That Hideous Strength, ch 1 and 2

What a treat to be reading about Jane Studdock again! I'd forgotten how much I like this character.

Lewis tells us in the Preface that this is a "fairy-tale"; he defends this because his story begins in the commonplace, everyday world and moves into the fantastic. But even in the first chapter we get a hint of the fantastic to come when we learn of Jane's dream, though of course at this point, on the first reading, we don't understand the significance of her dreams.

The first word of the novel is "matrimony," which is one of the main themes of the book; it's hard for me to believe that Lewis wrote this as an established bachelor, quite a while before he married. He seems to have a good understanding of the different expectations and responses of both genders. Jane's doctoral thesis is to be on Donne's "triumphant vindication of the body." I wonder if this might have some bearing on my ideas of the physicality of faith; I'll have to dust off Donne and check it out.

In these chapters we meet or hear about many of the main players in the book: Curry, Feverstone (I'm wondering how soon my students figure him out.), Jewel, Busby, and Wither--and the N.I.C.E. As well as the Dimbles, Miss Ironwood, and Merlin. The two main locations are identified, too. Mark is invited to Belbury, and Jane travels to St. Anne's. There's a very descriptive section on Bragdon Wood, in which the narrator, speaking in first person, tells us he has been there once.

I noticed this time that when Dr. Dimble is telling Jane about Bragdon Wood and the Arthurian legend, he contrasts two types of people: Guinevere and Lancelot and the "courtly" people, who, he says, are not "particularly British," and the people in the "background," who are "mixed up with magic" (29). This seems to set up the division between the two groups of people in the novel--though Jane, the Dimbles, et. al., represent the true Logres, and Curry, et. al., the false. It's interesting that Merlin--the magician--is claimed by the false, but we'll see that he's not so easily classified.

Feverstone identifies 3 major problems the Progressives (and N.I.C.E.) will have to deal with. 1) the interplanetary problem--which he doesn't elaborate on, 2) their "rivals on this planet," by which he seems to mean living things, and 3) "Man himself." In order to create a "new type of man," they will have to promote "sterilization of the unfit, liquidation of backward races . . . , selective breeding" (40). Already he is trying to recruit Mark for the N.I.C.E--as a writer. He recognizes the necessity of manipulating language in order to manipulate people. He tells Mark they'll need someone who can write well enough to "camouflage" what's really being suggested and done.

It's interesting that Ransom was sent to Perelandra because he knew the language, and now Mark is being courted by the dark side because he may be able to distort language. In light of the later "Babel" episode, I'll have to be watching for other references to language; this may well be another important thread.