Hideous Strength Research Articles

C.S. Lewis’ Roman That Hideous Strength und die Gefahren des Transhumanismus

C. S. Lewis has published the novel That Hideous Strength, being called a fairy-tale for grown-ups in 1945. The novel relates the story of the fictitious town of Edgestow and its unimportant college. On the one end of the town an institution is established being abbreviated as N.I.C.E. (National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments). Its stated aim is to improve the condition of the world, but it is dependent on evil spirits. On the other side of the town is the hill of St. Anne’s with a community under its director Dr. Ransom and guided by the friendly spirits of planet Perelandra (Venus). A young married couple is nearly torn apart between these poles, belonging to the different sides. In the end the friendly powers gain victory by using the magician Merlin as their tool. Lewis is dealing with the older type of transhumanism, whose dangers are associated with the N.I.C.E. After WW II the transhumanism has gained a new potential by the development of Artificial Intelligence. Dataism seems to be the new religion, whereas Lewis is convinced of a cosmic order, which by no means shall be broken, otherwise mankind as such will be dissolved. (Article is in German language)

C.S. Lewis on Female Scholars: A Reply to John D. Rateliff

In John D. Rateliff’s study ‘The Missing Women: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lifelong Support for Women’s Higher Education’, Tolkien’s support of women is unfavourably contrasted with the supposedly dismissive attitude of C.S. Lewis. Rateliff offers three pieces of evidence in support of his argument that Lewis held a contemptuous attitude towards female research students in particular: a private letter by Lewis written in mock late-medieval English; Lewis’s comments about Damaris Tighe, the heroine in Charles Williams’s novel The Place of the Lion; and the character Jane Studdock in Lewis’s own novel That Hideous Strength. This paper argues that Rateliff’s evidence is not only limited but selective and misunderstood. What Lewis rebukes is academic complacency and vanity, not female researchers, many of whom Lewis respected and even befriended. The principle of biographical verification (grounding biographical speculations in biographical rather than imaginative literature) seriously complicates Rateliff’s argument.

Was C. S. Lewis a Christian Humanist?

Abstract: Was Belfast native C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) a Christian humanist? I approach this question by revisiting Lewis's critique of Christian humanism in Erasmus, More, Swift, and others. This sets up a contrast between Lewis the critic and Lewis the satirist—I refer particularly to the vein of satire that surfaces in The Pilgrim's Regress and runs through The Screwtape Letters and That Hideous Strength . I show that Lewis the satirist is indebted to the very same Christian humanists whom he disparages elsewhere. While Lewis's relation to Christian humanism is rife with contradiction, it is nonetheless central to his achievement.

How Much Does That Hideous Strength Owe to Charles Williams?

do not intend here anything so ambitious as a comprehensive study of the question posed by my title. My purpose in this essay is threefold: in the first section, to augment the case that has been made for one debt to Williams; in the second, to narrow down the demonstrable range of Williams’ influence in another area, that of the Arthurian material in That Hideous Strength; and finally, to point out a commonality in their theory of history that can probably not, however, be considered an instance of oneway influence, but rather an agreement that reflects their shared Christian worldview. That third study will lead to observations on the genre of fantasy in which they both worked.

"The Curdie Books, Please": C.S. Lewis' Co-creative Reading in That Hideous Stength

The intent of this article is to initiate examination into the extent to which That Hideous Strength (1945), the last of the Ransom trilogy, is shaped by the “Curdie books”—particularly the second, The Princess and Curdie (1882).6 In doing so, some of MacDonald’s influence on Lewis’ understanding of “myth,” of “semantic unities,” and even of literary criticism will be set forth.

"There Is No Emperor": Merlin and the Ideal State in That Hideous Strength

C. S. Lewis’ Merlin has been brought forward from the sixth century. In the world he knew, though there was no longer a Roman Emperor in the West, there certainly was an Emperor reigning in Constantinople who could be called upon for aid. A closer look at Lewis’ depiction of Byzantium reveals what role the positive qualities he attributed to the city played in the development of his own views regarding the nature of the realm (or world) we should strive to realize here on earth.

