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 21: Not as Unwise but as Wise: Reflections from C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 10, “THE CONQUERED CITY”adapted from Rudy Rentzel
D. D. Wither summons Mark to his office, where Wither and Fairy Hardcastle inform him that the N.I.C.E. police found his missing wallet near the body of Bill Hingest. Wither says how fortunate it is that the N.I.C.E. police made this discovery instead of the regular police, since he views the N.I.C.E. as one big happy family. Offended because he knows he was nowhere near the scene of Hingest’s murder, Mark suspects someone in the N.I.C.E. stole his wallet and planted it near Hingest in order to manipulate him with the implicit threat of going to the regular police if he resists their commands. Mark realizes that their real aim is get him to bring Jane to Belbury.
Knowing he must warn Jane, Mark starts to flee Belbury but once again encounters Wither or his apparition, but when Mark strikes a blow, the shape mysteriously vanishes. Seeking to go home to Edgestow, Mark learns everyone is fleeing the city as the N.I.C.E. have established a reign of terror in the town, enforced by the N.I.C.E. police. He finds his own home abandoned but notices an unmailed letter from Jane to Mrs. Dimble, so he sets out to see Dr. Dimble in hopes of finding Jane. When Mark demands to know where Jane is, Dimble refuses to tell him in order to protect Jane’s safety. Dimble states emphatically that the N.I.C.E. police tortured and burned Jane, seeing that Mark still believes the story Fairy Hardcastle told him that Jane invented this story and is suffering from a nervous breakdown. Mark demands to know why Dimble didn’t go to the regular police if this really happened, but DImble informs him that there are no longer any regular police, that everything is ruled by the Emergency Commissioner, Lord Feverstone, and that Edgestow has become a “conquered and occupied city.”
While Mark insists on his right to know Jane’s whereabouts as her husband, Dimble points out that he is a high ranking official of the N.I.C.E., that the N.I.C.E. is responsible for all manner of horrific acts, and that the N.I.C.E. presents a very real threat to the safety of Jane. DImble begs Mark to leave the N.I.C.E., but while Mark is tempted to do so, he says he must have time to to think and leaves. Shortly thereafter, the police arrest Mark for the murder of Bill Hingest.
When Dimble returns to St. Anne’s, the Director immediately sends him and Jane back out in response to Jane’s latest dream, which showed a long tunnel with a very gradual ascent with an entrance under a heap of stone that would lead them to Merlin, who has apparently awakened. Only Dimble and the Director know the “Great Tongue;” the Director tells Dimble what he should say and asks him to repeat it. As he does, Jane heart leaps, while everyone is overcome with awe from hearing the language from before the Fall and beyond the Moon. Urging everyone to prayer, the Director asks Jane if she has pledged herself to Maleldil (God). Jane says she doesn’t yet know Maleldil, but she places herself in obedience to the Director, which he says will suffice.
