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Aldous Huxley: Syncretic Synthesist
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Aldous Huxley: Syncretic Synthesist
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Xerox University Microfilms
300 North Zeeb Road
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106
74 - 28,440
r
H A M O N D , Evelyn Braden, 1944-
A L D O U S H U X L E Y : S Y N C R E T I C SY N IH E SIST .
U niversity o f Southern C alifornia, Ph.D., 1974
Language and Literature, modem
| University Microfilms, A XEROX C om pany, A nn Arbor, M ichigan
THIS DISSERTATION h a s b e e n m i c r o f i l m e d e x a c t l y a s r e c e i v e d .
ALDOUS HUXLEY: SYNCRETIC SYNTHESIST
by
E velyn B raden Ham mond
A D isse rta tio n P re se n te d to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In P a r tia l F ulfillm ent of the
R eq u irem en ts for the D egree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(English)
August 1974
UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALI FORNIA 9 0 0 0 7
This dissertation, written by
E v e ly n B raden Hammond
under the direction of h..9Xl. Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by The Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements of
the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H IL O S O P H Y
Dean
Date.-i
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................. 1
C hapter Page
I. CROME YELLOW: PORTRAIT OF A
JAUNDICED SOCIETY................................................................... 27
H. POINT COUNTER POINT: A STUDY IN
INCO M PLETE COM PLETENESS............................................. 70
in. BRAVE NEW WORLD: FREEDOM VERSUS
"H A P P IN E S S ".................................................................................. 113
IV. ISLAND: COUNTERPOINT AND S Y N T H E S IS ................ 136
V. CONCLUSION: ALDOUS HUXLEY AS THE
RENAISSANCE M A N ...................................................................... 186
BIBLIOGRAPHY............... 203
I
INTRODUCTION
It is tem pting to say that Huxley's o v erall rep u tatio n as a
n o v elist has suffered from his e a rly popularity. F o r Jocelyn B rooke,
"grow ing up during the 1920's, Aldous Huxley seem ed unquestionably
the m o st stim ulating and exciting w rite r of the day." His novels, which
w e re "gay, 'so phisticated' and (for those days) ag reeab ly shocking,"
m ade m ost o th er contem porary w rite rs seem "stuffy, unenlightened
and old fashioned."* Floyd M atson h as w ritten, sim ila rly , th at during
the 1920 s Huxley
w as widely acclaim ed as a m ajo r spokesm an of the L ost G enera-
tio n --" th e p erfect e x p ressio n ," in Lew is G annett's w ords, "of a
b itte r generation unable to tru s t any gospel . . . som ehow striding
through d a rk n e ss with a laugh on its lips and no faith th at th e re will
e v e r be a dawn."^
Edwin B urgum , too, has em phasized what he p erceiv ed as a sardonic
acceptance of futility, a sse rtin g that "Huxley was satisfied . . . to
d e sc rib e a decadence he shared, . . . in its own te r m s ," without both
e rin g to "penetrate the su rface." In fact, for B urgum , Huxley is one of
the "aesth etes of decadence" because he substituted the "intellectually
fascin ating" ta s k of m aking "an in tricate p a ttern " out of the d iso rd e r
3
fo r a "thorough [and "disturbing"] investigation." Huxley h im self did
4
little to allay the suspicion of his "detached and suspended judgm ent"
1
2
or of his refu sal to recognize the existence of "the dow agers of philos-
5
ophy, T ru th , Goodness, and Beauty" because of his p o rtray a l of sem i-
autobiographical c h a ra c te rs like Denis Stone and Philip Q u arles as
in tellectu al and detached. In fact, in the F o rew o rd to the rev ised
edition of B rave New W orld, he d escrib e d h im self as having been a
"P y rrh o n ic a esth e te ," am used at the futility of the S avage's choice
"betw een insanity [in Utopia] on the one hand and lunacy [on the R e s e r-
£
vat ion] on the o th er."
Huxley, how ever, was always one of his own h a rd e st c ritic s
7
and took pains to cover up his own sensitivity and w arm th. What the
la te r w orks m ake c le a r and what the e a rly novels give evidence of is
th at the e a rly sa tire re fle c ts recognition that having "no faith that th ere
w ill e v er be a dawn" is totally unsatisfying. F a r fro m d escrib in g and
accepting this decadence "on its own te r m s " and w ith "suspended judg
m e n t," he judged th is w orld in creasin g ly h arsh ly . As M ilton B irnbaum
has insightfully observed in a passage th at d e se rv e s quoting in full:
M ost re a d e r s thought th ese books [C rom e Y ellow , Antic Hay, Those
B a rre n L ea v es] to be cynically entertaining and did not see th e ir
e sse n tia lly m o ra l u n d e rc u rre n t. What M ary T hriplow , the self-
conscious author in Those B a rre n L e a v e s , says about h e r books
could be applied to what Huxley thought about the public and c ritic a l
rea ctio n to his own books:
They like m y books because th e y 're sm a rt and unexpected and
ra th e r paradoxical and cynical and elegantly b ru tal. They
don't see how serio u s it all is. They don't see the trag ed y
and the ten d e rn ess underneath. You see . . . I'm try in g to
do som ething n e w --a chem ical compound of all the c ateg o ries
L ightness and trag ed y and lo v elin ess and wit and fancy and
re a lis m and irony and sen tim ent, all com bined. People
seem to find it m e re ly am using, th a t's all.®
B irnb aum 's book was published in 1971, how ever, and one of the few
c ritic s to e x p re ss this view at the tim e was A. C. W ard, who, in 1930,
w rote that H uxley's
disgust and d esp air a re not vented against hum an life as such, but
only against the d isto rtio n of life he o b se rv e s around him . . . .
Aldous Huxley can be claim ed as a non-decadent w rite r because
th e re is alw ays in the background to h is books the im plication that
a m o re d esirab le way of life e x ists and m u st be found.^
Most c ritic s , how ever, did not see the m o ra l co n cern s, and if
they had, they would not have seen th em as positive. When, after
B rave New W orld, H uxley's novels began to em phasize positive values
ra th e r than m e re ly satirizin g negative ones, the c ritic a l reactio n was
unfavorable. A ctually, the suggestion of a n sw e rs was only a change of
em phasis b ecau se, as we will see la te r , Huxley had alw ays had some
kind of positive n o rm in his novels against which to judge the a im le s s
n e ss of his so p h isticates. But those who had rev eled in h is e a rlie r
"gay, 'so phisticated' and . . . a g re ea b ly shocking" novels w ere a p
palled by his change and felt th at "in d isc ard in g his tim e-bound, earth-
tra m m e le d self, Huxley also th rew o v e rb o a rd m any of his keen pow ers
of observation, those piercing , iron ic in sig h ts, those m ultiple p e r
spectives, those attitudes of detached and suspended judgm ent, which
constituted the signature and stam p of his f i c t i o n ." ^ W. Y. Tindall
said that "to the le a st exacting re a d e r it is c le a r that H uxley's novels
becom e le s s readable as his piety g ro w s." O thers spoke of his
12 ' 13
"rapid degeneration" and of his "flagging p o w e rs," and David
D aiches even said that "Huxley is no novelist; he h a s n ever m a s te r e d - -
is not re a lly in te reste d in --e v e n the e le m e n ts of fo rm and stru c tu re in
f i c t io n ." ^
P a rt of what is involved is an understanding of a novel of ideas.
i
F re d e ric k Hoffman a s s e r ts that a novel of id eas re q u ire s the absence
of "p rio r judgm ent or m o ra l bias" th at r e a d e r s and c ritic s p raised in
the e a rly novels:
The novel of ideas re q u ire s a p o ise, a balance, and m o st of all an
eclectic faith in the dem ocracy of id e a s. Once the novelist d e s e rts
this position, his novels have only one of two ways to go: they
m ay becom e novels not of ideas but of p e rso n s . . . o r they m ay
becom e essa y s alm ost purely, and the n a rra tiv e its e lf a setting
for the exposition ra th e r than the d ram a tiz atio n of ideas. T his
la tte r is what o ccu rred in H uxley's la te r novels. He is a ltern a tely
a c a ric a tu ris t and an e ssa y ist; he is no longer a novelist of id eas,
but a philosopher who knows not how gracefully to leave the house
in which he has lived so graciously all his l i f e . ^
Surely th is position is difficult to accept. Although c e rta in ly achieving
dram atization ra th e r than m e re exposition is a perennial problem fo r
novelists of ideas, the problem re s id e s in the g en re, which re lie s
heavily on dialogue, ra th e r than in point of view.
R ecent Huxley c ritic is m h a s been som ew hat m o re ch aritab le
than the outrage of the late 1930s and the 1940s. Scholars have tra c e d
the evolution of his values and e sp ecially have explained the influence
16 >
of E a s te rn religions on his thought, but to varying d e g re e s these
5
studies reflect the "unanim ous c ritic a l opinion . . . that H uxley's
significance lie s in the ideas he expounds ra th e r than in the c re atio n of
17
stru c tu ra lly sound, o r otherw ise m em o rab le , n o v els." T h ere a re ,
actually, a few c ritic s who defend the s tru c tu re of H uxley's novels.
C h arles Rolo was one of the firs t to recognize that sa tire achieves
m o re felicitous e x p re ssio n through a stru c tu re of c o n tra st than through
a usual plot p ro g ressio n :
C o n trast being the m ain sp rin g of s a tire , the ideal co n stru ctio n for
the s a tiris t is one that holds the re a d e r, not so m uch by the s e
quence of events in tim e (the story), as by the sta rtlin g effects
that re s u lt fro m viewing re la te d events sim ultaneously. . . .
H uxley's m ost im portant innovation as a c ra ftsm a n has been the
p a rtia l rep lacem en t of story with m u sic.
The m o st thorough of the stru c tu re c ritic s is Je ro m e M e ck ie r, who
a s s e r ts that H uxley's developm ent of a contrapuntal technique, o u t
lined m ost fully by Phil in Point C ounter P o in t, not only solves the
problem of d ra m a by dram atizing the conflict of ideas but also unites
fo rm with content; the stru c tu re em bodies the satire:
H uxley's m ajo r achievem ent, esp ecially when com pared with that
of previous d iscu ssio n no v elists such as T hom as Love P eacock
and W. H. M allock, co nsists in the developm ent of a s tru c tu re
fo r his novels that in itself c a r r ie s out and supports his s a tire .
The stru c tu ra l technique he p e rfe cts continually exposes the ego
tis m of his c h a ra c te rs . It s a tiriz e s th e ir fra g m e n ta ry existence
while also suggesting they are p a rts of a rec o v era b le w h o le.*9
M eckier is th ere fo re im portant not only for h is stru c tu ra l an aly sis but
also for h is recognition of a n o rm behind the sa tire ; the c h a r a c te r 's
p roblem s of m iscom m unication, isolation, and "frag m e n ta ry
6
e x iste n ce " could be solved by learning to re a c h a m o re com prehensive
point of view:
R eality, for Huxley, rem a in s som ething la r g e r than any individual
viewpoint. As a novelist, Huxley tr ie s to do what his c h a ra c te rs
fail to accom plish on even a m inim al level: to supplem ent each
asp ect of an event with as m any other a sp ec ts a s possib le. The
m ethod of p erception he utilizes as a nov elist in Point Counter
Point is the one he recom m ends to h is c h a ra c te rs and re a d e rs .
. . . F o r Huxley, . . . point of view is the m ain m o ra l as well
as a tech nical problem . The c o n tra st betw een the way H uxley's
c h a ra c te rs perceive events and the way Huxley feels they ought
to perceive them is a p rim a ry c o n c e r n . 20
U nfortunately, M eckier feels that when th is tensio n betw een c h a ra c te r s '
percep tio n s and H uxley's stops, his lite ra r y e ffo rts dem and no m ore
attention.
Several th re a d s em erge fro m the foregoing rev iew of Huxley
c ritic is m . The f ir s t is that while Huxley was lauded for h is e a rly
s a tir e , the ad m iratio n was based on only a p a rtia l understand ing of
his w riting, and as soon as his deeper intentions could no longer be
ignored, his novels w ere viewed as evidence of "flagging po w ers."
The second is that with novels of ideas th e re is alw ays the danger of
d e te rio ra tin g into e ssa y . The th ird is th at the d efen ses of Huxley
th at e m e rg ed in the 1960s centered e ith e r on his quest fo r values or on
his stru c tu re , but the la tte r was still defended only through B rave New
W orld o r E y eless in G aza. No one sa tisfa c to rily tra c e d th e com bina
tion of values and stru c tu re through his e n tire c a r e e r , and no one has
em phasized e ith e r the synthetic nature of the ideas in his la st w orks o r
the fac t that he p ro p o ses specific answ ers to the problem s ra is e d in the
e a rly w orks. Isla n d , esp ecially , has received strongly negative c r i t i
c ism , with B irnbaum re p re se n tin g the value school by saying th at "on
his p ilg rim ag e to re a c h the shrine of understanding the ultim ate re a l-
21
ity, he ended by em b racin g not rea lity but an escape from it" and
with M eckier re p re se n tin g the stru c tu re school by saying, "that Hux
ley eventually attem pted the positive fo rm of utopian com position . . .
is a trib u te m o re to the strength of his convictions than to h is lite ra r y
22
sag acity ." Although c le a rly the la te r novels a re plagued by long,
dogm atic m onologues th at in te rru p t the story line, H uxley's c o n tra
puntal technique provides a stru c tu re of th e sis and antithesis th at con
tin u es to se rv e h is philosophy well. The purpose of this study is to
exam ine th is contrapuntal developm ent of ideas in rep re se n ta tiv e
novels throughout H uxley's c a re e r; m ore than anyone has yet noted,
H uxley's novels e x p re ss a logical p ro g re ssio n fro m the u n sa tisfa c to ry
"se lf-d iv isio n " of the e a rly novels, through the tentative, re je c te d
a n sw e rs of e ith e r p h y sic a l-m y stic a l or rational ex tre m e s, to the syn
th e s is of the needs of m ind, body, and soul in Island. I th e re fo re hope
to d e m o n stra te th at fa r fro m escaping rea lity , Island p o rtra y s one th at,
although u n fam ilia r, is a logical conclusion to the problem s ra is e d in
the e a rly novels and is th e re fo re worthy of m ore serious co n sid era tio n
than it has yet receiv ed . I would also hope that re a d e rs would re c o g
nize that the p ro b lem s sa tirize d in the e a rly novels and pondered over
by the hum anistic psychologists for the past th irty y e a rs a re , in fact,
problem s and th at Island o ffers im portant a n sw e rs, o r at le a st d ire c -
23
tion s, for our still-tro u b le d world.
One of the draw backs of rec en t c ritic is m on Huxley is s u p e r
ficiality. In addition to all of the introductions to o ther people's w orks
and the e ssa y s published e lsew h e re, th e re a re som e fifty volum es of
H uxley's w riting. Since the e ssa y s and sh ort sto rie s refle ct m any of
the concerns and th em es of the novels, the c ritic faces the tem ptation
of showing the s im ila ritie s and interconnections of too m any w orks and
dealing deeply with none. To avoid th is problem , I have chosen four
novels that I think re p re s e n t the developm ent of H uxley's c a re e r:
C rom e Yellow in tro d u ces the th e m e s and basic fo rm at of the f ir s t th ree
novels; Point C ounter Point states explicitly the technical goals and
p resen ts an u n su ccessfu l attem pt to resolve the philosophical p ro b
lem s presen ted in the f ir s t th re e ; Brave New W orld is the negative
utopia tow ard which our ten dencies are c arry in g us; Island is the p o si
tive utopia, counter pointing the problem s p o rtray e d in the e a r lie r
novels with P a la 's answ er: the integration of e arth ly needs with the
religious a n sw e rs of the novels betw een B rave New W orld and Isla n d .
Before exam ining th ese novels individually, I would like to su m m arize
the technical goals e x p re ss e d in Point Counter Point and the basic
philosophical p ro b lem s and th e ir cau ses that plague the c h a ra c te rs
in H uxley's novels.
9
The definition of the novel of ideas com es fro m P hilip Q u a rle s's
notebook:
Novel of id eas. The c h a ra c te r of each personage m ust be im plied,
as far as p o ssib le, in the ideas of which he is the m outhpiece. In
so far as th e o rie s a re ratio n alizatio n s of sentim ents, in stin c ts,
dispositions of soul, th is is f e a s i b l e .^
In other w ords, people a re im p o rtan t as e x p ressio n s of various view
points; th e re fo re , developm ent o c cu rs le s s through the action a s s o
ciated with plot than through juxtaposition of different points of view.
Given th is attitude tow ard c h a ra c te riz a tio n , the stru c tu re which Huxley
e x p re s s e s in the title Point C ounter Point and dubs through Phil "the
m usicalization of fiction" is p a rtic u la rly apt. The following long quote,
again fro m P h il's notebook, is n e c e s s a ry because it outlines the te c h
niques that Huxley u ses:
The m u sicalizatio n of fiction. Not in the sym bolist way, by su b
ordinating sense to sound, . . . but in the construction. M editate
on Beethoven. The changes of m oods, the abrupt tra n s itio n s.
(M ajesty altern a tin g with a jo k e.) . . . A them e is stated, then
developed, pushed out of shape, im perceptibly deform ed, until,
though still recognizably the sam e, it has becom e quite different.
. . . Get th is into a novel. . . . The abrupt tra n sitio n s a re easy
enough. All you need is a sufficiency of c h a ra c te rs and p a ra lle l,
contrapuntal plots. While Jones is m u rd erin g a wife, Sm ith is
wheeling a p e ra m b u la to r in the p ark. M ore in te restin g , the m o d
ulations and v a ria tio n s a re also m o re difficult. A novelist m odu
lates by duplicating situations and c h a ra c te rs . He shows se v era l
people falling in love, o r dying, o r praying in different w a y s--
d is s im ila rs solving the sam e problem . O r, vice v e rs a , sim ila r
people confronted with d issim ila r p ro b lem s. In th is way you can
m odulate through all the a sp ec ts of your th e m e .25
In the e a rly n ovels, H uxley's c h a ra c te rs do m o re talking than acting,
and, significantly, they a re shown not solving, ra th e r than solving,
10
th e ir p ro b lem s. The prin cip le still p e rta in s, however. Since c h a r a c
te r s a re e x p re ssio n s of fixed attitudes, th e ir w ords and actions can be
seen as lin e a r, r a th e r than la te ra l, going in lines like the voices in a
polyphonic piece th rough the tim e span of the novel. Instead of com ing
to g eth er into c h o rd s, th ese voices re m a in always on th eir own tra c k ,
and m uch of the v e rb a l hum or a r is e s fro m o ur perceptions of m isc o m -
m unications, as people talk at each other and hear only th em selv es.
