82 - The BBC's That Hideous Strength

which is well disappointing. I wrote U p Aer review for the Mythic Mind substack on this and I'll be more or less reading that for you today, and you can find that article in the show notes. And if you aren't already subscribed to our substack, then go ahead and do that. It's a good way to hear from

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you find what you need. All right, Now, let's go ahead and get to the main topic today as I more or less read my review of the BBC's audio drama adaptation of That Hideous Strength. Oh and I'm planning to discuss this with a few others as well in the near future, and so you can get a broader take on it then. But for now, here's my take. All right, here we go. The BBC recently put out an audio drama adaptation of C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength. This is one of my favorite books, and so I

was naturally excited about the prospects here. I wanted for this to succeed. With that being said, I definitely had a degree of skepticism going into this, as the profoundly anti modern philosophy of Lewis's dystopian fairy tale is hardly what I would associate with a major media institution such

as the British Broadcasting Network. After all, England unironically has its own IC, that is, the the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, not exactly the same thing as lewis Is in ICE, but it is an interesting overlap of fiction and fact here, and in the end it turns out that my skeptical impulses were correct. The celestial wisdom of Lewis was lost to the forces of this silent planet. Oh, in a case it needs to be said, I will be discussing major spoilers, both regarding the book

as well as this adaptation. Now, to be fair, it's impossible for anyone to condense a tome like That Hideous Strength into a two hour adaptation without cutting out a considerable amount of content. Now, this could raise the question as to whether it should have been condensed to two hours, but I'll accept this limitation for the time being. With that in mind, the pacing is decent, even if it misses some of the meandering feel that's actually significant to

the story. Also, I enjoyed the music transitions. I thought they did pretty well and kind of capturing the spirit of the age. But beyond that, there's really not a whole lot left for me to praise. First, let's consider what that Hideous Strength is so we can evaluate what it is for and where exactly the adaptation misses the

mark pun intended. In his prologue to That Hideous Strength, Lewis explicitly states that this is a fairy tale primarily meant to illustrate his arguments in the abolition of man. In other words, this is not a story that happens to have some points for philosophical reflection. This is a philosophical story that, apart from that philosophy, is not that story. Furthermore, this novel is inseparable from the dialectic established by the

previous two books in the series. Sometimes people say that that Hideous Strength can be read in isolation, but I really disagree with this. Sure, the basic plot could be followed by itself, but the essence of the story is tied to the broader meta narrative which frames a story as a philosophical in an archetypal tale. In what follows, I'm going to be discussing a few major ways that

the adaptation just utterly hollows out this story. Going back to the first book in the series, In Out of the Island, planet Elwyn Ransom, our main protagonist, becomes associated with the masculine martial influence of Mars. In Perilandra Ransom is a martial agent that is brought into relation with the feminine life giving influence of Venus. In that Hideous Strength, which takes place on the isolated, disordered planet Earth. The story begins with the word matrimony, thereby giving us this

masculine feminine relationship established between the previous two books. However, the particular marriage in view is cold and is disordered, because again this is a story of earth rather than

of the heavens. In the book, Mark and James Studdock are essentially strange, but through their individual stories they become reconciled as they become rightly aligned with their heavenly ideals in conjunction with the jovial influence manifested in Ransom and by the way a charter removing the passive voice of

that sentence. But it's actually really important here because so often in Lewis's stories, and definitely in this one, the point is not so much what the care they're doing, but you know where they're being polled, where they're being directed. And of course that's going to be an ongoing theme, especially of Ransom and the company that's assembled around him, that their job is to wait, their job is to be faithful, their job is to receive rather than to

do a whole lot. But almost any hint of this fundamental aspect of the story, this marge Venus relationship, in conjunction with the ordering force of Jupiter, like any hint of this medieval cosmology, or this relationship between the maskul and the feminine, almost any of that is just fundamentally missing from this adaptation. Now amids the discordant relationship between Mark and Jane, the book quickly brings us to Mark's academic context, and it's particularly important to note that Mark

is a sociologist. If this is mentioned in the adaptation, I'm not sure that it is. But if it is, then it's brief, it's passing, and it's well, it's unremarkable. In the book, however, it's mentioned on many agents in order to drive in the point. For Lewis, sociologist is generally a pejorative term. In particular, he's opposed to sociologically driven philosophy, which is connected to his broader critique of

democracy as philosophy. Lewis defends democracy as a pragmatic good for restraining tyranny, but he believes that it's demonic if taken as an accurate representation of what reality is actually like, because reality is hierarchical. Some things are better than other things, some people live better lives than others. Most significantly, ideals

stand above particulars. Sociologists, however, tend to think democratically. They'll say, here's what people believe, or here's how people act, Therefore, here's what we should view as normal. This is the same problem he has with evolutionary philosophy that says, here's what's happening, therefore, here's what should be happening. Thus, when Lewis emphasizes that Marcus a sociologist, he's telling us something significant about his character arc and where he already stands

in a certain relation with the forces of Belbury. Now I'm not saying that if you are a sociologist that necessarily means that you're on the side of Belbury. However, Lewis is making an intentional point here, and also you might be on the side of Belbery. Furthermore, Mark the sociologist is obsessed with getting into the inner circle of the progressive element of his college. And if you have any experience with academia, you know what this circle is.

