Zach Wilson--Space Trilogy 2--That Hideous Strength

I couldn't help but notice the connection between That Hideous Strength and other dystopian science fiction books such as Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and George Orwell's 1984.  The books are among the same thought stream and are contemporaries to one another.  In That Hideous Strength, the struggle is between the public and spiritual forces under the auspices of the N.I.C.E.  In 1984, the enemy is state censorship and big government.  In Fahrenheit 451, it is television.  The genre of dystopian science fiction is one which could be seen as an academic result of the Cold War, where tensions ran high and people started to theorize about dystopia with socialist and communist themes.  Lewis however provides more of a religious backdrop, with the Biblical Fall of Man being a prevalent reason for the current state of dystopia.  Orwell and Bradbury blame the state and the media respectively for a digression to dystopia.  The previous cities that Ransom has visited were unaffected by this Fall of Man, and therefore provide a utopian contrast to the dystopia present on Earth.