A ppro priately, plot, too, accen tuates isolation and ineffectualness in
producing change. To c ritic iz e the w rite r of such novels as u n in te r
ested in, o r incapable of, following trad itio n al fo rm s of stru c tu re is
obviously specious; c h a ra c te riz a tio n and plot reflect the them e of the
inability to com m unicate o r act m eaningfully.
C ritic s have noted that H uxley's c h a ra c te rs fall roughly into
th re e types th at re se m b le D r. W illiam Sheldon's classification of peo-
2
pie by physique: the ectom orph, the endom orph, and the m esom orph.
A ccording to Sheldon, th ese physical differences c o rre la te with p e r
sonality types. T hus, the lean, p o orly-m uscled ectom orph is c e re -
brotonic, tending to be em otionally re s tra in e d and p re fe rrin g his own
inner w orld to the e x te rn al one of action and other people. The fat
endom orph is v isc e ro to n ic , tending to be em otionally com placent, and
enjoying food, com fort, and com pany. The m u scu lar m esom orph is
som atotonic, tending to be physically active, and enjoying adventure,
risk , and com petition. Although this is a neat schem atization, it does
not coincide v e ry p re c is e ly with H uxley's c h arac teriza tio n o r in te n
tions. His c e re b ro to n ic s a re too intellectu al and incom petent em o
tionally and sp iritu a lly , h is m eso m o rp h s are active at th e expense of
intellectual o r sp iritu a l c o n c e rn s, and the endom orphs a re v irtu ally
absent. In stead, h is counterpoint focuses m o re on c h a r a c te r s ' d is
proportionate attention to one of the th re e aspects of the hum an being-
m ind, body, and so u l--a n d his c h a ra c te rs can th e re fo re be c la ssifie d
m o re m eaningfully as inactive in tellectu als, active hedonists, and m is
guided sp iritu a lis ts . Although th e re is som e c o rre la tio n with Sheldon'
findings, Sheldon did not publish his re s u lts intil 1940, alm ost twenty
y e a rs after C rom e Yellow , and Sheldon was in terested in identifying
basic p ersonality ty p es, while Huxley was in te reste d in satirizin g
people's n a rro w e c c e n tric itie s and showing them how to be m o re c o m
plete hum an beings.
Huxley e x p re s s e s his judgm ent of the incom pleteness of his
th re e p ersonality types through counterpoint, and one of the m ost
p revalent counterpoints in the f ir s t four novels is between the com ple
m en tary inactive in te lle ctu als and the active hedonists. The in te lle c
tu al is a w ell-ed u cated exaggeration of Huxley him self, so bound up in
conceptualizing and analyzing th at he is , perennially H am letlike, in
capable of action. The consum m ate and also som ew hat auto bio g rap h i
cally re a lis tic irony is th at his talen t for analysis, which is his d i s
tinctive gift, is also his c u rs e ; e ith er he is so caught up in educated
preconceptions th at he cannot see his own experience re a listic a lly o r
he sees the im b ecilities of those around h im but is incapable of e ffe c t
ing change. As the c h a ra c te r who can p erceiv e and analyze p ro b lem s,
he som etim es s e rv e s as r a is o n n e u r , but he re c e iv e s in his tu rn c r i t i
c ism for his p hy sical and sp iritu a l incom petence. In the e a rly novels,
the intellectual is c o n tra ste d m o st often w ith sen su al women because
his inability to a ct is connected especially with his inability to love;
e ith e r he thinks, unr ealis tic a lly , th at he loves but is unable to act o r,
at a m ore advanced age, he has given up on the possibility of love a l
together. T hus, in C rom e Y ellow , Scogan's confirm ed isolation is a
variation on D enis' ineffectual attem pts to understan d and woo Anne.
The in tellectu al's plight is p a rtly the fault of so ciety, which provides
no viable a lte rn a tiv e s, and p artly congenital, the product of being m o re
com fortable living in o n e's own head than in the w orld. He is useful as
a foil for the unthinking o th e rs , and eventually, realizin g the lim itations
of his rational a b ilitie s, he w ill embody H uxley's se a rc h for a n sw e rs.
But in the e arly novels he is a P ru fro c k ia n h ero who, like Shaw's Jack
T anner, can only, as Anne te lls D enis, "keep on talking."
The in tellectu al n o n -a c to rs suffer m o st fro m th eir attem pted
interaction and th e ir c o n tra st with the m o re re a lis tic , self-indulgent
sire n s. In c o n tra st to the d elib erate young m en, th ese wom en act
spontaneously, a n d ,esp ecially in the re a lm of sex, they do what they
want to do, without thought of re sp o n sib ilitie s o r love. The c o u n te r-
13
point shows that while the in te lle ctu al looks foolish for h is rom antic
preconceptions and his inability to act, the wom en who a c t without
thought or rom ance a re pursuing an equally futile, if le ss foolish,
co u rse. They use sex in an attem p t to fight the perp etu al boredom
they are plagued with, but Huxley shows that sex without love even
tually produces only m o re boredom . Since m ind and body are so un
integrated in th ese e a rly nov els, th ese sexually a ttra c tiv e women are
unsatisfying m entally and em otionally, at le a s t to the re a d e r, privy to
Huxley's com prehensive point of view, if not to the un realistic in te l
lectual who falls prey to th e ir fem inine w iles. In fact, m uch of the
hum or in C rom e Yellow revolves around D enis's attem pts to virginize
and sp iritu a liz e, in the b e st P u rita n ic a l vein, the frankly sensual Anne.
In each of the e a rly novels, th e re is one couple that provides a
contrapuntal n o rm to these m ind and body lo v ers. H ercules and F ilo -
m ena in C rom e Y ellow , G um bril J r . and E m ily in Antic Hay, Lord
Hovenden and Iren e in T hose B a rre n L e a v e s , and M ark and M ary R am -
pion in Point Counter P oint each have a m o re integrated, mutually c a r
ing relationship in which se x is an e x p re ssio n of, ra th e r than a su b sti
tute for, love. In addition, then, to the counterpoint between the in te l
lectuals and the se n su a lists, th e re is the c o n tra st between the two of
them and a m o re sa tisfac to ry relatio n sh ip . The la tte r counterpoint is
im portant especially for its im plication that ra th e r than being m ere ly
vituperative, the s a tiris t is finding people deficient when m easured
14
against a m ore satisfying, attainable n o rm .
The c h a ra c te rs rep re se n tin g soul a re e ith e r "hardly believable"
m in iste rs, like the R everend P elvey in Antic H ay, o r unappealing
sp iritu a lists, like M r. B arb ecu e-S m ith in C rom e Y ellow . They a re
portrayed less through c o n tra st with m ind and body people than through
counterpoint between th e ir own inflated views of th em selv es and a m ore
re a listic view, e x p ressed through an o m n iscien t point of view o r a
ra is o n n e u r's eyes. In each c a se , the c o n tra st shows the speciousness
of th eir conviction of com m unication w ith tran sd en d en t sp irits o r God,
and the s a tire is not for th e ir p reo ccu p atio n with s p irit but for th eir
distorted fo rm of preoccupation. B arb ecu e-S m ith , th e re fo re , w rites
aphorism s that he does not u n d erstan d , M rs. W im bush does not sig
nificantly im prove her betting av erag e by castin g horoscopes for
players on the te a m s, and M r. Bodiham gets angry with God fo r not
fulfilling his prophecy that the w orld is com ing to an end. As Calam y
shows at the end of Those B a rre n L e a v e s , Huxley feels that people have
sp iritu al needs that m u st be m et, but they should be d ire c t ap p reh en
sions of God (thus his tu rn to m y s tic is m in the 1930s) ra th e r than
sym bolic ritu a ls. Also, the e m p h asis should be on reaching God
ra th e r than on capitalizing on H im fo r o n e's own earth ly gain, as these
sp iritu a lists all do. In these e a rly no v els, the need for sp iritu a l s a tis
faction is p o rtray ed less through the d isto rte d p ra c tic e s of the sp irit
people than through the boredom of the se n su a lists and the cul de
15
sacs of the in tellectu als.
What all of these c h a ra c te rs have in com m on is th e ir isolation
and th e ir lim itations. The counterpoint d ra m a tiz e s th e ir insu fficien
cies and im plies the need fo r integration of all th re e aspects of h u
m anness. What c ritic s have failed to point out, perhaps because it
seem s so obvious, is that although th ese predilectio ns m ay be innate,
in a m orphic schem atization of bodies, the e x tre m e s portray ed in
th ese novels a re larg e ly caused by so c ie ty 's im position of im p ro p er
goals on its subjects and can th ere fo re be alleviated by a change in
so cietal training and values. The o th er a sp ect th at cannot be em p h a
sized enough is th at these tendencies a re lim iting, self-p erp etu atin g ,
and finally defeating to the self who em bodies them . Given the unde
sira b ility of th ese tendencies and H uxley's conviction of so ciety 's r e
sponsibility, it is inform ative to look b riefly at som e of the institutions
th at a re inim ical to self-actu calizatio n .
C h ristian ity is one of the w o rst villains b ecause it divides a
p erso n against him self. It tells him th at his im m o rtal soul is m o re
im p o rtan t than, and its p ro g ress im peded by, his physical body and
esp ecially its sexual d riv es. Since, how ever, physical d e sire s a re as
innate as sp iritu a l ones, the man is e ith e r incom plete, like D enis, o r,
m o re often, guilty, like W alter Bidlake, fo r com m itting "sin s" that he
knows he will co m m it again. In H uxley's view, C h ristian ity has su b
stituted harm ful, p ro scrip tiv e m o res and hollow ritu a ls for genuine
16
religious ex p erien ces. He will th ere fo re eventually tu rn to the le ss
p ro sc rip tiv e , m o re e x p erien c e-o rien ted relig io n s of the E ast.
The new God, Science, only p e rp e tu ates C h ristia n ity 's sins in a
different way. It takes on all the w orld as its dom ain, substituting
rea so n for sp irit, and claim s that m an can u n derstand the universe
through his intellectual pow ers. R eacting again st this nineteenth-
century belief in rea so n and p ro g re s s , Huxley shows th at th ere a re
values beyond the pow ers of ra tio n a l explanation which a re , n e v e rth e
le s s , im p o rtan t for a m eaningful life. S cien tists a re one of Huxley's
favorite ta rg e ts , along with m in is te r s , in th ese e a rly novels, and
they are portray ed as intellectual giants and em otional infants. In the
f i r s t four novels, th e ir ex p erim en ts a re m o stly picayune and u s e le s s ,
but B rave New W orld s tr e s s e s the dangerous potential of p ra c tic a l
applications of discov eries by sc ie n tists who a re unm oved by c o n sid
era tio n of o v erall value. B ecause of its P ro c ru s te a n ability to change
the whole quality of hum an life and because of m a n 's u n c ritic a l a c c e p
tance of tim e - and lab o r-sav in g devices, scien ce is , for Huxley, one
of the biggest th rea ts to m odern m an.
The th ird big th re a t is governm ent. Although this is a le ss
dom inant concern in the f ir s t four novels than religion o r scien ce,
Scogan's d isc o u rse on "p atern al gov ernm ent" re fle c ts H uxley's con
c e rn with the underm ining of individual freed o m through c en tralize d
governm ent. In fact, Scogan p resen ts m uch of the ratio n ale and basic
outline for the to talitarian governm ent of B rave New W orld. F o r
Huxley, governm ent and econom ics a re clo sely entw ined, and W estern
econom ic policies show a sim ila r, frightening tendency to allow too
m uch wealth too accum ulate in the hands of a few. As the la te r novels
and essa y s d em onstrate, how ever, the E a s te rn policy of s ta te -
controlled m utual ow nership provides m o re individual subjection ra th e r
than an answ er. Another econom ic p ro b lem is th a t the m achines that
science has invented have c re ate d boring, re p e titiv e , and th e re fo re
dehum anizing jobs. Since p erso n al freed o m and quality of life are
m o re im p o rtan t than national strength, job efficiency, o r the ability to
buy gadgets, Huxley eventually espouses sm a ll, u n in d u strialized e co
nom ic and political com m unities that allow people to do m o re in te r e s t
ing w ork and to participate d irectly in th e ir own self-g o v ern m en t.
Education, too, has led to m echanization of people. It fo rce s
them to le a rn rote facts instead of train in g th em how to use th e ir
m inds, bodies, and souls in com plem entary w ays. In the trad itio n of
the two c u ltu res, argued by his g randfather, T . H. Huxley, and his
27
g re a t uncle, Matthew A rnold, science and lite ra tu r e a re taught not
as com plem entary but as w arrin g . In H uxley's e a rly novels, t h e r e
fo re, lite ra tu re provides rom antic preconceptions th at o b stru c t r e a l
istic vision, and science pursues n a rro w , " re a lis tic " knowledge at the
expense of rom ance o r value. Another m ajo r p ro b lem with education
is that ra th e r than training people to be sk ep tical and to exam ine
18
argum ents c ritic a lly , it teaches them to m e m o riz e and accept w h at
e v er "facts" authority figures teach. In this way, it c a te rs to the
political dangers of strong lead ersh ip , c e n tra liz e d governm ent, and the
concom itant loss of p e rso n al freedom .
T hese, then, a re som e of the m ajo r institutions that Huxley
would like to change. The two m ajo r them es th at point to m a n 's in ab il
ity to deal with all of the facts of life a re ero s and th an ato s. Love is
the predom inant p u rsu it in the e a rly novels, but unrequited love o r
sexual p ro m iscu ity a re the only approxim ations th ese se lf-c e n te re d ,
aim less c h a ra c te rs rea ch . The instances of genuine love a re r a r e and
se rv e m o re as ironic counterpoints than as g en eralized p o ssib ilities.
Although virtually (and significantly) absent as a co ncern in C rom e
Y ellow , death becom es a m o re explicit and im p o rtan t them e w ith each
su c ce ssiv e novel. Huxley shows that unw illingness to face the in ev i
tability of one 's own death indicates an inability to define value o r
m eaning for life. In A fter Many a S um m er Dies the Swan, Jo Stoyte's
grotesque and hum iliating attem pts to achieve physical ra th e r than
sp iritu a l im m o rtality a re only an exaggeration of our tendencies to
avoid old age and death through in creasin g ly com plex a m u sem en ts,
youth-producing e lix irs , and sex. Huxley views old age as an im p o r
tan t p a rt of the n a tu ra l cycle, a tim e for refle ctio n on m eaning and for
p rep aratio n for death, which should not be p e rv e rte d by attem pts at
prolonged youthfulness. In his e a rly novels, how ever, people dance
19
th e ir antic hay and try to fo rg et death.
Sex and death receive sa tiric a lly co m p lem en tary treatm en t:
sex is thought about too m uch and is used as a d istrac tio n , while death
is thought about too little and is a m a jo r issu e that c h a ra c te rs seek
d istrac tio n from . To put it another way, sex is a way of trying to e n
capsulate oneself in the p re s e n t so that the fu tu re (old age and death)
can be ignored. The attem pt is unsu ccessfu l, how ever, because of the
b revity of m e re ly sexual p le a su re s, and it is e sse n tia lly for this p ra g
m atic re a so n that Huxley looks for m o re lastin g values.
Sex, then, is a focal point of s a tire in the e a rly novels, not
because, as B irnbaum has suggested, "Huxley . . . seem s to be re -
,,28
pulsed by the anim ality of physical lo ve-m ak ing " but because m ere
anim ality is so unsatisfying. As M r. Hutton o b se rv es in "The Gioconda
S m ile," hedonism is an im possible concept b ecause in the long run,
29
one is "m o re bored than am used." Sexual p ro m iscu ity re p re s e n ts ,
fo r Huxley, m o d ern m an 's re fu sa l to s e a rc h fo r value and his being
doomed to boredom and fru stra tio n . His p u rsu it of sexual p leasu re
ra th e r than love also reduces him to isolation. Throughout life, each
c h a ra c te r is locked within the p riso n of his own incom plete self and
can find no way to com m unicate eith er w ith o th e r people o r with God.
Love and religion a re the overlooked a lte rn a tiv e s.
T hese them es are em phasized by the tech n ical devices. As we
have already noted, the counterpoint em p h asizes the se p a ra te n e ss, the
20
absence of com m unication, and the in co m p leten ess. The duplicating of
s im ila r people and the c o n tra sts betw een d is s im ila r ones provide both
a feeling of the universality of the fu tility p o rtra y e d and a need for
integration. Im ages underline the s a tir e . Spatial im ages of p arallel
lines th at never m eet, of unnatural re m o te n e ss , and of antic c irc le s
em phasize isolation and c irc u la rity of action, and resem b lan ces to
anim als reflect the conviction th at relig io n , scien ce, and education a re
m aking people le ss fully hum an. Apes a re an esp ecially prom inent
im age that suggests the re v e rs a l of the evolutionary p ro cess that was
so touted in the nineteenth century. Maggots a re another re c u rre n t
im age, especially in B rave New W o rld , and th e ir indistinguishability
em phasizes the tendency to s a c rific e o ur individuality in conform ity
and subservience to m achines and le a d e rs .
All of these concerns a re both caused by an d contribute to the
v e ry c e n tra l problem: m o d ern W este rn m an does not know how to de
fine him self as a hum an being. The em phasis on science and reaso n in
the nineteenth century slowly eroded the religious values, and World
W ar I, especially, destroyed faith in m a n 's rea so n a b len e ss and his
hum anity to his fellow m an. All of the individual inadequacies and
th e ir so c ietal causes a ris e fro m the inability to find a new source of
m eaning that would provide sa tisfa c tio n of all of m a n 's needs and a
context fo r judging things. W ithout such a context, m an em phasizes
21
one aspect of h im self to the d e trim e n t of the others and is th e re fo re
only a c a ric a tu re of a hum an being, as Huxley scathingly shows in
C rom e Y ellow , Antic H ay, Those B a rre n L e a v e s, Point Counter
Point, and B rave New W orld.