As you get further into the story, you really come to understand what this circle is. Roofing off of Dante, this progressive element of modern academia is the outer circle of hell that spirals down into the National Institute for Coordinated Experiments, which is led by the likes of Frost and whither, names that remind us of Dante's frozen Inner Circle. Thus, Lewis is making a very polemical point here regarding the

places of power in modern academia. This entire element of the story is just utterly missing from the audio adaptation. There is not one mention of the progressive element, and it's not difficult to figure out why this may be the case. And by the way, for more on Lewis's critiques of democracy as philosophy that you can read his essay Equality or look up Screwtape proposes a toase, which is a sequel of sorts to the Screwtape letters. Next,

let's talk about Ransom. In the book Ransom, the pen Dragon is this overwhelming figure who represents the priest King Jupiter,

whose influence governs the relation between Mars and Venus. When Jane first encounters Ransom, she is unmade in his presence, and as she leaves that meeting, she's enraptured in his heavenly influence, and she becomes awakened to the celestial beauty in which she might participate by the end of the story, she fully embraces his beauty as she rejects the terrestrial influence of sin in favor of the redemptive grace of God. In the BBC's version, however, Ransom is a rather underwhelming man.

In the BBC's version, however, Ransom is a rather underwhelming man who lament his crippling weakness and occasionally and awkwardly offers to pray for Jane, who remains unconverted until the end. This is not just a matter of leaving out a few things for the sake of time. This is an absolute subversion of Ransom's character and the Christianity that makes him such a profound figure. Now, let's briefly discuss the main players at the Nice. First, there's the deputy director.

John Wither. Lewis describes Withther as having an early amicable, somewhat senile, hauntingly otherworldly presence. He's revealed to be downright demonic, to the point that it's not clear if there still is much John Wither present at all. In BBC's version, all hints of the demonic are removed. He's just an ordinary guy who happens to be a smooth talking leader of a bad organization. Next, there's Fairy Hardcastle. In the book.

Her primary character is one of unfeminized, disordered sexuality, providing us with another manifestation of the NIC's rejection of the normal. Unsurprisingly, the BBC was unwilling to enter into this territory, and she too, was just an ordinary woman who happened to work with some bad people. Lastly, let's consider Professor Augustus Frost, the materialist psychiatrist who understands everything in those terms. Of all the nice leaders, he likely received the best treatment

in the adaptation, although even he was considerably weakened. For example, at the end of his story in the book, he's frozen by his lack of agency that is, the inevitable result of his materialism, which is in turn a demonic deceit. Something like this happens in the adaptation, but Lewis's philosophical

critique is entirely missing. Aside from a couple passing statements made by Ransom, the dibiological nature of the NIC's philosophy is entirely obscured, thereby providing us with an unremarkable group of villainous mad scientists which is far removed from the demonic progressives that Lewis gives us in his text. Finally,

let's talk about the finale. In the book, the Company of Saint Anne's is regularly confuse about exactly what they are meant to be doing, and for the most part, they're okay with that because they trust Ransom, who in turn trusts God in his heavenly court. The one who has the greatest struggle with this arrangement is Andrew mc phee,

who is entirely missing from this adaptation. As we approach the end of Lewis's story, it becomes increasingly clear that they are not really meant to do anything apart from remaining faithful. As with Babel of Old, it is Heaven that will smash the pride of man. Thus the forces of Heaven descend upon Merlin with an act that will

be his undoing and his redemption. Operating through Merlin, the heavenly powers bring the curse of Babel upon Belbury, and the Nice implodes in its confusion, which is both a curse and a consequence of their stants against the real In the BBC's version, there is no descent of Heaven. Jane in scorn of her Venusian ideal takes charge and hops in a car with Merdlin to save Mark, while pitiful Ransom laments not how the strength to go with them.

Then Merlin, apparently with his own magic Jedi mind, tricks the guards and curses Belbury with confusion. Then they rescue Mark, who never becomes a martial figure, and the story ends. Lewis's story is one of romantic idealism and philosophical critique of the modern Tennessees in academia and science, to forsake the real, the ideal, and the normal in favor of

evolutionary Whatever comes next is good philosophy. BBC missed this entirely, or more likely they excised it because it would be impossible to include it without the recognition that they are far more aligned with Belbury than they are with Saint Ann's. All right, that's the end of the article. Thanks for listening, and thanks to all patrons who enable the Mythic Mind

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I can both know what to expect moving forward. Now, I'm going to end by providing Josh Taylor's introduction to his Paradise Lost class. But that's it for my part, So until next time, godspeed,