Thread by @PnictogenHorses

our partner and best friend @KaylinEvergreen, to whom we feel we owe so much—we've benefited from the keenness of her mind; she "keeps it real" for us, and we *need* such tethering—doesn't like someone we talk frequently about, and that's the Christian celebrity, #CSLewis.

(1/x)

unfortunately, the Pnictogen Wing feels that it's got plenty of unfinished business with C. S. Lewis—"Jack" Lewis, to friends—because Lewis played a pivotal role in our lives. we rebounded from the disastrous 1992-4 mistake that was attending @Caltech towards #CSLewis.

(2/x)

we had caught a lucky break: our very first taste of C. S. Lewis wasn't something obvious. it wasn't the #Narnia books, which we didn't read until our mid-20s. it wasn't "The Screwtape Letters" or "Miracles" or any other of the famed Christian apologetic writings of Lewis.

(3/x)

instead, the first #CSLewis book we ever read was "That Hideous Strength", a very strange, disjointed, and occasionally *offensive* science-fiction novel. it's unlike anything else Lewis wrote.

despite all its flaws, "That Hideous Strength" uncannily predicted our future.

(4/x)

let me back up a little. "That Hideous Strength" is in fact the third and last book of a trilogy, Jack Lewis's "Space Trilogy" as it's called: a trio of unusual science fiction novels, infused with Lewis's Anglican values. they aren't flat-footed allegories like #Narnia.

(5/x)

the first, "Out of the Silent Planet", introduces the running hero of all three books. his name is Ransom and he's an academic—like fellow bigot #HPLovecraft, #CSLewis liked professorial self-insert characters. academia was what Lewis best knew, so he often referred to it.

(6/x)

Ransom falls foul of a vaguely H. G. Wells-ish evil scientist named Weston, who bears definite resemblance to the villainous Dr. Moreau. Weston is a man of rigidly defined, clinical, callous and unfeeling values—he could be @jordanbpeterson or @RichardDawkins or @sapinker.

(7/x)

Ransom stumbles accidentally into Weston's private plans for a spaceship voyage to #Mars (the situation is bizarrely reminiscent of the 1980 "Flash Gordon"); adventures ensue. "Out of the Silent Planet" didn't leave us with deep impressions.

the next book is...different.

(8/x)

Ransom and Weston are still the major characters of the 2nd "Space Trilogy" novel, "Perelandra", which takes the two men to Venus this time—imagined as a lush garden world, which had been considered a possibility when little was known of the planet beyond its cloud cover.

(9/x)

(the clouds are not water as hoped, but atomized sulfuric acid. Venus is, sadly, no tropical paradise as once dreamed.)

Ransom and Weston find a world where there's only two humanoids, a King and Queen; #CSLewis is reënvisioning the prelapsarian Garden of Eden, on Venus.

(10/x)

and thus in "Perelandra" does Lewis give us a *different version* of The Fall, one in which the Queen of Venus as Eve is given a chance to hear both sides. the (two) people of Venus are subject to a sacred prohibition, and Ransom tries to persuade them to keep their oath.

(11/x)

Weston, on the other hand, has degraded to a mere vessel for some malevolent spirit, which wears Weston's human shape but cannot conceal its inhumanity; Ransom dubs this being the "Un-Man".

I think this is a weakness of "Perelandra". #CSLewis, I suggest, lost his nerve.

(12/x)

a more courageous writer wouldn't have robbed Weston of his humanity. the balance should have been equal: Ransom the human advocate for oathkeeping, Weston the human advocate for oathbreaking, with the Queen of Venus hearing both sides.

Lewis was not a courageous writer.

(13/x)

here let me digress.

#Christian fiction has a well-deserved reputation of being dull and formulaic, because Christians have no stomach for honest depictions of evildoers. (too many Christians simply *are* evildoers, in any case; just look at @MattWalshBlog, if you must.)

(14/x)

but Christian audiences don't want to see a fair fight between Good™ vs. Evil™; they want their hands held. they want their villains to be easily grasped stereotypes (the sort that @libertycappy would put into their memetic scrapbook) and they want the villains to lose.

(15/x)

the great majority of #Christian fiction is *cowardly* fiction, *predictable* fiction—fiction devoid of any suspense or even any emotional depth, because its sole purpose is to give its audience some trite reassurance: Evil™ always loses and always looks creepy and weak.

(16/x)

that's what #CSLewis did with Weston in "Perelandra". he succumbed to *convention*, and made absolutely sure that we couldn't possibly take Weston's side, because he was just an animalistic "Un-Man" now, not a human being like Ransom. Lewis put his thumb on the scales.

(17/x)

this is *typical* of Jack Lewis. the man was not a great fiction writer...except, inexplicably, _once_.

anyway the good guys win in "Perelandra", as you might expect. we are critical of this novel but we still value it; it's probably the best of the "Space Trilogy".

(18/x)

then comes the strange third book, Lewis's "That Hideous Strength".

though it's part of the "Space Trilogy" it's not actually about other planets, like the first two books; THS occurs on Earth, among relatively mundane settings. it's like a "meanwhile back home" story.

(19/x)

in attempting to give us a spiritual crisis on Earth, #CSLewis turned with obvious admiration to the metaphysical fiction of his friend Charles Williams (the @Oddest_Inkling). in our opinion, "That Hideous Strength" borrows heavily from Williams's "The Place of the Lion".

(20/x)

easy description of any of Williams's supernatural thrillers is tough. Williams was a mystic and a romantic. he freely draws obscure and esoteric associations between concepts; he doesn't shy away from using the iconography of modern occultism. the resulting fiction is...

(21/x)

...in our opinion it's indescribably powerful, but difficult to absorb. we have far from exhausted "The Place of the Lion", and we've read it at least four times. Williams *convincingly* depicts a break in the mystical structures of reality—a *collapsing* of all things.

(22/x)

#CSLewis was not very mystical; he was a dry academic sort of writer, and his sensibilities were rather *square*. hence his attempt to emulate Williams in "That Hideous Strength" is...somewhat unfortunate, but not without its effective and convincing passages and moments.

(23/x)

Lewis's scholarship enables him to write a memorable and convincing Romano-Celtic mage: Merlin, Merlinus Ambrosius as he's sometimes called, is a major character of Jack Lewis's "That Hideous Strength". he's a huge bearded bear of a man, immensely strong and haughty.

(24/x)

these days, Merlin prefers to look...a little different. but that is the privilege of great mages.

Lewis does his Merlinus Ambrosius the disrespect of making him into a vehicle for some of his misogyny. "That Hideous Strength" fairly reeks of Lewis's misogyny, in fact.

(25/x)

the clearest sign of that is what happens to Jane Studdock, Lewis's counterpart in "That Hideous Strength" to the scholar Damaris Tighe, the more fortunate deuteragonist of Williams's "The Place of the Lion". it's clear that Lewis doesn't think women ought to be scholars.

(26/x)

Williams shows Damaris Tighe as a superficial and doctrinaire scholar, but then frees her; at the end her passion for mediaeval studies has been rekindled. the dry dead books are now living history to Damaris; her redemption is honestly inspiring.

Jane Studdock...isn't.

(27/x)

she's told at the end to go back home and have lots of children. leave academia to the boys! that's the ultimate lesson of #CSLewis's "That Hideous Strength" to Damaris's unhappy reflection, Jane Studdock.

you can see why @KaylinEvergreen detests Jack Lewis.

~Mona Drafter

@threadreaderapp unroll