22
Notes
* Jocelyn Brooke, Aldous H uxley, in W rite rs and T h e ir W ork,
No. 55 (London: Longmans Green & Co. , 1954), pp. 5-6.
2
Floyd W. M atson, "Aldous and H eaven Too: R eligion Among
the In te lle c tu a ls," Antioch R eview , 14 (Septem ber 1954): 294.
3
Edwin B e rry Bur gum , "Aldous Huxley and His Dying Swan,"
Antioch Review 2 (Spring 1942): 70.
4
C h a rle s I. G licksburg, "Huxley the E x p e rim e n ta l N ovelist,"
South A tlantic Q u arterly 52 (January 1953): 98.
5
C. E. M. Joad, R eturn to Philosophy, Being a Defence of
R eason, an A ffirm ation of V alues, and a Pie a for. Philosophy (New York:
E. P . Dutton, 1936), p. 127.
£
Aldous Huxley, B rave New W orld (New York: H a rp e r & Row,
1946), pp. vii-viii.
7
A lexander H enderson, for in stan ce, in a fru stra tin g ly unfoot
noted p a ssa g e, quotes Huxley as saying of him self: " 'How often one
re g r e ts this a sc e tic ism of the mind. How w istfully so m etim es one
longs to be able to rid oneself of the habit of re je c tio n ['th at fastidious
re je c tio n of what is easy and obvious, which is one of the m elancholy
consequences of the acquisition of c u ltu re '] and selectio n , and to enjoy
all the d e a r, obviously luscious, idiotic em otions w ithout an a fte r
thought' " [AMous_Hujdey^ (New York: R u sse ll & R u ss e ll, 1964), p. 21].
Huxley e x p re ss e s sim ila r s e lf-c ritic is m through p a ra lle l m usings and
notebook e n trie s of Philip Q uarles, "the m o st rev ealin g s e lf-p o rtra it
in a ll of H uxley's books," in C harles M. H olm es, Aldous Huxley and
the Way to R eality (Bloomington: Indiana U n iv ersity P r e s s , 1970), p.
66, and P h ilip 's wife E lin o r's fru stratio n s over h e r to o -c e re b ra l and
d istan t husband and his m o th e r's w ishes for his m o re com plete h um an
ity undoubtedly re fle c t som e of Huxley's own co n cern s for him self.
M rs. Sidney Q uarles tells E linor th at she w ishes th at Philip, h e r son
whose gam e leg, like Huxley's bad eyesight, has s e t him a p a rt, could
be se t fre e " ' fro m his own prison. E m otionally fre e ; fo r his in te l
le c t's fre e enough already. . . . F r e e to com e and go in the hum an
w orld, in stead of being boxed up in that indifference of h is .' " Signifi
cantly, how ever, those who knew Huxley w ell d ifferen tiated his public
im age fro m his private personality. His s is te r -in - la w , for instance,
M rs. Julian Huxley, w rites that "the fero c ity w hich was often m an ifest
in his e a rly w ork was n ever apparent in his p e rso n a l rela tio n sh ip s, fo r
23
he was the gentlest com panion." In fact, she sees him as "using his
intellectual equipm ent as a shield" ag ain st the sen sitiv ity that had been
so wounded by his "traum atic e x p e rie n c e s" in his "e a rly form ative
y e a rs " [Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963: A M e m o ria l V olum e, ed. Julian
Huxley (New York: H arp er & Row, 1965), pp. 42-42]. G eorge Wood
cock, in Dawn and the D ark est Hour (New York: Viking P r e s s , 1972),
p. 37, lists these catastro p h es that m ade him p ro tec t him self: between
the ages of fourteen and twenty, he su ffered his m o th e r's death in 1908,
his own loss of eyesight in 1911, and his fav o rite b ro th e r T rev en en 's
suicide in 1941. He also quotes Julian as saying that " 'the protective
cynical skin in which he [Aldous] clothed h im self in the tw enties' " was
the re s u lt of that " 'm eaningless c a ta s tro p h e ,' " his m o th e r's death, by
which he seem s to have been m o re h u rt than the o th er ch ild ren (p. 37).
Julian has also w ritten that underneath his "occasional displays of
m alicious wit o r . . . ferocious s a tir e ," Aldous p o ss e s se d "not only
. . . gentleness but . . . e sse n tia l goodness" (Aldous H uxley, 1894-
1963, p. 23). Since all of the le tte rs to and fro m M a ria, Huxley's
f ir s t wife, w ere burned in the fire of I960, L a u ra H uxley's biography
of h e r husband is especially im p o rtan t. In it she d e sc rib e s him and
quotes le tte rs from him to h e r to show how w a rm and loving and e m o
tional he was [This T im eless M oment: A P e rs o n a l View (New York:
F a r r a r , S tra u ss, & Giroux, 1968)]. A lso, the le tte r to Lewis Gielgud,
in which he calls "the im m inence of se p a ra tio n [from M aria, in 1917]
briny enough" and "altogether painful" su g g ests anything but detach
m ent [L e tte rs of Aldous H uxley, ed. G ro v er Sm ith (New York: H arp er
& Row, 1969), p. 119)].
It is also significant that at the sa m e tim e th at he was w riting
his supposedly am o ral s a tire s , H uxley's e ssa y s e x p re ss adm iration
for m o ra l a rtis ts . In On The M argin (London: Chatto & W indus, 1923),
th e re a re th re e exam ples of th is. In his e ssa y on E dw ard T hom as, he
says that he ad m ires T hom as' poetry b e ca u se it is m o ra l as w ell as
aesth etic. In his essay on C h risto p h er W ren, he says that "W ren's
m o st c h a ra c te ristic quality . . . is a quality m o ra l ra th e r than a e s
th etic, . . . for W ren . . . valued dignity and . . . d e sire d that m en
and women should live with the dignity, even the g ran d e u r, befitting
th e ir proud hum an title" (p. 179). Huxley in c o rp o ra te s W ren 's vision
of dignity into Antic H ay, with G um bril S r. 's m o d els, as a contrasting
n o rm to the subhum an lack of value of m o st of the c h a ra c te rs in the
novel. His essay on Ben Jonson is p erh ap s the m o st im p o rtan t b e
cause of the sim ila rity between his m ethod of c h a ra c te riz a tio n and its
rationale and H uxley's. Huxley says th at Jo n so n 's "g rea tn ess is a
g rea tn ess of c h a ra c te r" (p. 185) but th at his preoccupation with m o
ra lity m ade him draw "not c h a ra c te rs but h u m o u rs, not m inds but
perso nified m o ral qualities" (p. 192). Huxley ends the e ssa y by saying
th at "at all tim es a c aric a tu re is disquieting; and it is very good for
24
m o st of us to be m ade u nco m fortab le” (p. 202). By the tim e of Jesting
P ila te , th re e y e ars la te r, his tra v e ls have m ade him aw are of a
"unity of values " throughout the world; "G oddness, beauty, wisdom ,
knowledge, . . . our sen se of values is intuitive. T here is no proving
the re a l existence of values in any way th at w ill satisfy the logical in te l
lect . . . but we are none the le s s rig h t to cling to them . Not blindly,
of c o u rse , not u n c ritic a lly .” What one m u st do, according to him , is
to com pare and analyze values in an a ttem p t to "cre ate for him self . . .
a stan d ard of values that shall be as tim e le s s , as uncontingent on c i r
c u m stan ces, as n e arly absolute as he can m ake th e m ” [Jestin g Pilate:
An Intellectual Holiday (New York: G eorge H. D oran Co. , 1926),
1. 290]. Surely, this is the m e ssa g e he would give to the c h a ra c te rs
in Those B a rre n L e a v e s, published the y e a r before.
g
M ilton B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley's Q uest for Values (Knox
ville: U niversity of T ennessee P r e s s , 1971), p. 5.
9
A. C. W ard, "S courgers and S cavengers of S ociety,” The
N ineteen-T w enties (London: M ethuen & Co. , L td.), pp. 118-119.
^ G lic k sb u rg , "Huxley the E x p erim e n tal N ovelist,” p. 98.
^ W . Y. Tindall, "The T rouble w ith Aldous H uxley,” The
A m erican Scholar 11 (October 1942):464.
12
Burgum , "Aldous and His Dying Sw an,” p. 64.
^ Ib id . , p. 62.
14
David D aiches, The Novel and the M odern W orld (Chicago:
U niversity of Chicago P r e s s , 1939). p. 209.
15
F re d e ric k J. Hoffman, "Aldous Huxley and the Novel of
Id e a s ,” in F o rm s of M odern F iction: E ssa y s C ollected in Honor of
Joseph W arren B each, ed. W illiam Van O 'Connor (M inneapolis: Uni
v e rsity of M innesota P r e s s , 1948), p. 199.
*^See, for exam ple, H olm es, Aldous Huxley and the Way to
R eality; B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley's Q uest for V alu es; Woodcock,
Dawn and the D a rk est H our; John A tkins, Aldous Huxley: A L ite ra ry
Study (New York: The O rion P r e s s , 1967); S isirk u m a r Ghose, Aldous
Huxley: A Cynical S alvationist (New York: A sia Publishing House,
1962); and P u rv ezji Jam sh ed ji S aker, Indische W eisheit und das
Abendland: R eligionsphilosophische P a ra lle le n (M eisenheim am Gian:
A. Hain, 1965). P e te r Bowering, in Aldous Huxley: A Study of the
25
M ajor Novels (London: The Athlone P r e s s , 1968), em phasizes the
developm ent of thought, though he, m o re than the o th e rs , defends m o st
of the novels when viewed in the context of the novel of ideas.
17
B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley’s Q uest for V a lu e s, p. 9-
18
C h arles Rolo, "Aldous H uxley," The A tlantic 180 (July-
D ecem ber 1947): 110. R eprinted in The W orld of Aldous Huxley: An
Omnibus of His F iction and N on-F iction over T h ree D ecades (New
York and London: H a rp e r & B ro th e rs , 1947).
19
Je ro m e M eckier, Aldous Huxley: S atire and S tructure (New
York: B arnes & Noble, 1969), p. 41.
2°IV,
Ibid.
21
B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley's Q uest fo r V a lu es, pp. 40-41.
22
M eck ier, Aldous Huxley: S atire and S tru c tu re , p. 189.
23
It is significant th at in the p a st th irty y e a rs a whole new
school of psychology has grown up th a t looks at so c iety 's role in c r e a t
ing m o d ern m a n 's alienation. R a th e r than s tre s s in g the com plexes of
sick m en form ed in childhood, as F re u d does, these hum anistic p sy
chologists recognize that th e re is a m o re u n iv ersal " se a rc h for m e a n
ing," in Viktor F ra n k l's te r m s , th a t is n e c e ssa ry fo r m ental health.
Among th e se , the ex isten tial p sycholog ists, like Rollo May and Viktor
F ra n k l, have close links with e x iste n tia l philosophy and its recognition
of the angst that is p a rt of the e x iste n tia l dilem m a. A braham M aslow
is m o re in te re s te d in defining the positive potentials for m an and in the
concept of a "sy n e rg istic so c iety " th at rein fo rce s positive values and
aids in individual "se lf-a c tu a liz a tio n ." O th e rs , like C a rl R ogers and
F r itz P e r is , em phasize overco m ing th e re p re s s io n of n atu ral feelings
th at m o d ern W estern society has im po sed on people. W hat all of them
sh a re is a recognition of m o d ern so c ie ty 's fa ilu re to define m eaningful
goals and a d e sire to help people live m o re fulfilling liv es. Unlike t r a
ditional p sy c h ia tris ts , they a re not trying to m ake "sick " people " n o r
m a l," but see the p roblem s of "n o rm a l" people as being sym ptom atic
of what E ric h F ro m m calls an "insane society."
24
Aldous Huxley, Point C ounter Point (New York: H arp er &
Row, A P e re n n ia l C lassic, 1965), p. 300.
^ Ib id . , p. 301.
26
26
W illiam H. Sheldon, "C onstitutional F a c to rs in P e rso n a lity ,"
in P e rso n a lity and the B ehavior D is o r d e r s , vol. 1, ed. J. McV. Hunt
(New York: Ronald P r e s s , 1944), pp. 526-549. Huxley d iscu sses
Sheldon's c h a ra c te r types in The P e re n n ia l Philosophy (New York:
H arp er fa Row, H a rp e r Colophon Books, 1944); pp. 147-152.
27
W oodcock, in Dawn and the D a rk e st H o u r, pp. 31-32, sees
the con tro v ersy em bodied in H uxley's Science and Education (1883) and
A rnold's D isco u rses in A m e ric a (1885) as a p re c u rs o r of the dispute
between C. P . Snow and F . R. L eav is.
2 8
B irnbaum , H uxley's Q uest for V alu es, p. 127.
29
Aldous Huxley, M o rtal C oils (London: Chatto & Windus,
1922), p. 109. See also H uxley's On the M a rg in , p. 51, and Along the
Road (Chatto fa W indus, 1925), p. 230.
CHA PTER I
CROME YELLOW: PORTRAIT OF A
JAUNDICED SOCIETY
C rom e Yellow provides both a them atic and a technical in tro
duction to the r e s t of H uxley's no v els, with its flat,"lopsided " c h a ra c
te rs ,^ its subordination of c h a ra c te riz a tio n and plot to ideas, and its
contrapuntal a rra n g e m e n t of attitudes to p o rtra y a generalized futility
among its inhabitants. As in the house p arty novels of Peacock and
M allock, a w ell-ed u cated elite c o n v erse idly but clev erly on a wide
range of subjects under the aegis of the stately and venerable C rom e.
Unlike the novels of P eaco ck and M allock, how ever, the conversation
which is the focal point of C rom e Yellow is also m o re pointedly a sub
stitution for action, and the c la sh of ideas is m o re than idle chatter.
Jero m e M eckier s tr e s s e s the m iscom m unications and lack of c o m
m unication in the novel to show th at the m ajo r them es are the eccen-
2
tric ity and resu ltin g iso latio n th at plague each c h a ra c te r. Underlying
the m isapprehensions of se lf and o th e rs , how ever, lie the b ro a d e r
them es of m ea n in g le ssn e ss and futility. The c h a ra c te rs of C rom e
lead m eaningless liv e s, but w henever they try to understand their
28
situation, they m is in te rp re t the cau ses; whenever they try to com m uni
cate th e ir feelings, no one listen s o r understands; and w henever they
try to do anything to a lte r th e ir situation, the attem pt proves to be
fu tile .
The cause of this futility is, as M eckier points out, e c c en tric ity
or lim ited perceptions. V irtually all of the c h a ra c te rs re la te to the
w orld through one m o d e --m in d , body, o r sp irit--a n d th ere fo re p r o
vide, like Scogan's C a e s a r s , a "touchstone" for judging the deleterious
effects of th at w idespread phenomenon of the tw entieth century, com -
partm entalization. T his com p artm en talization not only im p a irs c o m
m unication but, m o re c ru c ia lly , it precludes self-know ledge and th e r e
fo re m akes growth o r any kind of im provem ent im possible. C h a ra c
te riz a tio n co n sists, th e re fo re , not of an exam ination of m otives or
growth in any given c h a r a c te r , but of his juxtaposition with other people
who re p re se n t incom plete but different points of view. T hese juxtapo
sitions, which em phasize e ith er sim ila r or d issim ila r lim itations,
im ply the u n iv ersality of lopsidedness and the need for joining the v a r i
ous p a rtia l points of view into a com prehensive whole. In C rom e Y el
low , no one is capable of change, how ever, and each c h a ra c te r p r o
ceeds in an insentient stra ig h t line that leads only to the end of the
novel. P lo t, o r ra th e r, the lack of plot, reflects the c h a r a c te rs ' in
ability to act and the m ea n in g le ssn e ss of w hatever actions they m a n
age to p e rfo rm . Denis fo rm s the fram ew ork of the plot, com ing to
29
Crom e to woo Anne, failing, and finally retu rn in g to London with no
new insight o r p erson al gain. Ivor form s a counterpoint by com ing to
C rom e, ap p aren tly to v isit Anne, but wooing and winning M ary, who in
his m ind is not significantly different from Anne, and leaving to v isit
another w om an. D en is's c irc u la r inaction and Iv o r's lin e a r action a re
opposite e x tre m e s , but both a re significantly devoid of a v e rtic a l d i
m ension of significant in teractio n with other c h a ra c te rs o r philosop hi
cal m eaning. Thus in them e and technique this fir s t novel pro vid es an
introduction to all of H uxley's la te r novels; it is a polyphonic piece in
which the m onotonic n a tu re of each of the c h a ra c te r-v o ic e s and the
various d ish arm o n ies th at develop from th eir juxtaposition point to the
need not only fo r individual change but also for a com plete revam ping
of the p rev a ilin g ethos.
T he futility of co m partm entalized c h a ra c te rs ' attem pts to find
m eaning develops through th e ir distorted uses of love, relig io n , and
reaso n . T h ese trad itio n al so u rc es of value have been p e rv e rte d by
eg o cen tricity and com partm entalization, so that they lead a p e rso n only
back to his own incom plete self instead of helping him to find a m e a n
ingful place in a la rg e r schem e. "Love," for instan ce, c o n sists not of
giving but of taking and is larg ely a m a tte r of sexual p le a su re ra th e r
than of em otional o r intellectual com m unication. S im ila rly , "relig io n "
co n sists of a d e s ire to use God o r the Occult to fu rth e r the s p iritu a l
is t's e a rth ly ends, ra th e r than vice v e rsa , and of unexperienced
30
beliefs th at a re incom patible with m o re objective, ra tio n a l o b se rv a
tion s. F inally, rea so n , fo r all of its com forting logic and objectivity,
is lim ited by language and technique to sp heres that a re devoid of the
tra n s p o rtin g em otions of love o r religion o r even a e sth e tic s. Love,
relig io n , and rea so n , then, reflect the singlem inded attention to eith er
body, s p irit, o r in tellect of the lopsided c h a ra c te rs , and th ese th re e
th em es a re interw oven and counter pointed to show the need for in te g ra
tion of all th re e concerns into a com plem entary whole.
