That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis

The time has come at last, oh my fellow DMVBAFBCists, to dive in to this forgotten classic of a dystopian novel.

This was C.S. Lewis' 3rd and last installment in the world of his 'Space Trilogy', and is mostly disconnected from the other books (there are a few references here or there scattered throughout). It is also, in my opinion, by far the best of the Space novels, and one of the best things Lewis ever wrote. Members are not expected to go through all of the books (though a list will be provided below for those so inclined), and I don't believe anyone should have a problem just reading it as a standalone novel (in fact, in one of the forwards C.S. Lewis himself says the same). If you haven't read the other books and feel like the third book is introducing things without explaining them, rest assured that's not lore from past books (mostly), that's just the crazy way it's written.

The story of That Hideous Strength doesn't take place in a dystopian future, but rather in an interpretation of the present (meaning mid-1900s England, where it was written) which is possibly on the precipice of becoming a dystopian future. We follow the story of a not always very nice man, who is offered a NICE job, which is not a very nice job. Events ensue.

This marks the first (and hopefully not the last :) ) time this group has been convinced to read a C.S. Lewis book, and I eagerly await having more people with whom to talk about That Hideous Strength.

BOOK NOTES/EXTRA CREDIT:
The Space Trilogy books in order are as follows:
*Out of the Silent Planet
*Perelandra
*That Hideous Strength

In addition to those, there was a long lost (and still unfinished :( ) manuscript for another book set some time between Out of the Silent Planet and That Hideous Strength (it is unclear if it comes before or after Perelandra). This book would have had, like THS, very little relationship to the other books, but it's where some characters are actually first introduced. Alas, the manuscript was never finished, and Lewis simply discarded the book idea and moved on to write THS. For anyone interested, that manuscript is called 'The Dark Tower' (not to be confused with the Stephen King book series of the same name), and can be found included in some later publications of Lewis' collected works.

Finally, there are two of C.S. Lewis' non-fiction essays that he directly cited as the groundwork for what he was doing in That Hideous Strength. The first is called 'The Inner Ring', and was originally a guest lecture given to a cohort of school boys, and the second is called 'The Abolition of Man', and is long for an essay but not too long, and details much more of the ideology and philosophy that Lewis wrote about.

I recommend both just on their own merits, but for anyone looking for a little extra reading that doesn't involve reading two whole other books, I strongly recommend The Abolition of Man as a companion essay (probably best read after THS).

LOCATION NOTE:
This meeting is scheduled to take place at Micky's Soju House (8450 Baltimore National Pike unit 125, Ellicott City, MD 21043).