Chapter 7 - The Pendragon & chapter 8 - Moonlight at Belbury

Chapter 7 The Pendragon

[Note: Since this is how I came to know him in the first two books, I will be referring to Mr. Fisher-King as Ransom throughout. I hope this is not too confusing.]

Part 1 - Jane meets Ransom (also known as Mr. Fisher-King) for the first time. She is utterly overwhelmed by his mere presence

Part 2 - Jane talks privately with Ransom. She finds he regards her modern notions on marriage with what may best be described as sad amusement. She is told she must return to Edgestow and her husband Jane is sent away when something great and alien is approaching.

Part 3 - Jane contemplates the emotional experience of meeting Ransom while on the train back to Edgestow. She arrives to find the town in the midst of a riot.

Part 4 - Jane is arrested by the N.I.C.E. police & tortured by Hardcastle for information about the resistance. She escapes them in the confusion of the riot and returns to St. Anne's.

Chapter 8 Moonlight at Belbury

Part 1 - Deputy Director Whithers scolds Hardcastle for mishandling Jane. He says if torture is necessary, it should be all-out, and these half-measures are counter-productive. The two of them then go to meet with the Head, going through an elaborate sanitary procedure before they are allowed to do so.

Part 2 - Jane meets with the household at St. Anne's. She finds the company surprisingly egalitarian, considering Ransom's views on marriage. Also, they have a bear.

Part 3 - Deputy Director Whithers invites Mark to bring Jane to live with them at N.I.C.E. Mark is disturbed by the idea, sensing that Jane's presence will reveal things he'd rather not face about the Institute and his current lifestyle. Mark vaguely turns down the director. He later finds out from Hardcastle that this has gotten him into trouble. In a private conversation in his rooms, Filostrato explains that the Institute's ultimate goal is the eradication of organic life in favor of pure mind, which, he says, has already been accomplished by the inhabitants of our moon. Mark is then told that a form of practical life after death has already been accomplished right here, and he is invited to meet with the Head.

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First off, I apologize for last week's gap. Considering obligations coming up, I think I'm going to cut back to one chapter a week. Second, I think we have finally arrived at the more fantastical elements of the story that a few of the commenters have been craving.

I look forward to your comments.

Chesterton comments on Mark, Jane, and N.I.C.E.

One theme both main characters and the staff of N.I.C.E.  has displayed so far is a near-pathological unwillingness to commit to anything. Jane is terrified of getting tied down in anything (including her marriage). Mark wants to keep his options open to protect himself financially. The staff of N.I.C.E. are unwilling to firmly commit to a job position or responsibilities of new employees.

In his essay collection The Defendant, Chesterton addressed the modern aversion to commitment. I link to it here for our discussion.

A Defense of Rash Vows by G.K. Chesterton

I fear I may not have this weekend's post ready in time. Various factors this week have conspired to keep me from reading much of anything. If not, I promise I will have the discussion post up for next Saturday. I swear to it.

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UPDATE: Civil Truth shares that the Lewis Society of California is having a Zoom discussion of That Hideous Strength at 10 PM (Eastern) tonight. If you'd like to join, follow this link (requires you to have Zoom installed) [Link removed as expired].

Chapter 5 - Elasticity and Chapter 6 - The Fog

Chapter 5 - Elasticity

Part 1 - Mark returns to N.I.C.E. to clearly establish his position. He is rebuffed by Steele and Whithers, then given an assignment by Hardcastle to write a series of articles rehabilitating the reputation of the executed Alcasan.

Part 2 - Mark has an appointment with the deputy director. He still fails to get any direct answers. He learns is old job is in jeopardy and desperately tries to patch things up with Bracton College. He crosses paths with Feverstone again, who callously rebuffs him.

Part 3 - Jane has lunch with the Dennistons. She is invited to join the group that is coalescing at St. Anne's. She turns them down, but offers to continue to share with them the information from her dreams. They warn her that there ultimately is no neutrality in this fight, and she will wind up with one side or the other.

Chapter 6 - The Fog

Part 1 - Mark pleads with the deputy director to remain with N.I.C.E. He is allowed to do so on much reduced terms, and still with no clear idea of his position or responsibilities.

