Posted on 05/09/2021 4:23:36 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
Lewis wrote That Hideous Strength as a fictional depiction of the ideas developed in The Abolition of Man. It was published in 1945 as the last of the Space Trilogy. The novel explores what the world would be like if it were ruled by a technocratic elite unrestrained by tradition values.
I’ll have to check this out.
One of my all-time favorites.
Great story about the spread of evil, and one that gives me the most comfort about how it can be combatted.
Who among us will shelter Ransom in our times?
That Hideous Strength is my favorite C.S. Lewis book (series). Have read it many times.
“Out of the Silent Planet”, and “Perelandra”, are the first and second books in the Space Trilogy by Lewis. While “That Hideous Strength” can stand alone, it is better understood by reading the first two for continuity and context.
I liked the first two better, as the last seemed more in line with some horror story using the theme of nihilistic science which I dislike.
I read that book twice and hated it both times.
I did not like the Perelandra series, much as I like Lewis’s other works.
Heheh! There is a 3.5 year period coming where the world elites and the Son of Perdition will feel they need shelter from the 2 witnesses who are supernaturally protected by God!
Ransom in the book uncovers Merlin the magician who was really quite Christian but empowered by the might of Deep heaven. Merlin is sent to dispatch the evil before it takes over the world.
Not exactly the book of Revelation.
One of my favorite vignettes (paraphrasing): “It doesn’t pay to look too closely at the dishes after it’s the men’s turn to do the washing up”
The books were written prior to the the re-establishment of Israel as a sovereign nation. I wonder if Lewis would have written them differently had he written the books say circa 1950.
Volume 1 of The Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis - audio books
#1 Out of the Silent Planet
#2 Out of the Silent Planet
#3 Out of the Silent Planet
#4 Out of the Silent Planet
#5 Out of the Silent Planet
Volume 2 of The Space Trilogy: Perelandra by C. S. Lewis - audio books
#1 Perelandra
#2 Perelandra
#3 Perelandra
#4 Perelandra
#5 Perelandra
#6 Perelandra
#7 Perelandra
I cannot think of a single thing he would have changed nor does the story of Israel enter into them as far as can remember. (as I recall books read 50 years ago)
Does it turn out anything like Narnia?
THS is a great favorite of mine, I re-read it and its companion novels, “Out of the Silent Planet” and “Perelandra” every couple of years. Much like the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, they are like reading tomorrow’s headlines when describing the state of craven mankind in a fallen world.
^
If you haven’t already, try “The Ball and the Cross” or “The Man Who was Thursday” by GK Chesteron.
That’s the point. He wrote the books at the height of the war years with no knowledge as to post war issues including the atom bomb and Israel. You might be right he may not have written the trilogy any differently. Of course Israel never entered into the books, it didn’t become a nation officially until 1948. I was just wondering if he had been writing the books at the formation of the nation of Israel if whether or not he might have changed certain settings or situations in the book or whether he might have set the book more internationally in a UN type organization instead of having the elites of the world come to merry olde England to be “macrobe-ized”. It’s a very British
He never did much writings on eschatology in any way so he probably would have written the books as they we are now.(other than to elude to the Antichrist and the beast’s image in “That Hideous Strength” and as some have said wrote the trilogy as a supportive companion work to “The Abolition of man”...which was scarily prophetic).
An excellent book. But it is also about the character and work of Ransom. Space trilogy by Lewis is highly recommended.
Perelandra is my absolute favorite.
Best example IMO of "eucatastrophe" in storytelling, a literary device which Lewis and Tolkein (and others in the Inklings) deliberately used to make joy and hope, rather than tragedy, a narrative crux or turning point...
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