All My Dogs Before Me

Excerpt: "Dogs? Did C. S. Lewis own dogs?" That casual question, raised at one of the organizational meetings of the Arizona C. S. Lewis Society,1 led to a rather obscure search. Was Lewis a pet owner? It is well known that he had created two imaginary worlds filled with talking animals: Narnia and Boxen. Less well known was his opposition to vivisection. An entire chapter of The Problem of Pain deals with pain as experienced by animals. A bear at the Whipsnade Zoo, nicknamed “Mr. Bultitude” by Lewis and his brother, Warren, appears as a minor character in That Hideous Strength. The other two books in the Ransom Trilogy contain vivid encounters between man and translunary beasts (both sentient and otherwise). Lewis obviously thought well of animals. But did he have any pets of his own to nurture and deepen that affection? Yes he did, as his autobiography, diary, and letters clearly demonstrate.

That Hideous Strength's Omnicompetent State

That Hideous Strength is clearly connected to C. S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man, where he writes of the conditioners who seek to create a new society via the rejection of universal moral law and the rise of an educational and scientific elite. For Lewis, That Hideous Strength was a way to communicate the concerns expressed in The Abolition of Man in a story format that would appeal to those who might not read a treatise on the subject.
 This paper examines his concerns about a totalitarian threat as expressed in The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength, and then shows how those concerns appeared in his post-war correspondence. Were his fears and concerns valid? How, in particular, did he communicate his concerns to his many correspondents? How predictive did he consider That Hideous Strength to be as he experienced the reality of post-WWII Britain?

The Historical Context of C.S. Lewis's Novel "That Hideous Strength"

That Hideous Strength, the third novel of C.S. Lewis The Space Trilogy, called by its author “a modern fairy-tale for grown-ups”, was written in the end of the Second World War; it is set in some indefinable time “after the war”. Nevertheless, the culture and history of England plays the significant role in the novel, not only as the source of images and storylines, but also as a topic of scientific research inside the author’s world. The characters’ attitude towards this topic is meaningful. The cultural and historical context of the novel is complex: we can see there the legendary history of England (Arthurian tales, Merlin as the legendary person and literary character) and its real history (certain features of English colleges dating back to the Middle Ages, Henry Bracton, the famous lawyer of the 13th century, Cromwell, etc.). Both real and legendary histories intertwine in the world of the novel, sometimes within a single paragraph or a scene, for example when the narrator speaks of his visit to Bragdon Wood (chapter 1, part 3) where a real historical figure (Bracton), imaginary locus (wood) and “the medieval song” of the 14th century made up by Lewis himself are put together, or when Mr. Dimble (chapter 1, part 5) talks about historical origins of Arthurian legends. It makes the world of the novel multidimensional and atemporal.

АВТОРСКИЕ РАЗМЫШЛЕНИЯ О ЧЕЛОВЕКЕ В «МЕРЗЕЙШЕЙ МОЩИ» К.С. ЛЬЮИСА

The article is dedicated to the problem of author’s reflections on person and personality in the literary texts of the famous British writer of the twentieth century C.S. Lewis. The main philological theories of the phenomenon of author’s reflections in the literary text are considered. Author’s reflections in a literary text, as a rule, are aimed at finding the causes and meaning of the events depicted, may contain a detailed author’s assessment of the character of the hero, his actions, situation, or they may prescribe the ethical necessity of the hero’s actions. The author’s reasoning about a person can model a conditional situation: describe how the hero would act under certain circumstances. The author’s reflections on anthropological themes in the fairy tale for adults “That Hideous Strength” are analyzed. C.S. Lewis’s reflections on man in “That Hideous Strength” are considered and classified from the point of view of their communicative function. Some aspects of translation of the author’s reflections in “That Hideous Strength” into Russian are discussed. The article attempts to comprehend the role of the author’s reflections on man in the literary anthropology of C.S. Lewis’s imagery.

The Tower of Babel Revisited in That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Dans le troisième volume de la Ransom Trilogy, publié en 1945, C.S. Lewis est inspiré par le motif de la tour de Babel. Le titre même, That Hideous Strength, renvoie à un poème de David Lindsay y faisant référence. Lewis reprend dans cette œuvre, qualifiée par lui de « conte de fées moderne pour adultes », le thème de la soif éperdue de pouvoir. Il choisit un nom, Belbury, dont la première syllabe évoque le lieu de dispersion biblique, et des personnages, qui, pendant toute la première partie du roman, tentent d’instaurer une dictature mondiale en se servant du langage comme d’une arme et en cherchant à s’élever au rang de l’esprit, notamment en se libérant des vicissitudes terrestres. Toutefois, selon un leitmotiv lewisien, le mal commis devient tôt ou tard subi. L’arme se retourne contre ses utilisateurs. L’intervention est surnaturelle, comme dans le texte biblique, mais les visiteurs cosmiques, porteurs de némésis, sont aussi source de bénédiction pour le petit noyau de fidèles réuni à Sainte-Anne. Babel et la Pentecôte se trouvent ainsi chronologiquement réunis dans la dystopie lewisienne.

