to the Institute.

The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ... Richard Devine, Lord Feverstone is a fictional character in two of the books of C. S. Lewiss Interplanetary Trilogy. ...

St. Anne's

• Dr. Elwin Ransom — sometimes called "The Pendragon" or "Mr. Fisher-King". He alone communicates with the good eldila. Back from Perelandra, Ransom is a kingly figure among his small band of followers, and is usually referred to as the Director. However, Ransom notes he did not call the organization together; a higher Power did that.
• Grace Ironwood — The seemingly stern psychologist and doctor who helps Jane interpret her dreams.
• Dr. Cecil Dimble — Another don, an old friend of Ransom and close advisor on matters of Arthurian scholarship and pre-Norman Britain.
• "Mother" Dimble — Mrs. Dimble; She and Mr Dimble have no children, much to their sadness, but have compensated by their kindness to students. Very maternal.
• Ivy Maggs — Formerly a part-time domestic servant for Jane Studdock; now driven out of the town by the N.I.C.E. and living at St. Anne's. Jane is puzzled at first by her status as an equal at the house. Ivy's husband, incidentally, is in prison for petty theft.
• Merlinus Ambrosius — The wizard Merlin, awoken and returned to serve the Pendragon and save England. Receives the powers of the eldila. He has been in a deep sleep since the time of King Arthur, and both sides initially believe he will join the N.I.C.E. It is a shock when he appears at St Anne's.
• Mr. MacPhee — A scientist, skeptic, and rationalist, and close friend of Dr. Ransom. He is mentioned parenthetically in Perelandra. MacPhee, like Ransom, was an officer in the First World War. Wants to fight the N.I.C.E. with human powers. An argumentative character who claims to have no opinions, merely stating facts and illustrating implications. His position in the establishment is to be skeptical, testing every hypothesis and Jane's dreams; however, the awoken Merlin believes MacPhee to be Ransom's "fool" (i.e. jester), because MacPhee is "obstructive and rather rude...yet never gets sat on". (The character may have been based on William T. Kirkpatrick, former headmaster of Lurgan College and an admired tutor of the young Lewis.)
• Mr. Bultitude — Last of the seven bears of Logres, he escaped from a zoo and was tamed by Ransom, who has regained man's pre-fallen authority over the beasts.

Merlin dictating his poems, as illustrated in a French book from the 13th century For other uses, see Merlin (disambiguation). ...

Major themes

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Image File history File links Emblem-important. ...

Materialism and nihilism

The novel's central theme — that pure materialism is incompatible with ethics and, ultimately, human life — is, as Lewis stated, based on his own treatise The Abolition of Man. An extreme example of this theme is his portrayal of the leaders of N.I.C.E., two of whom (Frost and Wither) have become nihilists with no recognizably human motives as a result of their quest for a purely objective mode of thought. Furthermore, Lewis portrays their materialism as having, perhaps inevitably, degenerated into a false front: a disgust with physical life and a fascination with the esoteric and occult have turned them in fact into avid gnostics. Genuine scientific materialism of the Victorian type is portrayed as comparatively innocent, and is represented by Ransom's "official sceptic" MacPhee and by the chemist Hingest, who breaks with the N.I.C.E. on discovering that it has "nothing to do with science". In philosophy, materialism is that form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; that fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; that matter is the only substance. ... For other uses, see Ethics (disambiguation). ... The Abolition of Man is a 1943 book by C. S. Lewis. ... This article is about the philosophical position. ... Gnosticism (Greek: gnōsis, knowledge) refers to a diverse, syncretistic religious movement consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect spirit, the demiurge, who is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God. ...

Political conservatism

The novel is Lewis's most overtly political fiction, illustrating how the alliances of state, industry, and academia and the manipulation of the mass media might move England towards fascism. Popular press redirects here; note that the University of Wisconsin Press publishes under the imprint The Popular Press. Mass media is a term used to denote a section of the media specifically envisioned and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation state. ... Fascist redirects here. ...

