Editing That Hideous Strength (section)

{{Short description|1945 science-fiction novel by C. S. Lewis}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2020}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox book|
| name              = That Hideous Strength
| title_orig        = 
| translator        = 
| image             = CSLewis ThatHideousStrength.jpg
| caption           = First edition cover
| author            = [[C. S. Lewis]]
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = United Kingdom
| language          = English
| series            = [[Space Trilogy]]
| genre             = [[Science fiction]] novel, [[dystopia]]<ref name=DarkHorizons>{{cite book|title=Dark horizons: science fiction and the dystopian imagination|year=2003|publisher=Taylor and Francis Books|isbn=0-415-96613-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8N51QpEDEfoC|author=Tom Moylan |author2=Raffaella Baccolini |access-date=29 July 2011}}</ref>
| publisher         = [[The Bodley Head]]
| pub_date          = 1945
| media_type        = Print ([[Hardcover|hardback]] and [[paperback]])
| pages             = 384 pp
| preceded_by       = [[Perelandra]]
| followed_by       = 
}}
{{Human enhancement sidebar|opposition}}

'''''That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown-Ups''''' (also released under the title '''''The Tortured Planet''''' in an abridged format) is a 1945 novel by [[C. S. Lewis]], the final book in Lewis's [[theological]] [[science fiction]] [[The Space Trilogy|Space Trilogy]]. The events of this novel follow those of ''[[Out of the Silent Planet]]'' and ''[[Perelandra]]'' (also titled ''Voyage to Venus'') and once again feature the [[philology|philologist]] [[Elwin Ransom]]. Yet unlike the principal events of those two novels, the story takes place on Earth rather than elsewhere in the [[Solar System]]. The story involves an ostensibly scientific institute, the National Institute for Co-ordinated Experiments (N.I.C.E.), which is a front for sinister [[supernatural]] forces.

The novel was heavily influenced by the writing of Lewis's friend and fellow [[Inklings|Inkling]] [[Charles Williams (UK writer)|Charles Williams]], and is markedly [[dystopia]]n in style. In the foreword, Lewis states that the novel's point is the same as that of his 1943 non-fiction work ''[[The Abolition of Man]]'', which argues that there are [[natural law]]s and objective values that education should teach children to recognise.

The novel's title is taken from a poem written by [[David Lyndsay]] in 1555, ''{{lang|sco|Ane Dialog betuix Experience and ane Courteour}}'', also known as ''The Monarche''. The couplet in question, "{{lang|sco|The shadow of that hyddeous strength, sax myle and more it is of length}}", refers to the [[Tower of Babel]].<ref>Lyndsay's [[Middle Scots]] usage of ''[[:wikt:strength|strength]]'' was in the now archaic meaning of "fortress, stronghold", see also [[OED]] s.v. strength, ''n.'': "10.a. A stronghold, fastness, fortress. Now ''arch.'' or ''Hist.'', chiefly with reference to Scotland."</ref>