KEY PASSAGES FROM CHAPTER 10
“The wakeful night moved all his fears onto a new level. He was, of course, a materialist in theory; and (also in theory) he was past the age at which one can have night fears. But now, as the wind rattled his window hour after hour, he felt those old terrors again: the old exquisite thrill, as of cold fingers delicately travelling down his back. Materialism is in fact no protection. Those who seek it in that hope (they are not a negligible class) will be disappointed. The thing you fear is impossible. Well and good. Can you therefore cease to fear it? Not here and now. And what then? If you must see ghosts, it is better not to disbelieve in them.—emptiness of materialism
“What on earth is all this about?” said Mark. His tone was that which I think almost any man would have used in the circumstances but which policemen are apt to describe as “blustering.” “None of that,” said Miss Hardcastle. “This wallet was found in the grass beside the road about five yards away from Hingest’s body.” “My God!” said Studdock. “You don’t mean… the thing’s absurd.” “There’s no use appealing to me,” said Miss Hardcastle. “I’m not a solicitor, nor a jury, nor a judge. I’m only a policewoman. I’m telling you the facts.” “Do I understand that I’m suspected of murdering Hingest?” “I don’t really think,” said the Deputy Director, “that you need have the slightest apprehension that there is, at this stage, any radical difference between your colleagues and yourself as to the light in which this very painful matter should be regarded. The question is really a constitutional one” —lies, false evidence, coercion, doublespeak“My dear friend,” said Wither in an antediluvian tone, “there is not the slightest desire on the part of the Committee to insist on defining, in cases of this sort, the powers of action of our own police, much less (what is here in question) their powers of inaction. I do not think anyone had suggested that Miss Hardcastle should be obliged — in any sense that limited her own initiative to communicate to outside authorities, who by their very organisation must be supposed to be less adapted for dealing with such imponderable and quasi-technical inquiries as will often arise, any facts acquired by her and her staff in the course of their internal functioning within the N.I.C.E.” “Do I understand,” said Mark, “that Miss Hardcastle thinks she has facts justifying my arrest for the murder of Mr. Hingest, but is kindly offering to suppress them?”—corruption, lies, injustice
“And now that Mrs. Studdock is going to join you here, this temporary captivity — I am using that word, you will understand, in a metaphorical sense — will not be a serious hardship. You must look upon this as your home, Mr. Studdock.” “Oh… that reminds me, Sir,” said Mark. “I’m not really quite sure about having my wife here. As a matter of fact, she’s not in very good health—” “But surely, in that case, you must be all the more anxious to have her here?” “I don’t believe it would suit her, Sir.” The D.D.’s eyes wandered and his voice became lower. “I had almost forgotten, Mr. Studdock,” he said, “to congratulate you on your introduction to our Head. It marks an Important transition in your career. We all now feel that you are really one of us in a deeper sense. I am sure nothing is further from your intention than to repel the friendly — the almost fatherly — concern he feels about you. He is very anxious to welcome Mrs. Studdock among us at the earliest opportunity.” “Why?” said Mark suddenly. Wither looked at Mark with an indescribable smile. “My dear boy,” he said. “Unity, you know. The family circle. She’d — she’d be company for Miss Hardcastle!”—captivity, coercion, ludicrous ‘reasoning’
“Scarcely a minute had passed since he had left the D.D.’s office and no one had overtaken him. But yesterday’s adventure was happening over again. A tall, stooped, shuffling, creaking figure, humming a tune, barred his way. Mark had never fought. Ancestral impulses lodged in his body — that body which was in so many ways wiser than his mind — directed the blow which he aimed at the head of his senile obstructor. But there was no impact. The shape had suddenly vanished.”—spiritual warfare, Evil, bodily wisdom
“These were the refugees from Edgestow. Some had been turned out of their houses, some scared by the riots and still more by the restoration of order. Something like a terror appeared to have been established in the town. “They tell me there were two hundred arrests yesterday,” said the landlord. “Ah,” said the young man. “They’re hard cases, those N.I.C.E. police, every one of them. They never ought to have brought those Welsh and Irish.”—human cost of totalitarianism, corruption of justice, stoking of ethnic prejudice“What struck Mark deeply was the almost complete absence of indignation among the speakers, or even of any distinct sympathy with the refugees. Everyone present knew of at least one outrage in Edgestow; but all agreed that these refugees must be greatly exaggerating. “It says in this morning’s paper that things are pretty well settling down,” said the landlord. “That’s right,” agreed the others. “There’ll always be some who get awkward,” said the potato-faced man. “What’s the good of getting awkward?” asked another, “it’s got to go on. You can’t stop it.”—danger of complacency, failure to see, resignation in the face of Evil