In the novel Merlin criticizes Mark and Jane for their use of contraceptives (it is not made clear whether Ransom, or Lewis, agrees). It defends the family and traditional marriage. Lewis attacks what he considered sexual perversion: Fairy Hardcastle, a prominent villain, is an implied lesbian and sadist (and veteran of Mosley's British Union of Fascists), who forces her attentions on non-consenting "fluffy" female captives. Birth control is the practice of preventing or reducing the probability of pregnancy without abstaining from sexual intercourse; the term is also sometimes used to include abortion, the ending of an unwanted pregnancy, or abstinence. ... Mosley is a family name. ... The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the Flash and Circle symbolic of action within unity The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. ...

Lewis portrays in a negative light the trend of relativistic non-traditional teaching of children, using one character's voice to observe that while "experimenting" on children would be met with outrage, for some reason sending them to "experimental schools" was considered progressive. He also attacks in passing the "Humanitarian Theory of Punishment" as an infringement of the human rights of the criminal: if punishment is intended to be therapeutic rather than retributory, there is no clear end point at which the offender has paid his debt to society.

Cecil Rhodes and imperialism

That Hideous Strength also briefly criticizes Wynwood Reade, a secular humanist philosopher and the author of The Martyrdom of Man. Lewis also makes one negative reference to English South African businessman, politician and colonist Cecil Rhodes, calling Britain the home of Arthur and of Mordred, of Sydney and of Cecil Rhodes. Arthur was the ancient who nobly defended Britain against the Anglo-Saxons, Mordred was the traitor who overthrew him. Sir Phillip Sydney was a great poet of the 16th century. Interestingly, Rhodes was an agnostic, a secular humanist, and a liberal (of a sort), and he read Wynwood Reade's The Martyrdom of Man and said that it "made me who I am". It is most likely, however, that the primary reason Rhodes is chosen as a representative of the "bad" in English history is for his role as an amoral imperialist (cf. the implied anti-colonialism in Out of the Silent Planet). Lewis's conclusions conflicted with simple "conservatism": at the time of the writing, in the 1940s, most British still saw Rhodes as a hero. The villain Weston may be a caricature of Cecil Rhodes: Weston, like Rhodes, is racist, amoral, a secular humanist, and ruthless. Weston bears some likeness to Saruman in JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes, PC, DCL, (July 5, 1853 – March 26, 1902[1]) was a British-born South African businessman, mining magnate, and politician. ... For other uses, see King Arthur (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Mordred (disambiguation). ... Philip Sidney. ... Saruman is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkiens Middle-earth legendarium. ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... This article is about the novel. ...

Critique of global capitalism

Like the dialogue between the Oyarsa and Professor Weston in Out of the Silent Planet, the discussion between Ransom and Merlin dramatizes Lewis's opinions on modern Western materialistic culture: Oyarsa is a fictional character in C. S. Lewiss Space Trilogy, which includesOut of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength. ... Out of the Silent Planet is the first novel of a science fiction trilogy written by C. S. Lewis, sometimes referred to as the Space Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy. ...

"The poison was brewed in these West lands but it has spat itself everywhere by now. However far you went you would find the machines, the crowded cities, the empty thrones, the false writings, the barren beds: men maddened with false promises and soured with true miseries, worshipping the iron works of their own hands, cut off from Earth their mother and from their Father in Heaven".

This criticism is clearly based on religious and conservative premises. Monarchism is refelcted in the above reference to "the empty thrones" as one of the evils of the modern world, as in Merlin's horror at finding a world in which there is no longer an Emperor "whose office it is to put down tyrants and give life to dying kingdoms". Neverhtless, much of this criticism also chimes with contemporary attacks on globalism and capitalism from the modern Left. Monarchism is the advocacy of the establishment, preservation, or restoration of a monarchy as a form of government in a nation. ... With regards to globalism , it would be constructive perhaps to know and recall some of the history. ... For other uses, see Capitalism (disambiguation). ...

Total War, Racism and Genocide

In the beginning of the book, even before the reader had a glimpse of the N.I.C.E. monstrous headquarters, the arch-schemer Lord Feverstone tells the young professor Mark about N.I.C.E.'s aims: "Quite simple and obvious things, at first - sterilization of the unfit, liquidation of backward races (we don't want any dead weights), selective breeding." To which Mark replies "But this is stupendous, Feverstone" and has no reservations about joining an institute of which these are some of the proclaimed aims.