In C rom e Yellow, as in m o d ern W estern so ciety , love is the
m o st popular preoccupation of the th ree . The lo v e rs a re p resen te d
m o stly in p a irs that em body com plem entary e x tre m e s: one c h a ra c te r
is , like D enis, an intellectual incapable of acting, and the o th er is,
like Anne, an a cto r u n in terested in thinking. M ultiple c o u n te rp o in ts--
betw een the lo v ers within each p a ir, among the m a le s of the different
p a irs , the fem ales of the different p a irs , the in tellectu als of the dif
fe re n t p a ir s , the se n su a lists of the different p a ir s , and am ong the r e
lationships of the different p a irs --e m p h a siz e the u n iv e rsa lity of in d i
vidual co m p artm en talizatio n and the futility of th e ir c h a r a c t e r s '
attem p ts to love o r understand each other. The rela tio n sh ip s they have
a re a s e r ie s of u n satisfacto ry variations on a fa iry -ta le them e: Sir
H ercu les and F ilo m en a re p re se n t a rom antic ideal of love that none of
the o th ers can achieve, and the p resentation of so m any fa ilu re s points
to m any inadequacies of "The P re s e n t Age."
31
One of the facto rs th at im peded recognition of the se rio u sn e ss
and the u n iv ersality of H uxley's e a rly sa tire was "his habit of giving
his c h a ra c te rs the m a n n e rism s of living people w ell known in the con-
3
te m p o ra ry intellectual w o rld ." F o r his e a rly re a d e rs and c ritic s ,
"the im m ediate in te re s t of the ro m an a clef . . . som ew hat m asked
. . . [the] e sse n tia l s im ila ritie s " am ong the c h a ra c te rs and "the deeper
4
intent" of the s a tire . It is e a s ie r for la te r c ritic s and re a d e r s , r e
m oved fro m the w orld of G arsington and Lady Ottoline M o rre ll, to see
that M ary B raceg ird le and Scogan a re m ore im p o rta n t to the novel as
intellectual types than as p o rtra its of Dorothy C a rrin g to n and B ertran d
R u ssell. S im ilarly, P r is c illa W im bush is m o re im p o rtan t as a m is -
5
guided sp iritu a list than as a p o rtra it of Lady M orell. T his em phasis
on recognizable types ra th e r than on specific individuals is an im p o r
tant asp ect of Huxley's sa tire ; he is m o re in te re s te d in changing society
than in m e re ly producing hum or at the expense of individual people.
Denis and Anne se rv e as co m p lem en tary types whose s a tiric a l
counterpoint defines m any of the problem s of love in m o d ern W estern
society. Denis is the foolish young in tellectual, weighed down by
"twenty tons of ratio cin atio n ," which he can reco g n ize as a hindrance
but not rid h im self of. His ideas about love a re derived fro m l it e r a
tu re ra th e r than fro m his own life, and the d isc re p a n c ie s betw een his
hopes fo r his relatio n sh ip with Anne and the actual situation a re
rem a rk ab le for th e ir ubiquity as w ell as for th e ir d eg ree. Denis is
32
used iron ically as the f ir s t voice in a polyphonic com position, stating
the them e of rom antic love th at becom es so "deform ed" that it is found
again only in lite r a tu r e - - in D enis's own poem s and in M r. W im bush's
H istory of C ro m e .
Denis, then, is the in tellectu al ra is e d to the m o st ludicrous
power. In him , thinking is so to tally divorced fro m acting that the
relationship th at flo u rish es so beautifully in his head is com pletely
unnoticed by its object, Anne. Denis can n eith er te ll nor show Anne
that he loves h e r. At one point, he consoles h im self for his ineptitude
by m using, "P erh ap s that was the ideal kind of love, . . . the quiet,
th eo re tic al [italics m ine] kind of love."^ H uxley's ironic point of view
tow ard Denis is rev e ale d in the o m n iscien t observation, "It w as, like
all his em otions, ra th e r a th e o re tic a l feeling; it did not o v e rm a ste r-
ingly seek to e x p re ss itself in a p ra c tic a l dem on stration" (p. 23).
When Denis does a ttem p t a p ra c tic a l dem onstration, the re su lts
a re equally lu d icro u s. Im itating what "on the cinem a always looked an
e asy piece of h e ro is m ," he m an ag es to c a r r y Anne only "five s ta g g e r
ing ste p s" before being fo rced "to deposit his burden suddenly, with
som ething of a bum p" (p. 84 ). The ignom iniousness of his failu re is
in cre ased by the c o n tra st with Iv o r's easy su c c e ss in his am orous
advances to M ary in the sam e scen e. It is fu rth e r em phasized by the
c o n tra st with the achievem ents of the fictitio u s, rom antic lo v ers whom
he tr ie s , unsuccessfully, to em u late.
33
D enis's u n re a listic preconceptions a re com prehensive, includ
ing not only him self as lo ver but Anne as the loved one and the p o s s i
b ilities of th e ir relatio n sh ip as w ell. One of the m a jo r p ro g ressio n s of
C rom e Yellow is the grad u al e x p o su re of the foolishness of D enis's
unrealistic point of view. C o n trastin g with his e a rly rom antic view of
him self as lo ver a re A nne's seein g him as "sw eet," Gom bauld's seeing
him as A nne's victim , and Je n n y 's seeing him as an unsuccessfully
disguised, jealo u s, w ould-be lo v er. (D enis's o ther inflated vision, of
him self as a su ccessfu l w rite r , is deflated by Scogan's guessing the
plot of his novel and M rs. W im bush's pairing him with B arbecue-
Smith as a w rite r. ) S im ila rly co n trastin g with D en is's lite ra ry vision
of Anne as H am adryad a re the om niscient a u th o r's description of h e r
indolent p o stu re s, M a ry 's puzzling over h e r " 'curious [ironic] s m ile ,' "
and Gom bauld's p o rtra y a l of h e r exaggeratedly e x p ressio n less face and
vehem ently serpentine slo th fu ln ess. F in ally , D en is's hopeful expecta
tions for his rela tio n sh ip with Anne a re c o n tra sted with the actual s itu
ation, and he finally gives up and leaves ju st a s, ironically, Anne is
becoming in te re s te d in him . As Denis him self re a liz e s , the problem
of the intellectuals is th a t preconceptions d isto rt d ire c t perception, and
t h e r e f o r e ,"'one shouldhave liv e d fir s t and then m ade one's philosophy to
fitlife ,' " instead of the other way around. The irony is that this p h il
osophy of having no philosophy is itself a philosophy, and Denis is
caught in an ontological dead end th at re fle c ts his inability to escape
34
his conceptual approach to life. In C rom e Y ellow , intellectual p e r
ceptions only im pede; they offer no possibility of im provem ent.
As the p o rtra y a l of Anne, D enis's com plem ent, show s, the
answ er to the in te lle c tu a ls' p ro b lem is , how ever, not so sim ple as
replacing ex cessiv e c e re b ra tio n with none. F o r h e r, " 'life is so m uch
sim p ler,' " " 'you just take things fo r granted and as they c o m e .' " In co n
tr a s t to D enis's ineffectual philosophical po stu rin g s, h e r approach
seem s attractiv e and positive, but c lo se r inspection and la te r novels
rev e al serious lim itations to h e r kind of situational eth ics. Although
i
she is capable of acting, she has nothing to act for; except for her
quick organization of the f a ir, she does nothing in the whole novel
besides talk , lounge, and pose indolently fo r Gombauld. Sim ilarly,
her ability to see things as they a re , without preconception, and to
m ake up h e r m ind according to h e r own ta ste ra th e r than, like M ary,
according to the " f ir s t- r a te " notions of oth ers is ad m irab le but leads
to nothing. Although A nne's re a lis m em p hasizes the foolishness of
D enis's lite ra r y preco nceptions, his ideals devaluate, by contrast,
h e r indulgence of whim s w ithout thought of love o r responsibility.
D enis's ideal of love, though foolish fo r its u n re a listic evaluation of
the specific situation, points to a lack of depth in A nne's casually
taking everything as it co m es, w ith no se n se of ex citem en t or develop
m ent or future. T h ere is also a m o ra l laxity, as Gombauld peevishly
points out, in h e r refusing to take resp o n sib ility for toying with other
35
people's em otions. In C rom e Y ellow , everything is played in a light
key, and these deficiencies a re only touched on. In la te r books, how
ever, A nne's s u c c e s s o rs , M yra V iveash, M rs. Aldwinkle, and Lucy
Tantam ount, w ill fight u n su ccessfu lly with boredom and find th e m
selves unable to deal with the old age of a v alu eless, p lea su re -see k in g
life.
The relatio n sh ip betw een M ary and Ivor is c h a ra c te riz e d by the
sam e p ersonality c o m p lem en tarity and incom plete understanding.
M ary, with h e r "scien tific" ratio n ale for a sexual relation sh ip, is like
Denis, with his lite ra r y preconceptions and "twenty tons of ra tio c in a
tion." H er s im ila r lack of re a lis m and inefficacy in acting a re em pha
sized both by the unfo reseen negative resp o n se s of Denis and Gombauld
and by the unexpected involvem ent with Ivor. Typically, she explains
her in te re s t in Ivor by thinking, c o n tra ry to all objective data, that he
has "an in te restin g m ind," and she spends m o re tim e thinking about
him , sentim entally sleeping on "th e ir" tow er every night, than she
spent with him .
Ivor is a m o re e n erg etic, m ale versio n of Anne, acting as he
plea se s, taking things as they com e, and, in c o n tra st to M ary, e x e r t
ing no energy on planning, sentim entality, o r consideration of c o n se
quences. Since in this p a ir the c h a ra c te r who acts is m ale, th e re is ,
at le a st, a sh o rt-liv e d sexual relation sh ip. Iv o r's im pulses soon,
how ever, c a rr y him away fro m M ary into the a rm s of another, and it
36
is the re la tio n sh ip 's b rev ity and its lack of uniqueness o r em otional
involvem ent fo r Ivor th at Huxley em p h a size s. Iv o r's situationally
su ccessfu l but su p e rfic ia l style of loving is su m m arize d in the garden
scene in which he and Denis provide ironic counterpoint fo r each o th er.
While Denis is u n su ccessfu lly try in g to kiss the woman he is o b se ss e d
with loving, Ivor k isse s f ir s t Jenny because he m istakes h e r in the d a rk
fo r Anne and then M ary because she is th e re and Anne is not. Hux
ley 's ironic co m m en t on Iv o r's lack of fastidiousness is,
Anne o r M ary: M ary o r Anne. It didn't seem to m ake m uch dif
ference w hich it w as. T h ere w ere differences in detail, of c o u rse;
but the g e n e ra l effect was the sam e; and a fte r all, the g en eral
effect was the im p o rtan t thing, (p. 81)
Im plicit in the p a irin g of these p a ra lle l situations is c ritic is m of both
of the m ale lo v ers: Denis needs Iv o r's engaging spontaneity and his
ability to act and to laugh at h im self when he behaves aw kw ardly, but
Ivor needs to be m o re serio u s about his choice of sexual objects.
Iv o r's actions a lso im ply c ritic is m of Anne, since he re p re s e n ts h e r
attitudes c a r r ie d to th e ir logical e x trem e.
F u rth e r em phasizin g the c o n tra sts betw een Denis and Anne,
M ary and Ivor, and Denis and Ivor is that betw een M ary and Anne.
M ary ratio n alize s the need fo r sex; Anne enjoys it. M ary ro m a n tic iz e s
afterw ard; Anne does not. M ary re m a in s attached to the past; Anne
lives in the p re s e n t. In th e ir scene alone to g eth er, when M ary is
presenting h e r F re u d ia n ratio n ale for having a sexual relatio n sh ip , the
37
lim itations of the intellectual point of view becom e esp ecially c le a r.
With a se rio u sn e s s that is m ade ludicrous by A nne's am u sem en t and
c o n trastin g c a su a ln e s s, M ary "p ro v es" what Anne "knew . . . b e fo re ,"
th at re p re s s io n s a re dangerous and m u st be gotten rid of. M ary f u r
th e r invalidates h e r m ethod by deciding rationally (ra th e r than a c c o rd
ing to ta s te , as Anne suggests) who w ill be the agent of h e r lib e ratio n .
The ab ortive consequences of the decision, as well as A nne's "tight
c a t's sm ile " during the scene, m ake c le a r H uxley's view that fo r som e
decisions the u se of re a so n alone is woefully inadequate. In th is c a se ,
what is im plied is le ss a c ritic is m of reaso n p e r se than of an inability
to know when it is ap p ro p riate and when not.
Both M ary and Denis think about love with a sublim e u n a w a re -
n ess of the feelings of th e ir objects, and both are incapable of winning
the people they have chosen. Huxley counterpoints th e ir plans for
love with th e ir actual experiences to dem onstrate (to us, not to them ,
who a re incapable of escaping th e ir preconceptions) the inadequacy of
th e ir lite r a r y and psychological concepts. He develops th e ir ludicrous
s im ila ritie s chiefly through th e ir s im ila r co n trasts with Anne and Ivor,
but they also ap p ear in scen es together to em phasize th e ir fo o lish n ess.
The m o st iro n ic of th e se , in which they adm it how easy it is to be so
caught up in oneself that one does not even notice o th e rs , is e m b le m
atic of the whole novel. As they ex p re ss these sen tim en ts, each is so
caught up in h im self that he fails to notice what the other is saying.
38
What should be a dialogue is actually two p a ra lle l m onologues, e x e m
plifying D en is's conceptualization of everyone going in unm eeting p a ra l
lel lin es. One of the re c u rre n t th e m e s, illu stra te d h e re , is that c h a r
a c te rs talk and even voice im po rtant concepts, but they e ith e r do not
u nd erstan d what they a re saying or they cannot m odify th e ir behavior
accordingly. This is a com m on m alady for both the voices of rea so n
and the voices of the " sp irit," indicating the danger in both fields of a
d iscrepancy betw een th eo re tic al and experienced re a litie s .
Anne and Ivor provide a possible sa lu to ry com plem ent because
they a re re a lis tic and can act w ithout the im pedim ent of conceptualiza
tion. The re a lity they accept is lim ited, how ever, to a too-sup erficial
rela tio n sh ip with o th e rs. Although unlike M ary and Denis they can win
the lo v ers they want, the juxtaposition w ith Denis and M a ry 's c o n tra s t
ing ideals of love rev e als a lack in this m anipulation for the sake of
p lea su re in stead of love.
In addition to th ese, th ere a re m any l e s s e r , but sim ila rly u n
sa tisfa c to ry , "love" relatio n sh ip s, all em phasizing the se lfish n ess in
people's in te re s t in each other and the resu ltin g lack of understanding
of each other. M ary 's pu rsuit of Denis and then Gom bauld dem on
s tr a te s this m yopic egocentricity at its m o st ludicrous e x tre m e . H er
f ir s t choice fo r freein g h e rse lf fro m h e r dangerous d re a m s , D enis, is
so caught up in his own problem s with Anne th at he does not even
notice M ary 's designs on him. A ppropriate to H uxley's contrapuntal
technique, D enis's lack of a w aren ess of M a ry 's intentions for him is
p a ra lle l to A nne's lack of a w are n ess of his intentions for her. S ig
nificantly, D enis's rebuff brings to M ary no under standing of h e r m is
take: n ever guessing that his gruff rep ly to h e r question could be p e r
sonal, she sim ply concludes th at he m u st be "a m an who would not talk
se rio u sly to a wom an ju st because she was a w om an" (p. 51). T urning
fro m Denis to Gombauld, M ary le a rn s th at he, too, is u ninterested in
h e r sexually. His handling of the situation poses an im portant c o u n te r
point to D e n is's, how ever; he is m o re understanding and gentle, and he
wants to be left alone to paint, while the se lf-c e n te re d Denis only
w ants to be left "to savour his m is e ry in p eace" (p. 45). Even in the
position of pursued ra th e r than p u rs u e r, Denis suffers by c o n tra st with
a p a ra lle l situation.
The stru c tu re that th ese relatio n sh ip s fo rm is a richly tex tured
polyphony. Ju st as the M ary -Iv o r rela tio n sh ip is the re v e rse of the
D enis-A nne relation sh ip in te rm s of the p e rso n alitie s assigned to the
se x es, so is the M ary-D enis rela tio n sh ip the re v e rs e of the D en is-
Anne relationship in te r m s of p u rsu e r and unaw are pursued. S im ilarly ,
the M ary-G om bauld rela tio n sh ip is the r e v e r s e of the Gombauld-Anne
relationship in te rm s of p u rsu e r and u n in te re ste d (or what m ay be at
le a s t p artially feigned u n in te re st in Anne) pursued. And all a re a
counterpoint to the M ary -Iv o r rela tio n sh ip of p u rsu e r and willingly p u r
sued, which, in spite of its m utuality, ends as p recip itately as it
40
begins. The repetitio n of p a ttern s re in fo rc e s the incom pleteness of
each individual relatio n sh ip and also im plies an inability to le a rn fro m
one's own o r o th e rs ' p ro b lem s. In fact, this feeling of s ta s is , along
with the u n iv ersality of the d ilem m a, a re two of the m o st im p o rtan t
them atic functions of this contrapuntal technique.
The m a rria g e of H enry and P r is c illa W im bush provides a future
perspective on the rela tio n sh ip s of all the am orous young couples.
Being m a rrie d , the W im bushes ignore the whole question of love and
each other. It is c o n sisten t with the contrapuntal n atu re of all of the
relationships that, the dem ands of the body having been satisfied , M r.
W im bush has turned to living in the m in d 's re c o n stru ctio n of the past,
while M rs. W im bush has gone to the " S p irit's" fo re c a sts of the future.
In counterpoint to the W im bushes' genuine lack of in te re s t in
bodies, to D enis's ineptitude at physical love, and to Iv o r's unabashed
sensuality is the sham nonsen su ality of the Lapith s is te r s in the C rom e
history. T h eir pretending not to eat, because it is " 'so c o a rse , so
u n sp iritu a l' " (p. 94), c a ric a tu re s the C h ristia n glorification of the
sp irit at the expense of the body. U sed by the Lapiths as a ploy for a ttr a c t
ing lo v ers, it is also for Huxley a reduction ad absurbum of the " 'h o rrib ly
pregnant s ile n c e s ' " (p. 72) of V ictorian sexuality thatScogan denigrates.
