Here’s the cover of Avon Books’ 1958 edition of the third and final novel of the Space Trilogy, That Hideous Strength, published under the awkward title The Tortured Planet. (Ugh.) I don’t know the reason for the title change, though it may relate to this Avon edition being – as stated on the cover – C.S. Lewis’ abridged version of the original work.
This edition’s cover art, which looks like two factory-reject Christmas tree ornaments floating confusedly in space, is by Richard Powers, and is the “weakest” of the cover illustrations of Avon’s three 1950s-era volumes of Lewis’ trilogy. This is more than ironic, given the typically exceptional quality – in terms of complexity, symbolism, and originality – of Powers’ oeuvre.
You can view the cover art of Macmillan’s 1965 edition of That Hideous Strength here.
Here are two discussions concerning That Hideous Strength / The Tortured Planet – at ChicagoBoyz. Both by David Foster, they are “Summer Rerun – Book Review: That Hideous Strength” (September 15, 2017), and, “Summer Rerun – Lewis vs. Haldane” (August 31, 2019).
A (the?) central plot element of the novel concerns an organization dubbed NICE., the National Institute for Coordinated Experimentation. As stated by Foster, Lewis describes NICE as “the first fruits of that constructive fusion between the state and the laboratory on which so many thoughtful people base their hopes of a better world.” Though thankfully there’s no congruent analogue of N.I.C.E. in our world, perhaps the Institute can be taken to represent the long-reigning academic / corporate / media “complex”, which has wielded, and continues to wield, vastly more power than than the stereotyped (albeit a somewhat hackneyed stereotype) “military industrial complex”.
Just sayin’.
Oh, here’s a quote by, “…the Head of the Institutional Police, a woman named Miss Hardcastle … nicknamed the Fairy, who explains to sociologist Mark Studdock [a professor “on the make” at Bracton College], the ease with which the news media can manipulate the public. (Specifically alluding to that portion of the public that is “educated”, credentialed, and perhaps meritocratic?)
Whether in the world of the Space Trilogy or our world, her point is valid.
Thus:
“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 Mayfair 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.”
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Since completing this post, I’ve made innumerable attempts to learn more about the NICE’s current incarnation, but information about the organization – at least, beyond what C.S. Lewis presents in his novel – is remarkably elusive. (Understandable: Much has changed since 1946, not least the fact that the NICE is no longer headquartered in England.) Despite extensive searches using DuckDuckGo, and, that o t h e r search engine (y’know, the one headquartered in Mountain View, California, at which the arc of human history is tacitly understood to “progress” (Babel-like?) ever forward; always upward; ever higher…), I’ve been unable to identify either the Institute’s home page, or, links to the organization through any other website, whether governmental or private; whether in the Americas, Western or Eastern Europe, Africa, or Asia.
Likewise, though the Institute assuredly has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, these too remain elusive.
Well, not entirely true: I did come across one possible link. But, I’m not going to click on it. (Y’never know what might happen…!)
(Okay, just kidding! I thought it would be fun to indulge in brief speculation about parallel universes and alternate histories….)
But, I did find the image below: It’s conceptual art of a promotional / propaganda poster for the NICE, fittingly done in 1940s “atomic” style: The kind of image you’d see – 1984-like – in abundance, weather-marked with tattered corners yet always freshly replaced – upon the walls of any urban center.
The poster is one of many works created by J.P. Cokes as conceptual illustrations for That Hideous Strength, and can be viewed at Behance. J.P. Cokes has also created a great series of stylistically similar illustrations for Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination, which – like That Hideous Strength; like so many other works of science fiction and fantasy (A.E. van Vogt, anyone?) – merits transfer from the printed page to animation, or, the “live” screen.
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Note: December 2, 2020 – Having created this post only five days ago, I was happily surprised to discover Dr. Pedro Blas González’ essay, “Good and Evil in C.S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy“, at NewEnglishReview.
“thankfully there’s no congruent analogue of N.I.C.E. in our world”
I can think of at least two headquartered in Switzerland!