That Hideous Strength Study Guide

Clive Staples (C. S.) Lewis was born in Northern Ireland, and in his early childhood he moved with his family to Little Lea, a house in East Belfast. When his mother died of cancer in 1908, Lewis lost faith in Christianity and became an atheist. He developed an interest in Greek mythology and ancient Scandinavian literature. In 1916 he earned a scholarship to Oxford University, but he soon left the university to fight in World War I. He fought in France until 1918, when he was wounded and returned to Oxford to study philosophy, English literature, and Greek and Latin literature. At Oxford, he befriended J.R.R. Tolkien, and discussions with Tolkien and other friends persuaded Lewis to convert to Anglicanism in 1931. He gained fame for his World War II radio broadcasts, which were later adapted into the book Mere Christianity. His most famous novels are perhaps the Chronicles of Narnia, a children’s series he published throughout the 1950s. In 1954, Lewis became the chair in Mediaeval and Renaissance Literature at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and in 1956 he married American writer Joy Davidman Gresham. Gresham died in 1960, and Lewis passed away in 1963.

C. S. Lewis began writing That Hideous Strength during World War II, which he referenced in previous entries in the Space Trilogy as part of the cosmic war between good and evil eldils. That Hideous Strength also argues strongly against transhumanism, a school of thought that was gaining traction in the early 20th century. Transhumanism advocates the enhancement of humanity through technology, and it first became popular in the 1920s. While scholar Julian Huxley didn’t coin the phrase “transhumanism” until 1957, writers such as J.B.S. Haldane and Olaf Stapledon developed the philosophy into one so popular Lewis dedicated much of That Hideous Strength to discrediting it. Interestingly, Lewis credited Olaf Stapledon, a fellow British science fiction author, as an inspiration of his, mentioning in the preface to That Hideous Strength that he admired Stapledon’s inventiveness despite disagreeing with his transhumanist philosophy.

That Hideous Strength is the first in a series of three books known as The Space Trilogy. They include Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra; That Hideous Strength is the third and final book. The novel alludes heavily to stories of the Bible, Arthurian legend, and Roman mythology. The Oyérsu, who are modelled after the Roman gods for which the planets are named, serve the Christian God and use the legendary Merlin as a vessel for their power.  C. S. Lewis was also a member of the Inklings, an informal group of scholars and writers that included J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. That Hideous Strength draws on the work of another Inkling, Charles Williams, whose novels The Place of the Lion (1931) and Descent into Hell (1937) both seek to combine Christian theology and pagan mythology in the setting of modern-day England. George Orwell also reviewed That Hideous Strength several years before writing 1984 in 1949; 1984 is another novel about a potential dystopian future facing England.