That Hideous Strength: Chapter 3

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend reading the book first. It's short, I promise.

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Mark Studdock is a Fellow at Bracton College in the University of Edgestow. At a meeting of the Governing Board, the Progressive Element, a clique of which Mark is part, succeeded in approving the sale of some College property, the ancient Bragdon Wood, to the N.I.C.E., a scientific research institution. Afterward, Lord Feverstone (aka Dick Devine), another Fellow and an influential politician involved with the N.I.C.E., told Mark what the real business of the think tank is: human advancement through eugenics, environmental manipulation, and ultimately interplanetary travel. He invited Mark to join the N.I.C.E. to write flattering propaganda.

Jane, Mark's wife of six months, is a graduate student. She was disturbed by a nightmare of a recently executed murderer. She visited Mr. Dimble, her tutor, and his wife, and they suggested she talk to someone they knew in St. Anne's on the Hill. When she returned home, thoughts of her nightmare frightened her, and when Mark arrived, he found her sobbing at the door.

The next day, Mark drove with Lord Feverstone to Belbury, headquarters of the N.I.C.E., while Jane rode the train to St. Anne's, to meet with the Dimbles' acquaintance, Miss Ironwood.

Chapter 3: "Belbury and St. Anne's-on-the-Hill"¹

Having arrived at the Blood Transfusion Office, the "florid Edwardian mansion" with its modernist additions that serves as the temporary headquarters of the N.I.C.E., Mark meets with John Wither, the Deputy Director. Wither is an elderly, polite man whom Mark feels is not wholly attentive; indeed, he seems to think Mark and Feverstone arrived by air, then by train, rather than car, despite being corrected. His mannerisms seem designed to put Mark at his ease, but he doesn't. In fact he doesn't seem to know anything about Mark at all, and when Mark presses him multiple times as to what his job description is, Wither completely fails to give a direct answer.

He is invited to lunch at the N.I.C.E. club, where (deserted by Feverstone) he sits amidst a group of strangers, whose conversation is incomprehensible due to the heavy jargon. After lunch they move to a lounge for coffee, where Mark encounters one of his own colleagues from Bracton: William Hingest, another Fellow whom the Progressive Element call "Bill the Blizzard." Hingest is apparently not on speaking terms with Feverstone. He was not present at the College meeting and regards the sale of Bragdon Wood to the N.I.C.E. as a foregone conclusion, though he doesn't know why they want it. Hingest is quitting the N.I.C.E. and advises Mark to go back to Bracton as well.

The narrator mentions that Hingest's family "was of almost mythical antiquity." I wonder if we're supposed to believe that he is related to Hengist and his brother Horsa, who, according to legend, led the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in their invasion of Great Britain in the 5th century.

Mark hasn't made up his mind yet about taking the N.I.C.E. job and is determined to stay at least for a little while, so Hingest introduces him to Steele, the head of department for sociology, whom Mark would presumably be under. But Steele hasn't heard of him, either, and seems confused by him (remarking to another colleague, Cosser, that it's just like Feverstone to unload Mark on them like that).

Next, Mark is met by another man who recognizes him: Professor Filostrato, a famed Italian pphysiologist whom he had met two years earlier. Unlike Hingest, Filostrato seems to be all in with the N.I.C.E., calling their work "nothing less than the existence of the human race." He has a rather low opinion of his N.I.C.E. colleagues, in particular saying Steele and Feverstone are "of no consequence."

"Filostrato" means something like "defeated by love." It is the name of one of the narrators of Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, and the name of another of his poems, Il Filostrato, the inspiration for Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Troilus and Criseyde and in turn Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida. There was also a second-century Roman Sophist (travelling teacher of philosophy or rhetoric) named Philostratus. It's not clear whether Professor Filostrato is intended to be the namesake of any of these.

Filostrato warns Mark not to get on the bad side of Miss Hardcastle, the head of the institutional police, whom he calls the Fairy, and disparages as "Inglesaccia" (i.e. a nasty Englishwoman). Miss Hardcastle is a large, muscular, older woman in a black uniform, who drapes her leg over the chair arm when she sits down. A mannish woman with (implied?) sexual ambiguity and an ironic nickname who works in security? It's almost like she's a Bond villain, but a decade ahead of time. If this was a James Bond movie, she'd be the final opponent 007 had to beat.