Richard C. West, 1944–2020

Richard C. West, 1944–2020 John D. Rateliff The passing of Richard Carroll West (August 13, 1944 to November 29, 2020) at the age of seventy-six marks the end of a career in Tolkien, Inklings, and fantasy studies that from the very start combined the enthusiasm of fandom with the scrutiny of scholarship. The eldest of eight children, Richard was born and raised in the Boston area. He attended Cathedral High School, graduating second in his class. Both devout and tolerant, he took a modest pride in his descent from the family of Archbishop John Carroll, the first bishop appointed to serve in the post-revolutionary United States. He never thought to impose his views on others, yet when attending cons or academic conferences he was careful to schedule time for mass on Sunday mornings. While still in high school he was already involved with fandom—in this case, comic book fandom. An avid reader and collector of comic books, at the age of seventeen he won a contest in the letters page of a DC Comic. His prize was the original script by Gardner Fox, with editorial annotations by comic book legend Julius Schwartz, of the Adam Strange story "Challenge of the Rival Starman," which appeared in the June 1962 issue of Mystery in Space. It was while pursuing his B.A. in English literature at Boston College, sometime during his sophomore year (circa 1964), that Richard discovered Tolkien. Already an admirer of folklore and fairy tale, the sagas and science fiction, and C. S. Lewis, he was reading the latter's That Hideous Strength when he noticed the passage in Lewis's Preface that said, "Those who would like to learn further about Numinor [sic] and the True West must (alas!) await the publication of much that still exists only in the MSS. of my friend, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien" (7). In light of the date of Lewis's book (1946 in its U.S. edition), it occurred to Richard that Tolkien might well have published some of this material in the intervening eighteen years. With the eye to detail and curiosity that would make him such a good bibliographer—the desire to "learn further"—he quickly tracked down The Lord of the Rings, read it, and at once bought copies of all three volumes (then available only in hardcover), having correctly concluded that this was a book he'd be rereading many times. After receiving his B.A. in English from Boston College, Richard left his native Boston (circa 1966) and moved to Madison, which he [End Page 7] made his home for the rest of his life. Attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, he studied medieval literature, with a special interest in the Arthurian legend, taking his Masters in English. As he pursued his Ph.D., Richard was mentored by Eugene Vinaver, the great Arthurian scholar (editor of the Winchester Malory). His dissertation project was an edition and I believe translation of the Mort Artu, one of the major ancestral texts underlying Malory's later work. Unfortunately, he failed to complete his doctorate, joining the ranks of those scholars who are "A.B.D." (all but dissertation). This prompted a shift from his seeking a literature post to library school, where he took a second Masters in Library Science. He became a librarian at the University of Madison's Wendt Engineering Library, ultimately rising to the post of Senior Academic Librarian, to which was added at his retirement the honor of Emeritus. In addition to pursuing his degrees Richard was busy in these years with his Tolkien scholarship. He was a cofounder of the University of Wisconsin Tolkien Society, attending the first organizational meeting called by Ivor Rogers in September 1966. Among members who belonged to the group and attended its monthly meetings at some point over the decades were Ivor Rogers and Deborah Webster Rogers, Jared Lobdell, Janice Bogstad, Philip Kaveny, Matt Fisher, Hank Luttrell, Debra Daemmrich, and Kristin Thompson. Books to come out of these fans and scholars include Jared Lobdell's England and Always (1982), Deborah Rogers' J.R.R. Tolkien (Twayne English Authors Series: two editions, 1980 and...

A comparison between the concept of Newspeak in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel and the way of thinking about language in C.S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength

The aim of the article is to investigate some of the possible sources of inspiration for Orwell’s concept of the artificial language called Newspeak, which, in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, is shown as an effective tool of enslavement and thought control in the hands of a totalitarian state. The author discusses, in this context, the putative links between Newspeak and really existing artificial languages, first of all Esperanto, and also between Orwell’s notion of “doublethink”, which is an important feature of the totalitarian mentality, and Czesław Miłosz’s notion of “ketman”, developed in his book The Captive Mind. But the main emphasis is on the connection between Orwell’s book and the slightly earlier novel by C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength. It is well known that Orwell knew Lewis’s book and expressed his mixed feelings about it. There are many specific, though far from obvious, similarities between the two books, but what seems to have been particularly inspiring for Orwell was Lewis’s vision of a thoroughly degenerate language that is used for political manipulation rather than for communication.

