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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 Christian fellow academics, sure, but also one rather sympathetic skeptic, leading women, and working-class folks.
• Their enemy is not just flesh and blood, but dark spiritual powers.
• That’s why we call Hideous Strength a true supernatural thriller.
• Astute readers will discern demonic activity behind the veil.
• That’s no surprise for the author of The Screwtape Letters.
• Yet the activity is more subtle, in allusion, not overt like Peretti.
• Ultimately we discern the demons/humans spread their evil ideas in an area Lewis knew very well: the corruption of language.
• Words, meanings, symbols, translations are vital to this story.
• And perhaps it’s no surprise that the ultimate battle is won not by weapons or even direct intrusions of magic, but by word powers.
• Clearly the author had in mind a certain Genesis 11 narrative!
• By the end, one hero utters this divine judgment: “Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis.” (Kee vehr-boom Deh-ee kon-temp-seh-roont, eh-ees ow-feh-reh-toor eh-tee-ahm vehr-boom ho-mee-nees)
• Translated: “They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.”
• These villains “have pulled down Deep Heaven onto their heads.”
• Holy agents unite from the planets and the past to empower good.
• Lewis also brings in, quite overtly, his love for medieval cosmology and the planetary influences that are crucial to this universe.
• And now (with a reread) Stephen has experienced this story with delight like he had hoped, particularly with Lewis’s latter head-hopping and fun-poking at the expense of N.I.C.E.’s evildoers.
• That Hideous Strength ends with startling eucatastrophe and celebration of biblical and based virtues, from cosmic to familial.
• It’s no wonder the story has gained new fans in these similar days.

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Top question for listeners

• Do you prefer demonic evil in fiction to be overt or subtle?

Next on Fantastical Truth

Well, we just talked about the first Chronicle of Narnia … the book! Yet many fans found or rediscovered this series thanks to the Disney-distributed, Walden Media–made film from director Andrew Adamson. Want to feel old? That was two decades ago! So now we shall look back at Narnia’s journey to the box office with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which released twenty years ago on Dec. 9, 2005.

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