That Hideous Strength: Chapter 6

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.

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Still at the N.I.C.E. in Belbury, Mark Studdock still had no idea where he fit in the organization or who he answered to. He had not yet made up his mind about staying. But another Bracton College academic, scientist William Hingest, was murdered in the road shortly after he announced his resignation. Mark met with Deputy Director Wither again to clarify his own position, but found Wither aloof as always. He also learned that the report he was preparing on the "unsanitary" conditions of the village of Cure Hardy was a personal project of Cosser, the other sociologist with whom he had visited the village.

Miss Hardcastle, the head of the institutional police, let Mark in on what his real job was: to rehabilitate the reputation of Alcasan, the scientist and murderer of whose decapitation Mark's wife Jane had dreamt, in the media. He received a letter from Bracton expressing regret over his resigning his Fellowship there; he wrote a response clarifying that he had no intention of resigning. Between that and the veiled threats of the N.I.C.E. higher-ups, however, it becomes clear that leaving the institute would jeopardize his position at the College, as well.