Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome a Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom
Speaker 1: in the past between primary and secondary worlds. I'm Andrew Snyder,
Speaker 1: and I'm glad that you're here. I recently listened to
Speaker 1: the BBC's new audio drama adaptation of Lewis's Dot Hideous Strength,
Speaker 1: and Well, I was excited about the potential of this production.
Speaker 1: It ended up being more or less what I expected,
Speaker 1: which is well disappointing. I wrote U p Aer review
Speaker 1: for the Mythic Mind substack on this and I'll be
Speaker 1: more or less reading that for you today, and you
Speaker 1: can find that article in the show notes. And if
Speaker 1: you aren't already subscribed to our substack, then go ahead
Speaker 1: and do that. It's a good way to hear from
Speaker 1: our broader fellowship. Speaking of which, before we get started
Speaker 1: on the main topic today, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: that you know about some upcoming things, because I don't
Speaker 1: don't think that I've mentioned all of this here yet.
Speaker 1: First of all, beginning on April twenty eighth, we're going
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Speaker 1: because honestly, the pre moderns are more interesting, so they
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Speaker 1: and even more so than your typical full term intro
Speaker 1: to philosophy college course, and I say that as someone
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Speaker 1: many years. All right. Next, Hannah Gilmore is going to
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Speaker 1: very intentional about that. Lastly, Josh Trailer is leading a
Speaker 1: study on Paradise Lost, and I'll play the audio for
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Speaker 1: you find what you need. All right, Now, let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and get to the main topic today as I
Speaker 1: more or less read my review of the BBC's audio
Speaker 1: drama adaptation of That Hideous Strength. Oh and I'm planning
Speaker 1: to discuss this with a few others as well in
Speaker 1: the near future, and so you can get a broader
Speaker 1: take on it then. But for now, here's my take.
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. The BBC recently put out
Speaker 1: an audio drama adaptation of C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength.
Speaker 1: This is one of my favorite books, and so I
Speaker 1: was naturally excited about the prospects here. I wanted for
Speaker 1: this to succeed. With that being said, I definitely had
Speaker 1: a degree of skepticism going into this, as the profoundly
Speaker 1: anti modern philosophy of Lewis's dystopian fairy tale is hardly
Speaker 1: what I would associate with a major media institution such
Speaker 1: as the British Broadcasting Network. After all, England unironically has
Speaker 1: its own IC, that is, the the National Institute for
Speaker 1: Health and Care Excellence, not exactly the same thing as
Speaker 1: lewis Is in ICE, but it is an interesting overlap
Speaker 1: of fiction and fact here, and in the end it
Speaker 1: turns out that my skeptical impulses were correct. The celestial
Speaker 1: wisdom of Lewis was lost to the forces of this
Speaker 1: silent planet. Oh, in a case it needs to be said,
Speaker 1: I will be discussing major spoilers, both regarding the book
Speaker 1: as well as this adaptation. Now, to be fair, it's
Speaker 1: impossible for anyone to condense a tome like That Hideous
Speaker 1: Strength into a two hour adaptation without cutting out a
Speaker 1: considerable amount of content. Now, this could raise the question
Speaker 1: as to whether it should have been condensed to two hours,
Speaker 1: but I'll accept this limitation for the time being. With
Speaker 1: that in mind, the pacing is decent, even if it
Speaker 1: misses some of the meandering feel that's actually significant to
Speaker 1: the story. Also, I enjoyed the music transitions. I thought
Speaker 1: they did pretty well and kind of capturing the spirit
Speaker 1: of the age. But beyond that, there's really not a
Speaker 1: whole lot left for me to praise. First, let's consider
Speaker 1: what that Hideous Strength is so we can evaluate what
Speaker 1: it is for and where exactly the adaptation misses the
Speaker 1: mark pun intended. In his prologue to That Hideous Strength,
Speaker 1: Lewis explicitly states that this is a fairy tale primarily
Speaker 1: meant to illustrate his arguments in the abolition of man.
