Book Review: That Hideous Strength

Book Review 

That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis, first published in England, 1945. 

Reviewed by Michael, an American convert recently received into the true Church by Holy Apostle James Orthodox parish in Owasso, Oklahoma, GOC.

I recently read CS Lewis' Ransom (or Cosmic) Trilogy, and was struck by the significant crossovers with not just Orthodox Theology, but Epistemology. I want to focus on the final book of the series, That Hideous Strength, for the bulk of this post, but a quick recap of the first two books is warranted to give context to what I am going to write.

The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, centers around the protagonist Ransom Elwin, who is a philologist that is kidnapped by some scientists named "Devine" and "Weston" who are taking him to "Malacandra" or Mars. There he meets two rational species, the Sorns and Hrossa, which are mortal, but worship Maleldil (Lewis' name for the Holy Trinity in the fictional language of the series). This book introduces two ideas that are particularly relevant for what I want to touch on later: 1) the villains are rationalistic empiricist scientists, and 2) "space" isn't really an empty vacuum, but rather teeming with life and energy (for more on this concept, see Planet Narnia or The Narnia Code by Michael Ward).

In the second book, Perelandra, Ransom is transported to Perelandra (Venus) by one of the eldils (angels) and is tasked with preserving the innocence of the first Man and Woman there. One of the villains from the first book, Weston, also manages to get to Perelandra, and we find out later he has been possessed by the devil, who is using him as a tool to tempt the Queen of Perelandra into falling as Eve did in the Garden. Perelandra is a thought experiment by Lewis in what life may have been like for our first parents, and while I'm sure not all of it matches up with Orthodox Theology, I think he has plenty to say of value and use for us. Particularly from this book I want to highlight that Weston has transformed from a hyper-materialist empiricist into some type of pantheist eastern mystic. Hold onto that thought as I flesh it out in the recap of the final book.

The final book of the series is That Hideous Strength (a reference to the Ane Dialog by Sir David Lyndsay where he is describing the Tower of Babel). Elwin Ransom is still present, but he takes a supporting role and the primary protagonist then becomes Jane Studdock, and her husband Mark (who is perhaps not a protagonist, but certainly a central character). The National Institute for Coordinated Experiments (NICE) is a bureaucratic organization that is intertwined with the local college at Belbury; it seems to be a revolving door between the college and the NICE of administrators and staff. The NICE is dedicated to scientific control over not just nature, but man himself; it is how Lewis chooses to illustrate the modern religion of scientism. Of the plethora of philosophical topics he covers (see his companion book The Abolition of Man), what I would like to focus on are how he illustrates the convergence of science and magic.

The plot centers around the race between the NICE and Ransom's "Logres" to find the body of "Merlinus Ambrosius" (AKA the original Merlin). The NICE believes that he will be the key to finalizing their transhuman agenda, meanwhile the Logres are simply trying to prevent this from happening, and thus prevent catastrophe. Both sides recognize that there was something more potent about the magicians of the past. Even though the top members of the NICE dabble in the occult, and have mastered "science", they recognize that their magickal abilities are more limited than the druids of the past, therefore they seek to marry the magick of the past with the science of the present to perfect their pursuit of power. From a dialogue of the primary antagonists, Frost and Wither, talking about Merlinus Ambrosius (Ch 12, Sec 6, pg 262):

"What we have here," said Frost pointing to the sleeper, "is not, you see, something from the Fifth Century. Is is the last vestige, surviving into the Fifth Century, of something much more remote. Something that comes down from long before the Great Disaster, even from before primitive Druidism; something that takes us back to Numinor, to pre-glacial periods."

"The whole experiment is perhaps more hazardous than we realised."

And a little earlier from the same chapter, between Mark Studdock and Frost, Frost explains the purposes behind their "experiment" (Ch 12, Sec 4, pg 256):

"The great majority of the human race can be educated only in the sense of being given knowledge: they cannot be trained into the total objectivity of mind which is now necessary. They will always remain animals, looking at the world through the haze of their subjective reactions. Even if they could, the day for a large population has passed. It has served its function by acting as a kind of cocoon for Technocratic and Objective Man. Now, the Macrobes, and the selected humans have no further use for it."

"The two last wars, then, were not disasters on your view?"

