That Hideous Strength - Ch 11 - Battle Begun

Jane, Dimble, and Denniston try looking for what Jane saw in her dream about finding Merlin.  However, it's dark, it's raining, making it difficult to see out in Bragdon Woods.  Besides, it feels scary.  As they go tramping about the countryside, exploring hill and dale, they start to feel like they experience an Ancient Britain.  Jane began to think about her childhood religion, something she left long ago, and began to wonder if there was a deeper, truer religion she might need to face all this.  They think they see a man, but are not sure if he is simply a tramp in modern clothes.

Meanwhile, Fairy Hardcastle tries to convince Withers (the Deputy Director) to let her try to use her methods to get Mark to disclose Jane's location (though Mark doesn't know).  But Withers resists, saying the worst thing in this situation would be to use torture.  Even if this obtained Jane's location, and they brought her to Belbury, her shock at discovering Mark had been tortured might be enough to dislodge her gift, which would render her useless to them.  Professor Frost (with the nez-pince glasses) concurs.  They dismiss the Fairy and begin their own private conversation about this.  Frost reminds Withers that "the authorities had access to the woman's mind for only a very short time," inspecting only one of her dreams.  They (the authorities) warn that if Jane falls into the wrong hands, she could pose a grave danger to them.  Since then, they cannot read Jane's mind, which means she has fallen into enemy hands.  They agree they must induce Mark to bring his wife to Belbury, and they agree the best means of achieving this comes by inviting Mark into a deeper unity with their deepest inner circle.  As they discuss this, Withers and Frost sit so close that they finally embrace each other swaying to and fro.

During this conversation, Frost reveals that though Filostrato really believes they are keeping the Head (Alcasan's) alive, this is not the case.  (More about this later.)

They also reveal they are interested in Mark and Jane for eugenics purposes.

Meanwhile, Mark despairs of life, sitting in a cell, facing a charge of murder, and facing the death penalty.  It slowly begins to dawn on him he might be a Belbury.  He begins to believe all there are his enemies and he was a fool for every having trusted them.  He also began to clearly see his folly at always seeking inclusion in the most inner circle he could find.  He looked back upon his life with "disgust at its dreariness."

His thoughts turned to Jane.  He began to recognize what a deep person she truly was.  He began to think his death would be lucky for Jane since she would be free to someone worthy of her.

Finally, Professor Frost entered his cell, which confirmed to Mark he was at Belbury.  But Mark saw something about Frost he never noticed before - he appeared more frightening than death itself.

Ch. 10 - The Conquered City

Ch. 12 - Wet and Windy Night

Overview of That Hideous Strength

Character List

That Hideous Strength - Ch 10 - The Conquered City

The D. D. (Withers) asks Mark to an immediate meeting where Fairy Hardcastle appears.  There they inform him the NICE Police found his wallet (which Mark was missing) about five yards from the dead body of Hingest (Bill the Blizzard).  Withers talks about how fortunate the NICE Police made this discovery instead of the regular police, since he views the NICE as one big, happy family.  Mark finds offense at this, since he knows he was nowhere near Hingest, and suspects someone in the NICE not only pilfered his wallet, but planted it near Hingest, so they could hold it over him, and thereby manipulate him (with the implicit threat of taking this to the regular police if he resists.  At first he protests, but then realizes its better to play along and express his gratitude that the NICE Police made this discovery (instead of the regular police).  Mark then discovers their real aim is get him to bring Jane to Belbury to live with him.  He realizes he must warn Jane.

As soon as Mark can leave this meeting, he immediately leaves the NICE.  He encounters Withers outside, but when he strikes a blow, the shape mysteriously vanished.  As he began to leave Belbury, he begins to see signs that tell him refugees flee Edgestow (where the NICE was building its new facilities) because of the terror being established in the town - turned out of their houses, riots, and rule by the NICE Police.

Mark easily found an empty bus to Edgestow (since all the traffic headed out of it).  When he arrived, he found one house of three empty, half the shops boarded up, and large villas taken over with large placards with the NICE symbol in front.  NICE Police were everywhere, along with notices of EMERGENCY REGULATION.  Mark went into his home, but clearly Jane had not been there for quite some time.  He noticed an unmailed letter from Jane to Mrs. Dimble, and Mark figured Jane went to stay with the interfering Dimbles (whom he didn't like).

Mark went to see Prof. Dimble, and demanded to know where Jane was, but Dimble refuses, for Jane's safety.  Mark doesn't understand.  Dimble explains the NICE Police tortured Jane.  Mark still believes the story the NICE Police told him that this didn't happen and is evidence Jane suffers from a nervous breakdown.  Dimble corrects him by informing that a doctor, who dressed the burns, thinks otherwise.

Painting of the Fall of Constantinople,
by Theophilos Hatzimihail (1932)
(A conquered and occupied city)

Mark asks - why didn't Dimble go to the ordinary police about this? Dimble replies there are no ordinary police left over in Edgestow, everything is ruled by the Emergency Commissioner, Lord Feverstone.  Effectively, Edgestow has become a "conquered and occupied city."