Mark talks at length with Miss Hardcastle. Much of the discussion has to do with her view of punishment. The Fairy (and, we can assume, the N.I.C.E. falls on the side of "humane, remedial treatment" over retributive punishment. In one of C. S. Lewis's most famous essays, "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," he critiques such "remedial" views of justice as the N.I.C.E. apparently supports, in which punishment serves as a curative (for whatever disease the criminal has that caused him to commit his crimes) or a deterrent. Retributive justice, in which the criminal is punished because that is what he deserves, is regarded merely as revenge. To Miss Hardcastle, retribution is inadequate because "desert was always finite: you could do so much to the criminal and no more." On the other hand, remedial treament has no limits: "it could go on till it had effected a cure, and those who were carrying it out would decide when that was." Views like the Fairy's are why Lewis himself came down strongly on the side of retribution: humanitarian theories opened up the possibility of "cruelty and injustice without end."² The endgame: "Soon anyone who had ever been in the hands of the police at all would come under the control of the N.I.C.E.; in the end, every citizen." This sounds rather ominous, and it calls to my mind O'Brien's lecture to Winston in Nineteen Eighty-Four (again, Lewis preceded Orwell): "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

Miss Hardcastle isn't just some dumb henchman. She's clearly thought long and hard about this question, and she's glad Mark is on board so they can work hand in hand on it. Mark and sociology provide the theory; she and her police provide the muscle.

Later, Mark goes to dinner. He is seated next to Hingest, who tells him he is leaving tonight and offers Mark a ride, but Mark has decided to stay. Hingest is disillusioned with the N.I.C.E. because he had thought it a scientific institution, but it's actually political. Having heard Hingest is leaving, Miss Hardcastle asks him for a lift. (That's not disconcerting at all.) Unfortunately for her, he's going the wrong way. As he leaves, Hingest appeals to Mark one more time to go back to Bracton.

Meanwhile, in St. Anne's, Jane Studdock is admitted into Miss Ironwood's house, escorted by a Camilla Denniston. Is she any relation to the Denniston who was Mark's chief competition for his Fellowship? Miss Ironwood herself is about sixty, very tall, and dressed in black. Jane relates her dream to her, and she takes notes.

When Miss Ironwood learns that Jane's maiden name is Tudor (I think we are expected to understand that she is related to the Tudor dynasty that began with Henry VII), she asks if she is part of the Warwickshire branch of the family (which she is). Jane has an ancestor who wrote an accurate account of the Battle of Worcester (fought in 1651, marking the end of the British Civil War, the decisive victory of the Parliamentarians over the Royalists, and the beginning of Charles II's exile). But Jane's ancestor was in York at the time, not Worcester; he dreamt the battle. Jane has inherited a prophetic gift that gives her clairvoyant dreams. Mr. Dimble had recognized it in her, and sent her to St. Anne's.

Jane had hoped that Miss Ironwood could help with whatever was wrong with her, but Miss Ironwood insists there is nothing wrong—and therefore nothing to help. She tells Jane that she is very important: her dreams have to do with the future of the human race. She warns her, as well, that if she tells someone else about her dreams, she will certainly fall into the hands of others who want to use her gift for their own purposes.

Jane, however, decides that she wants nothing to do with it, and goes back home. At the apartment, the phone rings: it's Mrs. Dimble, saying she has an urgent need to stay the night.

I liked the initial impression of the N.I.C.E. this chapter gives. Several years ago, I worked on a six-month contract for a very large tech company. There were forms upon forms to fill out, status meetings without end, its own peculiar jargon, and a ten-minute walk across campus just to get a cup of coffee. So I found the Institution and its bureaucracy relatable. Who hasn't gone to a job (or an interview) where they didn't know who you were, where to put you, or what your job was, or some combination of the three? I think we tend to see conspiracies as practically infallible, well-oiled machines, possibly because shows like The X-Files show them that way for dramatic purposes. But while we know the N.I.C.E. is up to something nefarious, we also see that at another level they're just another big, bureaucratic, quasi-governmental organization where one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. It is ironic that Mark wants to fit in with the best crowd, but in this chapter, he doesn't fit in at all.

