My Favorite CS Lewis Book-"That Hideous Strength"
Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2023 10:57 pm
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.
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.