While Mark tries to insist on his right to know Jane's whereabouts as her husband, Dimble points out that he is a high ranking NICE official, and for now, the NICE presents a real threat to the safety of Jane.

Dimble offers to rescue Mark from the NICE, but Mark hesitates, delays, and eventually leaves Dimble.  Outside, the ordinary police arrest Mark for the murder of Bill Hingest.

Merlin

Dimble goes back to St. Anne's, and while eating dinner, the Director tells him he must go back out because of the most recent dream of Jane.  She dreamed about a long tunnel with a very gradual ascent with an entrance under a heap of stone that would lead them Merlin (whom she had dreamed about before).  The Director deduces the NICE have not yet found Merlin (whom they are looking for) and this is the one chance they have to find him first.

MacPhee (the resident atheist or agnostic) tries to argue he should go, but the Director decides otherwise.  Only Dimble knows the "Great Tongue," and the Director tells him what he should say, and asks him to repeat it.  As he does, Jane heart leaps, while everything else in the room suddenly quiets.  The narrator tells us this is the language before the Fall and beyond the Moon.

As the others take a break before setting out, the Director asks Jane if she is in obedience to Maleldil (God).  Jane says she doesn't know Meleldil yet, but she places herself in obedience to the Director, to which he replies that is enough for the present.

Ch. 9 - The Saracen's Head

Ch. 11 - Battle Begun

Overview of "That Hideous Strength"

Character List

That Hideous Strength - Ch 9 - The Saracen's Head

Medieval Europeans used the word Saracen to describe a Muslim.  (If you recall from Ch. 1, Alcasan, beheaded for poisoning his wife, was an Arabian radiologist - and could be referred to as a Saracen.)

Jane tells her latest dream to Grace Ironwood and the Director.  She saw a head floating before her - a face with a beard, nose, and eyes with colored glasses on.  The top of its removed skull boiled over with a great mass as though something inside had boiled over.  Then she realized the head did not actually float.  It was fixed on something with rubber tubes, bulbs, and little metal things hanging below it - with the tubes going into a wall.  It began an imitation of breathing, in a rhythmic - huff, huff, huff - and it dribbled at the mouth, but had no hands to wipe it.  It worked its mouth and licked its lips.  It seemed to Jane like a machine someone was getting into working order.

Then Jane saw three persons enter the room all dressed in white with masks on - walking extremely carefully.  She recognized the third person as her husband, Mark.  They bowed to it and it spoke to them in French, so that Jane didn't understand it well.  One of the three seemed to introduce Mark to it.  It said something to Mark, and Mark replied something about trying to do it in a few days if possible.  She could tell Mark couldn't stand it and was going to fall sick, but the others got him out of the room before that could happen.

A Council

Jane felt horror about the dream, to the point of nausea, as she realized Mark's real surroundings as associates.  The Director confirms Mark suffers, and they will try to rescue him.  He calls for a council, but says he must exclude Jane since some believe too much information could affect her dream abilities which they rely upon as a news source.

Meanwhile, Mark resolved he must bring Jane to Belbury, but not for whatever purpose NICE had in mind, but to save his life, which he now worries about after seeing the head artificially kept alive with air and saliva pumped from the next door room.  With his "modern" education, he has nothing else to fall back on.  But then he worried if she comes there - would they bring her before the Head?

Suddenly, Fairy Hardcastle appears.  She tries to convince Mark to sign a form which would allow the Fairy to bring Jane immediately to him at Belbury.  She argues otherwise she might be sent to an Asylum for accusing the Fairy of burning her with cigarettes.  Mark responds he must go home at once to talk with Jane about this.  He tries to see the Deputy Director to report his decision, but can't at first, and then later finds him in a trance-like mostly unresponsive state.  Mark leaves, but then finds the D.D. blocks his path outside, and walks back to Belbury, tired, with his eyes tear filled.

Back at St. Anne's, MacPhee (the resident skeptic) invites Jane into "his little room" - his office.  He mentions the Director is actually Ransom, a philologist.  Jane recognizes the name as the author of " Dialect and Semantics."  MacPhee relates skeptically the Director's story that he had been to Mars (Book 1 of the Space Trilogy - Out of the Silent Planet).  Jane believes it.

A depiction of Eldils

MacPhee relates, skeptically, the Director says he met eldils on Mars, not exactly Martians, who live in empty space and don't breathe, as he has been told - they alight on planets like birds on trees, except those on earth are hostile.  Again, MacPhee skeptically relates the Director claims to continuously receive communications from the eldils, those not on earth, who sent him to Venus (Book 2 of the Space Trilogy - Perelandra).  They informed the Director about a conspiracy against the human race.

Later, Jane talks with Camilla Denniston.  She asks why the Director looks so young.  Camilla replies that's because he returned from Perelandra (Venus), where Paradise still goes on, and those who return from there never age, never die - they eventually move onto the Deep Heaven.  She reveals him as the Pendragon of Logres.  (In the last chapter, I explained about the title of Pendragon.  As for Logres, it's an ancient name for England associated with the Arthurian legends.)