Part 2 - N.I.C.E. continues its takeover of Edgestow. The people are confused and unable to effectively respond. Mark begin his propagandist work. Bracton holds Hingest's funeral, which is marred by the crude shouting of the N.I.C.E. workmen outside.

Part 3 - Mark joins the inner circle in the library. He is assigned to write up the events of a planned riot before the riot actually occurs. Although he is initially shocked by the idea, he quickly accedes so as not to stand out.

Part 4 - Mark writes his assigned articles giving the N.I.C.E.'s spin on the riots they created. He finds himself intoxicated by his own power, and entirely loses sight of the moral objections he once had.

Part 5 - Jane dreams of being in a stone pit with a dead man on a slab. She senses that someone is coming down to join her whom she should do reverence. Upon waking, she returns to the town of Edgestow and crosses paths with one of the malevolent men from her dreams. Immediately and instinctively, Jane flees Edgestow to join the decent people at St. Anne's.

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I must say that doing these chapter summaries is still a bit difficult because, at this stage of the book, so little is actually happening yet. I hope you are all finding it entertaining and perhaps even prophetic. I look forward to your thoughts.

Chapter 3 - Belbury and St. Anne's on the Hill Chapter 4 - The Liquidation of Anachronisms

 Chapter 3

Part 1 - Mark meets the deputy director Mr. Whithers. He attempts to find out what his assigned task is or if he even has a job with N.I.C.E. Mark does not get any clear answer.

Part 2 - Mark has dinner in the common room at N.I.C.E. He feels adrift and alone. He meets Bill Hingest, another fellow of Bracton College, Steele, and Professor Filostrato. He still has no idea of his role there.

Part 3 - Jane meets Miss Ironwood. She is told her strange dreams are true visions and that this faculty was inherited. She is asked to join their side in the coming conflict and rejects this.

Part 4 - Mark talks with "the Fairy" Hardcastle and Bill Hingest. He learns about the theory of "scientific policing."

Part 5 - Jane leaves St. Anne's, determined to stay out of this whole mess. Upon arriving home, she gets a panicked call from Mrs. Dimble.

Chapter 4

Part 1 - Mrs. Dimble arrives at the Studdock home. The town is being turned upside down by N.I.C.E.

Part 2 - Jane has a dream about an old man being flagged down on the road and beaten to death.

Part 3 - Mark talks with a revolutionary parson named Straik.

Part 4 - At a N.I.C.E. committee meeting, Hingest's murder is announced.

Part 5 - Mrs. Dimble leaves the Studdocks' for St. Anne's. Jane learns of Hingest's murder and realizes that, despite her earlier decision, she is not out of this whole business after all.

Part 6 - Mark is recruited to write propaganda arguing for the destruction of the village of Cure Hardy. He visits the village and finds, despite himself, he quite likes it. He then returns home and gives his wife an almost entirely false account of the past few days, casting N.I.C.E. in a much better light than he really experienced it.

Part 7 - At a meeting of Bracton College, Feverstone passes along that Mark will not be returning. He and Curry start planning Mark's replacement. (Mark had, himself, made no such decision.) The N.I.C.E. construction nearby continues to grow louder and more obnoxious. The chapter ends with the sounds of violence and gunfire outside the meeting room of the college.

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So we'll see how two chapters a week goes. If this poses a problem for any of you, let me know.

Perelandra - book 2 of the Space Trilogy

In his first adventure, Elwin Ransom was kidnapped by Weston & Devine to Malacandra. The second adventure starts off very differently. 

Ransom is sent by an eldil to Perelandra, which we call Venus. He is not given any clear instructions or mission, only told that his presence is needed there. On his arrival, Ransom finds himself in the middle of an ocean. Just when he starts to panic about going under and drowning, he sees floating, mobile islands made up of some kind of vegetable matter. These islands are constantly shifting, and, being flexible, conform to the shape of the waters beneath them. They have flora and fauna of their own, which Ransom finds eminently agreeable.

After exploring for a while, Ransom meets an intelligent inhabitant of Perelandra, a green-skinned, but otherwise entirely human-appearing woman. After talking with her for a while in the language he learned on Malacandra, Ransom comes to understand that she and the King whom she often refers to are the first of their kind. They are, effectively, this world's Adam and Eve. Ransom also discovers that they have been given one command: They are not to sleep overnight on the fixed land, but to live on the floating islands.

