{"id":1041,"date":"2021-02-14T20:01:49","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T20:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2021-02-15T18:56:47","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T18:56:47","slug":"when-the-fit-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/2021\/02\/14\/when-the-fit-strikes\/","title":{"rendered":"When the fit strikes &#8212; reading That Hideous Strength for the umpteenth time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <i>Conspiracy Theory,<\/i> Jerry Fletcher, played by Mel Gibson, is compelled to read <i>The Catcher in the Rye.<\/i> He doesn&#8217;t know exactly why. (It&#8217;s a good movie, by the way.) <\/p>\n<p>I can relate, a little. From time to time I have to re-read <i>That Hideous Strength,<\/i> by C.S. Lewis. Mostly, I think, because I happen to be looking around for a book to read, and there it is. My copy is old, yellowed and somewhat battered. If I get the urge again, I think I&#8217;ll have to get a new copy. <\/p>\n<p>This time I jotted down a few notes, as they occurred to me. Things I find interesting, compelling, or worth mention. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> There&#8217;s a lot to learn in the resentments we feel towards others &#8212; especially spouses. At first I labeled this as &#8220;feminism causes resentment,&#8221; which I think is partly true, but Lewis is an equal opportunity critic here, and he criticizes Mark and Jane for their resentments.\n<li> Ambiguity is a tool of oppression.\n<li> The so-called educated people are the ones who are most deceived by propaganda.\n<li> There are interesting social dynamics and inner motivations to consider in being in or out of the select group. E.g., trying to be in the &#8220;in&#8221; crowd can be a big temptation for some.\n<li> Importing non-native workmen &#8212; especially those of a particular disposition &#8212; is a fairly reliable way to cause trouble in a town.\n<li> Crises are sometimes manufactured to justify emergency actions and regulations.\n<li> Obedience is related to love.\n<li> It can be insufferable when a person thinks of himself as educated.\n<li> It&#8217;s important to have a skeptic around.\n<li> Modern education does not induce or teach nobility, and modern man lacks noble thoughts. <\/ul>\n<p><i>THS<\/i> is decently good at diagnosing many of the ills in modern society, but it doesn&#8217;t offer much guidance or hope in fighting against it &#8212; except to pray and hope for a miracle. So in that respect it&#8217;s somewhat disappointing. <\/p>\n<p>Does that mean I&#8217;m channeling McPhee? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Conspiracy Theory, Jerry Fletcher, played by Mel Gibson, is compelled to read The Catcher in the Rye. He doesn&#8217;t know exactly why. (It&#8217;s a good movie, by the way.) I can relate, a little. From time to time I have to re-read That Hideous Strength, by C.S. Lewis. Mostly, I think, because I happen &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/2021\/02\/14\/when-the-fit-strikes\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;When the fit strikes &#8212; reading That Hideous Strength for the umpteenth time&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1047,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions\/1047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crowhill.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}