One map depicting ancient Logres

Later, the Director holds Council with those at St. Anne's.  He finds that Jane's dream reveals the NICE have "discovered a way of making themselves immortal," which they will call the next step in evolution.  MacPhee wants to know what the Director plans to do about it.  However, the Director says he never brought the company together, nor selected them.  Instead, he says he acts under the directions of the eldils, who somehow brought them all together, and will reveal their plan in their good time.

The Company tries to figure out why the NICE wanted Bragdon Woods.  They come to some conclusions.  It has something to do with the Arthurian legends where Merlin was buried, or at least fell asleep.  They wanted to join his ancient powers to their modern powers.  His ancient powers were not exactly magical, but somehow more profound than the powers we possess in the modern world.  It belonged to Numinor (which ties Lewis' world to Tolkien's, as well as to the Atlantis' legends).  Their combined powers would seek to subjugate Tellus (the ancient word for Earth).

Ch. 8 - Midnight at Belbury

Ch. 10 - The Conquered City

Overview of "That Hideous Strength"

Character List

That Hideous Strength - Ch 8 - Moonlight at Belbury

The Deputy Director (Wither) expresses his displeasure, diplomatically of course, to Fairy Hardcastle (the NICE Police Chief) about how she handled Mrs. Studdock (Mark's wife) [arrested and tortured her].  The Fairy replies that they all badly want Jane, and she had to take the chance, especially to try and find out the headquarters of the enemy, which she tried to press out of her before she lost her in the tumultuous crowd.  In any event, the Head of NICE summons the Fairy.

Meanwhile, Jane wakes up at St. Anne's with Ivy Maggs (her prior servant) serving her, but it all feels different now.  She begins to become acquainted with various people living at St. Anne's, several she knows, but it all seems different now.  Jane meets Mr. Bultitude and receives a shock to find he's a bear who lives there at peace with all.  All there support Jane, though a Mr. MacPhee doesn't believe in her dreams, because he says he insists on empirical evidence to support any beliefs.  Jane discovers much more about life at St. Anne's - and more about the Director, who has charitably taken in many there who have lost their homes.  Jane admits her puzzlement about the Director's views about marriage.  Mother Dimble admits its a lot of fuss "about something so simple and natural that it oughtn't be mentioned at all."  However, she admits she was raised with the intention "to love, honour, and obey."

Meanwhile, Mark found himself in good spirits.  Everyone at Belbury talked about how the riots went well, and he enjoyed reading his account of it in the newspaper.  Most at Belbury, except the inner circle, did not know he wrote those articles, which please Mark even more.  It seemed clear now that the government would put Belbury under the temporary control of the NICE police, and appoint an emergency governor, most likely Lord Feverstone (but who could be sacrificed if things went wrong).

The D.D. (Withers) now warmed up to Mark, speaking about the great work he was doing.  He encouraged Mark to invite Jane out to join them.  Suddenly, Mark realized he would not like this.  She wouldn't understand the NICE or what he did for them.  Her presence would make the laughter of the inner circle sound hollow.  He excused himself, and got away from the D.D. as quick as he could.

Later he ran into the Fairy, who chided Mark for giving the D.D. the cold shoulder about inviting Jane to Belbury.  She informed him the D.D. now says Mark is not really "settled" at the NICE.

At dinner, Mark converses with Filastro and others.  Filastro presses that he would like to do away with the messiness of organic life - do away with trees, birds, and even humans.  All we need preserve is the mind, and clean metal (such as artificial metallic trees). After dinner, Filastro invites Mark to his sitting room for a private conversation.

Moon Surface

Filastro says he believes the request to invite Jane came not from the D.D., but directly from the Head.  Mark thinks he means Jules, but Filastro asserts Jules is not the Head.  Instead, Filastro asserts Mark will meet the Head and hear the request from his lips.  But then Filastro begins talking about the cleanness of the moon - with no vegetation, no atmosphere, no moisture, and its clean, white powder.  Mark thinks it a dead world, but Filastro believes its Masters, who live below ground, disinfected most of their world, dispensed with their organic bodies, and keep their minds alive without organic food.

Filastro claims the real purpose of the NICE is the conquest of organic life, in a similar manner.  He says the process already began, and that the Head has survived death, and his brain lives on.  He reveals the Head is Francois Alcasan (who was previously guillotined in punishment for killing his wife).  Filastro takes him to another room in the outer reaches of the building to a room with many tubes and dials, all leading to an adjacent room.  They must strip to their underclothes, wash, and put on white clothes, gloves, and a surgical mask and go through an air lock to enter the adjacent room.  (The Chapter ends here.)

Ch. 7 - The Pendragon

Ch. 9 - The Saracen's Head

Overview of the Book

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch 7 - The Pendragon

The Pendragon

I previously mentioned "Fisher-King" as a title belonging to King Arthur.  He held another title in the later Arthurian cycles - Pendragon - a title first held by his uncle in the Vulgate cycles (earlier), and then by his successor brother, Uther, father of Arthur, and then finally by Arthur himself.  In Welsh, this roughly means the dragon head - the leader.  As I mentioned before, Lewis, a medieval scholar, held an intense interest in Arthurian legends, since his other Inkling friends held a similar interest, Tolkien, but especially Charles Williams, who wrote some books about this.

