That Hideous Strength

"And this," said Ransom, ignoring the question, "is why we have no way left at all save the one I told you. The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist to squeeze as it wishes. But for their one mistake, there would be no hope left."
-That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

I am engrossed in this book. As I read on it gets more and more intriguing and eerie. This is the third and last in the series by C.S. Lewis. It is called the space trilogy, but I find it to be more about the spiritual forces of evil that are present everywhere than about space. I think part of the reason I had never read these books before now was because I thought it was going to be "sci-fi" but to me, it is not.

It is very intelligent and complex, that is for sure. Sometimes I feel like it is over my head, since C.S. Lewis had one of the greatest minds in the 20th century, it is no shock that I may not understand everything.

The story is about how evil can easily start out appearing as something good, and as it grows there is little to stop it from crossing all lines of what we know as civilized society. It takes place post- World War II in a small England town. A group of intelligent professors/scientists begin this organization called N.I.C.E., the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments. They begin in the community as a sort of experimental facility, but the evil that is being conducted there is largely unknown by outsiders until it is too late. By then they have spread their influences through the whole community, forming their own "police" and conducting grotesque experiments with humans and animals. But what the power of evil draws into themselves to conquer the good is actually used against them in ways they did not foresee.

I am getting close to finishing it, and I must say I have enjoyed this series much more than I thought I would. I was afraid it would be to sci-fi, but my fears were mistaken. The way that C.S. Lewis stabs the issue in the heart literally makes me sit back and muse over some passages I will read. This is how he writes his essays and other books, which is why I will read and re-read his writings. How well he understood the good and bad of man's heart and how even in the most dark of circumstances there is reason to hope and there is good to fight for.