The hypocrisy of both sta n c e s, coupled with the self-ev id en t n e ce ssity of
both eating and sex fo r su rv iv a l, im plies c ritic is m of both a church
and a society that pronounce the dem ands of the body antagonistic to,
41
and less elev ated than, those of the s p irit. The crow ning irony of the
incident is that the L apiths pretend to be unable to do what the inhabi
tants of C rom e a re genuinely and lud icrously incapable of doing: jo in
ing the needs of m inds and bodies into an in teg rated whole.
T he c o n tem p o rary co u n terp arts to this c en so rsh ip of sensual
enjoym ent a re M r. and M rs. Bodiham. Under the guise of being r e l i
gious, they refu se to let any n atu ral b rig h tn ess into th eir lives and find
it " 'disgusting' " th a t people a re s w im m in g - a s they peep fro m behind the
bushes to watch. Like the L ap ith s' feigned abstinence, the B odiham s'
apparent d isg u st is b ased on a false understanding of sp iritu ality , one
that n e c e ssita te s denying the p le a su re s of the body. The falsen e ss of
th eir position is suggested by th e ir unnaturally ironlike a p p e a ra n c e s,
by their h y p o critical v o y eu rism , and by the inauthenticity of B odiham 's
religion. T hat they a re the only unm itigatedly unpleasant c h a ra c te rs
in Crom e Yellow indicates H uxley's im patience with C h ristia n ity 's
p ro scrip tiv e view th at sp iritu a lity is incom patible with sensuality.
Such a view is as ex tre m e and ludicrous as M ary 's em phasizing se x u
ality over other p a rts of the p erso n ality under the aegis of "sc ien c e."
G om bauld's relatio n sh ip with Anne is different from any of the
above. He is the only p erso n in C rom e Yellow capable of e x p re ssin g
c ritic ism of a loved o n e , and the im portance of th is m ore re a lis tic
perception is em p h asized especially by c o n tra st with D enis's r e l a
tionship w ith Anne. Denis sees him self as a m ovie s ta r lo v er and Anne
as a H am adryad; n eith er he who loves nor she who is loved is rea l.
Com m unication and love a re th e re fo re im possible. Gombauld, on the
other hand, c a ric a tu re s Anne a s, if anything, w orse than she is, painting
her body as "m elting into a kind of soft decay" (p. 109) and "her face as
it would be, u tte rly unillum ined by the inw ard lights of thought and emo -
tion"(p. 110). Although he is d riv en to this negative extrem e because of
his fru stra tio n w ith Anne, his ability to see the actual person opens
the possibility of com m unication and th ere fo re of a re a listic re la tio n
ship. Significantly, how ever, G om bauld's understanding does not lead
to a sa tisfac to ry rela tio n sh ip w ith Anne. Although he can, in c o n tra st
to Denis, cou rt h e r and so m etim es tu rn his unsatisfied d e sire into
energy for painting, he is , as he re a liz e s , only slightly le ss a toy to
her than Denis is.
The co n trastin g counterpoint to all of the unsatisfacto ry r e l a
tionships in C rom e Yellow com es fro m h isto ry : the only couple who
approach a d e sirab le n o rm a re Sir H ercules and Filom ena of M r. W im -
bush's H istory of C ro m e . They re p re s e n t genuine love, a carin g for
each other ra th e r than m e re ly fo r th em se lv e s, a sharing of thoughts
and in te re s ts , and a balance of physical and em otional love. It is s ig
nificant fo r the co m p leten ess of the counterpoint that they a re shown not
ju st in the initial, exciting stage of an affair but from the beginning of
th eir courtship through y e a rs of a satisfying m a rria g e . Unhappily,
th ere is som e indication that th ese a re ra re fie d individuals; th e ir
43
sm all physical sta tu re and th e ir having lived so long ago im plies that
they re p re se n t m o re of an iro n ic c o n tra st than a re a liz a b le ideal for
the inhabitants of C rom e. T h e ir ending is also im portant. Being
sm a lle r than "n o rm al" people, they could not defend th em selv es when
the g ro ss, less-re fin e d w orld finally im pinged on and d estroyed th eir
little utopian kingdom. The im p licatio n is that although the tem ptation
for su p e rio r individuals is to w ithdraw fro m the p re se n t, im p erfect
society to c re a te a b e tte r environm ent, such an endeavor is futile b e
cause eventually one's iso latio n w ill be invaded. Society itself m ust
be changed, and the elite m u st help to bring this about ra th e r than w ith
drawing to th e ir ivory tow ers o r to the b rick w alls of C rom e. Huxley
w rites about the so cial e lite , but he recognizes th at C rom e is not the
whole w orld and can no lon ger afford to pretend to be.
Of the rem ain in g c h a r a c te r s , M r. B arbecue-S m ith is too
caught up in his (bogus) " 'P ip e -L in e s to the Infinite' " to be in te reste d
in loving, Scogan is too lopsidedly rational, and Jenny, locked into is o
lation by "the alm o st im p e n etra b le b a r r ie r s of h e r deafness!' (p. 12),
is em blem atic of them all. H er deafness is a sym bol with an ironic
tw ist, how ever, for she p rov es to be functionally less deaf to the needs
of others than those capable of physical hearing . Although her deafness
isolates h e r fro m the v e rb a l w orld (she su m m a riz e s M r. W im bush's
sto ry about G eorge winning G eorgiana Lapith by saying, " 'It's about
a h a m '" [p. 100]), and although h e r m isunderstandings often provoke
44
hum or at h e r expense, the b a r r ie r s of Jen n y 's deafness are only
"alm o st [italics m ine] im p e n etra b le ." Iro n ically , she has m o re insight
into o ther people than any other c h a ra c te r in the novel, as h e r re d
notebook astonishingly rev e als. Since she cannot p a rticip a te as the
others do, she is fo rce d into the ro le of o b s e rv e r. While they talk o r
think or act in unm eeting p a ra lle l lines (like the voices of a polyphonic
piece), she o b serv es them all and c a ric a tu re s th e ir p reten sio n s and
th e ir inadequacies. Although sh e, like everyone e ls e , does not r e
ceive unm itigatedly positive tre a tm e n t, h e r p e rsp ic a c ity fo rm s an
ironic c o u n te rp art to the se lf-c e n te re d obtuseness of the o th ers.
Jenn y's insights, how ever, only define the p ro b lem s ra th e r than offer
a solution; and in stead of helping to bring h e r out of h e r isolation, they
se rv e , if anything, to push h e r fu rth e r into it.
Love is one of the m ajo r so u rc e s of value th at has gone aw ry in
C rom e Y ellow . R om anticized into u n re a lity by D e n is, c o m p a rtm e n ta l
ized into c a re le s s play by Anne and Ivor, into a scientific phenomenon
divorced fro m em otion by M ary, into a d istra c tio n fro m his serio u s
w ork by Gombauld, into som ething c o a rse and disgusting by the Lapiths
and the B odiham s, into a subject only fo r talk by Scogan, and ignored
altogether by the o th e rs , its d isto rtio n s re fle c t the oddities of the
c h a ra c te rs involved. T hese d isto rtio n s also re fle c t the underlying
lacks of com m unication, concern, and value th at c h a ra c te riz e the age
for Huxley. The counter pointing of so m any c h a ra c te rs , sim ila r and
45
d issim ila r, with only H e rcu les as the co n trastin g , perhaps u n re a liz
able, no rm , effects a com prehensive vision of futility. P resu m ab ly ,
this futility will be conquered only when people relin q u ish th e ir u n re a l
istic preconceptions, find som e s o r t of value outside of th e ir own eg o
tis tic a l needs, and use th e ir m inds and bodies as integrated wholes.
Religion should be able to provide som e guidance in these
a re a s , especially the m iddle one, but, predictably, contem p orary
"religion" is as deform ed as c o n te m p o ra ry "love." People a re too
preoccupied with th em se lv e s to co m m it th em selv es to any tran scen d en t
principle or discipline. J u s t as the " lo v e rs" want th eir love objects
for the g ratification of th e ir own d e s ire s , the " sp iritu a lis ts " want God
for help in living th e ir own liv e s. Loving o r serv in g God plays a n e g
ligible role. Com m on to all of the " s p iritu a lis ts " are se lf-c e n te re d n e ss
and an unw illingness to take long but genuine routes to the ap prehen
sion of God's w ill. B a rb e c u e -S m ith 's "Inspiration" is only an ex ag
geration of the inauthenticity and lack of effort of the o th e rs ' paths.
As in the society it s a tir iz e s , C rom e Y ellow 's religious p r a c
tices range fro m people's to tal neg lect through passive church atten d
ing to constant preoccupation. The th re e religious enthu siasts r e p r e
sent th ree m ajo r "sp iritu a l" p o ssib ilities of the day: traditional
C hristianity, with its odious, p ro sc rip tiv e m orality; a num inous m e ta
physics, with its in sp irin g exhortations on "the Conduct of Life"; and
the Occult, with its s e c r e t insights into quotidien decisions. As
46
Huxley p o rtra y s them , they a re all th ree ludicrous because fo r those
who expound on them they a re , like the in tellectu als' lite r a r y and
"scien tific" p reconcep tions, v erb al constructs ra th e r th an e x p erien c ed
re a litie s ; they a re , as Huxley differentiates between them in Isla n d ,
belief r a th e r than faith:
Belief is the sy ste m a tic taking of unanalysed w ords m uch too s e r i
ously. P a u l's w o rd s, M oham m ed's w ords, M a rx 's w o rd s, H itle r's
w ords. . . . F a ith , on the c o n tra ry , can never be taken too s e r i
ously. F o r F a ith is the e m p iric a lly justified confidence in our
capacity to know who in fact we a re , to fo rg et the b elief-in to x icated
M anichee in Good Being. Give us this day our daily F a ith , but
d eliv er u s, d e ar God, fro m Belief. (Island, p. 40)
In la te r no v els, Huxley w ill p o rtra y m ore scathingly the d an g ers of
accepting such unexam ined belief. In C rom e Yellow , he is content with
the r a th e r b ro ad hum or a risin g fro m the discrepancy betw een the in
flated p rete n sio n s of the s p iritu a lis t and the deflating re a lity of the
situation, e x p re ss e d by the om niscient point of view and by c o n tra stin g
c h a ra c te rs . Although with relig io n Huxley provides no c o n stra stin g
sa tis fa c to ry n o rm as he does with love, his em phasis on the fo llies of
the p e rp e tra to rs of " sp iritu a l" paths im plies that it is the m isid e n tifi-
cation and m isap p licatio n of religio n ra th e r than religion p e r se th at
he is sa tiriz in g .
P r is c illa W im bush is the m o st likable of the th re e r e p r e s e n ta
tives of the "S pirit" becau se she is less pretentious than the o th er two
and also le s s h a rm fu l, since she does not try to convert anyone e ls e to
h er b e liefs. H er v e rsio n of spirituality, how ever, is as unauthentic as
47
th e irs . P a rtia lly this falsen e ss is shown through h e r lack of d ire c t
ex p erien ce, through her acceptance of belief in stead of faith:
T ry as she w ould--and she trie d h a r d - - P r is c illa had n e v er seen
a vision o r succeeded in establishing any com m unication with the
S p irit W orld. She had to be content with the re p o rte d experience
of o th e rs, (p. 85)
M ore hum orously, it is shown through the d iscrep an cy betw een her
p ro fe sse d beliefs and h e r p ra c tic e s. T h e re is a strik ing inconsistency,
for in stan ce, betw een h e r en dorsem ent of B a rb ec u e-S m ith 's d isp a ra g e
m en t of rich e s and h e r "costum e, so rich ly dow agerish, so suggestive
of the Royal F a m ily " (p. 5). This lack of application, coupled with
in ap p ro p riate application of religious in sig h ts, is the m o st striking
a sp ec t of M rs. W im bush's sp iritu ality . In stead of being uplifted by the
New Thought into new re a lm s of a w are n ess, she uses h e r new faith to
im prove h e r chances at h e r old habits; she can now bet "scientifically ,
as the s ta rs dictated" (p. 6). Still w earing h e r expensive clothes and
jew elry , and now, with h e r im proved m ethodology, betting on football
as w ell as on h e r beloved h o rs e s , she lives h e r old life w ith a few
trim m in g s added on; h e r p erso n ality has had m o re effect on the Un
seen than the U nseen, a nam e used iro n ic ally by Huxley, has had on
h e r life.
D enis, the intellectual, looks stro n g e st in c o n tra st to the
s p iritu a lis ts , and his skeptical reactions to M rs. W im bush's "beliefs"
provide the deflating, contrapuntal point of view. Contem plating the
48
"curiously im probable shade of o ra n g e " of h e r h a ir while she reads to
him about the "Infinite," he w onders, "Was it the R eal th in g ? " --h e r
h a ir, th at is (p. 8). Denis also se rv e s as a foil fo r h e r when, ra th e r
than exhibiting religious co m p assio n tow ard o th e rs , she rem ains so
caught up in h e r own concerns that she s ta r ts telling Denis about h e r
h oroscopes "without even being a w are th at she had in te rru p te d him "
(p. 5). Like m o st Huxley c h a ra c te rs , she is so unaw are of h e r aud i
ence that she does not notice his icy re sp o n se when she proudly tells
him for the seventh tim e about h e r v icto ry at the Grand National this
y e a r.
It is im p o rtan t th at what she says in not all ludicrous. In fact,
she e x p re ss e s one of H uxley's c e n tra l c ritic is m s of "the gaudy p le a
su re s of High Society" when she d e sc rib e s h e r own pre-Infinite life:
"I c a n 't think how I used to get on b e fo re -- in the Old Days. P le a
su re --ru n n in g about, th a t's all it w as; ju s t running about. . . .
It was fun, of c o u rse, while it la ste d . But th e re w a sn 't much
left of it a fte rw a rd s." (p. 7)
T his p u rsu it of sh o rt-liv e d p le a su re w ithout any long range purpose is
H uxley's m a jo r objection to the liv es of the people at C rom e. But
M rs. W im bush has not ris e n above this life as m uch as she thinks.
In spite of h e r rh eto ric (" 'when you do b elieve, all that happens m eans
som ething; nothing you e v e r do is in sig n ifican t' " [p. 7]), the authen
ticity of what she believes in is highly su sp ect.
M rs. W im bush, only a novice in sp iritu a l presum ption, is
49
tre a te d in a light, playful m a n n e r. M r. B arbecue-S m ith , se lf-
sa tisfie d and pom pous, receiv es m o re s e v e re c ritic is m . His physical
appearance, described in detail in his f i r s t scen e, p rejud ices the
re a d e r against him both because of its unpleasantn ess and because of
his com placent pride. "A sh o rt and c o rp u le n t m an with a la rg e head
and no neck," topped with "oddly unappetising h a ir" (p. 22), he has
m anaged to turn a seem ing physical sh o rtco m in g into a m a rk of d is
tinction:
In his e a rlie r m iddle age he h ad been d is tre s s e d by the absence
of neck, but was com forted by reading in Balzac 's Louis L am bert
that all the w orld 's g re a t m en have been m ark e d by the sam e
peculiarity, and for a sim ple and obvious reason: G reatness is
nothing m ore nor le s s than the harm onious functioning of the
faculties of the head and h e a rt; the s h o rte r the neck, the m ore
closely these two organs approach one another; a rg a l. . . . It
was convincing, (p. 22)
Like many of the sentim ents M rs . W im bush e x p re s s e s , the idea, that
g reatn ess is the harm onious functioning of the head and h e a rt together,
is not ludicrous (in fact it is one of the th em es of C rom e Yellow ), but
its application to physical proxim ity r a th e r than m etap hysical function
ing is.
His theories of w riting and relig io n b e ar the sa m e im p rin t of
m isapplied or m isunderstood profundity. "Inspiration," for instance,
to which he attributes all of his lite r a r y su c c e s s , is not som e s o rt of
ra re fie d communion with the s u p e rn a tu ra l, but a tim e - and la b o r-
saving device enabling one to w rite m any m o re w ords in the sam e
50
amount of tim e. In these scenes on lite ra r y theory, Denis acts as a
d istre s se d and disagreeing counterpoint to B arb ecu e-S m ith 's notions
that quantity, ra th e r than quality, of w ords is im portant. Even m o re
damning is B arbecue-S m ith's inability to understand, m uch le s s act on,
the inanities he has w ritten. He adm its that he does not " 'know ex
actly' " the m eaning of his ap h o rism , " 'The flam e of a candle gives
Light, but it also B u rn s' " (p. 28), but he a ttrib u te s the elusiveness to a
" 'gnom ic' "quality of the sentim ent ra th e r than to a deficiency eith er in
the epigram o r in his understanding. The title of his book, Humble
H e ro ism s, is p a rticu la rly ironic because of its juxtaposition with his
m anner of "Olym pian condescension." B arb ecu e-S m ith re p re se n ts a
popularized, bogusly inspiration al m o rality based on an undefined
m etaphysics. P a rtly it looks silly b ecause of his unjustified pom posity.
P a rtly , how ever, it looks silly because a code fo r the "Conduct of Life"
without a philosophical or religious sy ste m to give it authority is silly.
Of the th ree se lf-sty le d s p iritu a lis ts , M r. Bodiham is the m o st
unsym pathetically po rtray ed b ecause, as a re p re se n ta tiv e of the
C hristian church, he stands fo r the m o st h a rm . In keeping with his
sa tire of religious p ra c titio n e rs ra th e r than relig ion per se, Huxley
im m ediately d isso c iates the sentim ents of this angry m an, with his
"grey m etallic face" and "h a rsh ," "grating" voice, fro m those of God by
describing Bodiham 's unappealing p e rso n al appearance and the "brown
gloom" he has chosen to sit in in spite of the "b rillian t July w eather"
51
(p. 36). The im plication is that the h a rsh n e ss of B odiham 's attitudes
and serm o n s a re his own ra th e r than G od's. T h ese d escrip tiv e in d i
cations a re borne out by B odiham 's ex perience. H um iliatingly, God
does not tend to do what Bodiham p ro p h esies. In fact, he had one of
his serm o n s prophesying the im m inence of God's w rath and His d e
stru ctio n of the w orld printed, but
it was four y e ars since he had preach ed that serm on: four y e a rs,
and England was at peace, the sun shone, the people of C rom e
w ere as wicked and indifferent as e v e r - - m o r e so, indeed, if that
w ere possible. If only he could u n d erstan d , if the heavens would
but m ake a sign! But his questionings rem ain ed unansw ered.