When Jane arrives at St. Anne's, she first meets Mr. Denniston (her old professor), then Ivy Maggs (her last servant), and then found herself before Miss Ironwood (the therapist), along with Camilla Denniston.  Jane told them about her new dream about the corpse, which raptured their interest.  They asked Jane if she was prepared to meet the Director, and she replied she was.  Miss Ironwood then spoke with her alone and explained the Director might look young, but wasn't, he traveled where no one else had ever traveled, and he often undergoes great pain.

As soon as Jane saw him, "her world was unmade."  He laid on a sofa before her upon a dais which looked like a throne-room with with the blue screen behind him.  He appeared like a 20 year old golden boy, but his full beard and strength made it clear he was much older.  One foot bore a wound bandaged, and "pain came and went in his face."  His voice was seemed like sunlight and gold.

While the Director wants Jane to join them, he finds it difficult while Mark belongs to the NICE, and he urges Jane to ask Mark to leave the NICE.  While Jane sort of sees the point, she also insists upon their independence as separate persons - so that she protests - she feels she can join the Director's group with or without Mark.

The Director asks - does she wants to save Mark as well as herself?  Jane tries to ignore this question.  She confesses her unhappiness with Mark, but then - seeing the truth, denies it.  The Director says much depends on how Mark lost her love.  Jane can't seem to articulate this, so the Director offers to tell her, and Jane accepts his offer.  The Director says "you do not fail in obedience through lack of love, but have lost love because you never attempted obedience."  (Keep in mind, Lewis, at this time, was a confirmed bachelor.  He well might have written something different after he finally married Joy Davidman Gresham later in life, which he wrote about in, A Grief Observed.)  The Director says these are not his views about marriage, but those of his supervisors.  As Jane deeply reflects on this, she first finds grievances against her husband, but then pity.  The Director urges her to go back and talk to Mark.

When Jane left the Director, she felt like four different women:  the first simply receptive to what he said; the second deeply resistant; the third - a sort of moral Jane - agreed with the outlook presented by the Director; and the fourth Jane simply in a state of joy about what the Director said.

A Riot

When Jane arrived by train in Edgestow, she found the town in a riot, which she tried to avoid by finding some direct route home.  However, she got picked up by the NICE police, and soon faced Fairy Hardcastle, who wanted to know where she had come from.  By now, Jane felt enough loyalty to the group at St. Anne's that she did not want to disclose their location.  Though the Fairy inflicted severe torture upon Jane with a cigarette, and more than once, Jane did not disclose their location.  Eventually one of the rioting crowds burst in upon them, and Jane lost the NICE police in the crowds.

Finally, Jane got picked up by a couple, who, distressed by her appearance, offered to take her home.  Jane replied, somewhat to her surprise, that the Manor at St. Anne's was her home.  The couple drove her there, where Mrs. Maggs received her, but Jane was so tired, she couldn't remember how she got to bed.

Ch. 6 - Fog

Ch. 8 - Midnight at Belbury

Overview of the book

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch 6 - Fog

An ever-thickening fog envelopes Belbury (where Mark abides at the NICE), Edgestow, and the surrounding countryside (where the Nice builds new facilities).  In sharp contrast, as we find near the end of this chapter, St. Anne's-on-the-Hill, where Jane heads, stands bathed in sunlight and clear skies, where one can look out above and over the surrounding fog, which covers up the ugly NICE construction site.

Mark brings the employment contract form back to Withers (the Deputy Director of the NICE).  But Withers looks back at Mark with a blank stare - saying he understood Mark refused the job, and that he could not offer it again (shocking Mark).  He belittled Mark by referring to the many quarrels Mark had in his first week.  Only after Mark showed dejection did Withers suggest a probationary appointed at a significantly reduced salary.  Mark accepted immediately.  However, Withers strongly resisted any questions from Mark about whom he should report to.  Instead, Withers emphasizes elasticity.

Pince-nez glasses

Meanwhile, Jane started feeling better about her dreams, viewing them as news reports, as Mr. Denniston suggested.  In one recurring dream, she lied in her bed, with someone sitting next to her bed with a notebook, where he made entries,
sitting perfectly still and patiently attentive.  He had pince-nez (glasses), well chiseled features, and a little pointed beard.  She said nothing about this to the Dennistons' in the hope her silence would result in a visit from them, bringing hope without having to go to St. Anne's with getting drawn into the orbit of the Fisher-King (the head of St. Anne's).

At the same time, Mark went back to the Fairy (the NICE police woman chief), who encouraged him to take up the assignment she originally suggested - the rehabilitation of Alcasan (the man who murdered his wife).  Mark did so, and found success as a journalist, with the thrill of knowing his writing appeared in several newspaper read by millions (instead of the limited audience in academic writing).  He also found relief in discovering that if he needed money, all he need do was inquire of the Steward, and funds would be supplied, since the NICE "make the money," and would be taking over the whole currency.

