Superb and timely piece Suzanne! "If Orwell was right that totalitarianism succeeds when people cease to care about truth, then reading—and insisting on the value of truth—remains an act of defiance....reading becomes a way of recovering access to what is good, true, and beautiful in a world increasingly hostile to all three".
This captures perfectly the project my husband and I are currently working on: "The Reading Rebellion: One Book. Two Weeks. Repeat". The importance of reading cannot be overstated, not only as an act of defiance against a world of distraction, but to hold on to beauty, truth, and goodness, wisdom, and our historic "collective intelligence". I'll be sure to link your piece in our upcoming post!
Chesteron said that in times of crisis when everyone is rushing about trying to figure out what to do it is the thinking person that is the most valuable.
I just finished a re-read of Brave New World last night, and That Hideous Strength is one of my favorite novels. All three are scary, but I'm with others who find THS to be the most dead-on when it comes to describing totalitarian states.
I've long considered That Hideous Strength to be the scariest book I've ever read, in part because it is so very realistic, and the implications so very dire. Huxley and Orwell require a bit more suspension of disbelief (for me at least) to see how we're shaping up towards their imagined future. Lewis feels a lot more like he's describing where we are *right now.*
I've had the thought to re-read The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength together or sequentially, but I'm a little afraid I might not sleep for a week if I do!
I agree re: Lewis. With respect to Orwell, I think that his treatment of the censorship regime and of one-party government is uncanny in its timeliness. All over the Western world, large numbers of people are apparently convinced that free speech is a menace. With respect to Huxley, I find his diagnosis of the despair that ensues from technocratic hedonism to be most timely. In my view, he makes it clear that he is writing about a dystopia, though Yuval Noah Hariri argues that the book offers a neutral portrait of the world depicted in BNW. Thanks so much for your comment!
I didn't realize C.S. Lewis wrote That Hideous Strength (or even heard about it before, and will check it out), but I really like the subtlety of Fahrenheit 451:
"As time went by, Bradbury tended to dismiss censorship as a chief motivating factor for writing the story. Instead he usually claimed that the real messages of Fahrenheit 451 were about the dangers of an illiterate society infatuated with mass media and the threat of minority and special interest groups to books. In the late 1950s, Bradbury recounted
In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451, I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.[82]"
What a marvelous passage--and a prophetic one, given the extent to which we all walk around with our phones. We have fostered obliviousness to others in surrendering to to a steady stream of " far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries." Thanks for sharing!
C.S. Lewis also wrote an essay about living in the Atomic Age under the threat of nuclear war, and printed a sermon about Learning During Wartime addressed to undergraduates studying during WWII.
In the very long draft version of this piece, I actually quoted from that essay on the atomic age. And you picked up that I was thinking of the wartime essay, too!
Superb post! I was called to read two of the three in response to Covid. Have not yet been able to gear up for BNW. For me, the antidote has been a re-read of “Mere Christianity”, and the discovery of Paul Kingsnorth. Another is to buy real books! God help my family upon my passing and the housecleaning to follow!
Thank you so much! Re-reading Mere Christianity is always a good idea. I also love the letters of CSL. I myself don't own much besides way too many heavily marked up books, but they are a treasure.
I think you could add Dostoevsky to this list (among others, I’m sure!) — he was one of those who wrote his novels as an act of rebellion against culture, to hold up a mirror to society and let them see what they were losing when they compromised on truth. Incredible authors, all of these. This is a great breakdown of their purpose for writing and reading. 👏
Thank you so much, Anna! I really appreciate it. I think that you are right about Dostoevsky. His work is very important to me. Maybe I will write a piece about him next.
Yes, I would. I view the other two books as being of lesser interest than That Hideous Strength, but that is just my preference. The Narnia series is important to me, as is Lewis's non-fictional oeuvre, which merits rereading in full. That Hideous Strength may be read, to a considerable extent, as an exploration of the ideas in The Abolition of Man in fictional form.
Christmas 1945 - George Orwell, recently widowed, arrives with his baby son to stay with his friend Arthur Koestler at a remote cottage, Bwlch Ocyn, in North Wales.
Orwell has just published ‘Animal Farm’ and mulls ideas with Koestler for his next novel. Koestler had written the acclaimed novel, ‘Darkness at Noon,’ about the Stalin show trials and also spent time in a Nazi prison. Both Orwell and Koestler supported the Republican government during the civil war in Spain and were dedicated to democratic Left causes.
Here for the first time are their imagined conversations in wintry Wales, based on true events, which produced one of the 20th Century’s greatest and darkest books, ‘1984.’
Wow! Such a generous reading, Ruth! I am very grateful. Your project sounds wonderful.
Superb and timely piece Suzanne! "If Orwell was right that totalitarianism succeeds when people cease to care about truth, then reading—and insisting on the value of truth—remains an act of defiance....reading becomes a way of recovering access to what is good, true, and beautiful in a world increasingly hostile to all three".