TERRITÓRIOS VIOLADOS, RESISTÊNCIAS E MASSACRES DE POVOS E POBRES NA HISTÓRIA DO BRASIL – MAS A LUTA CONTINUA...

Analisa-se a violação de territórios no processo de expansão no tempo-espaço do capitalismo perverso que visa ao atendimento, preponderante, dos seus interesses econômicos. A metodologia através da qual se realizou esta reflexão fundamentou-se no método de abordagem do materialismo histórico e dialético, com o suporte de métodos de procedimentos relativos a uma análise livre do conteúdo de parte da bibliografia acerca da problemática ora realizada e do destaque de palavras ditas por sujeitos que pronunciam o seu mundo, através da sua prática existencial, para entendê-lo melhor no sentido de mudá-lo. O principal resultado ao qual se chegou refere-se à explicitação do fato de que, não obstante os fortes imperativos da racionalidade técnico-instrumental do capitalismo que viola os territórios que lhes interessa, nunca deixa de haver reações das classes dominadas a tais ações.

“The Vast Expanse of Interstellar Space”: Alan Gregory's Science Fiction Theology

Vast Expanse of Interstellar Space: Alan Gregory's Science Fiction Theology Science Fiction Theology : Beauty and the Transformation of the Sublime. By Alan P. R. Gregory. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2015. $59.95 (cloth).The late Marion Hatchett, professor of liturgies and author of the massive Commentary on the American Prayer Book,1 once told this writer that he believed that the Reverend Howard Galley had written Eucharistic Prayer C in 1969 on a washing machine in a laundromat in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. vast expanse of space is a well-known line from it.2 One aspect that might give the anecdote credibility is that by that year, the television series Star Trek3 had impressed such words as interstellar upon the imagination and vocabulary of the American public.Watching episodes of it today, it is perhaps difficult to conceive the impact the show had then. The special effects, costumes, and makeup are cheesy by 1960 standards, never mind todays. The acting was uneven, to say the least. Star Trek made its mark, however, by the mix of characters, especially the half-human, half-alien Mr. Spock. Lieutenant Uhura, a strong and competent leader, was thefirst significant television role played by an African-American woman. Japanese and Russian officers showed that humanity had made peace with its past. The tension between Spock and Captain Kirk was the mainspring of the drama, as they gradually become friends.The stories were by and large well-conceived riffs on social and political themes of the day, as well as some metaphysical musings, especially on the question of what does it mean to be a human being. That is arguably the constant underlying plot line of all the program s episodes, and the five series which have followed it. Because it is set in space, specifically where no man has gone before, with technology like faster-than-light spacecraft drives and teleportation, Star Trek is quintessential science fiction. As such, it is also rife with theological musings. For as John Calvin pointed out, to know is to know oneself, to know what it is to be truly human.4More Star Trek movies are on the way, continuing to follow Spock and Kirk as young officers. The Martian is presently at the top of the box office. Gravity was a recent huge success, as well as Prometheus (the latest of the Alien franchise) and Interstellar, all films with significant theological underpinnings. At this time of writing, there is a storm of publicity to prepare for the imminent release of the seventh film in the Stars Wars series. May the Force be with you! has been a colloquial staple since the first film in the series was released in 1977. is a valediction that is also almost a prayer: God be with you! Those who consider science fiction to be beneath them need to pay attention: these films are all intentionally proclaiming various perspectives on God, humanity, creation, and the sublime to huge global audiences. They affect us all, in one way or another.Therefore, theologians must be conversant in science fictions multitude of theologies, and preachers must become fluent in its major conventions and vocabulary, as well.5ScientifictionClive Staples Lewis is perhaps best known for his fantasy novels set in Narnia. But he wrote three major science fiction novels as well, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.6 They are all allegories on Christian themes, seen through the eyes of the recurring character, Dr. Elwin Ransom. Lewis also wrote a reflection on science fiction, or scientifiction, as it was then still being called. In On Science Fiction, Lewis attempts a defense of the genre. He makes a number of points that are still relevant. First, not all readers enjoy science fiction. is mythopoeic, and some people simply loathe such literature, whether fairy tales or fantasies like J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: It would seem from the reactions it produces, that the mythopoeic is rather, for good or ill, a mode of imagination which does something to us at a deep level. …

That Hideous Strength and Till We Have Faces : C.S. Lewis, Evangelism, and the Role of Story