An inner circle

The NICE rewards Mark's success by admission into an inner circle which meets at the library between 10 and midnight, something Mark greatly desires.  Professor  Frost belongs to this inner circle - a silent man who has pince-nez glasses and a pointed beard.

The inner circle informs Mark they plan to cause a riot (which will appear instigated by others) in Edgestow the next day, so they want him to start writing about it all night long so the articles will be ready to be distributed to the papers quickly after the event.  They planned this in order to gain emergency powers to do what they wish, without government interference, and with ready acceptance by the populace.  Mark reacts astonished.  However, the inner circle treats his astonishment with jocularity and intimacy, and so Mark agrees, thereby never noticing he has agreed to something both immoral and illegal - writing about an event before it occurs, participating in the conspiracy of planning a riot, planning to write a false narrative about it before it occurs, and covering up the true nature and source of the "news item."  Mark, enamored with being intimately included in the inner circle, obscures (fogs) his moral sensibilities.

False newspaper story

Mark writes two articles about the riots: one aimed at an educated (academic) audience, and one aimed at the common people.  Both praise the response of the NICE police to riots (though, in reality, the NICE caused the riots), and urge the granting of immediate emergency power to the NICE police.  Mark, who felt as though he wrote with tongue in cheek (in order to overlook the falsehoods he wrote), feels very satisfied with his writing.  He justifies it as a temporary stage the NICE must go through.

Meanwhile, Jane had a different dream about a very large corpse she couldn't see in the dark, and so she had to feel him to find out anything about him (which she almost recoiled at).  He wore a very coarse, heavily embroidered, robe.  He had a beard.  She felt she should courtesy to him, at which point she woke up.

Jane went down to Edgestow seeking a replacement for Ivy Maggs (her part-time servant).  She saw a man with pince-nez glasses, a pointed beard, and a waxwork face, who passed by her quite closely on his way to a NICE car, which she recognized from her dream.  She made an immediate decision to go to St. Anne's-on-the-Hill, not so much from fear, but from "a total rejection, or revulsion from, this man on all levels of her being at once."

Ch. 5 - Elasticity

Ch. 7 - The Pendragon

Overview of the Book

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch 5 - Elasticity

Next morning, Mark discovers the report about Cure Hardy is a hobby for Crosser, not part of Mark's job.  This steams him and he goes off to see Withers, the Deputy Director.  But Withers informs Mark he must make an appointment through his secretary.  Mark sets an appointment at 10 the next morning.

As Mark came out of Withers' office, he ran into Fairy Hardcastle.  He tells her he must find out exactly what his position is or leave the NICE.  The Fairy took him by the arm, intimately and authoritatively, said they needed to talk, took him to her office, and had drinks brought in.

Unclarity

The Fairy advises Mark not to bother the D.D. (Deputy Director).  His position is secure as long as the D.D. is on his side, which he is, but might not be if Mark bothers him.  Mark replies he just wants to make everything clear.  The Fairy responds the D.D. hates to make anything clear, and he runs the place well by not making anything clear.

Mark says he just wants to know what he is suppose to do.  The Fairy offers him work writing articles and pen name letters for the local newspaper to rehabilitate the image of Alcasan (the Arabian radiologist executed by beheading for poisoning his wife, as we saw back in Ch. 1).  Mark complains he is a sociologist, not a journalist - but the Fairy sees this as the perfect work for the kind of sociology they practice at the NICE, especially through their police department.  Mark also views this sort of work as dishonest propaganda which the public would never swallow.  The Fairy thinks otherwise, but she can see Mark will not participate, so she sends him on his way (which makes Mark feel once again that on the outside).

While wandering around with nothing to do, feeling on the outside, he discovers the NICE has a considerable zoo for vivisection.

Mark sees Withers (the D.D.) at his appointment the next day.  He finds, as the Fairy said, Withers hates to make anything clear - he constantly speaks in double-speak, in effusive praise, and in hedging language.  He again reassures Mark has a position at the NICE, though he says he doesn't have the authority to offer him a position.  When Mark asks what his salary will be, Withers replies that is not a matter for him to decide, but that members in his position usually draw 1500 a year (which Mark considers generous), but it will adjust itself, it could be higher.  When Mark mentions a contract, Withers stares at him blankly.  Then he pulls a form out of his drawer, but says he's never actually used it.  He then ends the meeting without answering any other issue Mark has raised.

Mark receives a letter from Curry (the Sub-Warden at Bracton), saying they are sad to hear about his resignation as a fellow, as they heard about from Lord Feverstone (Dick Devine), but glad to hear he has settled in with the NICE.  Mark still does not feel settled in with the NICE, and wants to maintain his fellowship at Bracton as a fall-back position.  He writes a reply letter saying Feverstone must have misunderstood him, he is still not sure he will take the position with the NICE, and may well return to Bracton.