At Belbury, no one tells Mark anything concrete; he receives no job description, no straight answers, no offer. But in St. Anne's, Miss Ironwood tells Jane the meaning of her gift, tells her what is at stake, and lays all the cards on the table, giving her the options of ignoring the dreams, help them, or telling someone else. Jane refuses to play a part and goes home. Mark has been given nothing to refuse, but is staying on.

There's a fun contrast in character names, too. Mr. Wither is a small, rather absent-minded and feckless man, compared with the tough, masculinized and "emancipated" Miss Hardcastle—or, over at St. Anne's, the firmer resolve of Miss Ironwood. I think Lewis took some naming lessons from Dickens.

Professor Filostrato, who is a true believer in the N.I.C.E., says the existence of the human race is at stake in their work. And Miss Ironwood tells Jane almost the same thing about her dreams. It seems inevitable that the two groups are going to come into conflict. And what is Mrs. Dimble's trouble? We'll have to wait until next week to find out.

Footnotes

1. Lewis, or at least the Distributed Proofreaders Canada ebook that I am reading, spells "St. Anne's-on-the-Hill" inconsistently—sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not. Where the words are my own, I will continue to use the non-hyphenated spelling, but when I quote the text, I'll retain the spelling in that spot.

2. C. S. Lewis, "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment," in God in the Dock, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 287–300.

That Hideous Strength: Chapter 2

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. Unless you're the sort of person who likes skipping to the last page, go read the book first.

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Mark and Jane Studdock have been married for six months and their marriage is on the rocks.

Jane Studdock is a graduate student, who was married six months ago, and the marriage was already in trouble. She struggles with her thesis, and she resents the life of a housewife. Jane was recently disturbed by a nightmare involving the disembodied head of a recently executed scientist and murderer. When she visited her tutor and his wife, they offered her the address of someone that she could talk to.

Her husband, Mark Studdock, is a Fellow at Bracton College in the University of Edgestow. Amongst the Fellows he is a member of the Progressive Element. At a College Meeting, they successfully leveraged the College's current financial difficulties to win a motion to sell Bragdon Wood, an ancient forest that legend says is the burial place of Merlin. The buyer was the National Institute of Co-Ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), a scientific research institute.

The Progressive Element are:

• Curry, the sub-Warden: The leader of the clique. He enjoys playing politics and wants to be seen, along with Bracton College, as modern and progressive.
• James Busby, the College Bursar (financial administrator): He sees the sale of Bragdon Wood as a solution to the College's money problems, and allies with the other Progressives to push it through.
• Lord Feverstone: Also known as Dick Devine, he is an influential London politician. He uses his influence at the College to recruit Mark and close the sale of Bragdon Wood to the N.I.C.E.
• Mark Studdock: A Junior Fellow of Sociology, elected five years ago. He is ambitious, wanting to belong to the inner circle. He was elected over his chief rival, a man named Denniston, thanks to the influence of Lord Feverstone.

That Hideous Strength: Chapter 1

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of That Hideous Strength by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. If you don't want me ruining the experience for you, put this post down and go read That Hideous Strength now. I promise I won't be offended.

Two weekends ago, I finished a readthrough of Perelandra, the second book in C. S. Lewis's classic Space Trilogy (aka the Cosmic Trilogy or the Ransom Trilogy). Today we continue the series with the third book: That Hideous Strength.

An up-front confession: This was always my least favourite of the three, as indicated by the fact that I have probably read Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra four times, and That Hideous Strength only twice: the first time in 1992 when I read the trilogy for the first time, and the second around 1998 when I bought my own copy. I particularly enjoyed the style of the first two books, which were a deliberate homage to early science fiction by H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Wells's The First Men in the Moon was a novel I read frequently as a teenager—I remain a fan to this day—and I have no doubt Lewis borrowed Weston's spherical spaceship from Professor Cavor. But the third book was remarkably different, being more of an earthbound supernatural thriller than a Wellsian or Vernian space fantasy.

That said, it's been nearly 30 years since I last read That Hideous Strength, so this is effectively a blind readthrough. I might very well change my mind about it by the end.

September 11, 2001

Today is September 11, 2026. It's the 25th anniversary of the Islamist terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people when hijackers flew passenger jets into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon. A fourth flight crashed in Pennsylvania when passengers resisted the hijackers.

