A little more than four months ago, precisely on July 26th, the British writer Aldous Huxley would complete 120 years-old, so this post is a tribute to him. His writing contributed to reinforce the importance of education, an effective and inclusive democracy and human rights. This post is a summary of three articles. The first published at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley. The second was published at http://answerparty.com/question/answer/what-is-a-brave-new-world-by-aldous-huxley-about. The third was published at http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/bravenew/themes.html. The quotes were published at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aldous_huxley.html
Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was an English writer and philosopher. He is best known for his dystopian novel "Brave New World" and the book, "The doors of Perception", which recalls experiences when taking a psychedelic drug. He also published a lot of essays, short stories, poetry, travel books and scripts. He spent the later part of his life in Los Angeles, from 1937 until his death. Huxley married Maria Nys, a Belgian in 1919. They had one child, Matthew, who had a career as an author and prominent epidemiologist. In 1956, he married Laura Archera, an author who wrote his biography. In 1960, Huxley was diagnosed with cancer and, in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the utopian novel "Island" and gave lectures on Human Potentialities, which were fundamental to the forming of the human potential movement. Despite his interest in spirituality and mysticism, he called himself an agnostic. Huxley was a humanist and pacifist. He became deeply concerned that human rights become subjugated through the sophisticsted use of the mass media or mood-altering drugs or misapplication of sophisticated technology. In 1937 he pubished "Ends and Means" where he examines the fact that although most people in modern civilisation agree that they want a world of "liberty, peace, justice, and brotherly love", they have not been able to agree on how to achieve it. During 1939, Huxley started to earn a substantial income as a Hollywood screenwriter, and he used much of it to bring over Jewish, left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler`s Germany to the U.S. In 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of "1984" congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is." Huxley had deeply felt apprehensions about the future the world might make for itself. From these, he made some warnings in his writings and talks. Huxley outlined several major concerns: the dangers of world overpopulation; the tendency toward distinctly hierarchical social organisation; the importance of evaluating the use of technology in mass societies susceptible to wily persuasion. The book "Brave New World" is about the use of technology to control society and the dangers of an all-powerful state. It is published at 1932 and set in London in the year of 2540. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and operant conditioning that combine to profoundly change society. In literature, especially in science fiction, genetic engineering has been used as a theme or a plot device in many stories. In 1999, the Modern Library, an American publishing company that polled its editorial board to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century. They ranked "Brave New World", fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the last century. "Ulysses" by James Joyce topped the list.
The main themes of this dystopian novels are: the use of technology to control society. The book warns of the dangers of giving the state absolute control over new and powerful technologies. Including medical, biological and psychological tech. At the same time, however censor and limits some technologies that could be used as threatening to the state`s control. The consumer society, in which individual happiness is defined as the ability to satisfy needs. The incompatibility of happiness and truth. The novel is full of characters who do everything they can to avoid facing the truth about their own situation. The state prioritizes happiness at the expense of truth by design: people think that they are better with happiness than with truth. What are these two abstract entities that the state in this novel juxtaposes? It seems clear enough that happiness refers to the immediate gratification of citizens desire for food, sex, drugs, and other consumer items. It is less clear what the state means by truth. Truth and individuality thus become entwined in the novel`s thematic structure.The main theme is All-powerful State. Like George Orwell`s 1984, this novel depicts a dystopia in which an all-powerful state controls the behaviors and actions of its people in order to preserve its own stability and power. But a major difference between the two is that , whereas in 1984 control is maintained by constant surveillance, secret police and torture, power in Brave New World is maintained through technological interventions that start before birth and last until death. Below there are some quotes from Huxley.
"Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself,
to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting."
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
"It is with bad sentiments that one makes good novels."
