The final novel of C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength, brings to a crescendo the themes at work in Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra. While reading the book in its intended context provides a richer experience, Lewis wrote this final novel so that it could stand alone. For those of us attempting to weather the unsettling global upheavals in the twenty-first century, That Hideous Strength is vital reading to understand the network of connections in the cosmic battle in which we find ourselves.
… As Mark attempts to pierce the inner circle of the institute, he discovers that each higher clique of elites smugly assumes its “real” goals. Planned riots, scripted news stories, corruptly installed officials, checks and balances bypassed as so much “red tape,” declared states of emergencies: the tools of the N.I.C.E. might have come across as unlikely scenarios to Lewis’ original readers. To a reader who has suffered through 2020, 2021, and 2022, it reads like current events. Particularly painful is the sanitation work of the institute, hell-bent upon improving “health” at the expense of much of what makes life livable and dignified.