“I insist on being told where Jane is.” “Do you want her to be taken to Belbury?” Mark winced. It was as if the other had read the very thought he had had in the Bristol half an hour ago. “I don’t see, Dimble,” he said, “why I should be cross-questioned in this way. Where is my wife?” “I have no permission to tell you. She is not in my house nor under my protection. She is well and happy and safe. If you still have the slightest regard for her happiness you will make no attempt to get into touch with her.” “Am I sort of leper or criminal that I can’t even be trusted to know her address?” “Excuse me. You are a member of the N.I.C.E. who have already insulted, tortured, and arrested her. Since her escape she has been left alone only because your colleagues do not know where she is.” “And if it really was the N.I.C.E. police, do you suppose I’m not going to have a very full explanation out of them? Damn it, what do you take me for?” “I can only hope that you have no power in the N.I.C.E. at all. If you have no power, then you cannot protect her. If you have, then you are identified with its policy. In neither case will I help you to discover where Jane is.”—Good v. Evil, self-deception“Are you already as near the centre of Belbury as that? If so, then you have consented to the murder of Hingest, the murder of Compton. If so, it was by your orders that Mary Prescott was raped and battered to death in the sheds behind the station. It is with your approval that criminals — honest criminals whose hands you are unfit to touch — are being taken from the jails to which British judges sent them on the conviction of British juries and packed off to Belbury to undergo for an indefinite period, out of reach of the law, whatever tortures and assaults on personal identity you call Remedial Treatment. It is you who have driven two thousand families from their homes to die of exposure in every ditch from here to Birmingham or Worcester. It is you who can tell us why Place and Rowley and Cunningham (at eighty years of age) have been arrested, and where they are. And if you are as deeply in it as that, not only will I not deliver Jane into your hands, but I would not deliver my dog.”—complicity in Evil
Studdock,” said Dimble. “This is not a time for foolery, or compliments. It may be that both of us are within a few minutes of death. You have probably been shadowed into the college. And I, at any rate, don’t propose to die with polite insincerities in my mouth. I don’t trust you. Why should I? You are the accomplice of the worst men in the world. Your very coming to me this afternoon may be only a trap.” “Nevertheless,” continued Dimble, “knowing all this — knowing that you may be only the bait in the trap, I will take a risk. I will risk things compared with which both our lives are a triviality. If you seriously wish to leave the N.I.C.E., I will help you.” One moment it was like the gates of Paradise opening — then, at once, caution and the incurable wish to temporise rushed back. The chink had closed again. “I — I’d need to think that over,” he mumbled. “There is no time,” said Dimble. “And there is really nothing to think about. I am offering you a way back into the human family. But you must come at once.”—priorities, danger of complicity and fence sitting“Yes,” said the Director. “We’re going into action at last…the battle has started.” “I have already repeatedly urged,” said MacPhee, “the absurdity of sending out an older man like yourself, that’s done a day’s work forbye, when here am I, a great strapping fellow sitting doing nothing.” “It’s no good, MacPhee,” said the Director, “you can’t go. For one thing you don’t know the language. And for another — it’s time for frankness — you have never put yourself under the protection of Maleldil.” “I am perfectly ready,” said MacPhee, “in and for this emergency, to allow the existence of these eldils of your and of a being called Maleldil whom they regard as their king. And I—” “You can’t go,” said the Director. “I will not send you. It would be like sending a three-year-old child to fight a tank. “—waiting on God’s timing, power of God’s protection
“This is the situation, Dimble. What was under Bragdon was a living Merlin. Yes, asleep, if you like to call it sleep. And nothing has yet happened to show that the enemy have found him…it’s not reached by a shaft and a stair. She dreamed of going through a long tunnel with a very gradual ascent…Jane thinks she can recognise the entrance to that tunnel: under a heap of stones at the end of a copse with — what was it, Jane?” “A white gate, Sir. An ordinary five-barred gate with a cross-piece. But the cross-piece was broken off about a foot from the top. I’d know it again.” “You see, Dimble? There’s a very good chance that this tunnel comes up outside the area held by the N.I.C.E.” “Apparently,” said the Director, “we are almost too late. He was waked already… I think it means that the whole thing has been planned and timed long, long ago,” said the Director. “That he went out of Time, into the parachronic state, for the very purpose of returning at this moment.”