(p. 47)
T he answ er that Bodiham cannot h e ar seem s to be th at God is less
angry and intolerant of the peace, sunshine, "w ickedness," and "indif
fe re n c e " of the E nglish than Bodiham is. Bodiham , the m in iste r, has
no m o re d ire c t com m unication with God than the other sp iritu a lists do,
and even in this e a rly novel Huxley differentiates betw een the c le rg y 's
p ro scrip tiv e preachings and God's d e s ire s .
In fact, Bodiham is m o re concerned with his own anger and his
own self-ag g ran d izem en t than G od's. F ro m the C h ristian point of
view, he is guilty of the sin of pride; he had had that "prophetic" s e r
m on of four y ears ago p rinted b ecause "it was so te rrib ly , so vitally
im portant that all the w orld should know what he [not God] had to say"
(p. 37). F ro m H uxley's point of view, he is guilty of em phasizing
duality ra th e r than unity of a hum an being and of try in g to m ake people
52
deny th e ir bodies and th eir joys for th eir souls and th e ir p le a su re le ss
duty to God. Unhappily for Bodiham but luckily fo r the E ng lish, B odi
h a m 's preaching is totally ineffectual, and it is th is lack of resp o n se ,
by his congregation as well as by God, th at u p sets Bodiham the m ost.
He gets so angry when his congregation sits in "polite sile n c e ," in stead
of sobbing and groaning as people did when S avonarola preached, that
th e re a re tim es "when he would have liked to b eat and kill his whole
congregation" (p. 37). Although it is God's anger that Bodiham
p rea ch e s, it is his own that Huxley p o rtra y s. As Bodiham tells h im
self, "Now, he did well to be angry" at God because he "su ffered " fro m
God's failing to fulfill his prophecy of gloom (p. 42).
Religion in C rom e Yellow is defined only negatively. The th re e
c h a ra c te rs who are concerned with it have no com m union with a s p irit
and no positive use for the m essa g es they supposedly rec eiv e . R ath er
than being com passionate and in te re ste d in helping o th ers with th e ir
so -c alled insights, they are se lf-c e n te re d , se lf-s a tisfie d , and p o m
pous. Bodiham is p o rtray ed the m o st c ritic a lly of the th re e because of
C h ristia n ity 's history of trying to enforce an u n n atu ral, p ro sc rip tiv e
m o rality through fear instead of try ing to fac ilitate positive religious
ex periences of joy and transcenden ce. Such relig io n has finally lo st
its im pact so that even for people who go to church, like M r. W im bush
and Ivor, it is only a m eaning less, weekly c erem o n y o r, fo r M ary,
only an excuse for being with Ivor. In C ro m e Yellow God is dead,
53
and the "New Thought" has not found anything capable of taking His
place.
In C rom e Yellow "love" is the concern of a lm o st everyone,
7
"religion" of a few, and "reaso n " of only one, Scogan. Unlike all of
the o th er c h a ra c te rs , who a re p ortrayed chiefly in te r m s of the lim i
tations of th e ir points of view, Scogan serv es two functions. One is to
act as a raiso n n eu r whose ratio n al abilities expose the illogical e m o
tional resp o n se s to such institutions as relig io n and the m ilita ry or
ex p ress w ell-in form ed lite ra ry ta s te s. (As such, he is im p o rtan t in
the context not only of C rom e Yellow but also of H uxley's la te r novels
because he e x p re ss e s m any of the c ritic ism s of society that w ill co n
tinue to concern Huxley for y e a rs . ) The other function, also indicating
H uxley's future tra in of thought, is to show the lim itations of rea so n
and the distortio ns that re s u lt fro m confining oneself exclusively to
that m ode of perception. Scogan is used in counterpoint to the oth ers
to define the problem s m o re c le a rly than they can, but, im portantly,
he can find no acceptable an sw ers. Ore of H uxley's m o st b asic p r e
m ise s is that th e re a re a re a s in which rea so n is e ith e r incom plete o r
inapp ropriate. In the la te r novels, the intellectual re a liz e s that r e a
son is a cul de sac and turns to other avenues for m eaning. Scogan,
how ever, only adm its defeat, and Huxley shows th at when re a so n
m otivates judgm ent and action without the leveling influences of e m o
tion or sp irit, the re su lts can range from logically insightful to
54
ludicrous to potentially dangerous.
The point of view tow ard Scogan so m etim es se e m s to be a m b ig
uous o r confusing because he does not have the faults the o ther c h a ra c
te r s do, and the s a tire of him is achieved in a d ifferent way. Unlike
the o th e rs , he has no illu so ry inflations of his own ab ilities to be punc
tu red , and since he alone is capable of logical rea so n in g , he propounds
his th eo ries and views without significant reb u ttal. T his im peccable
logic is his m o st form idable quality because it enables him to m ake
unacceptable th eo ries sound reaso nable and inevitable. Since what is
fallacious a re the p re m ise s fro m which he a rg u e s, Huxley u se s a te c h
nique which, ironically , Scogan him self e x p re s s e s , of c a rry in g th e se
p re m ise s to th e ir logical (and unacceptable) e x trem e. Huxley u ses
this approach m o st saliently in pointing to the dangers of Scogan's
th eo ries of governm ent, but he uses it to som e degree on all of Sco-
gan's th e o rie s. On less serio u s issu e s, Huxley s a tiriz e s Scogan
through d escription of his desiccated , liz a rd -lik e physical appearance
and through placing him in em otional situations in which he is totally
and ludicrously incom petent.
P re d ictab ly , Scogan is especially insightful in a re a s in which
the com pelling enthusiastic m ania draw s people into in tellectu ally in
defensible stan ces. C hristianity and the m ilita ry a re two such in s ti
tutions, and his debunking of them d e se rv e s b rie f m ention, e sp ecially
because of Huxley's increasingly vehem ent c ritic is m of c en tralize d
55
religio n and governm ent in the la te r novels. What Scogan d e p lo re s has
alread y been depicted by the th ree "re lig io u s1 1 c h a ra c te rs : an e m o
tional acceptance of read y -m ad e beliefs without any leavening in te lle c
tual exam ination by the individual. Scogan's rea ctio n is, fancifully,
to b e at the institutions at th e ir own gam e. Since he feels th at the " e le
gances of co stu m e" constitute a large p a rt of th eir a llu re , he suggests
that the c le rg y w ear " 'not only th eir c o lla rs , but all th e ir clo th es,
tu rn ed back to fro n t' " (p. 34).
One of Scogan's m o st im portant functions as ra iso n n e u r is to
announce som e of H uxley's lite ra ry goals. His approbation of the
T ales of K nockespotch e x p re sse s Huxley's rejectio n of the conventions
of re a lis tic w riting for a f re e r exploration of the hum an m ind. D e p lo r
ing "the d re a ry tyranny of the re a listic novel," Knockespotch d e c la re d ,
according to Scogan, " 'I am tire d of seeing the hum an m ind bogged in
a so cial plenum ; I p re fe r to paint it in a vacuum , fre e ly and sp o rtiv ely
bom binating" (p. 71). Such a reduction to e ssen ces in a vacuum is
a p p ro p ria te fo r a novel of ideas and also invites co m p ariso n w ith
Scogan's th eo ry of C a e s a rs , which sim ila ry deals with c h a ra c te rs
functioning in a void:
"T hey a re hum an beings developed to th eir logical conclusions.
Hence th e ir unequalled value as a touchstone, a stan d ard . . . .
I take each tr a it of c h a ra c te r, each m ental and em otional b ias,
each little oddity, and m agnify them a thousand tim e s ." (pp. 75-76)
The com bination of Scogan and K nockespotch's p ra c tic e s explains
56
H uxley's m ethod of ch arac teriza tio n . Huxley c a ric a tu re s people by
m agnifying com m on m ental and em otional b iases to show that, when
taken to th e ir logical conclusions, these attitudes a re ridiculous o r at
le a st inadequate. T hese exaggerations of tendencies, free d of the
m uddying in tru sio n of re a lis m , a re to se rv e as a c ritic a l touchstone
fo r the com m on m en tal and em otional attitudes of the day.
W ith people reduced to em otional and intellectual b ia se s, any
o rd in a ry kind of plot s tru c tu re is unw orkable. Huxley's stru c tu re ,
like K n o c k esp o th 's, co n sists of presenting intelligences and em otions,
reliev e d of c re d ib le p e rso n a litie s, in "in tricate dances," as Scogan
calls them , o r in polyphonic p a ttern s, as Philip Q uarles w ill call them .
The s tru c tu re is one of juxtaposition and sequence of m inds ra th e r than
of in te rac tio n and im pact of people. Scogan's description of K nockes-
potch's T a le s includes m uch of the technique and em phasis on ideas of
C rom e Yellow and la te r Huxley fiction:
"Fabulous c h a ra c te rs shoot a c ro ss his pages like gaily d re s se d
p e rfo rm e rs on the tra p e z e . T here a re ex trao rd in ary adventures
and still m o re e x tra o rd in a ry speculations. Intelligences and em o
tions, re lie v e d of all the im becile preoccupations of civilized life,
m ove in in tric a te and subtle dances, c ro ssin g and re c ro ss in g ,
advancing, re tre a tin g , impinging. An im m ense erudition and an
im m ense fancy go hand in hand. All the ideas of the p re se n t and
of the p a st, on every possible subject, bob up among the T a le s ,
sm ile g rav ely o r g rim a ce a c a ric a tu re of th em selv es, then d is
appear to m ake place for som ething new. . . . " (p. 71)
In c o n tra s t to B arb ecu e-S m ith 's lite ra r y advice to D enis, that
In sp iratio n w ill w rite itself, Scogan gives a blueprint for a m uch m ore
57
deliberate kind of w riting. The subject m a tte r is id e a s , past and
p re se n t, p o rtray ed by " 'fabulous c h a r a c te rs ' M capable of ex p ressin g
" 'sp ecu latio n s1 " outside the re a lm of o rd in ary m en. " 'A dventures' "
w ill be less im p o rtan t than the " 'intelligence and em otions' " that will
c ro s s , r e c ro s s , and im pinge. The c h a ra c te rs will be an elite (.01
percen t, according to P hilip Q uarles) because they will be able to
com bine " 'an im m en se erudition and an im m ense fancy' " (like Scogan).
This is w riting by the w ell-educated in tellectual, who can take as his
dom ain " 'all of the ideas of the p re se n t and of the p ast, on every p o s
sible sub ject' " and who cam then decide which will be allowed to
" 'sm ile gravely' " and which m u st " 'g rim ace a c a ric a tu re of th e m
se lv e s .' " It is also a d escrip tio n of a novel of ideas, with the " 'im
becile preoccupations of civilized life' " and the corresponding r e q u ire
m ents of the " 'd re a r y ' " re a lis tic novel rem oved.
Two im p o rtan t differences between Knockespotch and Huxley
should be noted: those of tone and intent. K nockespotch's T ales a re ,
according to Scogan, " 'lum inous,' " with, presum ably, no serious
intent behind the " 'e x tra o rd in a ry ' " su rface gaiety. Although C rom e
Yellow is the m o st " 'lum inous' " of Huxley's novels, the im plications
of its juxtaposition of u n iv ersally incom plete c h a ra c te rs a re se rio u s.
E specially when re lie v e d of the com plications of the " 'social plenum ,' "
intelligences and em otions, as well as s p irit (which is conspicuously
absent in Knockespotch), expose a need for attachm ent to som ething
58
to give them m eaning.
N aturally, such a b s tra c t w riting would appeal to Scogan, since
it concentrates on ideas and deals with em otions only as entities to be
exam ined ra th e r than experien ced, echoing Scogan's own p rac tic e. The
problem with keeping em otions at such a distance is th at it is th erefo re
easy to und erestim ate o r m isu n d erstan d them , for the e ssen ce of em o
tions is not susceptible to ratio n al understanding. One of the indica
tions of the se rio u sn e ss of Scogan's em otional deficiencies is his blithe
d ism issa l of an em otion that is so c ritic a lly m issin g in C rom e Yellow:
sym pathy. Noting people's callo u sn ess to " 'the m o st frightful h o rro rs
[that] a re taking place in every c o rn e r of the w orld' " (p. 77), he
applauds this stance as n atu ral and n e c e ssa ry :
"For if one had an im agination vivid enough and a sym pathy su f
ficiently sensitive re a lly to com prehend and to feel the sufferings
of other people, one would n e v er have a m o m en t's peace of mind.
A rea lly sym pathetic ra c e would not so m uch as know the m eaning
of happiness. But, luckily, as I've a lre ad y said, we a re n 't a
sym pathetic ra c e ." (p. 77)
It is im portant that Scogan can reco g n ize, as other do not, the p re v a
lent lack of sym pathy, but it is dangerous th at re a so n , when u n tem
pered by moiral values, can lead v e ry logically to the above conclusion.
Although of co u rse it would be u n d esirab le for everyone to be unhappy
constantly, this does not justify c ateg o rica lly cutting off all sym pathy.
In fact, Crom e Yellow is an exem plum of the incom plete relationships
that re s u lt from people's not thinking o r carin g enough about each
59
other. As Huxley shows in la te r novels, insulating oneself fro m
o th e rs ' feelings is lim iting on a p erso n al lev el and d isa stro u s on a
national level.
On the popular em otion, "love," Scogan d em o n stra te s a s im ila r
lack of understanding. Although his n o stalg ia fo r C h a u c e r's " 'jovial
fran k n ess r " about " 'A m our' " fo rm s a s a tiric counterpoint to M ary 's
s te rile , se rio u s, F reu d ian attitude tow ard love, he cannot conceive of
love as any kind of em otional com m itm ent and fo re c a s ts , with an u n
com fortable resem b lan ce to B rave New W o rld , an e r a of unattached
e ro s . He looks forw ard to the day when the fam ily sy ste m w ill d is
ap p ear, and " 'E ro s, beautifully fre e , w ill flit like a gay b utterfly fro m
flow er to flow er through a sunlit w orld ' " (p. 22). As he d e sc rib e s it,
it sounds, as Anne say s, " 'lovely, ' " but the actions of Ivor, who
alread y acts on this attitude, im ply H uxley's d isa g ree m e n t. The d e
ficiencies in Scogan's understanding of love, fo r him an intellectual
concept ra th e r than an em otional actuality, a re depicted m o st ludi
c ro u sly when, totally unaw are that he is in te rru p tin g anything, he asks
Denis to move to one end of the bench and Anne to the other so th at he
can s it betw een them .
S o m e tim e s, when he is adm itting his own inadequacies that he
has trie d to overcom e, Scogan's inability to ex p erien ce em otions is
m o re sym pathetically portrayed. The m o st im p o rta n t of these is his
defeat in trying to shed " 'my own boring n a tu re , m y insufferable m ental
60
s u rro u n d in g s '1 1 for the " 'strang e excitem ent and ex altatio n ' " of r e l i
gious and aesthetic em otions (p. 128). Since he was try in g to re a c h
sta te s that a re " 'in ex p ressib le, in te rm s of in te lle ct and logic' " (p.
128), he whose only tools a re intellect and logic " 'felt nothing' " (p.
129). The m an of re a so n finds him self in a cul de sa c , in which he
can identify the problem but can find no answ er. His resig n ed a c
ceptance of defeat con stitutes one of the few sym pathetic p o rtray a ls
of Scogan and e x p re sse s with poignance the se n se of lo ss for m o st
descendants of logical positivism :
"Since then I have given up all attem pts to take a holiday. I go on
cultivating m y old stale daily self in the resig n ed s p irit with
which a bank c le rk p e rfo rm s from ten till six his daily task .
(p. 129)
Although at the tim e of Crom e Yellow Huxley has no answ er
fo r the dilem m a in which he and Scogan find th e m se lv e s, he d is p a r
ages Scogan's too facile acceptance of fa ilu re , e sp e c ia lly in Scogan's
m onologues to Gombauld on the m e rits of cubism , and to Denis on the
lack of ultim ate point to the universe. In the f ir s t, Scogan says in
effect that, having failed in his efforts at tra n sc e n d e n c e , he now co n
fines h im self to re a lm s he can m a s te r. He th e re fo re likes cubism
b ecause it is the w ork of the hum an m ind ra th e r than of n atu re and is
th e re fo re com prehensible.
"N ature . . . d istu rb s m e; it is too la rg e , too com plicated, above
all too u tte rly pointless and incom prehensible. I am at home with
the w orks of man; if I choose to set m y m ind to it, I can u n d e r
stand anything that any m an has m ade o r thought." (p. 118)
61
One of the im p o rtan t fallacies in the above p assage is the joining of
" 'p o in tle ss' " with " 'incom prehensible;' " because som ething is the
la tte r obviously does not m ean that it is also the fo rm e r. S im ila rly ,
b ecau se he has not com prehended it yet does not m ean th at it is , in
fact, incom p rehensible. What is needed is a different kind of a p p re
hension that is not m ere ly ration al. The sa tiric point of view is even
m o re obvious in the continuation of this attitude to its log ical, C a e
s a ria n ex trem e:
"T hat is why I always tra v e l by Tube, never by bus if I can p o s
sibly help it. F o r, travelling by bus, one c a n 't avoid seeing,
even in London, a few stra y works of G od--the sky, fo r exam ple,
an occasional tr e e , the flow ers in the windowboxes. But tra v e l
by Tube, and you see nothing but the w orks of m an. . . (p. 118)
Scogan sees his own attitude as n a tu ra l because a ll philosophies
and relig io n s a re , according to him , escapes fro m the in c o m p re h e n
sible:
"All philosophies and all relig io n s--w h at a re they but sp iritu a l
T ubes bored through the u n iv erse ! T hrough these n a rro w tu n
n e ls, w here all is recognizably hum an, one tra v e ls com fortab le
and se c u re , contriving to fo rg et that all round and below and above
them stre tc h e s the blind m a s s of e arth , endless and unexplored.
Y es, give m e the Tube and Cubism us e v ery tim e; give m e id ea s,
so snug and neat and sim ple and well m ade. And p re s e rv e m e
fro m n a tu re , p re s e rv e m e fro m all th at's inhum anly la rg e and c o m
plicated and o bscure. I h av en 't the courage, and, above all, I
h a v en 't the tim e to s ta rt w andering in that lab y rin th ." (p. 118)
Huxley, how ever, is d issatisfied with accepting such a lim ited scope.
