Reverend Brian McGreevy continues his series, Not as Unwise but as Wise: Reflections from C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength on Living Christianly in a Post-Christian World. This is available as a podcast on iTunes.
Episode 16: Not as Unwise but as Wise: Reflections from C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and That Hideous StrengthChapter 5 summary
Adapted from Rudy Rentzel
Mark discovers the report about Cure Hardy is only a hobby for Cosser. Feeling disrespected, Mark goes to see Wither, the the Deputy Director, to clarify his job status, but is met only with more befuddling doublespeak and then told to make an appointment and come back the next morning.
Running into Fairy Hardcastle, a frustrated Mark tells her he must find out exactly what his position is or leave the N.I.C.E. The Fairy takes him authoritatively to her office and has drinks brought in. The Fairy advises Mark not to bother the D.D. (Deputy Director), saying his position is secure as long as the D.D. is on his side, which he is, but might not be if Mark keeps bothering him. Mark replies he just wants to make everything clear. The Fairy responds that the D.D. hates to make anything clear, and he runs the place by not making anything clear.
Mark complains that he just wants to know what he is supposed to do. The Fairy offers him propaganda work writing articles and fake letters to the editor as part of the N.I.C.E. plan to rehabilitate the image of Alcasan (the Arabian radiologist executed by beheading for poisoning his wife). Mark whines that he is a sociologist, not a journalist, but the Fairy says the N.I.C.E. practices sociology only through their police department. Since Mark is not cooperating, the Fairy ends their conversation in such a way that Mark feels excluded again from the Inner Ring.
At his appointment with the D.D. the next day, Mark finds that Wither constantly speaks in double-speak, in effusive praise, and in hedging language, reassuring Mark that they want him at the N.I.C.E. while saying he does not personally have the authority to offer him a position. Wither ends the meeting without answering any question Mark has raised. Meanwhile, Mark receives a letter from Curry (the Sub-Warden at Bracton), saying they were sad to learn from Feverstone about Mark’s resignation as a Fellow, but glad to hear he has settled in with the N.I.C.E. Mark sends a reply letter sayingwell return to Bracton.
Later, Mark sees Feverstone and asks him to sort out everything with Bracton, since he started the mess. Feverstone reacts angrily and warns Mark not to be further antagonize him or anyone else at the N.I.C.E. Knowing Feverstone’s influence, Mark now worries he will not have a job either at Bracton or the N.I.C.E.
Meanwhile, Jane is invited to a picnic by Camilla Denniston and her husband, both of whom Jane admires. During lunch, they reveal they live at St. Anne’s, where Jane met Grace Ironwood, and all belong to a community run by a Mr. Fisher-King, a renowned man incapacitated by a wounded heel. The Dennistons urge Jane to join them 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 horror of being interfered with and not remaining independent. Jane says for now she won’t join but will inform them of any more dreams she has. They are pleased with this for now.KEY PASSAGES IN CHAPTER 5
NEXT MORNING Mark went back to Belbury by train. He had promised his wife to clear up a number of points about his salary and place of residence, and the memory of all these promises made a little cloud of uneasiness in his mind, but on the whole he was in good spirits. This return to Belbury — just sauntering in and hanging up his hat and ordering a drink — was a pleasant contrast to his first arrival. The servant who brought the drink knew him. Filostrato nodded to him. Women would fuss, but this was clearly the real world.—lure of the Inner Ring, false notion of Real
“No good, Sonny,” said Miss Hardcastle shaking her head…”You haven’t yet realized what you’re in on. You’re being offered a chance of something far bigger than a seat in the cabinet. And there are only two alternatives, you know. Either to be in the N.I.C.E. or to be out of it. And I know better than you which is going to be most fun.” “I do understand that,” said Mark. “But anything is better than being nominally in and having nothing to do. Give me a real place in the Sociological Department and I’ll…” “Rats! That whole Department is going to be scrapped. It had to be there at the beginning for propaganda purposes. But they’re all going to be weeded out” “But what assurance have I that I’m going to be one of their successors?” “You aren’t. They’re not going to have any successor! The real work has nothing to do with all these departments. The kind of sociology we’re interested in will be done by my people — the police.”—propaganda, power