—God as outside of Time, eternal purposes of God“What shall I say in the Great Tongue?” “Say that you come in the name of God and all angels and in the power of the planets from one who sits today in the seat of the Pendragon and command him to come with you. Say it now.” And Dimble, who had been sitting with his face drawn, and rather white, between the white faces of the two women, and his eyes on the table, raised his head, and great syllables of words that sounded like castles came out of his mouth. Jane felt her heart leap and quiver at them. Everything else in the room seemed to have been intensely quiet; even the bird, and the bear, and the cat, were still, staring at the speaker. The voice did not sound like Dimble’s own: it was as if the words spoke themselves through him from some strong place at a distance — or as if they were not words at all but present operations of God, the planets, and the Pendragon. For this was the language spoken before the Fall and beyond the Moon and the meanings were not given to the syllables by chance, or skill, or long tradition, but truly inherent in them as the shape of the great Sun is inherent in the little waterdrop. This was Language herself, as she first sprang at Maleldil’s bidding out of the molten quicksilver of the star called Mercury on Earth, but Viritrilbia in Deep Heaven.”—power and beauty of Logos
“And if he comes with you, all is well. If he does not — why then, Dimble, you must rely on your Christianity. Do not try any tricks. Say your prayers and keep your will fixed in the will of Maleldil. I don’t know what he will do. But stand firm. You can’t lose your soul, whatever happens; at least, not by any action of his.” “Yes,” said Dimble. “I understand.”—focusing on Christ and God’s will, standing firm in faith, security in Christ“You are all right, child?” said Ransom. “I think so, Sir,” said Jane. Her actual state of mind was one she could not analyse. Her expectation was strung up to the height; something that would have been terror but for the Joy, and Joy but for the terror, possessed her — an all-absorbing tension of excitement and obedience. Everything else in her life seemed small and commonplace compared with this moment. “Do you place yourself in the obedience,” said the Director, “in obedience to Maleldil?” “Sir,” said Jane, “I know nothing of Maleldil. But I place myself in obedience to you.” “It is enough for the present,” said the Director. “This is the courtesy of Deep Heaven: that when you mean well, He always takes you to have meant better than you knew. It will not be enough for always. He is very jealous. He will have you for no one but Himself in the end. But for tonight, it is enough.”—Joy in being obedient to God’s will even in danger, sorting of priorities, the grace of God and His desire for us
THEMES THAT APPEAR IN CHAPTER 10
–emptiness of materialism
–lies, false evidence, coercion, doublespeak
–corruption, blackmail, doublespeak
–captivity, coercion, ludicrous ‘reasoning’
–spiritual warfare, Evil, bodily wisdom
–human cost of totalitarianism, corruption of justice, stoking of ethnic prejudice
–danger of complacency, failure to see, resignation in the face of Evil
–pride, Evil, self-deception/rationalization
–Good v. Evil, self-deception
–complicity in Evil
–propaganda, misinformation
–priorities, danger of complicity and fence sitting
–wages of sin, danger of complicity with Evil
–waiting on God’s timing, power of God’s protection
–God as outside of Time, eternal purposes of God
–the eternal power of God’s Kingdom, the power and beauty of the word–Logos
–focusing on Christ and on God’s will, standing firm in faith, security in Christ
–Joy in being obedient to God’s will even in danger, sorting of priorities, the grace of God and His desire for us
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.—Phil. 4:8-91.Watch your life, your companions, and your beliefs closely for conformity to the Word of God. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (I Tim. 4:16) He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.(Prov. 10:17)2.Do not be taken in by propaganda and the wisdom of the world. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness.”and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men. (I Cor. 3:19-21)3.Hold fast to a Biblical view of identity and reject all forms of racial and ethnic prejudice. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Gal. 3:28) After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. (Rev. 7:9) But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them. (I John 2:11)4.Wait on God’s timing rather than relying on your own. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Ps. 27:14) The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)5.Seek the Joy of being in the center of the will of God, even in times of fear. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 15:13) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.(Heb. 12:1-3)
MUSIC
“I WAITED FOR THE LORD”
I waited for the Lord, He inclined unto me,
He heard my complaint.
O blest are they that hope and trust in him.
Psalm 40:1
–Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Honorable Mention:
“Forty” by U2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z_LBNF_-xI
“I Will Wait” by Mumford and Sons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7KuNLHOA1w