"On the contrary, they were simply the beginning of the programme...That is not the path to objectivity. I deliberately raise them in order that you may become accustomed to regard them in purely scientific light and distinguish them as sharply as possible from the facts."

Lewis here cuts to the core of what we're going through right now in a few short lines what the Great Reset/New World Order/4th Industrial Revolution/Etc is all about. It is a remaking of mankind, but not just in political terms using scientific tools, but rather the marrying of the technocratic facism with the devil-worshipping religion and magick of the antedeluvian period.

Fortunately for Ransom and the Logres (spoiler alert), when Merlinus is wakened from his slumber, they learn he was actually a Christian; one of the druidic converts when the Church had come to the shores of Britain. Then it becomes apparent through a short conversation between Merlinus and Ransom why the eldils had directed the Logres to find Merlinus. It wasn't just to keep him out of the hands of the NICE (Ch 13, Sec 5, pg 288):

"Our enemies...had broken by natural philosophy the barrier which God of His own power would not break. Even so they sought you as a friend and raised up for themselves a scourge. And that is why Powers of Heaven have come down to this house, and in this chamber where we are now discoursing Malacandra and Perelandra have spoken to me."

Merlin's face became a little paler...

"Sir," said Merlin, "what will come of this? If they put forth their power, they will unmake all Middle Earth."

"Their naked power, yes," said Ransom. "That is why they will work only through a man."

...

"Through a man whose mind is opened to be so invaded," said Ransom, "one who by his own will once opened it. I take Our Fair Lord to witness that if it were my task, I would not refuse it. But he will not suffer a mind that still has its virginity to be so violated. And through a black magician's mind their purity neither can nor will operate. One who has dabbled...in the days when dabbling had not begun to be evil, or was only just beginning...and also a Christian man and a penitent. A tool (I must speak plainly) good enough to be so used and not too good. In all these Western parts of ther world there was only one man who had lived in those days and could still be recalled. You--"

I would like to focus on the idea that Lewis is drawing out here; that there was a time where magic(k) was stronger, and to add to this from an Orthodox perspective, where Christians were "stronger" as well. In our True Orthodox circles, the latter idea should not be foreign to our thinking. From Give Me a Word: The Alphabetical Sayings of the Desert Fathers published by St Vladimir's Seminary Press (pg 163):

Ischyrion [18.9] The holy fathers of Scete predicted concerning the last generation, saying: "What have we accomplished?" In reply one of them, great in life and name, Abba Ischyrion said: "We have carried out the commandments of God." In reply the elders said: "But those who come after us, what will they accomplish?" He said: "They are going to attain the half of what we have done." They said: "And what of those after them?" and he said: "those of that generation will do no work at all. Temptation is going to come upon them and those who are found to be tried and tested in that age will be found greater both than us and than our fathers."

When many people see a quote from a holy father such as this, they focus on the last portion that says they will be great for doing little; that is not my intent however (and I think that is the humility of Abba Ischyrion speaking anyways) with this article, I instead want to focus on the bulk of the apothegm that says each successive generation of Christians will keep fewer of the commandments of God.

For the inverse, from the Church's tradition we know that witches and wizards also used to be stronger. From the Lives of Sts Cyprian and Justina

From this it is evident what kind of man Cyprian was: as a friend of the demons, he performed all their works, causing evil to people and deceiving them. Living in Antioch, he turned many people away to every kind of lawless deed; he killed many with poisons and magic, and slaughtered young men and maidens as sacrifices for the demons. He instructed many in his ruinous sorcery: some he taught to fly in the air, others to sail in boats on the clouds, still others to walk on water (emphasis added).

source Orthodox Word #70

https://app.box.com/s/fidluwvb48ffrhzly22uq2zvvzb56byl/file/1141507983037

aka TINY URL  https://tinyurl.com/48h6h7x7

So all of that to say, I would like to posit that CS Lewis, while not Orthodox, knew much more about the spiritual state of the world than many of his contemporaries and us moderns in general. He cuts right to the heart of the matter and shows that magic(k) and science are really two sides of the same coin, and that the elites of the highest levels of society are trying to resurrect the paganism of old and marry it to their technocratic society in order to create a "brave new world". Let us at least be sober enough to accept this fact. And garner the wisdom that CS Lewis offers to help us prepare for the tumult ahead.

Life and Service available here: 

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