This captures perfectly the project my husband and I are currently working on: "The Reading Rebellion: One Book. Two Weeks. Repeat". The importance of reading cannot be overstated, not only as an act of defiance against a world of distraction, but to hold on to beauty, truth, and goodness, wisdom, and our historic "collective intelligence". I'll be sure to link your piece in our upcoming post!
Chesteron said that in times of crisis when everyone is rushing about trying to figure out what to do it is the thinking person that is the most valuable.
I just finished a re-read of Brave New World last night, and That Hideous Strength is one of my favorite novels. All three are scary, but I'm with others who find THS to be the most dead-on when it comes to describing totalitarian states.
Me too!
I've long considered That Hideous Strength to be the scariest book I've ever read, in part because it is so very realistic, and the implications so very dire. Huxley and Orwell require a bit more suspension of disbelief (for me at least) to see how we're shaping up towards their imagined future. Lewis feels a lot more like he's describing where we are *right now.*
I've had the thought to re-read The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength together or sequentially, but I'm a little afraid I might not sleep for a week if I do!
I agree re: Lewis. With respect to Orwell, I think that his treatment of the censorship regime and of one-party government is uncanny in its timeliness. All over the Western world, large numbers of people are apparently convinced that free speech is a menace. With respect to Huxley, I find his diagnosis of the despair that ensues from technocratic hedonism to be most timely. In my view, he makes it clear that he is writing about a dystopia, though Yuval Noah Hariri argues that the book offers a neutral portrait of the world depicted in BNW. Thanks so much for your comment!
I didn't realize C.S. Lewis wrote That Hideous Strength (or even heard about it before, and will check it out), but I really like the subtlety of Fahrenheit 451:
"As time went by, Bradbury tended to dismiss censorship as a chief motivating factor for writing the story. Instead he usually claimed that the real messages of Fahrenheit 451 were about the dangers of an illiterate society infatuated with mass media and the threat of minority and special interest groups to books. In the late 1950s, Bradbury recounted
In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451, I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.[82]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451#Themes
What a marvelous passage--and a prophetic one, given the extent to which we all walk around with our phones. We have fostered obliviousness to others in surrendering to to a steady stream of " far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries." Thanks for sharing!
C.S. Lewis also wrote an essay about living in the Atomic Age under the threat of nuclear war, and printed a sermon about Learning During Wartime addressed to undergraduates studying during WWII.
In the very long draft version of this piece, I actually quoted from that essay on the atomic age. And you picked up that I was thinking of the wartime essay, too!
This is almost word for word the discussion I participated in during a literature class in high school in 1960.
Excellent essay, write on time!
Nothing knew under the sun....
....why we read= ⏳🌐😌🕯️📿📚💪🏼❤️🩹🔔✔️
Superb post! I was called to read two of the three in response to Covid. Have not yet been able to gear up for BNW. For me, the antidote has been a re-read of “Mere Christianity”, and the discovery of Paul Kingsnorth. Another is to buy real books! God help my family upon my passing and the housecleaning to follow!
Thank you so much! Re-reading Mere Christianity is always a good idea. I also love the letters of CSL. I myself don't own much besides way too many heavily marked up books, but they are a treasure.
Well said!
I think you could add Dostoevsky to this list (among others, I’m sure!) — he was one of those who wrote his novels as an act of rebellion against culture, to hold up a mirror to society and let them see what they were losing when they compromised on truth. Incredible authors, all of these. This is a great breakdown of their purpose for writing and reading. 👏
Thank you so much, Anna! I really appreciate it. I think that you are right about Dostoevsky. His work is very important to me. Maybe I will write a piece about him next.
I fear that I have neglected Lewis since childhood. Would you recommend I read the Space Trilogy entire? Thanks, John.
Yes, I would. I view the other two books as being of lesser interest than That Hideous Strength, but that is just my preference. The Narnia series is important to me, as is Lewis's non-fictional oeuvre, which merits rereading in full. That Hideous Strength may be read, to a considerable extent, as an exploration of the ideas in The Abolition of Man in fictional form.
Thank you very much.
Suzanne great post.
‘Darkness in 1984’
My new George Orwell historical fiction novel, set in Blaenau Ffestiniog, in North Wales, is out now.
Based on true events.
‘Darkness in 1984’ available from Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/4twzftfr
Christmas 1945 - George Orwell, recently widowed, arrives with his baby son to stay with his friend Arthur Koestler at a remote cottage, Bwlch Ocyn, in North Wales.
Orwell has just published ‘Animal Farm’ and mulls ideas with Koestler for his next novel. Koestler had written the acclaimed novel, ‘Darkness at Noon,’ about the Stalin show trials and also spent time in a Nazi prison. Both Orwell and Koestler supported the Republican government during the civil war in Spain and were dedicated to democratic Left causes.
Here for the first time are their imagined conversations in wintry Wales, based on true events, which produced one of the 20th Century’s greatest and darkest books, ‘1984.’