That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis

NB – Contains Spoilers

This is the third part of C. S. Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy but, after trips to Mars and Venus, this time we remain earth bound.

Published in 1945 this feels somewhat more political than the two pre-war parts and there is a definite Orwellian overtone to the N.I.C.E.

I found the antics of the N.I.C.E. (the Nation Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments rather than the latter day National Institute for Clinical Excellence) more engaging that the mysticism centred around the space travelling Ransom.

This was especially the case for N.I.C.E.'s Deputy Director, Wither, with his unfailing ability to speak without ever saying anything. He must have been a hero to Sir Humphrey and possibly civil servants everywhere. Wither takes “plausible deniable” (the holy grail for a successful political career) and elevates it to an art form.

That the University Don C. S. Lewis casts a “technocratic” Institute as the instrument of evil is revealing if not terribly surprising. During the first couple decades after the World War Two Britain embraced the technocrat in a way it had never done before, and mostly has not since. It was an era of great “Plans”, epitomised by the New Towns, and so it is interesting that at one level “That Hideous Strength” is a pre-emptive back-lash.

The allegorical quality of this novel is less evident than in the previous part, Perelandra, but the Christianity of those drawn around Ransom, even of Merlin, is firmly stated. The demise of the N.I.C.E. in a blood bath it perhaps an honest outcome but if you were hopeful of redemption... that seems lacking.

The couple at the centre of the novel, Mark and Jane, are neither of them particularly likeable. I guess one should be drawn to Jane as she is at least on the right side of the conflict, but really I found her pathetic and insipid. In one respect this is a token of the quality of the storytelling, it remains engaging whilst being devoid of any truly sympathetic characters.

To the extent that it is Orwellian it is to me a pessimistic vision. The power of N.I.C.E. is only broken by supernatural intervention and the novel clearly states that humanity, left on its own, would have succumb. Of course N.I.C.E. had its own supernatural backers too, so if you concede that supernatural “good” is needed to counter supernatural “evil”, perhaps you can hold on to the hope that ordinary human goodness has the power to overcome ordinary human evil.