The c o n tra st betw een the " 'n arro w tunnels' " and the " 'en d less and
unexplored' " u n iv erse com pletely surrounding th em points to the con-
62
stric te d n e s s of Scogan's point of view. The w aste of energy involved
in co n stan tly " 'contriving to fo rg e t,' " as w ell as the p re c a rio u sn e ss
and fa ls e n e s s of such a stan ce, im plies Huxley's d e sire to explore
ra th e r than to forget. Scogan's contention that he does not have the
tim e to explore is the trad itio n al lam e excuse that Huxley re je c ts ;
Scogan has nothing but tim e . What he does lack a re , as he notes,
co u rag e, w ill, and knowledge of m eans. W estern philosophies and
religions, do not provide sufficient guidance because in th eir fo rm u la
tions of "tru th " they d isto rt. H ere is the basis for Huxley's d e p a rtu re
fro m d o c trin a ire religions to support those that guide th eir follow ers
tow ard re v e a le d , individual religious experiences.
Scogan's final scen e fu rth e r em phasizes H uxley's view th at
ignoring the problem is not the answ er. C h a ra c te ristic a lly , since
what D enis is p ertu rb e d about is love, Scogan m isunderstands his
p ro b lem and r e a s s u re s him:
" It's m o s t d is tre s s in g if one allows oneself to be d istre sse d . But
th en why allow oneself to be d is tre s s e d ? A fter all, we all know
th a t th e r e 's no ultim ate point. But what difference does that m a k e ?
. . . It m akes no difference, none w hatever. Life is gay all the
s a m e , alw ays, under w hatever c irc u m sta n c e s--u n d e r w hatever
c irc u m s ta n c e s ." (p. 148)
When he is by h im self, how ever, Scogan loses som e of his c o m p la
cency and begins rum inating. " 'Under w hatever c irc u m s ta n c e s,' he
re p e a te d to him self. It was u n g ram m atical to begin with; was it tr u e ?
And is life re a lly its own re w a rd ? He wondered. " Scogan is left on
63
this unresolved note, im plying that th ere is , at le a st, m o re in v e stig a
tion to be done, and the novel leaves the question, " 'Why allow o n e
self to be d is tre s s e d ? ' " dangling m enacingly (p. 148).
One an sw er to this question is im plicit in H uxley's attitude
tow ard Scogan's th e o rie s of governm ent. His blueprint for a Rational
State is e x tre m e ly log ical, given his p rem ise of the inability to t r a n
scend o n e's sta le , daily self, but it is for Huxley the m ost dangerous
of Scogan's m isu se s of rea so n . Scogan's acceptance of too little p o
tential fo r the individual allows him to value the individual's serv in g
the sm ooth and efficient functioning of the state over the sta te 's s e r v
ing the individual. (If one c a n 't find value in his own life, he m ight as
w ell find it in serving a collective unit.) Huxley f ir s t indicates his d is
a g re em e n t w ith this em phasis on efficiency fo r the state over freed o m
fo r the individual through Scogan's C aesarically e x tre m e w illingness to
reduce people to the status of the anim als on M r. W im bush's Home
F a rm : " 'In this fa rm we have a m odel of sound p a te rn al governm ent.
Make them b re e d , m ake them w ork, and when th e y 're past w orking o r
breeding or begetting, slau g h ter th em ' " (p. 19). His vision of " 'sound
p atern al governm ent' " goes beyond m e re reduplication of the " 'in d e
cency and c ru e lty ' " of the fa rm , however; it includes the " 'im p ro v ed ' "
m ethod of propagation, m ade possible by " 'the goddess of Applied
Science' " (p. 22), that is actualized in B rave New W orld: " 'In v a st
in cubators, row s upon row s of gravid bottles w ill supply the w orld with
64
the population it re q u ire s ' 1 1 (p. 22). The ironic tone is indicated by
the concept th at the w orld will be supplied the population " 'it' " r e
q u ires; people, like a n im als, a re only instru m en ts fo r a higher, a b
s tra c t power.
At another point in C rom e Y ellow , Scogan e x p re sse s som e of
Huxley's d issatisfactio n with the p re se n t society when he d escrib es the
hum an situation as one of th re e concentric c irc le s of lim itation: s o c i
etal lim itations within individual lim itations within hum an lim ita tio n s.
Huxley, like T h ird F o rc e p sy c h o lp g ists, believes that p re se n t c u l
tu ra l expectations a re u n n e c e ssa rily co n strictiv e and a re responsible
for m any of the deficiencies the C rom e inhabitants exhibit. Scogan
p ro p o ses, how ever, to a m e lio ra te the situation by purchasing "happi
n e ss" at the unacceptable p ric e of even m o re lim ited individual f r e e
dom. Based on the assum ption that people a re incapable of choosing
what is best for them and also, som ew hat plausibly, that they are not
susceptible to ratio n al urging, he proposes a p ro cess of change th at
u tilizes " 'a sane and reaso n ab le exploitation of in san ity .' " (Insanity in
this context m eans unreasoned em otion.) In a state uncom fortably like
that of B rave New W orld, D irecting Intelligences w ill have com plete
control and w ill condition Men of F aith to believe in, and in tu rn c o n
vince the H erd of, w hatever dogm as the Intelligences choose. All but
the Intelligences w ill be com pletely conditioned to believe in the s ig
nificance of th e ir coglike, controlled lives and w ill be "'m arv elo u sly
65
happy, happier than any ra c e of m en has ev er been. They will go
through life in a ro sy state of intoxication, fro m which they will never
awake . . . 1 " (p. 116). One-of the points Huxley m akes consistently
throughout his c a re e r is that ends n ev er justify im p ro p e r m eans.
Another of his consistent points is that individual freed o m of choice is
of param ount im p o rtan ce, even if it com es down to, as the W orld D i
re c to r puts it to the Savage in B rave New W orld, freed o m to choose
unhappiness.
C rom e Yellow is a tightly stru c tu re d polyphonic novel pointing
to the p ervasive jaundice of tw en tieth -cen tu ry W estern society. In
addition to the interplay of the v ario u s c h a ra c te r-v o ic e s , the d e s c rip
tion and im agery heighten the effects of lim itation, lack of value, and
even of foreboding. C rom e itse lf, the rep o sito ry of y e a rs of a ris to
c ratic acquisitions and re p re se n tin g the a ris to c ra tic way of life, is
"se v ere , im posing, alm o st m en acin g " (p. 47). D escribed from
an om niscient point of view, it "lo o m s" and "to w ers" over the
p resen t inhabitants and th rea te n s to engulf them in " a u ste re flesh -
m ortifying antiques" (p. 4) like A nne's bed that re se m b le s "a great
square sarcophagus" (p. 29).. The em phasis on m o rta lity is high in
this "dead, d e serte d P o m p eii" (p. 3) in which "am ong the accum ula
tions of ten generations of living had left but few tr a c e s " (p. 4). The
crux of this "alm ost m enacing" a sp ec t, a p h rase that is repeated, is
e x p re ssed by Scogan. F o r him " 'the g rea t thing about C ro m e' " is its
66
rebellion against n a tu re . As such, it e x p re ss e s " 'the grand unnatural
rem o ten ess from the cloddish life ' " of the " 'sophisticated m an ' " (p.
47). Although the relation sh ip betw een the house and its inhabitants is,
like everything Scogan sa y s, logical, this assum ption of " 'unnatural
[italics m ine] re m o te n e ss' " fro m n atu re and the r e s t of m ankind tolls
the death knell for the a risto c ra c y .
Struggling in the shadow of C ro m e, individual c h a ra c te rs e x
p re s s through th eir physical id io sy n cra cies th e ir m en tal and em otional
deficiencies. Scogan, the "extinct sa u ria n ," re p re s e n ts the "dry,
scaly , desiccated" pow ers of reason; Bodiham re p re s e n ts the "iron"
w ill of C hristianity; B arbecue-S m ith re p re s e n ts the sp u rio u s, neckless
joining of m ind and h e a rt. M ore generally, people a re asso ciated with
im ages of co n stric te d n ess. Jenny is locked behind the "alm o st im
penetrab le b a r r i e r s " of h e r deafness and "the ivory tow er of h e r
deafness" (p. 15). Gom bauld's painting shows "a c e n tra l gulf of d a rk
n e s s " (p. 83), and M r. W im bush, m o re at hom e with the unchangeable
past than with the " 'unknown and unknowable q u an tities' " (p. 142) of the
p re se n t, focuses on antique, obsolete "oaken d rain pipes" (p. 141).
In addition to th ese, th e re a re th re e im a g es, s im ila r in ph y si
cal shape and sym bolic suggestion, that a re connected specifically with
philosophical considerations. E x p re sse d , a p p ro p ria te ly , by one of the
lo v ers, one of the religious m en, and by the m an of rea so n , they a re
D enis's "parallel lin e s," B arb ecu e-S m ith 's "P ip e -L in e s to the
67
Infinite," and Scogan's "narrow tunnels" o r "T u b es." All th re e in d i
cate the n a rro w n ess of focus and the isolation that c h a ra c te riz e the
inhabitants of C ro m e, and with the p o ssib le exception of D en is's p a ra l
lel lin e s, they indicate people's im position of th ese lim itatio n s on
th e m se lv e s.
D enis, the lov er, is preoccupied w ith the absence of in te r
personal com m unication:
P a ra lle l stra ig h t lin es, Denis refle cted , m e e t only at infinity.
. . . Did one ev er estab lish contact w ith anyone ? We a re all
p a ra lle l stra ig h t lines. Jenny was only a little m o re p a ra lle l
than m o st. (p. 14)
T ypically, Denis is in c o rre c t in his evaluation of Jenny. In som e ways,
as we have noted before, Jenny is le ss p a ra lle l than m o st, but the gen
e ra l im plication is accu rate. B arbecue-S m ith, the m an of "relig io n ,"
is preoccupied with "P ip e-L in es to the Infinite." Significantly, the
w ord "lin e s" and its relatio nship to "infinity" a re p re se n t in both
im ages. The im position of hum an lim itatio n s on the " U n iv e rse 's"
m essa g es is m ade explicit when B arb ecu e-S m ith a n sw e rs D en is's
question about w hether or not the U n iverse ev er sends " 'irre le v a n t
m e s s a g e s ' " 'I don't allow it to . . . 1 canalize it. I bring it down
through pipes to w ork the turbines of m y conscious m in d ' " (p. 27).
The re a so n that the religious c h a ra c te rs and the lo v ers can h e a r n e i
th e r God nor th e ir lov ers is th at they in s is t on canalizing, form ing
preconceptions, lim its within which the m e s sa g e s have to fit; God and
68
lo v ers are to tu rn th e ir minds as they w ish. Scogan e m p h a size s this
hum an choice and generalizes it to include all religions and ph ilo so
phies, when he d escrib es them as " 'narrow tu n n els' " and " 'sp iritu al
T ubes bored through the u n iv erse.' " Unlike Bodiham , he recognizes
th at he is sim plifying and th erefo re distortin g, but he is w illing to do
so because he thinks that security is m o re im p o rtan t, and m o re a c c e s
sib le, than truth.
B arbecue-S m ith is unaware of his lim itatio n s, Denis is aw are
but unable to change, and Scogan is aw are but unw illing to change. To
the extent that Scogan is aw are and also capable of change, he is th e
m a tic a lly the m o st im portant c h a ra c te r in the novel. At the tim e of
C rom e Yellow , Huxley was in the position of Scogan, sa tiriz in g peopled
illo g ical p reju d ices, carry in g them to th e ir logical e x tre m e s to expose
th e ir fo o lish n ess, but lacking m ethods fo r reaching positive a lte rn a
tiv e s. He was c ritic a l of contem porary religious p ra c tic e s , but he
also re a liz e d th at th ere w ere im po rtant hum an needs that could not be
m e t by in tellectu al p ro ce sses alone. In the next two n o v e ls, Antic Hay
and T hose B a rre n L e a v e s, he showed again his d isillu sio n m en t with
co n te m p o ra ry C hristian ity, "love," and rea so n , and by the tim e of
P o in t C ounter Point he was ready to pit the c h a ra c te rs following these
paths against a c h a ra c te r embodying the sen su al m y s tic is m of
D. H. L aw rence.
69
Notes
*The w ord "lop-sided" com es from Philip Q u a rle s's notebooks
in P o in t C ounter P o in t, but the concept p e rta in s to the c h a ra c te rs of
C ro m e Y ellow .
2
Je ro m e M eckier, "Satire: E ccen tricity and P h a ro a h 's
D ream "; "S atire: Split-M en and the Q uest for W holeness," Aldous
Huxley: S atire and S tructu re (New York: B arnes & Noble, 1969),
pp. 12-40.
3
G eorge Woodcock, Dawn and the D arkest Hour (New York:
Viking P r e s s , 1972), p. 63.
4
Ibid.
5
See P e te r F irchow , Aldous Huxley: S a tirist and Novelist
(M inneapolis: U niversity of M innesota P r e s s , 1972), pp. 58-59, for
a m o re com p lete identification of c h a ra c te rs .
£
Aldous Huxley, C rom e Yellow (New York, T oronto, London:
G ro sse t & Dunlap, Inc. , Bantam Books, 1968), p. 110. (All other
quotations fro m C rom e Yellow in this chapter are indicated in text by
page num ber.)
7
D enis, M ary, and M r. W imbush all have som e academ ic
knowledge in various a re a s , but all three a re caught within the web of
this knowledge. Only Scogan can go beyond m e re knowledge to com bine
facts and reaso n in g ability to c re a te original concepts.
CHAPTER II
POINT COUNTER POINT; A STUDY IN
INCOM PLETE COMPLETENESS
Antic Hay and Those B a rre n Leaves a re so s im ila r to C rom e
Yellow in both subject m a tte r and technique that extensive an alysis is
not n e c e ssa ry . T h ere is som e philosophical developm ent, how ever,
that w ill be in te rru p te d by Point Counter Point and B rave New W orld
and then resu m ed in H uxley's la te r w orks, that d e serv e s b rie f m ention.
C rom e Yellow e x p re sse s H uxley's c ritic is m of tw entieth-
century attitudes and values through ironic juxtaposition of sta tic c h a r
a c te rs who re p re s e n t sim ila r and contrasting e x tre m e s. The only
positive coun terpoints, Sir H ercules and som e of Scogan's in sig h ts,
a re negligible. In Antic Hay th e re a re two levels of contrapuntal te n
sion. One is, like that in C rom e Y ellow , among the v arious " 'lop
sid ed ' " c h a r a c te r s . The new one is between the fran tic activity of this
unthinking "h erd" and the intuitions of deep quiet by G um bril Senior,
Lypiatt, and G um bril Junior with Em ily.
The futility of the actions and lives of the m a jo rity is contained
in th re e se ts of im ages. The f ir s t of these is the c a ric a tu rin g of
70
v irtu ally e v ery c h a ra c te r in the novel as som e s o r t of anim al to show
his subhum anness. T h e re is also collective com parison to m onkeys,
m aggots, m ach in es, m a ltre a te d anim als, and an easily m anipulated,
unthinking h erd . The second pattern is a repetition of im ages of c i r
cu la rity , so m e tim es in connection with a cage,to show the p o in tle ssn e ss
and lack of p ro g re s s of th e ir actions. The m o st im po rtant of th ese is
a sso c iated with that g re a t dehum anizing fo rce, science. In te rm s th at
a re only seem in gly paradoxical, Shearw ater pedals his bicycle "round
and round" but re m a in s "statio n ary "; he fancies that he is "escaping,"
but he re m a in s "caged . . . in this hot box," fran tically pedalling on
his "nightm are road."* His sw eaty ex ercise is as pointless as his
m utilation of the anim als that a re surrounding him in the lab o ra to ry .
The other im p o rtan t im age of circ u la rity , the L ast Ride of G um bril
Junior and M yra, which keeps going through P icadilly C ircu s, shows
the futility of the predom inant occupation, pursuing p le a su re . The
final im age is the "unceasing St. V itus's dance" of the lights of P ic
cadilly, w ith which M yra identifies. They are for G um bril Junior
" 'the epileptic sym bol of all th a t's m ost b estial and idiotic in co n
te m p o ra ry life, . . . r e s tle s s n e s s , distraction, refu sal to think, any-
2
thing for the unquiet life .' "
C ounterpointed w ith this bestiality, " 'total p o in tle ssn e ss,' " and
" 'r e s t le s s n e s s ' " of the " 'unquiet life' " is a re a lm of hum an p ro p o r
tion, m eaning, and rep o se. G um bril Senior, who is distinguished
from his fellow a rc h ite c ts by his valuing beauty and hum an dignity in
a rc h ite c tu re over financial su c c e ss, finds intim ations of "m y stery and
3
. . . endless depths" as he sits quietly listening to his b ird s every
evening. L ypiatt, who finally d esp airs of his life of d ram atic g e stu re,
lies quietly until everything seem s "very sm all and beautiful; every
4
frightening convulsion had becom e no m o re than a rip p le ." G um bril
Junior d e sc rib e s this quiet w orld m o st fully. Specifically contrasting
it with all the " 'c ir c u la r ,' " o rd in ary preoccupations that produce only
frag m en ts, he d e sc rib e s this as a " 'c ry sta l w orld' " that " 'grow s' "
and becom es in cre asin g ly " 'p e rfe c t' " and " 'beautiful.' " It is a frig h t
ening re a lm , how ever, because it th rea te n s to extinguish " 'all the
re g u la r, habitual, daily p a rt of you.' " Although he and E m ily, a
"native to that c ry s ta l w orld," m anage to slip out of tim e and o rd in ary
preoccupations fo r one night of peacefulness "in the calm of the en-
5
chantm ent," G um bril allows M yra to pull him back into the r e s t l e s s
ness of the quotidian w orld.
On a p e rso n al level, the c o n tra st is between this quiet and the
subhum an, p o in tle ss, r e s tle s s activity which the h e rd u ses as a d e
fense against the quiet. On the collective level, the c o n tra st is betw een
G um bril S e n io r's m odel of C h risto p h er W ren's plan for a London that
would enable people to feel "m agnificent, strong, and fre e " and the
squalid conditions that w ere chosen instead. This m odel stands for
the im agination of m an, able to conceive of beauty and nobility and
73
gran d eu r, for the a rtis t who loves his w ork enough to m ake m odels of
beauty without thought of m o n etary com pensation, and for the generous
s p irit of G um bril Senior, who se lls his labor of love so that his frien d
Porteous can re c la im his books. It also stands in ironic juxtaposition
to the h e rd 's p re fe re n c e of the fa m ilia r, even of squalor and "foul
sm e lls," over idealistic "re a so n and beauty."
