52 Books: Book 19

I just wrapped up the third volume of the sci-fi trilogy by C.S. Lewis: That Hideous Strength. In this final chapter we learn that the dark forces of the universe are plotting to take over earth completely. They are using the scientific group N.I.C.E. {the National Institute of Coordinated Experiments} to recondition humans to their liking. Ransom, our hero from the first two books, is countering this attack by creating his own organization {Logres} to fight N.I.C.E. and the unseen dark forces.

During the course of the book it is revealed that the wizard Merlin {from the time of King Arthur} is to come back to life. Both N.I.C.E. and Logres are hoping to use Merlin to win this epic battle.

The title "That Hideous Strength" is taken from a poem written by David Lyndsay in 1555, Ane Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour, also known as The Monarche. The couplet in question, The shadow of that hyddeous strength, refers to the Tower of Babel. This is an important element when it comes to the final battle in the book.

 

That Hideous Strength can be read alone or as the final chapter in the trilogy.

I have to confess that the first few chapters of this book are very dry and boring. I pressed on because my dad had recommended it as an excellent social commentary, applicable to today as much as when it was written.

It was a good end to the trilogy though I wish it had either ended at the battle or had an ending that was wrapped up better – there were several loose ends that I would have like to see tied up. I found the part about Merlin a little out of place and I wish there had been more interaction of the eldil as there had been in the earlier books.

Excerpts from the book:

That is why it is of such immense importance for each of us to choose the right side. If you are to be neutral you become simply a pawn.

... his education had had the curious effect of making things that he read and wrote more real to him than things he saw.

"Why fool, it's the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they're all propaganda and skips the leading articles... He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the high-brow weeklies, don't need reconditioning. They're all right already. They'll believe anything."

"You surely don't need to wait for a thing to happen before you tell the story of it."

They were all his enemies, playing upon his hopes and fears to reduce him to complete servility, certain to kill him if he broke away, and certain to kill him in the long run when he had served the purpose for which they wanted him.

52 Books: Book 18

I just completed Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. It is the second book in a science fiction trilogy that Lewis wrote. The first book, Out of the Silent Planet, introduces us to the main character of the series: Ransom. In the opening book, Ransom finds himself a hostage who is being taken to Malacandra {or Mars}. Ransom learns that Mars is an old planet and that none of the planets have had contact with anyone from Earth in a very long time.

In the second book, Ransom is sent to Perelandra {also known as Venus}. Here he discovers that Venus is a relatively new planet and the only humans are one woman, The Lady, and one man, The King. It soon unfolds that the story of temptation in the Garden of Eden is playing out before Ransom's eyes.

Early in the book, Weston, one of the scientist's that took Ransom hostage in the first book, arrives on the planet. Weston no longer appears to be inhabiting his own body and Ransom realizes that an evil force is controlling the scientist's body {much like the serpent in the Garden of Eden was used}. Weston {or the Un-man as Ransom comes to call him} methodically works to convince The Lady of Venus to break the only rule of the country. Un-man has cunning arguments, is cruel to the creatures of Perelandra and never seems to tire. Eventually Ransom realizes that he has been sent to Venus to help prevent The Lady from giving in to temptation so that history does not repeat itself.

I found this to be a very intriguing book. Ransom's inner dialogue raises a lot of questions: Did Eve resist in the garden for many days? Weeks? Years perhaps? If an elephant had trampled on the serpent would the temptation have been killed with it? Would the temptation have come in another form if Eve had been able to resist?

Overall I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was thought provoking and I look forward to reading the final book in the series: That Hideous Strength.

Excerpts from the book:

It is the idea that humanity having now sufficiently corrupted the planet where it arose, must at all costs contrive to seed itself over a large area: that the vast astronomical distances which are God's quarantive regulations must somehow be overcome.

It surprised him that he could experience so extreme a terror and yet be walking and thinking – as men in war or sickness are surprised to find how much can be borne...

The image or her beautiful body had been offered to her only as a means to awake the far more perilous image of her great soul. The external and, as it were, dramatic conception of the self was the enemy's true aim.

Inner silence is for our {human} race a difficult achievement.