Orwell on Lewis

 

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2024/07/that-hideous-strength.html.
As soon as I heard that George Orwell had written a review of That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis I braced myself. This would probably be both enthralling and dismaying. It represents the meeting of minds between two of the greatest authors and educators in the country at that time, but they had very different worldviews. I assumed there would be little common ground between them. In fact Orwell begins his appraisal with the words: "On the whole, novels are better when there are no miracles in them." This sentence was exactly what I expected, but then he immediately proceeds to add that some books are worthwhile wherein the supernatural does "play a part." He then comes full circle and says he still wishes that the "magical" element had been left out, but I don't think you can really do that. The whole point of the story is that good and evil have a spiritual source. Orwell however seems to be separating the story in his mind between the elements he likes and the elements he objects to and fails to understand that both are connected. He does accept the technocratic portent of doom quite perceptively though, probably because the review was published in the Manchester Evening News just a week after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. He ends the review with kind words though. Source: https://www.lewisiana.nl/orwell/. Orwell's own classic satire Animal Farm had also just hit the shelves which would certainly have put him in a good mood; otherwise might he'd have been more critical? I still do wonder if Lewis influenced Orwell in some way. I've come across an article by somebody who also asks that, see: https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2015/08/19/1984ths/. I am pleased to say though that generally Orwell is better disposed towards CS Lewis than I expected. Maybe this is because of the times I live in. Orwell was an atheo-materialist and I am of a more recent generation that knows such concepts primarily through the "New Atheists" and the skeptic movement, see: https://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2021/08/skeptics-portal.html. However, such things did not really exist in the early 20th century when the two men wrote. One can imagine what Richard Dawkins makes of That Hideous Strength; although I doubt he has read it. There were atheists back then, of course, there always has been, but they were mostly of a different kind; gentler, more open-minded and with a sense of patriotism. In Down and Out in Paris and London Orwell writes very fondly of a church adjoining a homeless shelter that provides meals and cups of tea for him and his fellow residents, and encourages them to sing hymns. I think he was something of a cultural Christian, although nobody used that term in those days. I don't know specifically if George Orwell and CS Lewis ever met, but if they did, imagine the conversation they would have had.
See here for more background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2014/09/was-orwell-mediocre.html.
And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2008/07/everyone-knows-what-happened-on.html.