Mark later sees Feverstone and asks him to sort out everything with Bracton, since he started the mess.  Basically Feverstone refuses to do so, and warns Mark not to be mean to him or others at the NICE.  Knowing Feverstone's influence at Bracton, Mark now worries if he losses his job at the NICE, he will have no job to return to at Bracton.

The Fisher King

Meanwhile, Jane ran into Camilla Deniston in town who invited her to join with her husband in taking a drive out of town to have some lunch.  Jane accepts knowing Mr. Denniston and Mark used to be friends.  During lunch, they reveal they live at St. Anne's, where Jane met Grace Ironwood.  They all belong to a society run by a Mr. Fisher-King, a recent name he took, who received an injury to his foot, on his last journey, which won't heal.  (When Lewis, the medieval scholar, brings up the name of the Fisher King, he immediately ties us to the Arthurian legends.  There, the Fisher King carries on the charge to keep the Holy Grail.  However, because of a wound he received to his groin or leg, he cannot move, and so finds it difficult to do so.  More about this later.)

[Mr. Denniston also refers to Mr. Fisher-King as the Pendragon, another Arthurian reference.  More about that later.]

The Dennistons urge Jane to join their society and use her gift of visions to help them for the good of all.  They warn otherwise she will fall into the hands of their enemies who will use her gift to promote evil.  Jane doesn't know what to make of all this, though she likes the Dennistons.  She finds it disturbing that they say she will have to submit to this Mr. Fisher-King, but especially that she must obtain Mark's permission before she comes.  This all goes against her sense to remain independent. Jane says for now - she won't join, but she will inform them of any more dreams she has.  They are pleased with this for now.

Ch. 4 - The Liquidation of Anachronisms

Ch. 6 - Fog

Overview of the Book

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch 4 - The Liquidation of Anachronisms

The title gives away where this chapter heads.  The death (liquidation) of the old, or at least what is viewed as old-fashioned, out of place, and awkward.

When Ms. Dimble arrives at Jane's, she relates how a construction crew (under directions from the NICE - the National Institute for Co-Ordinated Experiments) arrived, who cut down all the trees around their house, and began to rip up their yard (the old).  They told the Dimbles they had no objection if they stayed in the house until 8 o'clock the next morning.  Meanwhile big trucks arrived along with tractor engines and a huge crane.  The Dimbles don't know what to do.  Ivy Maggs, Jane's part-time servant was also turned out of her home.  Jane assures Mother Dimble she can stay as long as she likes.

At night, Jane awakes Mother Dimble with shouting while dreaming.  Jane saw a man being killed by three others who beat him to death in a cool manner.  She found it horrid.

A mad parson?

At Belbury, Mark meets a minister, Reverand Straik (whom Bill the Blizzard had called the Mad Parson). Straik believes the NICE program must be carried out with violence, a shocker for Mark.  Straik repudiates the after-life, as well as all organized religion.  Instead, he interprets the gospel to mean Jesus wants us to bring about the Kingdom of God in the here and now, through the instrument of science, by ensuring that"every knee shall bow," which the NICE will carry out.  Straik believes himself a prophet (and in a way, he is revealing what the NICE is about).  Straik says Mark has no choice about being used by the NICE, for "no one goes out of the NICE.  Those who try to turn back will perish in the wilderness."

Mark notices his wallet has gone missing, and wonders what could have happened to it.

At a NICE Committee meeting, the Deputy Director, Withers announces that William Hingest (Bill the Blizzard) {old & old-fashioned} had been murdered, beaten by a blunt instrument, and found lying near his car about 4 in the morning, dead for several hours.  The good news was that the NICE police, led by Miss Hardcastle, were the first on the scene, and the local police and Scotland Yard were allowing them to take the lead in the case, and cooperating wonderfully.  A subdued round of applause followed.  After expressing regrets about Hingest's resolution to withdraw from the NICE, Withers delivered an obituary about his life, and then they observed a moment of silence (during which Mark heard a lot of odd creakings and breathings).

Jane enjoyed her morning with Mrs. Dimble.  She felt that since she "had it all out" with Miss Ironwood, the dreams would stop.  She wondered aloud why Ivy Maggs, her part-time servant hadn't showed up yet.  Mrs. Dimble said that since they took Ivy Maggs' home, and she no longer had a place to live in Edgestow, she would no longer be working for Jane, and she moved to St. Anne's, and had some sort of work there.

Murder by beating

Later in the day, Jane ran into Mr. Curry (the Sub-Warden at Bracton).  He informed her of the news of the murder of Mr. Hingest (Bill the Blizzard) in the middle of the night (small hours of the morning), with his body found badly beaten about the head.  Jane escaped into Blackie's for a cup of coffee.  The news shattered and sickened her.  It confirmed that her vision dreams had not ended - instead, she now believed she actually saw the murder of Hingest in her dream.  She felt powerless to stop these visions. They would drive her mad.  She didn't want to go back to Miss Ironwood and and the company at St. Anne's.  She felt they were somehow mixed up in this.  It was all so unfair - she simply wanted to be left alone.

