XPost: rec.arts.books, alt.christnet.theology, alt.books.cs-lewis   
   XPost: alt.christnet.demonology   
   From: fwbrown@bellsouth.net   
      
   In alt.books.cs-lewis Steve Hayes  wrote:   
   > On Tue, 20 Jan 2015 16:21:36 +0000 (UTC), Wayne Brown    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >>In alt.books.cs-lewis Steve Hayes  wrote:   
   >>> On Sat, 17 Jan 2015 23:52:43 +0000, Jack Campin    
   >>> wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>>> Certainly I can see the influence of The Place of the Lion in   
   >>>>> the last book of the Ransom Cycle, That Hideous Strength (1945).   
   >>>>   
   >>>>As a recommendation, that comes across to me as saying I ought   
   >>>>to read the Icelandic sagas because they led to Harold Robbins.   
   >>>>   
   >>>>"That Hideous Strength" is an evil farrago of theocratic bullying,   
   >>>>backed up by Lewis' apologetics of the time which are also bluff,   
   >>>>bluster, and personality disorder turned into cultism.  I hadn't   
   >>>>previously associated Williams with anything that repulsive (I read   
   >>>>one of his books a very long time ago), but maybe I should add him   
   >>>>to my list of writers I will never, ever look into again?   
   >>>   
   >>> I enjoyed both books.   
   >>   
   >>So did I, though I have never found Williams or his books to be as   
   >>interesting or edifying as Lewis obviously did.  Williams was a bit   
   >>too fascinated with the occult for my tastes.  However, it's been many   
   >>years since I read his books, so perhaps I should go back and give them   
   >>another try.  On the other hand, I've been an avid admirer of Lewis and   
   >>his writing (in all genres) since my teens in the '70s and and have read   
   >>many of his works (including "That Hideous Strength") multiple times.   
   >>They've held up very well.   
   >   
   > "That hideous strength" is fairly widely recognised as an attempt by Lewis to   
   > write in the style of Charles Williams, and so shows the influence of   
   Williams   
   > on Lewis.   
   >   
   > Four of Williams's books come close in genre to "That hideous strength" --   
   > "The place of the lion", "War in heaven", "The greater trumps" and "Many   
   > dimensions".   
      
   From what I can remember of his books, those four were the ones I liked   
   best, though I didn't care as much for "The Greater Trumps" as for the   
   other three.   
      
   >   
   > What Williams does with the Platonic archetypes in "The place of the lion"   
   > Lewis does with the Greek and Roman gods, and the planets that are taken to   
   > represent them, in his space trilogy. Amnd both can be seen as related to the   
   > "principalities and powers" in St Paul's theology.   
      
   As a dyed-in-the-wool Christian Platonist myself, I especially liked   
   that aspect of "That Hideous Strength" and "The Place of the Lion."   
   (Lewis was a major influence in my becoming a Platonist since I started   
   reading him in my teens in the early 1970s.)   
      
   >   
   > For a historical survey that links to some aspects of "The place of the   
   lion",   
   > see:   
   >   
   > https://khanya.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/angels-and-demons-and-   
   gregores-book-review/   
      
   Thanks for the reference, I'm heading over there now to read it.   
      
   --   
   F. Wayne Brown    
      
   Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg.  ("That passed away, this also can.")   
      from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)