This is all the more significant as Mark's most obvious characteristic, as portrayed by Lewis, is an extreme conformism and a strong desire to fit himself to the prevalent ideas and fashions in his social environment. The book was written in 1944, when WWII was still going on but Nazi Germany's defeat was already a foregone conclusion. Still, Lewis foresaw a post-war world where Nazism's worst heritage of racism and genocide would live on among the victors and be current in "respectable" British academic circles. German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Later on, one of the N.I.C.E. directors asserts that the two World Wars were "merely the first of sixteen wars scheduled to take place until the end of the Twentieth Century", whose hidden real purpose is to exterminate the bulk of humanity and leave only "a small nucleus" desirable to the Satanic "macrobes".

Egalitarianism at St Anne's

St Anne's own domestic politics are egalitarian. There are no servants. Jane is somewhat taken aback, despite her theoretical egalitarian beliefs, that Ivy treats the educated and middle-class residents as equals. Also, men and women share alternate shifts for the housework. The idea behind this is that men and women tend to work differently, or as one female character says, you may get a man to do something, but it only causes trouble to try to get him to help. Though the community as such is not Christian, given that the "resident sceptic" MacPhee is a member in good standing, nevertheless this egalitarianism recalls that of the early Christian communities, in the time of Jesus Christ himself and his disciples and in the early Roman-persecuted communities, an egalitarianism recalled by Christian reformers at various times and places.

Nimrod and the Tower of Babel

The "Banquet at Belbury", where the N.I.C.E. leadership are made unable to comprehend each other's language and are thus undone, is clearly based on the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, to which the book's name also refers. (Specifically, it is taken from a quotation from the sixteenth-century Scottish poet Sir David Lindsay, which also serves as the book's motto: "The shadow of that hyddeous strength [the Tower of Babel] sax myle and more it is of length".) This article is about the Biblical story. ... Sir David Lyndsay (c. ...

When describing to the reawakened Merlin the conditions in the modern world, Ransom says "it is as in the days when Nimrod built a tower to reach heaven". Though not specifically stated in the Bible, long-standing later tradition (attested in Jewish, Christian and Muslim sources alike) attributes to the hunter-king Nimrod the building of that tower, an ultimate act of rebellion against God's authority. The N.I.C.E. scientists do not build a physical tower, but they and their Satanic patrons, the "macrobes", are rebelling against God. This makes them Nimrod's successors, deserving of the same Divine retribution which fell upon Nimrod and his followers. Look up Nimrod in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The Satanic "Ouroborindra"

Members of the N.I.C.E. "inmost circle" engage in a secret Satanic ritual of stripping naked and bowing down to the re-animated head of the criminal Alcasan, which actually houses one of the demonic macrobes. All the while they chant, "Ouroborindra! Ouroborindra! Ouroborindra ba-ba-hee!". “Fiend” redirects here. ...

The name "Ouroborindra" is presumably composed of Ouroboros, the mythical worm or dragon swallowing its own tail, and the Hindu god Indra. Another possibility is that it refers to the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo, whose ideas would have been distasteful to Lewis. For other uses, see Ouroboros (disambiguation). ... Hinduism is a religious tradition[1] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ... For other uses, see Indra (disambiguation). ... Sri Aurobindo (Bangla: শ্রী অরবিন্দ Sri Ôrobindo, Sanskrit: श्री अरविन्द Srī Aravinda) (August 15, 1872–December 5, 1950) was an Indian/Hindu nationalist, scholar, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, yogi and guru [1]. After a short political career in which he became one of the leaders of the early movement for the freedom of India...

In the Christian interpretation Ouroboros is a symbol of the limited confines of the material world and the self-consuming transitory nature of a mere "worldly existence", and Chesterton, in The Everlasting Man, uses it as a symbol of the circular and self-defeating nature of pantheistic mysticism and of most modern philosophy. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (May 29, 1874–June 14, 1936) was an influential English writer of the early 20th century. ...

While Hindus in general reckon Indra as among the forces of Good, he is also considered the least perfect of their gods and the most inclined to sinful behavior, and on one occasion was punished for sexual misconduct by "a curse that one thousand vulvas would cover his body in a grotesque and vulgar display, and that his reign as king of the gods would meet with disaster and catastrophe".