Meanwhile, at the NICE in Belbury, a man named Crosser tells Mark they have a job to do - prepare a report on a village, Cure Hardy.  The NICE needs to redirect the Wynd river, which presently goes through Edgetow, through the village of Cure Hardy.  This will wipe out the village, which the NICE will rebuild as a new model village four miles away.  The report must list all the reasons this beauty spot must be got rid of.  It's unsanitary.  It has undesirables, small rentiers and agricultural labourers.  They will write the report first, and then go see the village {backwards, of course}.

A small British village

As they go the next day to Cure Hardy, he notices it's especially beautiful, something his love for Jane has awakened in him.  It made Mark feel like he was on holiday, since that was the only time he wandered English villages, which gave him pleasure.  Though he tried to look at it as a sociologist, he couldn't help but like the village. As they have lunch in a pub, Mark tries to express his finding that the village is pleasant.  Crosser dismisses this by saying that is the concern of someone else at the NICE.

Suddenly, Mark discovers that he thinks Curry is a bore, and he feels sick about the NICE.  He thinks he might chuck it and return to Bracton.  As they return, Curry drops Mark off in Edgetow, and he returns home to see Jane.  There is much they do not tell each other, and Jane feels that Mark isn't telling her everything about the NICE and Belbury, though he speaks confidently about them.  She worries whether he gave up his fellowship at Bracton, and he reassures he hasn't. (They are both young.)

Meanwhile, the Fellows at Bracton meet that evening over wine and desert.  They can hear the very noisy work by the NICE at Bragdon Woods, so that its difficult to carry on a conversation.  Lord Feverstone attends and informs Curry (the Sub-Warden) that Mark is not returning to Bracton, but he's not sure when he'll send a formal resignation. Feverstone regards this as good, since it means they can have someone lined up when the formal resignation comes through, and Feverstone already has someone in mind.  Curry is not so sure, but agrees to meet him once his calendar clears up after the Hingest funeral.

The noise outside gets louder, the floor starts shaking, they wonder if someone is being murdered, and finally, a splintering of the large glass window fell as a shower of stones fell on the floor.

Ch. 3 - Belbury and St. Anne's-on-the-Hill

Ch. 5 - Elasticity

Overview of That Hideous Strength

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch 3 - Belbury and St Anne's-on-the-Hill

Belbury - "a florid Edwardian mansion"

Feverstone takes Mark at Belbury to meet John Withers, the Deputy Director of the NICE (National Institute of Co-Ordinated Experiments). Withers (the names of the characters in this story are delicious and informs us) exemplifies the mastery of double-talk.  He says a lot without saying anything at all - or he says one thing while meaning something else.  He effusively praises Mark and repeatedly reassures him he has nothing to worry about at all.  Mark simply wants to know what he would do if he came to the NICE, but can never get a direct answer out of Withers, and he kept asking himself during the interview "What are we talking about?"

Afterward, Mark is unclear whether he got a job or not.  He tries to ask Feverstone, who escapes to greet a friend.  It's time to eat at Belbury, and Mark is unsure if he should stay or not - but does.  He feels like an outsider, which Mark hates.  He spots William Hingest, a prominent chemist at Bracton, also known as Bill the Blizzard.  When Mark talks to him, Hingest says he is leaving the NICE right away, and advises Mark to do the same.  Mark is unsure.  A famous physiologist, Professor Filostrato, recognizes Mark.  He advises Mark to stay and not worry about a job description - it will become apparent - the work of the NICE is what's important - too important to pass up.

Fairy Hardcastle

Filastro introduces Mark to "Fairy" Hardcastle - the head of the internal NICE police.  The "Fairy" is "a big woman in a black, short-skirted uniform."  "... she was rather thickly built
 than fat and her iron-grey hair was cropped short."  She fixed Mark "with a gaze of cold intimacy."

Meanwhile, Jane meets Miss (Grace) Ironwood at St. Anne's-on-the-hill, the person the Dimble's recommended she go see about her dream.  Miss Ironwood dresses all in black with her hands folded on her knees (Jane saw her like this in a dream the night before).  Jane tells Miss Ironwood her dreams.  Jane worries if anything is wrong with her.  Ironwood reassures her nothing is wrong with her because Jane is a visionary - she sees things in her dreams as they happen or before they happen.  Jane's maiden name was Tudor.  Apparently, one of her ancestors had the same gift.  Ironwood determined this based on a rare book he wrote.  Ironwood believes Jane received this gift on a hereditary basis.  Ironwood urges Jane to use her gift in service for the organization at St. Anne's, as the Dimble's intended by referring her there.  She warns there are others who want to use her gift for subversive purposes, or squash her.  She advises if she goes to a psychotherapist, they would likely begin treatment, with serious results, which would not stop the dreams.

Jane almost believed her, but then became repugnant, wounded, resentful, with a general dislike of the situation she finds herself in.  She announced she had to go home, didn't know what Ironwood talked about, and didn't want anything to do with it.