I've talked about people talking about 9/11. I reviewed conspiracy movies like Loose Change and 911: In Plane Sight, as well as Lawrence Wright's book The Looming Tower, about the failure to prevent the attack. But I haven't talked directly about 9/11 on this blog, even in an anniversary year like 2011, although at that time I was hardly writing, anyway. But in this milestone year, it seems apropos.

9/11 is to my generation what the JFK assassination or the moon landing was to my parents': it's that moment when you can remember exactly where you were and you realized you were witnessing world-changing events.

When the planes actually struck the Twin Towers, I was en route to work—already late. When I arrived at the office, the first thing my boss said to me was that I needed to check out the TV in the break room. The TV was on, but I was the only one there. I arrived just a few minutes before the collapse of the north tower. The south tower was already gone, but this wasn't clear to me yet until the second tower fell and there was nothing left.

I didn't get a lot of work done that day. I had never experienced that kind of pure horror before; nor have I since. What I had witnessed was the mass death of 1,700 people in the north tower (as we would learn later) not to mention the thousand that had already died in the south tower half an hour earlier. Finding out later, when I got home, what had also happened in Washington and Pennsylvania only intensified that horrified feeling when I realized the fuller scope of what had taken place.

I was in Ottawa, 400 miles and a whole other country away from New York. I'm sure that my circle of acquaintances, personal and online, is probably large enough that at least one person knows someone who was killed on 9/11. But I have no personal stake in the attack.

But it was the single largest loss of life on American soil due to enemy action, surpassing even Pearl Harbor. As a speaker I heard said a few weeks later, moral relativism was dead. (And it was, at least briefly). We had witnessed an act of pure, objective, evil, unsurpassed before or since in my lifetime. "Never forget" is the motto. And may I never forget.

Perelandra: Chapter 17

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. If you don't want me ruining the experience for you, put this post down and go read Perelandra now. I promise I won't be offended.

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The story so far: Our protagonist, Elwin Ransom, was brought to the planet Perelandra (Venus) by the Oyarsa of Malacandra (Mars), whom he encountered in the previous book, Out of the Silent Planet. His mission to Perelandra was, as yet, unknown.

Perelandra was a warm, overcast, ocean planet with next to no solid ground. What passed for land were floating mats of vegetation, where plants grew for food and friendly wildlife dwelt. Ransom also met a green human woman, who initially mistook him for the King, her male counterpart. She was apparently in close communication with Maleldil, the supreme spiritual ruler of the universe, who helped the Green Lady understand that Ransom was from a different world and his ways were different.

Ransom and the Green Lady visited the Fixed Land, one of Perelandra's few true islands. Maleldil had made a rule forbidding the King or the Green Lady from dwelling there, or even spending the night. They saw an object fall into the sea. It was a spherical spaceship, of the same kind in which Ransom was kidnapped and taken to Mars. In fact, they soon meet his abductor, Weston, on the beach.

Weston's humanistic, scientistic beliefs had evolved into a mystical form of emergent evolution. He now believed in a cosmic Force that directed his actions. When the Christian Ransom attempted to refute this belief, he became angry and was possessed by the Force. His own personality was apparently consumed, and he became the Un-Man. He escaped to the floating islands and attempted to persuade the Green Lady to violate Maleldil's law. While Ransom was there to refute his arguments, the Un-Man was relentless and had no need for sleep, and Ransom realized he could not keep up his side of the argument indefinitely.

Science Fiction-Free September 2026

It's September, and that's the month when I declare a moratorium on reading science fiction, usually in favour of something I wouldn't normally just casually pick up.

This year, though, I left the planning too late, and when it came down to figuring out what I might like to read this month, I didn't find myself too enthusiastic. Besides, there was a list of books on my to-read list that I was looking forward to, and I don't really feel like holding them back.

Perelandra: Chapter 16

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.

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In a cave deep underground on Perelandra, Ransom defeated the Un-Man, killing the body of his foe Weston and throwing it into an underground fire. After this, he slowly found his way through the dark, subvenerean caverns, seeing sights there that were not meant for humans. Finally, he fell into an underground river, which swept him back to the surface, depositing him in a pool on the side of a mountain. There, he spent some time recovering from his injuries. One remained: a bite from Weston on his heel that would not stop bleeding.