Speaker 1: In other words, this is not a story that happens
Speaker 1: to have some points for philosophical reflection. This is a
Speaker 1: philosophical story that, apart from that philosophy, is not that story. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: this novel is inseparable from the dialectic established by the
Speaker 1: previous two books in the series. Sometimes people say that
Speaker 1: that Hideous Strength can be read in isolation, but I
Speaker 1: really disagree with this. Sure, the basic plot could be
Speaker 1: followed by itself, but the essence of the story is
Speaker 1: tied to the broader meta narrative which frames a story
Speaker 1: as a philosophical in an archetypal tale. In what follows,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be discussing a few major ways that
Speaker 1: the adaptation just utterly hollows out this story. Going back
Speaker 1: to the first book in the series, In Out of
Speaker 1: the Island, planet Elwyn Ransom, our main protagonist, becomes associated
Speaker 1: with the masculine martial influence of Mars. In Perilandra Ransom
Speaker 1: is a martial agent that is brought into relation with
Speaker 1: the feminine life giving influence of Venus. In that Hideous Strength,
Speaker 1: which takes place on the isolated, disordered planet Earth. The
Speaker 1: story begins with the word matrimony, thereby giving us this
Speaker 1: masculine feminine relationship established between the previous two books. However,
Speaker 1: the particular marriage in view is cold and is disordered,
Speaker 1: because again this is a story of earth rather than
Speaker 1: of the heavens. In the book, Mark and James Studdock
Speaker 1: are essentially strange, but through their individual stories they become
Speaker 1: reconciled as they become rightly aligned with their heavenly ideals
Speaker 1: in conjunction with the jovial influence manifested in Ransom and
Speaker 1: by the way a charter removing the passive voice of
Speaker 1: that sentence. But it's actually really important here because so
Speaker 1: often in Lewis's stories, and definitely in this one, the
Speaker 1: point is not so much what the care they're doing,
Speaker 1: but you know where they're being polled, where they're being directed.
Speaker 1: And of course that's going to be an ongoing theme,
Speaker 1: especially of Ransom and the company that's assembled around him,
Speaker 1: that their job is to wait, their job is to
Speaker 1: be faithful, their job is to receive rather than to
Speaker 1: do a whole lot. But almost any hint of this
Speaker 1: fundamental aspect of the story, this marge Venus relationship, in
Speaker 1: conjunction with the ordering force of Jupiter, like any hint
Speaker 1: of this medieval cosmology, or this relationship between the maskul
Speaker 1: and the feminine, almost any of that is just fundamentally
Speaker 1: missing from this adaptation. Now amids the discordant relationship between
Speaker 1: Mark and Jane, the book quickly brings us to Mark's
Speaker 1: academic context, and it's particularly important to note that Mark
Speaker 1: is a sociologist. If this is mentioned in the adaptation,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that it is. But if it is,
Speaker 1: then it's brief, it's passing, and it's well, it's unremarkable.
Speaker 1: In the book, however, it's mentioned on many agents in
Speaker 1: order to drive in the point. For Lewis, sociologist is
Speaker 1: generally a pejorative term. In particular, he's opposed to sociologically
Speaker 1: driven philosophy, which is connected to his broader critique of
Speaker 1: democracy as philosophy. Lewis defends democracy as a pragmatic good
Speaker 1: for restraining tyranny, but he believes that it's demonic if
Speaker 1: taken as an accurate representation of what reality is actually like,
Speaker 1: because reality is hierarchical. Some things are better than other things,
Speaker 1: some people live better lives than others. Most significantly, ideals
Speaker 1: stand above particulars. Sociologists, however, tend to think democratically. They'll say,
Speaker 1: here's what people believe, or here's how people act, Therefore,
Speaker 1: here's what we should view as normal. This is the
Speaker 1: same problem he has with evolutionary philosophy that says, here's
Speaker 1: what's happening, therefore, here's what should be happening. Thus, when
Speaker 1: Lewis emphasizes that Marcus a sociologist, he's telling us something
Speaker 1: significant about his character arc and where he already stands
Speaker 1: in a certain relation with the forces of Belbury. Now
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that if you are a sociologist that
Speaker 1: necessarily means that you're on the side of Belbury. However,
Speaker 1: Lewis is making an intentional point here, and also you
Speaker 1: might be on the side of Belbery. Furthermore, Mark the
Speaker 1: sociologist is obsessed with getting into the inner circle of
Speaker 1: the progressive element of his college. And if you have
Speaker 1: any experience with academia, you know what this circle is.
Speaker 1: As you get further into the story, you really come
Speaker 1: to understand what this circle is. Roofing off of Dante,
Speaker 1: this progressive element of modern academia is the outer circle
Speaker 1: of hell that spirals down into the National Institute for
Speaker 1: Coordinated Experiments, which is led by the likes of Frost
Speaker 1: and whither, names that remind us of Dante's frozen Inner Circle. Thus,
Speaker 1: Lewis is making a very polemical point here regarding the
Speaker 1: places of power in modern academia. This entire element of
Speaker 1: the story is just utterly missing from the audio adaptation.
Speaker 1: There is not one mention of the progressive element, and
Speaker 1: it's not difficult to figure out why this may be
Speaker 1: the case. And by the way, for more on Lewis's
Speaker 1: critiques of democracy as philosophy that you can read his
Speaker 1: essay Equality or look up Screwtape proposes a toase, which
Speaker 1: is a sequel of sorts to the Screwtape letters. Next,
Speaker 1: let's talk about Ransom. In the book Ransom, the pen
Speaker 1: Dragon is this overwhelming figure who represents the priest King Jupiter,
Speaker 1: whose influence governs the relation between Mars and Venus. When
Speaker 1: Jane first encounters Ransom, she is unmade in his presence,
Speaker 1: and as she leaves that meeting, she's enraptured in his
Speaker 1: heavenly influence, and she becomes awakened to the celestial beauty
Speaker 1: in which she might participate by the end of the story,
Speaker 1: she fully embraces his beauty as she rejects the terrestrial
Speaker 1: influence of sin in favor of the redemptive grace of God.
