My Favorite CS Lewis Book-"That Hideous Strength"

[Spock]

Posting this here because I feel like talking about it without reading any other posts and the book escapes a lot of peoples' attention-even Narnia fans. And, I guess it belongs on the political side.

Worth reading alone for the very funny, almost X-rated "Twitterpaited" events at the end of the book. If you remember "Twitterpaited" is the term for falling in love in Bambi.

I remember lots of threads over the years on what order to read Narnia and so forth-but this book seems to have escaped attention here.

1) "That Hideous Strength" is book 3 of Lewis's "Space Trilogy." The first 2 are more theological and while I might read the first again("Out of the Silent Planet") at some point, I can't see myself reading the second (Perelandra)) again. It really should have been called his "Science Fiction" Trilogy.

I am on my second reading of "Strength" and I can see re-reading it every few years.

"That Hideous Strength" can easily be read as a stand-alone-you could always go back and read 1 and 2 if you like-or read them in order if you like.

2) It is absolutely chilling how he predicts the attempts in Silicon Valley to extend life and transfer our brains to a digital format (see Ray Kurzweil) and basically live forever.

Note-as this is a 1943 book-he could not predict the digital means of keeping someone alive-but while he was limited to describing analog means-He got the big picture right-(See Ray Kurzweil, Google and the Gang)

3) It is an adult book. One of the main bad "Guys" is a very butch lesbian and I am not sure how the "aforementioned Twitterpaited" episode would play with the Kiddos.

4) Per Youtube and such-"That Hideous Strength" is basically a fictional companion piece to his book of essays "The Abolition of Man."

5) Main flaw for the modern reader is that Lewis was a man of his times when it came to gender roles in marriage and as this is a large plot point in the book it may sound jarring to some.

6) But, stay for the almost x-rated twitterpaited episode at the end-it is worth it.

[flockofseagulls104]

I've read all the Narnia books. I need to read more CS Lewis.

[Spock]

I've read all the Narnia books. I need to read more CS Lewis.

I think "That Hideous Strength" would be a good next book after Narnia. As I said, It is a very adult book. I just hit a mention of a woman who was raped and murdered by the bad guys. There is a scene of torture with burning cigarettes. It is definitely not Narnia-but England with the NICE (National institute of Coordinated Experiments) making a move to take over and they will use any means to do so.

You would enjoy the political notes of the book as over half the people on this forum would fall in slavishly under the NICE program.

I can't speak to his books of essays such as "Abolition of Man" but as it works with "Strength" I will probably try and read that one.