Once he had recovered sufficiently, Ransom descended to the valley below, then ascended the great mountain on the other side. Though reluctant to continue, thinking himself to be approaching a holy place, he felt himself urged on. At the peak of the mountain was a basin or crater, completely covered in red flowers, with a pool at the centre. A coffin like the one that had brought him to Perelandra lay there, open and waiting to return him to Earth. He also perceived two spiritual presences with him.

Ransom recognizes the two beings as one is the Oyarsa of Malacandra (known here only by "Malacandra"; he explains that "Oyarsa" is a title reserved for one's own sphere) and the other is the Oyarsa of of Perelandra. Today is the day that the latter turns the rule of the planet over to the King and Queen. Such had not been possible on Thulcandra (Earth), but here Ransom has made it possible.

The Oyeresu decide it is time to show themselves, and after a few terrifying manifestations, they settle on humanoid figures, thirty feet tall, expressionless and sexless, and glowing white.

Perelandra: Chapter 15

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend you support your local bookseller or public library, and read the book first.

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Ransom's battle with Weston, the Un-Man who came to Perelandra to corrupt it, took place over land, on the sea, and then deep underground, before Ransom finally won, bashing Weston's head with a stone and throwing him into the subterranean fires. Exhausted, he slept.

When he awakens, Ransom starts exploring the caverns, trying to find his way out of them. The sights he sees are indistinct and surreal, as though he is delirious from fatigue and unsure what is real. He sees many strange things underground: a vast, cathedral-like vault with two giant thrones, clearly not intended for Pereldandra's human inhabitants. Deep below him he sees more insectoid creatures like the one that had emerged from the depths with Weston, but there are harnessed to a cart carrying an upright, cloaked form.

After falling into an underground river and being whisked by the strong current through what appears to be a giant ice cave, he finds himself deposited on the edge of a large pool, in daylight. Ranson guesses himself to be atop a high mountain. He finds fruit to eat, and again falls asleep. On this ledge, he rests and recuperates from his fight for what seems to him to be only a day or so, but could have easily been weeks—he is unaware of the passage of time.

Perelandra: Chapter 14

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend reading the book first. It's short, I promise.

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The final battle between Ransom and the Un-Man that has possessed the body of Weston began with a brutal fistfight on one of Perelandra's floating mats of vegetation. It continued on the ocean, as the Un-Man escaped on the back of a large fish, with Ransom pursuing. In the midst of the ocean with no floating islands or solid land in sight, Ransom began to have doubts about his mission to stop the Un-Man from corrupting the unfallen Perelandra.

In the dark, Weston approached Ransom again, his own personality apparently having resurfaced. He is terrified: possessed by the malevolent cosmic Force that he served, he had had a glimpse of the afterlife that awaited him, and was utterly terrified. However, when Ransom admonished him to pray to God and set things right, Weston pulled him off his fish and dragged him into the depths of the sea.

Perelandra: Chapter 13

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of Perelandra by C. S. Lewis, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. Unless you're the sort of person who likes skipping to the last page, go read the book first.

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To prevent another Fall on Perelandra, Maleldil instructed Ransom to kill the body of Weston, who became possessed by an evil spiritual Force and attempted to introduce evil to the green Queen of Perelandra. Maleldil put all the living creatures of Perelandra into a deep sleep, and after his own night's sleep that left him refreshed and spiritually renewed, Ransom confronted the Un-Man, beginning hand-to-hand combat, presumably to the death, between them. Ransom relied on his boxing skills while the feral Un-Man preferred to claw at Ransom's skin. After a time Weston escaped and rode out to the sea on one of the giant fish that the Perelandrians use for transportation; Ransom mounted another fish and pursued him.

In this chapter, the sea chase continues, with Ransom realizing just how far his pursuit of the Un-Man has taken him from anything like solid ground. He's out in the middle of the sea with no land or floating islands in sight. He spies some mer-men and tries to eat some of the seaweed they are eating, but the seaweed affects his mind, making him feel disoriented and forgetful of his mission; he throws the rest of it away. After a day and night of his fight with, and pursuit of, Weston, he is beginning to have doubts about his mission and the goodness of Maleldil.