Huxley the Astute

Huxley is loved and hated about the same on either side. His pieces are spiritual and so futuristic that sometimes it’s hard to believe that he wrote them in the 1930s. Some of the things he talks about have or seem to be coming true. The dependency of human kind on technology and science progression is becoming pathetic.

People walk around with phones glued to their ears, pagers Velcro-ed to their hips, and another cell phone for internet access lodged in their pocket. Some of us don’t even realize how dependent we are on technology. When a person doesn’t have access to the internet or other rapid forms of finding information, they’ll realize their local library is stacks of books filled with the exact information they need.

Huxley wanted everyone to just be aware of our surroundings and who is in charge of it. He could see right through all the scientists’ eyes filling with dollar signs and even some with good intensions. He knew the strain technology was going to put on society and what it could make of people.

Huxley’s experimentation with drugs really drug (no pun intended) him to the “out there” category. After his experimentation began he had an even deeper and darker view of the world. He began to be more spiritual in finding the meaning for existence and purpose here on this world. The drugs challenged his way of thinking and created the writer he became and is known for to this day.

Questions about and for Aldous Huxley's pieces

Brave New World

1. Why do you think that Huxley criticizes the novel as not being whole or complete?

2. What is the significance of choosing Henry Ford as “God?”

3. Huxley wrote many other books, yet this is his most popular and most enduring. What is it about this book that has captured our imaginations for so long? Are there aspects of it that seem dated?

4. If you read the book earlier in life - say in high school - compare the experience of reading it again later on. Does it hold up to a second reading?

5. Could anything like “Brave New World” really happen? Has it happened in some form that we don't fully recognize?

Island

1. The “Island” seems to be filled with reflection and thought about Huxley’s life. His experimentation with drugs had convinced him of the transcendent meaning of the universe. How did this affect his book and the influence this book had on people?

2. The Island was probably one of the Indonesian Archipelago islands, where Huxley visited on his world tour. How did the Indonesian Archipelago islands affect his book and the people’s beliefs and values in the story?

3. In a way Huxley was way ahead of the reality shows before their time. How did Huxley’s characters act and react to others and their environment while on the island?

Darkness and Doors of the Temple

1. These are a few of Huxley’s poems, how would you say he felt about religion and how it related to his life?

2. Do you think Huxley is open to many or one religion in his life? Or would you say he is still searing for a meaning of human existence?

3. Would you say that Huxley’s views of the world headed for the gutter have anything to do with is spiritual views? Do they affect one another in more than one way?

Read these poems and more from Aldous Huxlely herehttp://http//www.readprint.com/author-49/Aldous-Huxley

Raves an Reviews

“Brave New World is as startling today as the day it was written because most of what Huxley postulated upon has happened to some degree or another.” – “Curledup”

“A fantasy of the future that sheds a blazing critical light on the present-- considered to be Aldous Huxley's most enduring masterpiece.” Muze

"He has satirized the imminent spiritual trustification of mankind, and has made rowdy and impertinent sport of the World State whose motto shall be Community, Identity, Stability....So here we have [Mr. Huxley], as entertainingly atrabilious as ever he was...mocking the Fords, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis..."
New York Times Book Review - John Chamberlain (02/07/1996)

"Mr. Huxley is eloquent in his declaration of an artist's faith in man, and it is his eloquence, bitter in attack, noble in defense, that, when one has closed the book, one remembers--rather than his cleverness and his wit, which one admires and forgets."
Saturday Review



"'Point Counter Point' is the modern 'Vanity Fair', and Mr. Huxley is the Thackeray 'de nos jours'....It might have been said in its own day that 'Vanity Fair' was the richest novel in substance and the most comprehensive that had appeared in English. The same thing might be said today of 'Point Counter Point'."
New Republic - Robert M. Lovett (12/05/1928)

"Out of colossal disillusion Huxley has made 'Point Counter Point' the most scintillating, the most bitter and the most serious of his novels. It is a notable piece of work and one of which this decade may very well be proud."
Lovett

"A powerful and vitriolic indictment of the intellectual world."
Bender

"Unflagging in its spirits and unflagging in its intelligence, throughout more than four hundred pages it vindicates Mr. Huxley's right to be considered the most able of our contemporary satirists and the most perfect representative of the mood which he describes."
Bender

Quotes from Aldous Huxley

“A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one, it comes as sincerely from the author's soul.”

“Amour is the one human activity of any importance in which laughter and pleasure preponderate, if ever so slightly, over misery and pain.”

“Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.”

“Every person who knows how to read has it in their power to magnify themselves, to multiply the ways in which they exist, to make life full, significant, and interesting.”

“Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.”

“Maybe this world is another planet's hell.”

“One of the great attractions of patriotism - it fulfills our worst wishes. In the person of our nation we are able, vicariously, to bully and cheat. Bully and cheat, what's more, with a feeling that we are profoundly virtuous.”

“Science has explained nothing; the more we know the more fantastic the world becomes and the profounder the surrounding darkness.”

“Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.”

“The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.”



All quotes from Aldous Huxley.

Biography and Bibliography

Aldous Huxley was born in England July 26, 1894 and was the third son of Leonard Huxley. Leonard was a biographer, editor, and poet. His mother was the founder of Prior Fields School. Aldous was fourteen years old when his mother died and he was sixteen years old when he suffered from keratitis punctata. He was completely blind for a year and a half. Some saw this as a blessing in disguise.

When Huxley was in his early twenties he began writing “Brave New World.” This book became one of his most well known books to date. He received his B.A. in English from Balliol College, Oxford (1913-1915). He worked at Garsington during the war since his vision disqualified him for service. The farm is where Aldous met his wife, Maria Nys. He also became good friends with D.H Lawrence.

Aldous Huxley’s first collection of poetry appeared in 1916 and volume two followed later in 1920. Huxley’s first novel, Chrome Yellow (1921) which was a witty criticism of society, made him one of the most fashionable literary figures of the decade. In eight years he published a dozen novels, including Point Counter Point (1928) and Do What You Will (1929).

In 1937 Huxley, his wife and son Matthew (born April 20, 1920) moved to Hollywood, California. He was given screen credit for Pride and Prejudice (1940) and paid for his work on other films as well. Yet his experience in Hollywood was not a great success. Huxley wrote a synopsis of Alice in Wonderland and Walt Disney said “he could only understand every third word,” and so it was rejected.

Brave New World Revised was published in 1958 and his last novel Island was published in 1962. Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963, but his death was over shadowed by J.F. Kennedy’s assassination. This took place the same day as his death.