Surrealist painting

The so-called "Objective Room" at Belbury, training place of candidates for the "inner circle" of servants and worshippers of the Satanic Macrobes, includes - among the decorations intended to induce in such trainees the necessary state of mind - paintings with such themes as "A young woman who held her mouth wide open, to reveal the fact that the inside of it was overgrown with hair(...) a giant mantis playing a fiddle while being eaten by another mantis, and a man with corkscrews instead of arms bathing in a flat, sadly coloured sea beneath a summer sunset." Mantis is Greek for prophet. ...

Though the name is not explicitly mentioned, and though no actual paintings with the specific themes enumerated are known, the Surrealist school of painting is plainly meant. Salvador Dalí was already at the peak of his career at the time of writing. Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious. ... Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989), was a Spanish surrealist painter of Catalan descent born in Figueres, Catalonia (Spain). ...

Logres and Britain

At the end, the group at St Anne's reflect for a time on the meaning of their quest. Dimble suggests that there is something peculiarly English about the way their land is poised between Logres and Britain. McPhee protests that this is just a complex way of saying there are good and bad people. Ransom says that it means more than this, and it is wrong to think the position especially English. Every country and culture has its own form of good and its own ideal — it is evil that is standardized and monotonous. Logres (also spelt Logris or Loegria) is another name for England in Arthurian legend. ...

Whereas the N.I.C.E. represents death and nihilism, St Anne's represents life. Not only human beings, but animals and angels as well join in cosmic harmony at the end. Mark and Jane Studdock are about to be reunited, and the Oyarsa of Perelandra is about to take Ransom back to Venus. Under her influence all the animals are going out in pairs — Mr Bultitude, the bear, has found his Mrs Bultitude.

Satire on academic politics

Some early chapters center on the small-minded affairs of academic politics, of which Lewis had much personal experience.

Early on, the University's so-called "Progressive Element" manipulates the rest of the Board into selling off the immemorial Bragdon Wood, which had been in the school's proud possession since its founding and had stood untouched for countless centuries before that. After many hours of exhausting discussion on far more trivial issues, the tired and hungry board members consent in a single afternoon to let the pristine wood be bought and cut down by the remorseless real-estate developers of the N.I.C.E. (at this point the true nature of N.I.C.E is not yet clear). This depiction seems to anticipate the criticism of unbridled urban and industrial development made by environmentalists beginning in the 1960s, a feeling shared by Tolkien. Bold textHello ... J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ...

The University and its small-minded academics soon recede to the background as the true demonic character of N.I.C.E. is revealed.

But towards the end, after the Institute is consumed, the supremely opportunistic leader of "The Progressive Element" reappears. Having been on a train bound for the school when the town and university alike were destroyed in a cataclysmic re-enactment of the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah, Dr Curry, the surviving sub-warden of Bracton College, realizes at once that the destruction of the University and the death of all his fellow lecturers offers him a unique chance for personal glory, and an eventual statue of himself in Bracton Hall. He resolves to immediately take charge of the University's reconstruction, and is last seen dreaming of going down in the University's history as "The Second Founder", and having his statue erected "in the rebuilt quadrangle"... Quadrangle of University of Sydney In architecture, a quadrangle, or more colloquially, quad, is a space or courtyard, usually square or rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. ...

Allusions/references to other works

Parts of That Hideous Strength are a homage to Lewis's close friend and colleague, J.R.R. Tolkien. A major theme of the novel is that as time goes on, the universe keeps coming to sharper and sharper points, and that while magical communion with nature may have been lawful in ancient times (in the time of Merlin and King Arthur), now such activities are unlawful and almost impossible. There are references to "Numinor" (an unintentional misspelling of Númenor, a word Lewis had heard while listening to Tolkien reading his stories aloud, but had never seen written down), which is the last land in Tolkien's mythology before the Undying Lands. Magic was apparently lawful and accessible in Númenor, to some extent, and there were non-human intelligences accessible to human beings. This sounds very much like the description of Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and twice in the chapter "They Have Pulled Down Deep Heavens on Their Heads" Lewis specifically references the Earth as "Middle-Earth": once in Dr. Dimble's discussion with his wife, and once when Merlin states that if the gods come down it will unmake all of Middle-Earth. The spirits seem to be angelic entities, similar to the Ainur in Tolkien's work. J. R. R. Tolkien in 1916. ... For other uses, see King Arthur (disambiguation). ... Númenor is a fictional location from J. R. R. Tolkiens universe of Middle-earth and is intended to be his version of Atlantis. ...

