THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH: Chapter 4

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Sub-Warden Curry and Rev. Busby look on as the NICE police watch while rioting workers destroy the grounds of Bragdon Wood and Bracton College. When these two college administrators first manipulated the faculty into selling Bragdon Wood at a profit, they hadn’t realized that the NICE would destroy the college grounds. Now they must try to put a good face on their own short-sighted leadership. Collusion with an authoritarian state can have hidden costs! (This is a screenshot from the pre-covid THS movie that has now, I believe, resumed production with a new cast.)

THE LIQUIDATION OF ANACHRONISMS

Overview Question

This chapter portrays a truly nightmarish attack by the NICE on the basic rights of the English people who live around Edgestow. The Dimbles lose their home in an abrupt and legally questionable cancellation of their lease. Bracton College loses its landscaped buffer zone (Bragdon Wood) and its historic stained-glass window as rioting workers run amok. And the village of Cure Hardy is scheduled to be razed by the NICE to make room for an “improved” state-run model village. Furthermore, all of these abuses of private property are accompanied by a psychological assault on the legal traditions and moral sensibilities of the people (all of which are seen as “anachronistic” by the NICE). The people can’t quite believe this is really happening.  Overview Question:    

Given what you already know about the “long march through the institutions” (from Chapter 2), what makes it possible for the NICE, with little if any resistance from public authorities, simply to ignore and run over the basic rights of the people? And what parallels can you see in America today for this kind of government action that routinely ignores and runs over the basic constitutional rights of the people?

Screenshot from pre-covid THS film. Are the NICE police trying to stop the rioting, or are they egging it on? No one will know for sure until the local papers, now controlled by the NICE, clarify the story. O, that story is already in print, and the riot would have been much worse except for the NICE intervention. O.K. got it.

 To get at the heart of this problem in Lewis’s story, I suggest that you combine what you have learned about the “long march” in Chapter 2 with what we discussed in the Introduction concerning Yuri Bezmenov’s description of the stages of cultural revolution. In particular, the first two stages: 1. Demoralization, and 2. Destabilization. These should help you discover a very plausible interpretation for what takes place in Lewis’s story.   

This may also be a good time to consider the larger shape of Lewis’s story as it spreads out before and behind us. A quick glance at the Table of Contents reveals a definite trajectory in Lewis’s plot. In general, the story moves from a.) the early chapters where the NICE at Belbury are expanding their reach and power over both people (including Mark) and institutions; to b.) the middle chapters where Mark and Jane are discovering the challenges of their “callings” at Belbury and St. Anne’s; and then c.) the final chapters where both Mark and Jane come to a crossroads as the spiritual battle is fully joined. The following diagram shows this dramatic sequence at a glance:

1. Sale of College Property

2. Dinner with Sub-Warden                            a. The Taking and Holding

3. Belbury and St. Anne’s                                            of Territory

4. Liquidation of Anachronisms

5. Elasticity

6. Fog

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7. The Pendragon

8. Moonlight at Belbury

9. The Saracen’s Head                                    b. The Calling and Inward Battles

10. Conquered City                                                       of Mark and Jane

11. Battle Begun

12. Wet and Windy Night

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13. They Have Pulled Down Deep Heaven

14. Real Life Is Meeting                                   c. The Road of New Creation

15. Descent of the Gods                                           and the Way Ahead  

16. Banquet at Belbury 17. Venus at St. Anne’s

A photograph of an English village by a river that looks a lot like the description of Lewis’s Cure Hardy. This is the kind of village, note well, that the NICE plan to relocate in the novel in order to reroute the river and make a new model village somewhere on the higher ground nearby. (Photo by Colin Braidford.)

DEEPER-DIVE QUESTIONS

1. In Part 1, the Dimbles lose their cottage. In Part 6, Mark works with the NICE to condemn the quaint village of Cure Hardy. And in Part 7, Bracton College loses its Wynd River, its land, and its famous stained-glass window. In the conversation between Mark and Cosser at Cure Hardy (Part 6), Lewis portrays the kind of thinking (the basic premises of the modern worldview) that warrant these actions. What are these premises, and where do you see them at work in American politics today? (The “Four Stages of Revolution” in the introduction should also help with this analysis.)   

2. In Parts 2 and 5, we find Jane continuing to have dreams, and wishing that she could somehow just get rid of them altogether. At the same time, her experiences with Mother Dimble expose her to a worldview where prayer and a desire to grow in virtue demon-strate a kind of faith that Jane simply does not possess. How might Jane’s aversions to her dreams and her discomfort with Mother Dimble’s traditional faith be related?

3. In Part 3 of Chapter 4, Mark finds himself confronted with the religious views of the Rev. Straik, who serves as a kind of advisor for the NICE. How do Rev. Straik’s views on Christianity fulfill the requirements of the modern worldview and of the “long march” at NICE? (Consider your answers in the light of the “disestablishment” clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.)

4. In the Discarded Image, Lewis explains how, in the medieval worldview, everything is mediated in the relations between God and man. We see an example of this when, in the midst of his work with Cosser, Mark’s conscience is awakened to the beauties and virtues of Cure Hardy by memories from his past experience with family and friends. As a consequence of these “messages” mediated from the past, Mark’s conscience is awakened, and he almost turns against the mentality of the NICE. What are the thoughts, experiences, and memories that mediate this awakening, and why does Mark turn away from them?   

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