Meanwhile, Mark stayed the night at Belbury, spending time with the Fairy.  He didn't exactly like her.  He found her rankly, insolently sexed, and wholly unattractive.  Yet somehow she knew this and found it amusing.  However, though he found her discussion about police work disagreeable, yet he found it esoteric.  Somehow, around her, he felt like an insider, especially as she openly shared about her varied work history.  She suggested they work hand in hand, since she viewed police work as largely the work of a sociologist (which Mark is).  Like Filastro, she urged Mark to consider himself to have the job, and not worry about the job description.

Meanwhile, Jane left St. Anne's, determined not to get mixed up in all this nonsense, as she called it.  At 23, she determined to live her own life, as she did when she married Mark.  She carried some resentment against love, and thus against Mark, for invading her life.  She thought about how much a woman gives up in getting married.  She also thought Mark seemed insufficiently aware of this.  All this grounded her determination not to have a child, at least for a long time.

At home, she received a call from Margaret Dimble (Mrs. Dimble, Mother Dimble) who experienced a dreadful thing and wants to come over to talk about it, which Jane agrees to.

Ch. 2 - Dinner with the Sub-Warden

Ch. 4 - The Liquidation of Anachronisms

Overview of That Hideous Strength

List of Characters

That Hideous Strength - Ch. 2 - Dinner with the Sub-Warden

After the meeting, Mark goes to dine at the house of Curry, the sub-Warden of Bracton, with Lord Feverstone and James Busby, the Bursar, joining in the dinner party.  Mark begins to warm to Feverstone.  The discussion turns to the NICE (National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments).  Busby thinks the NICE is "the first attempt to take applied science seriously from a national point of view."  Curry thinks the NICE "marks the beginning of a new era - the really scientific era."

Both Curry and Busby have to leave the dinner party for other commitments, leaving Feverstone and Mark alone.  As soon as they leave, Feverstone bursts out laughing louder and louder, which Mark soon joins in infectiously.  Feverstone, who works in the NICE, though mostly at a distance, thinks Curry and Busby have silly ideas about the intentions of the NICE.  Much to Mark's surprise, Feverstone thinks Curry and Busby are not very intelligent, but useful, since they usually carry out at Bracton what is suggested to them.  Thus they led the charge to bring the NICE to Edgestow, as was suggested to them.

However, Feverstone congratulates Mark for understanding the point of the NICE at once, and invites him

The plaque says Lord Feverstone

to come with him to visit the organization to consider joining and being considered as a member.  Feverstone expresses disdain for Bracton, and says Mark would be wasted there.  Mark, who felt he joined one inner circle when appointed at Bracton, and who now feels he entered another inner circle as part of the Progressive Elements - now feels part of another inner circle with Feverstone, understanding he can be part of a further inner circle with the NICE.

Feverstone presents the NICE as on the side of Order - the opportunity to take control of our destiny - the chance to take over the human race and recondition it - to make man a really efficient animal, if only "Science is really given a free hand."

Feverstone presents three problems: first the interplanetary problem (readers of the trilogy will understand this as the battles presented in the first two parts of the trilogy, where the battle took place on Mars and Venus - Dick Divine had been part of the battle on Mars).  He refers to the murder of Weston (his partner in crime on Mars, who later tried to corrupt Venus, and killed by Ransom, whom we will meet later in the story).

The second problem Feverstone presents is life itself.  There is far too much of it of every-kind on the planet and it needs to cleaned up (to promote order).  The details have to be gone into.

The third problem is Man himself.  At first this means sterilization of the unfit, liquidating the backward races, and then selective breeding (eugenics).  Eventually it means a real education by stages which eventually leads to the direct manipulation of the brain - which leads to a new type of man.

Feverstone says they want Mark because he can write in such a manner as to camouflage their purpose for now (propaganda) until they can say it openly.  Mark, eager to enter another inner circle, agrees to go with Feverstone and visit John Wither at the NICE for the weekend.

When Mark finally arrives home, Jane surprises him with an overwhelming, teary embrace, absent of any defensiveness.  When Jane returned home alone from the Dimbles, fear upon fear built up, especially as reflected in her dream, so she was quite besides when Mark came home.

The next day, Jane was angry at herself for being the fluttering, tearful "little woman."  This anger spilled over as anger against Mark, who announced he was leaving for a couple days to visit the NICE at Belbury with Lord Feverstone who first visited them before whisking Mark away in his sports car.  After they left, Jane thought Feverstone had a "loud, unnatural laugh and the mouth of a shark, and no manners."  She thought him a perfect fool, shifty, and distrusted his face.  She worried he would make a fool of Mark, who could be so easily taken in.

However, she worried about spending days and nights alone.  She eventually decides to see Miss Ironwood at St. Anne's as the Dimbles recommended.

As this chapter ends, we see Mark and Jane going in different directions - an analogy of their marriage.  Mark rides with Lord Feverstone in his sports car, at wild speeds, towards the NICE in Belbury (lowlands).  Jane rides in a steady train in the opposite direction towards St. Anne's (on a hill with a prominent view of the surrounding countryside) to meet with Miss Ironwood as the Dimbles recommended.

Ch. 1 - The Sale of College Property

Ch. 3 - Belbury and St. Anne's-on-the-Hill

Overview of book

List of Characters