Speaker 1: In the BBC's version, however, Ransom is a rather underwhelming man.
Speaker 1: In the BBC's version, however, Ransom is a rather underwhelming
Speaker 1: man who lament his crippling weakness and occasionally and awkwardly
Speaker 1: offers to pray for Jane, who remains unconverted until the end.
Speaker 1: This is not just a matter of leaving out a
Speaker 1: few things for the sake of time. This is an
Speaker 1: absolute subversion of Ransom's character and the Christianity that makes
Speaker 1: him such a profound figure. Now, let's briefly discuss the
Speaker 1: main players at the Nice. First, there's the deputy director.
Speaker 1: John Wither. Lewis describes Withther as having an early amicable,
Speaker 1: somewhat senile, hauntingly otherworldly presence. He's revealed to be downright demonic,
Speaker 1: to the point that it's not clear if there still
Speaker 1: is much John Wither present at all. In BBC's version,
Speaker 1: all hints of the demonic are removed. He's just an
Speaker 1: ordinary guy who happens to be a smooth talking leader
Speaker 1: of a bad organization. Next, there's Fairy Hardcastle. In the book.
Speaker 1: Her primary character is one of unfeminized, disordered sexuality, providing
Speaker 1: us with another manifestation of the NIC's rejection of the normal. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: the BBC was unwilling to enter into this territory, and
Speaker 1: she too, was just an ordinary woman who happened to
Speaker 1: work with some bad people. Lastly, let's consider Professor Augustus Frost,
Speaker 1: the materialist psychiatrist who understands everything in those terms. Of
Speaker 1: all the nice leaders, he likely received the best treatment
Speaker 1: in the adaptation, although even he was considerably weakened. For example,
Speaker 1: at the end of his story in the book, he's
Speaker 1: frozen by his lack of agency that is, the inevitable
Speaker 1: result of his materialism, which is in turn a demonic deceit.
Speaker 1: Something like this happens in the adaptation, but Lewis's philosophical
Speaker 1: critique is entirely missing. Aside from a couple passing statements
Speaker 1: made by Ransom, the dibiological nature of the NIC's philosophy
Speaker 1: is entirely obscured, thereby providing us with an unremarkable group
Speaker 1: of villainous mad scientists which is far removed from the
Speaker 1: demonic progressives that Lewis gives us in his text. Finally,
Speaker 1: let's talk about the finale. In the book, the Company
Speaker 1: of Saint Anne's is regularly confuse about exactly what they
Speaker 1: are meant to be doing, and for the most part,
Speaker 1: they're okay with that because they trust Ransom, who in
Speaker 1: turn trusts God in his heavenly court. The one who
Speaker 1: has the greatest struggle with this arrangement is Andrew mc phee,
Speaker 1: who is entirely missing from this adaptation. As we approach
Speaker 1: the end of Lewis's story, it becomes increasingly clear that
Speaker 1: they are not really meant to do anything apart from
Speaker 1: remaining faithful. As with Babel of Old, it is Heaven
Speaker 1: that will smash the pride of man. Thus the forces
Speaker 1: of Heaven descend upon Merlin with an act that will
Speaker 1: be his undoing and his redemption. Operating through Merlin, the
Speaker 1: heavenly powers bring the curse of Babel upon Belbury, and
Speaker 1: the Nice implodes in its confusion, which is both a
Speaker 1: curse and a consequence of their stants against the real
Speaker 1: In the BBC's version, there is no descent of Heaven.
Speaker 1: Jane in scorn of her Venusian ideal takes charge and
Speaker 1: hops in a car with Merdlin to save Mark, while
Speaker 1: pitiful Ransom laments not how the strength to go with them.
Speaker 1: Then Merlin, apparently with his own magic Jedi mind, tricks
Speaker 1: the guards and curses Belbury with confusion. Then they rescue Mark,
Speaker 1: who never becomes a martial figure, and the story ends.
Speaker 1: Lewis's story is one of romantic idealism and philosophical critique
Speaker 1: of the modern Tennessees in academia and science, to forsake
Speaker 1: the real, the ideal, and the normal in favor of
Speaker 1: evolutionary Whatever comes next is good philosophy. BBC missed this entirely,
Speaker 1: or more likely they excised it because it would be
Speaker 1: impossible to include it without the recognition that they are
Speaker 1: far more aligned with Belbury than they are with Saint Ann's.
Speaker 1: All right, that's the end of the article. Thanks for listening,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to end by providing Josh Taylor's introduction to
Speaker 1: his Paradise Lost class. But that's it for my part,
Speaker 1: So until next time, godspeed,