This novel, unlike the previous two books, shows the influence of Charles Williams. Similarities to Williams' supernatural thrillers include the non-exotic setting, the gathering of an informal team of heroes rather than a single protagonist, the focus on a temporarily estranged married couple, and the use of Arthurian legend. Olaf Stapledon was an indirect influence. The description of the "Head" is similar to that of the Fourth Men in Last and First Men. In the book's preface, Lewis said of Stapledon: "…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". Charles Walter Stansby Williams (September 20, 1886 – May 15, 1945), was a British writer and poet, and a member of the loose literary circle called the Inklings. ... William Olaf Stapledon (May 10, 1886 – September 6, 1950) was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction. ... Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future is a science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. ...

The character of Jules is believed to be a caricature of H. G. Wells, whose ideas conflicted sharply with Lewis's. The popularity of Wells, whose views Lewis and his friends disagreed with, had been one of the negative influences inspiring the Space Trilogy, although it should be noted that in Out of the Silent Planet and elsewhere Lewis stated his debt to Wells in imaginative terms. (Lewis was throughout his life able to admire a very wide range of literature, even if he disagreed with it.) The historian A. J. P. Taylor, a fellow at the same Oxford college as Lewis, speculates in his memoirs about several other characters in the book being based on certain people at the University. Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946), better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ... The Space Trilogy, Cosmic Trilogy or Ransom Trilogy is a trilogy of three science fiction novels by C. S. Lewis. ... Alan John Percivale Taylor (March 25, 1906 – September 7, 1990) was a renowned English historian of the 20th century. ...

Connections with Orwell

There are interesting parallels between Lewis's vision and that of George Orwell, despite the fact that Orwell had disliked Lewis's wartime religious broadcasts. From their divergent viewpoints — Christian in the one case, Democratic Socialist in the other — Lewis and Orwell were both deeply concerned with the same phenomena which they discerned in the post-war world. George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950) who was an English writer and journalist well-noted as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture. ...

Some two years before writing his own Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell reviewed That Hideous Strength for the Manchester Evening News ^[1] commenting: "Plenty of people in our age do entertain the monstrous dreams of power that Mr. Lewis attributes to his characters [i.e. the N.I.C.E. scientists], and we are within sight of the time when such dreams will be realizable." (It is noteworthy that the review was written in the direct aftermath of the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which are referred to in the text.) This article is about the Orwell novel. ... The Manchester Evening News is an English daily newspaper published each week day evening and on Saturdays. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... For other uses, see Hiroshima (disambiguation). ... Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge) Nagasaki   listen? (長崎市; -shi, literally long peninsula) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture located at the south-western coast of Kyushu, Japan. ...

However, the atheist Orwell argued that Lewis's book "would have been a 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."

In the Lewis book, Ransom tells Merlin that "No power that is merely earthly will serve (...) The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist, to squeeze it as it wills" — but hope is not lost, since the "gods" (actually, the angels of the true God) are about to come down and overthrow N.I.C.E.

For Orwell, however, there did not exist any power but the "merely earthly", and in his Nineteen Eighty-Four, Big Brother does "squeeze the Earth in his fist", with no one to effectively oppose him — or, to quote the actual, startlingly similar words of Orwell's arch-villain O'Brien (who bears some resemblance to Lewis' Professor Frost): the party's rule "...is like a boot stamping on a human face, forever". Big Brother as portrayed in the 1954 BBC Television adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...

For his part, Lewis does at one point mention Nineteen Eighty-Four, though dismissing it as a work morally and aesthetically far inferior to Orwell's other novel, Animal Farm. For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation). ...

References

1. ^ "The Scientist Takes Over", review of C. S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength (1945) by George Orwell, Manchester Evening News, 16 August 1945, reprinted as No. 2720 (first half) in The Complete Works of George Orwell, edited by Peter Davison, Vol. XVII (1998), pp. 250–251, [1],

is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...

External links

• Notes on Quotations & Allusions in That Hideous Strength
• That Hideous Strength publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• George Orwell's 1945 review