“Don’t you understand anything? Isn’t it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other? That’s how we get things done. Any opposition to the N.I.C.E. is represented as a Left racket in the Right papers and a Right racket in the Left papers. If it’s properly done, you get each side outbidding the other in support of us — to refute the enemy slanders. Of course we’re non-political. The real power always is.” “I don’t believe you can do that,” said Mark. “Not with the papers that are read by educated people.” “That shows you’re still in the nursery, lovey,” said Miss Hardcastle. “Haven’t you yet realised that it’s the other way round?” “How do you mean?” “Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and the little paragraphs about girls falling out of windows and corpses found in May-fair flats. He is our problem. We have to recondition him. But the educated public, the people who read the highbrow weeklies, don’t need reconditioning. They’re all right already. They’ll believe anything.”—propaganda, manipulation/domination of media, divide and conquer, “non-political,” problem of the honest workman v. educated class
“If you don’t know how to steer your own course in a place like Bracton, why come and pester me? I’m not a bucking nurse. And for your own good, I would advise you, in talking to people here, to adopt a more agreeable manner than you are using now. Otherwise your life may be, in the famous words, ‘nasty, poor, brutish, and short!’” “Short?” said Mark. “Is that a threat? Do you mean my life at Bracton or at the N.I.C.E.?” “I shouldn’t stress the distinction too much if I were you,” said Feverstone. “I shall remember that,” said Mark, rising from his chair. As he made to move away, he could not help turning to this smiling man once again and saying, “It was you who brought me here. I thought you at least were my friend.” “Incurable romantic!” said Lord Feverstone, deftly extending his mouth to an even wider grin and popping the muffin into it entire. And thus Mark knew that if he lost the Belbury job he would lose his fellowship at Bracton as well. –conspiracy, Evil, coercive power
“Our little household, or company, or society, or whatever you like to call it is run by a Mr. Fisher-King. ..you might or might not know his original name if I told it to you…He got a wound in his foot, on his last journey, which won’t heal…He had a married sister in India, a Mrs. Fisher-King. She has just died and left him a large fortune on condition that he took the name. She was a remarkable woman in her way; a friend of the great native Christian mystic whom you may have heard of — the Sura. And that’s the point. The Sura had reason to believe…that a great danger was hanging over the human race. And just before the end — just before he disappeared — he became convinced that it would actually come to a head in this island.—the company, the Fisher-King, Christ and prophecy
In Arthurian legend, the Fisher King, also known as the Wounded King, is the last in a long bloodline charged with keeping the Holy Grail. There are multiple versions of the story, but the King is always wounded in the foot or thigh and unable to stand. One of the earliest recountings of the story is in a work by Chrétien de Troyes entitled Perceval, the Story of the Grail, published in 1181 but likely based on earlier Celtic myths.
THEMES IN CHAPTER FIVE
–lure of the Inner Ring, false notion of Real
–doublespeak and ambiguity, lure of power
–propaganda, power
–propaganda, calling Evil good, unquestioned obedience
–manipulation/domination of media, divide and conquer, “non-political”
–problem of the honest workman v. educated class
–doublespeak, refusal to take responsibility
–the danger of unhealthy ambition
–conspiracy, Evil, coercive power
–ambition’s negative effect on friendship
–the power of Beauty and childlike wonder
–the company, the Fisher-King, Christ and prophecy
–spiritual gifts, appeal of Christian fellowship, danger of pride in independence
–God’s eternal purposes, Pendragon, free will
–danger of buying into the spirit of the age, prideful independence
Practices of Hope and of Wisdom
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.—Philippians 4:8-9
1. Be alert to the danger of propaganda and seek diligently after Truth. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.(I John 4:1) There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.(Proverbs 6:16-19) And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
2. Resist being conformed to this world when it calls Evil good.Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20) And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32)
3. Lean deeply into Christian friendship and fellowship and the power of the believing community. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. (John 15:12) Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10) And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42)
4. Embrace dependence on Christ and within the body of Christ, and do not fear being out of step with the culture.I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. (Gal. 6:2) Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)
AS KINGFISHERS CATCH FIRE
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
–Gerard Manley Hopkins