C.S. Lewis and other Christians have often struggled with the apparent conflict between culture, or the arts, and evangelism. Lewis, however, concluded that while evangelism is the duty of all Christians, culture could serve as a road to conversion for some, particularly as a praeparatio evangelica. Evangelicals, however, approach culture and evangelism with the desire to use the work as an explicitly evangelistic tool and therefore tend to interpret Lewis's works in such a light. Using Lewis's own conversion narrative, non-fictional writings, and his fictional depictions of conversion in That Hideous Strength and Till We Have Faces, this article explores conversion as a necessary but gradual process in which the non-believer is prepared both imaginatively and mentally, through works of literature, for a more explicit and direct gospel presentation. These works are each inseparable from the influence of literature, fairy-tale, story, and myth, demonstrating how culture may act as a pre-conversion stimulus, but also, as a work itself, may also stimulate such a transformation in the reader.

La ciencia oscura y la tecno-utopía: la alternativa conservadora de C. S. Lewis

Frente al auge de las utopías científicas, ilustradas y progresistas de finales del s. XIX se alzaron ofertas de sentido alternativas. Algunas fueron articuladas a través de un pensamiento conservador y una metanarrativa cristiana, trascendente y ultramundana. Recurriremos al ejemplo de C. S. Lewis, que presentó su respuesta a la tecno-utopía en su ensayo La abolición del hombre así como en la novela Esa horrible fortaleza, conclusión de la Trilogía cósmica (o Trilogía de Ransom). Presentaremos su impugnación por medio de tres argumentos distintos: (1) frente al proyecto de condicionamiento de la personalidad, la educación es un vínculo de continuidad con el pasado y de respeto hacia la tradición; (2) ante el ateísmo metodológico de estas distopías, Lewis defenderá el fundamento metafísico y trascendente de la imperfecta condición humana; (3) responderá a la arrogancia de la ingeniería social y política que reduce el poder a un criterio técnico de saber instrumental con el modesto lenguaje de la política.

Reading C. S. Lewis: a commentary

Preface Introduction Part One Chapter 1: Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life Chapter 2: The Problem of Pain Chapter 3: The Screwtape Letters Chapter 4: Mere Christianity Chapter 5: Some Reasonable Assumptions Part Two Chapter 6: Out of the Silent Planet Chapter 7: Perelandra Chapter 8: The Abolition of Man Chapter 9: That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups Chapter 10: Some Cultural Critiques Part Three Chapter 11: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian Chapter 12: The Four Loves Chapter 13: The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle Chapter 14: Some Principles Applied Conclusion

Transatlantic Gothic Topographies of New Woman in C. S. Lewis’s That Hideous Strength and Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” and “The Stroke of Good Fortune”

In this article, I explore the aspects of the “modern” woman with regard to the impending imminence of the pre-Civil Rights movements. C. S. Lewis’s and Flannery O’Connor’s treatments of women center upon their concepts of evil, upon women’s biology and pregnancies, and upon education for women. Underneath the literary and cultural contexts of the stories, the victimization of women has not received full attention. The reader can infer the underlying ideology of male domination over women. Lewis’s portrayal of female spirituality incurred charges that he relies on using inferior stereotypes of women. Lewis and O’Connor both tend to baffle female readers in terms of their conventional echoes against female liberation. In Lewis’s That Hideous Strength, women are generally described as vulnerable to evil and further positioned as ‘almost’ children in terms of women’s perceived lower spiritual status. In his works, Lewis adopted gender essentialism based on Christian doctrines. However, in his real life, Lewis supported female education, and his later life showed his gradual acceptance of dynamic female roles in society. Thereby, Lewis’s views of modern woman tend to be ambivalently portrayed in his writing. Similarly, O’Connor has baffled many feminist critics in terms of her ludicrous female characters in fictions such as “Good Country People” and “A Stroke of Good Fortune” because she portrays women as spiritually and intellectually ugly regardless of their education. My approach unveils Lewis’s gradual development of accepting women as equal figures in his later works. In addition, recent criticism shows that O’Connor revised her original manuscripts because of her vulnerable position relative to Southern male readership due to her gender and religious faith. I suggest that, contrary to previous critical perceptions, Lewis and O’Connor question the barrenness of single intelligent women with regard to the issue of productivity in Christianity while they explore female education, professional roles, and the changing values of modern women.

The Intellectual Kinship of Irving Babbitt and C. S. Lewis: Will and Imagination in 'That Hideous Strength'

The Intellectual Kinship of Irving Babbitt and C. S. Lewis: Will and Imagination in 'That Hideous Strength'