SPOILERS UNTIL MARKED OTHERWISE

Not long after meeting the Lady, Ransom finds them joined by another Earthman, Dr. Weston. Weston, it turns out, has broadened his horizons and is now no longer strictly interested in physics and physical phenomenon. In fact, he is very concerned about the spiritual fate of mankind. After a long, rambling discourse about the nature of spirituality and man's place in the universe, Weston invites the spirit which drives man forward (which he identifies with the Devil) into his own body. He suffers some kind of seizure, and Ransom fears he is gravely ill, perhaps even dying.

After sleeping that night on the island (it was never forbidden to him), Ransom wakes up to find Weston gone, and himself alone. He rides a great fish (I imagine them as something like dolphins) to find the Lady on one of the floating islands. When he arrives, he finds her in discourse with Weston, but not the man he knew. Ransom finds Weston grotesquely altered, looking like a dead man puppeted with strings. He dubs this creature the Unman.

He finds the Unman earnestly trying to convince the Lady of the necessity of her staying on the fixed land, in contravention of Maleldil's command. Thus commences a debate lasting many days in which Ransom argues against the Unman's corrupting influence. Although Ransom does his best, he can tell he is losing ground, and the Lady is in grave danger of falling, corrupting this entire world as Earth was before.

Finally, he comes to the realization that he must put a stop to this, and the most effective way of doing so is by physical combat. After a great internal struggle, Ransom resigns himself to this, believing that it will almost certainly mean his death. When he confronts the Unman and strikes him, and the fight begins in earnest, he finds that contrary to his fears, physically the fight is just one middle-aged academic against another. The two fight for a long time, and Ransom chases the Unman, both riding the great fishes, away from the island. Finally, the Unman manages to drag Ransom down under with him. Although he fears drowning, Ransom finally surfaces on solid land, still grappling with the Unman. He kills him and awaits the coming of day.

After many hours, Ransom realizes that day is never coming because he's underground. He begins a long journey to the surface. When he reaches daylight at last, he spends several days recuperating from his fight in a sweet valley. Then he finds himself guided by the local animals to a nearby peak, where he meets the oyarsas of Perelandra and Malacandra. The three of them await the arrival of the Lady and the King. These thank Ransom for his work in protecting them from temptation. The King then explains his role in the future of the Solar system and how the siege of the Silent Planet (Earth) will be broken and her people set free from the evil eldil who rules her.

There follows an ecstatic hymn to Maleldil, praising him and all his creation. At the end, Ransom is told a full Venusian year (225 Earth days) has passed, and it is time for him to return home, which he does.

END SPOILERS

Honestly, this is my favorite of the three books. The world C.S. Lewis imagines here is perhaps one of my favorite alien worlds in s.f. It is sufficiently alien that it could never for a moment be mistaken for Earth, but also described in clear, comprehensible terms that we can visualize.

The temptation of the Lady is also fascinating to watch. Lewis shows how evil will appeal to us from every possible angle, through our intellect, through our self-image, through rational argument, through corrupt story-telling (hello, Hollywood). Also, much of that is clearly taking a crack at what, in our day, has grown into feminism.

The song of praise for God and the beauty of his creation and the beauty of hierarchy within that creation is transcendant.

It's been a while since I last read That Hideous Strength, so I may be wrong in this, but I believe this is also the most explicitly Christian book of the three. There are clear references to Maleldil (God) becoming man, joining us on Earth for a time, and dying as a sacrifice.

Is this my favorite Lewis fiction? I don't know. There's some stiff competition. The Great Divorce is another possibility. I need to re-read Til We Have Faces someday and think about that one some more. Perelandra is definitely near the top of the list, though. If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it.

A very relevant C.S. Lewis quote for our times

 

I may have gotten the quote slightly wrong.

Sorry if you were looking for serious content here. I just came up with this and had to share it.

On a more serious note, one chapter a week or two? I could do either, but I'd like to hear a consensus. If it's two chapters, I'll have to give up feeling smug about finally being ahead of schedule for once.