Wither and Frost: Enemies of Language

In That Hideous Strength, Lewis expertly utilizes drama and narrative to vividly illustrate an argument against scientific realism and other early-20th century philosophical movements which threatened the thought and society of his time. An obvious lover of myth and it connection to religion, Lewis creates several marvelous villains who personify the philosophical attacks on or corruptions of language/myth which pervaded the intelligentsia of his day. Two perfect examples are Deputy Director Wither and Professor Frost, the leaders of the nefarious N.I.C.E.

Frost represents the direct attack on meaning leveled by logical positivism, wherein value statements of any kind are considered meaningless and everything can be reduced to the movements of molecules, chemicals, and exchanges of energy. Frost’s relentless pursuit of precision renders anything which cannot be reduced to inert mechanisms null. His chilling rejection of all that is human, and his “chamber of absurdities” which he uses to train a sense of meaning out of potential stooges, illustrate the implications of this attack on meaning. It is precisely this which Barfield pushes back on in the chapter we read for class.

Whither represents the opposite side of the spectrum, one in which meaning is so ambiguous as to be practically moot. This is perfectly captured in Wither’s signature set of instructions: to avoid any signs of a lack of initiative while by no means stepping beyond the limits of one’s (undefined) office. In some ways this is even more sinister than Frost’s logical positivism. In the labyrinthine vagaries of Wither’s words, it corrupts the beautiful potential of language’s ambiguity and essentially abandons any commitment or recourse to objectivity whatsoever. It is, perhaps, a more Derridean attack on meaning, and perhaps a more deadly one, since it makes meaning utterly subjective.