The final note of Antic Hay is defeat. W ren's plan fo r London
was not executed, G um bril Jun ior dawdles too long with M yra and
loses E m ily, and the novel ends with S h earw ater pedalling p oin tlessly
and M yra re s tle s s ly suggesting a v isit she w on't enjoy. The con
sum m ate ironic im age is the Com plete Man. Although capable of m a k
ing a sta rtlin g e x te rn al tra n sfo rm a tio n of appearance, G um bril is
unable to overcom e his t e r r o r of encroaching quiet and th e re fo re
retu rn s to the em pty g e stu res of St. V itus's dance.
In all of H uxley's novels, the negative and the positive have an
im portant .contrapuntal relationship. The m o re futile the debaucheries
of the C olem ans appear, the m o re insupportable the boredom of the
M yras, the c u te r the civilization of the M ercaptans, the m o re in ad e
quate the striv in g s of the L y piatts, the m o re loathsom e the conform ity
of the h e rd and its m anipulation by the B olderos, the m o re inhum an the
science of the S h e a rw aters, and the m o re unsatisfying religion, edu
cation, b u sin e ss, and flirtatio u s affairs becom e, the m ore im p o rtan t
the existence of sp iritu a l quiet becom es. T his, in fact, is the
74
m ajo r th ru s t of H uxley's next novel, Those B a rre n L ea v e s.
G um bril Ju n io r is an im provem ent over Denis because he can
leave behind the "hardly believable preaching" of the R everend P elvey
and the futile teaching of h isto ry , but then he gets caught in a ru t that
is no b e tte r. His d e sire s to be the Complete Man as lover and c a p ita l
is t outweigh his d e sire s to be the com plete sp iritu a l m an. In the end,
he only trie s another physical escape. Calam y begins a step ahead of
G um bril Ju n io r. A lready satiated with success as a w rite r and as a
lover when the novel opens, he cannot d istra c t him self fro m his s p i r i
tual journey through his affe.ir with M ary Thriplow . He th e re fo re
becom es the f i r s t Huxley c h a ra c te r to renounce "the futile noise and
b u stle" for "the g re a t s e c re t, the beauty, and the m y ste r."^
Since he m akes this renunciation at the end of the novel, we
7
can only w onder with him , " 'what was to come of this p a rtin g ?' "
The im p o rtan t a sp ec t fo r the developm ent of H uxley's thought is the
pitting of the m ay a of the daily w orld against the "rea lity " that can be
reached through contem plation. Accepting the belief com m on to
"Gotam a, J e s u s , and Lao T se " that one m u st be " 'fre e ' " fro m quo
tidian " 'a m u se m e n ts,' " C alam y hopes to reach " 'beyond the lim itations
of o rd in ary ex isten ce and . . . see that everything that se em s re a l is in
fact en tirely illu s to r y - - m a y a , in fact, the cosm ic illusion. Behind it
g
you catch a glim pse of re a lity .' " An extension of E m ily 's rem o v ed ,
quiet w orld, this is the beginning of "the perennial philosophy" th at w ill
75
play such a la rg e ro le in Huxley's later thought and w riting. T hose
B a rre n L e a v e s , how ever, p o rtray s the possibilities of the c o n te m
plative life m u ch le ss fully than it po rtrays the rea so n s and the need
fo r it.
The p ro b lem s with the life that m u st be reje cted still revolve
around the sh o rtco m in g s of W estern religion, intellectu al d e ssic atio n ,
and "love." W estern religion, riddled with doctrine and ritu a l, is
c a ric a tu re d as so m uch "baa baa," the "incom prehensible re s p o n s e s "
9
betw een the p r ie s t and his "bawling flo ck ." (An obvious advantage of
C alam y 's contem plation is that it is a p erso n al, e x p erien ced re a lity
r a th e r than an a b stra c t, sym bolic r itu a l.) Intellectual so phisticatio n
m e e ts defeat e sp ec ially in confronting death; C ardan, facing old age
and lonely death, sees life as a "farce which is hideous . . . and in
the w o rst of bad ta ste . F o r M rs. Aldwinkle, the p a tro n e ss of A rt
and Love, life is not always so tedious. Although she, too, is afraid
of old age, sh e usually m anages to "inebriate" h e rs e lf by thinking h e r
se lf in love and then pouncing on her new est victim , like a " 'm a n -
eating' " bitch. O thers im itate, for varying re a so n s, h e r ch ase of
som eone to love fo r th e ir own ends. T h ere are two situ atio n s, how
e v e r, which su g g est the possibility of genuine love. M rs. C h elifer,
though not involved in any rom antic relationship, stands in d ire c t
counterpoint to M rs. Aldwinkle; gentle, patient, giving, and undem and
ing, she re p re s e n ts agape ra th e r than e r o s , as she c a re s f i r s t fo r
76
G race and then for the stra y cats in the Forum . The o th er c o u n te r
point to M rs. A ldw inkle's glorification of passion and absence of g iv
ing is the love of Irene and Hovenden. Although they a re young and
in ex perien ced , they genuinely c a re fo r each other and find deep h a p
piness in th e ir relationship. In fact, they find m o re joy than anyone
else in the novel.
C alam y has the la st w ord in T hose B a rre n L e a v e s , but genuine
relig io n and genuine love, both of which are counterpointed with less
genuine exam ples of th eir ilk, a re fa irly evenly balanced. Not only is
the love of Iren e and Hovenden positive, but it is also different fro m
anything C alam y leaves behind. C alam y, either for congenital or
situ ation al re a so n s, has had only affairs ra th e r than love, and these
proved to be insufficient d istractio n fro m the contem plative life.
Although he feels that the p lea su re s of good food and am o u r a re in co m
patible with his sp iritu a l quest, C alam y does not claim th at the con
tem p lativ e life is the only answ er. He adm its that th e re a re m any
paths, and Those B a rre n L eaves shows that genuine love, as opposed
to M rs. A ldw inkle's devouring p assion, is also a so u rc e of m eaning
and joy.
The equality of love and religion in Those B a rre n L eaves r e
flects H uxley's reluctance to sa c rific e body and em otions fo r the
s p irit. As both G um bril Junior and C alam y specifically sta te , th e ir
contem plative paths lead them away fro m the w orld of quotidian
77
re a lity . F o r Huxley, concerned as he was w ith people being too " 'lop
sid e d ,' " this was not an ideal solution. As C helifer ob jects, in the
la s t pages of Those B a rre n L e a v e s, contem plation in isolation ignores
too m any of the facts of life. It is not su rp risin g , th e re fo re , that
Huxley found D. H. L aw ren ce's apparent ability to join all of the facts
of life into a harm onious whole trem endously appealing. F o r alm ost
ten y e a rs Huxley integrated m uch of L aw re n ce 's philosophy into his
own thinking before going back to w here he left C alam y at the end of
T hose B a rre n L e a v e s.
Point Counter Point reflects H uxley's hope th at in spite of the
com partm entalizin g effects of C hristianity, sc ie n c e , and in tellectu -
a lism , a p erso n in m o dern W estern society can jo in his physical p le a
s u re s with his m ental and sp iritu al needs. Specifically pitting him self
against the conceptualizations of the above th re e ills , M ark Ram pion,
H uxley's v e rsio n of L aw rence, advocates and em bodies an instinctual
joining of m ind, soul, and body. F o r R am pion, as for L aw rence, the
focus of this ability to integrate is " 'physical lo v e .' V irtually every
c h a ra c te r in the novel is involved in som e s o rt of "love" relationship,
and the counterpoint again shows the co m p lem en tary deficiencies of
m ind and body people. The new counterpoint is betw een all of these and
the in teg rated , dynamic love of M ark and M ary Ram pion.
W alter, in his two com plem entarily incom plete love re la tio n
ships, se rv es D enis's function of introducing the th em e, which will be
78
"deform ed" through repetition, v ariatio n , and inversion. W alte r's
ideal is to be faithful to M a rjo rie , whom he used to ad m ire for h e r
"sp iritu a l" qualities and whom he now re c o g n ize s, in term inology that
is also R am pion's, as "half-dead" b e c a u se of h e r lack of sensuality
(p. 11). Although he still "lik es" M a rjo rie , he is draw n by a "sw inish
sen su ality " to Lucy, whom he hates (p. 12). W alter continues to m ake
h im self and M arjorie m ise ra b le b ecau se, in c o n tra st to the spon
taneous behavior that Ram pion advocates, he feels guilty for not fu l
filling his duty to the now pregnant M a rjo rie , and he feels dem eaned
by his "m ad and sham eful" d e sire fo r Lucy (p. 12). He is unable
eith er to live up to his ideals for his behavior with M a rjo rie o r to
b rea k with h er and enjoy h im self w ith Lucy. And the two women
th em selv es re p re se n t u n satisfacto ry , opposite e x tre m e s. M a rjo rie
loves W alter, but she is the V ictorian wom an, who was happier loving
him "by p o st," safely rem oved fro m his "an im al's lu s ts ." D irectly
counterpointed with this "correspo nden ce c o u rse of passion" is Lucy's
hedonistic, irresp o n sib le sex, devoid of any em otional involvem ent
(p. 68).
The other love relationships in the novel a re variations on
th ese positions. Like W alter with M a rjo rie , Lady E dw ard has always
a s s e rte d that she was "genuinely fond" of h e r husband, even though she
was m o re sexually a ttrac ted to w hom ever she was having an affair with
at the tim e. She was happier in her a ffa irs than W alter, how ever,
79
because she did not let a sen se of duty spoil h e r fun. The ironic con
tr a s t to this situation is E lin o r's un su ccessfu l attem pt to have an affair
with h e r friend Webley on princip le. Like the R am ions (and in co n
tr a s t to everyone else), h e r sexual d e sire s a re in accord with her
em otions, and although "the s p irit was lib e rtin e , . . . the flesh and its
affections w ere ch aste" (p. 338).
The opposite position, of disliking som eone but d esirin g h e r
body, is m ore prevalent. Ju st as W alter c h a stise s h im self fo r lusting
after Lucy, Phil c ritic iz e s h im self for d e sirin g Molly. H er not very
"in terestin g " m ind m akes him w ish "he w a sn 't so m uch a ttra c te d by
M olly's ra th e r c re am y and flo rid beauty" (p. 332). As he reco g n izes,
his relationship with M olly, whose contrapuntal in sisten c e on in te n si
fied consciousness at the expense of physical contact fru s tra te s him ,
is a "Max Beerbohm v e rsio n of him self" with "poor E lin o r" (p. 335).
Typically for this novel, although P h il now understan ds E lin o r's f r u s
tratio n s b e tter, he can o r w ill not a lte r his predom inantly c e re b ra l
behavior tow ard her. Sidney Q uarles c a ric a tu re s W alter and P h ilip 's
lu st without love because he is not even a ttra c te d to G ladys's p a rticu la r
body but to "the m e re ly generic asp ect of the wom an" (p. 271). In fact,
"the d e risiv e individual in h e r pained and rep e lle d him; but the a ttr a c
tion of what was generic, of the whole fem inine sp e c ie s, the en tire
sex, was stro n g er than that individual rep u lsio n " (p. 312). The p ro b
lem with Ram pion's nonceptual love is th at although it offers an
altern ativ e to these p re d ic a m e n ts, it offers no solution.
The th ird group, co m p lem en tary to the la s t, love som eone but
cannot ex p re ss it sexually. They a re the " 'half-dead b a rb a ria n s ,1 " as
Rampion calls them , of the " 'C h ristian -in te lle ctu a l-scien tific dispen
sation ' " (p. 412). M a rjo rie 's coldness re s u lts p artly fro m h e r own
nature but m ostly fro m so cietal n o rm s that a re offshoots of C h ristia n
ity: "She had been brought up to believe in the ugliness of vice and the
anim al p a rt of hum an n a tu re , the beauty of virtue and the sp irit" (p.
296). M iss C obbett's se x le ss love fo r B urlap refle cts som e of the
sam e societal conditioning, this tim e against his loving m o re than one
woman sexually. Even m o re ex trem e in h er inability to accept her
body, B eatrice G ilray is actually afraid of physical contact and sex and
can e x p re ss ten d e rn ess only by "pecking" at the m en she likes. She
eventually succum bs, how ever, to B u rlap 's hypocritically childlike
approach, which c a ric a tu re s the behavior of the r e s t of this group.
He was frequen tly unfaithful to his wife, "but he had such a pure,
ch ild-like, and platonic way of going to bed with wom en that neither
they nor he ev er co n sid ere d th at the p ro ce ss re a lly counted as going to
bed" (pp. 171-172). The C a e sa ria n ex trem e of this C h ristia n -in sp ired
attitude is S pand rell's " 'cu rio u sly m alignant and vengeful love-m aking
so c h a ra c te ristic of the debauchee under a C h ristian dispensation' "
81
The scien tists and in tellectu als display a sim ila rly " 'lop
sided' " lack of sexuality. L o rd E dw ard feels sexual d esire fo r his
wife but is apologetic fo r it, "apologizing for his body, apologizing for
h e rs , . . . pretending th at the boies w e re n 't rea lly involved in the
a rd o u rs, which anyhow d id n 't re a lly ex ist" (p. 23). He displays the
inadequacy of m ere th e o re tic a l knowledge because "intellectually, in
the laborato ry, he understoo d . . . sex, but em otionally and in p r a c
tice he was a child" (p. 23). He and his a ss is ta n t Illidge a re so naive
em otionally that they both a r e e asy prey fo r any woman who shows
in te re s t in th eir w ork, and Illidge has no sexual relationships at all.
Phil, the intellectual, f r u s tr a te s E linor with his lack of sensuality and
w arm th, but his c e re b ra tio n , like L ord E dw ard's, se em s to be as m uch
congenital as conditioned. He is so preoccupied with his analytical and
" 'in terestin g ' " thoughts th at he forg ets to be ro m an tic. Although he
accru es som e c ritic is m b ecau se of E lin o r's pain and exasperation, he
re p re se n ts a m o re com plex p ro b lem than the C h ristia n "b a rb a rian s."
Although his in tellectu alism is p a rtially explained as a defensive r e
action against his boyhood in ju ry , it still app ears that if he is to be, as
Rampion would suggest, loyal to his ta s te s and in stin cts, he m u st con
tinue to be as he is.
The C hristian " b a rb a ria n s " rein fo rce R am pion's contention that
if " 'you try to be m o re than you a re ,' " you only becom e " 'le s s ' " (p.
407). M arjorie lives with only half of h e r potential, and h e r coldness
82
drives W alter to find a sexual object. M iss C obbett's ideal of chastity
for B urlap leads h e r to disillusion m en t and eventual suicide. B eatrice,
D ante's sexually unreachable wom an seen fro m a p o st-F re u d ia n point
of view, is f ir s t like a b ird , "pecking" at people, and then gradually
adopts B urlap's hypocritical sex less sexuality. B urlap's "disguised
and . . . slim ily sp iritu al p ro m is c u itie s" (p. 173) re m a in distasteful
and cause M iss Cobbett's death. Spandrell, too, dies because none of
his attem pts at outrageousness fo rc e God to rev e al H im self.
The sc ien tist and the in tellectu al a re le ss susceptible to R a m
pion's c ritic ism . Although it can c erta in ly be argued that they a re
" 'lo p -sid ed ,' " they embody the contention that th e re a re those fo r
whom R am pion's " 'physical love as the so u rce of light and life' " (p.
213) is inappropriate. In addition to w hatever im petus sexual r e p r e s
sion gives them , L ord E dw ard and P h il genuinely feel m ore in te re s t in
th eir intellectual endeavors than in th e ir physical o r em otional func
tions. Huxley, an intellectual h im self, was le s s cen so rio us than Law-
12
rence of scien tists and in tellectu als, and even at the height of his
adm iration for L aw rence, he indicates through P h il his se p a ra te path:
A fter a few hours in M ark R am p ion 's com pany he [Phil] rea lly
believed in noble savagery; he felt convinced that the proudly
conscious intellect ought to hum ble itself a little and adm it the
claim s of the h e a rt--a y e , and the bow els, the loins, the bones.
. . . But always . . . he knew quite w ell in the s e c r e t depths of
his being that he w asn 't . . . a noble savage. And though he
som etim es nostalgically w ished he w e re , . . . h e was always
se c re tly glad to be none . . . and a t lib e rty , even though his lib
e rty was in a strange paradoxical way . . . a confinem ent to his
83
sp irit. . . . The cool indifferent flux of intellectual c u rio s ity --
that p e rsiste d and to th at his loyalty was due. If th ere was any
single way of life he could lastingly believe in, it was that m ixture
of p yrrhonism and sto ic ism which had stru ck him . . . as the
height of hum an w isdom , (pp. 199-200)
Although Huxley la te r becam e d issa tisfie d with the " 'confinem ent' " of
such an uncom m itted state of m ind, the sp iritu a l path he chose was
le ss antagonistic than R am pion's to the rational pow ers of the mind.
Lucy T antam ount's " 'cold p ro m iscu ity ,' " an intensification of
the sexual attitudes of Anne W im bush, M yra Viveash, and Lillian
Aldwinkle, is not an answ er to the sex less love of the b a rb a rian s.
Unlike W alter, Phil, and Sidney, Lucy does not dislike h e r lovers; she
does not care about them at all. H er use of sex as an im personal
source of pleasure is the sa m e as the sexual p ra c tic e s of B rave New
W orld and is d escrib ed in the sam e te rm s : for h e r, sex is "like a
drug, at once intoxicant and opiate" (p. 176). But drugs req u ire in
c re a sin g dosage to produce the sam e effects, and she illu stra te s
H uxley's contention that sexual indulgence is undesirable not because
13
it is im m o ral but because it is boring and th ere fo re unpragm atic.
As Lucy com plains, " 'I m e re ly tr y to am use m yself, . . . God knows
. . . without m uch s u c c e s s ' " (p. 152). Consequently, she, like M yra
Viveash, re s tle s s ly changes h e r physical environm ent because, living
as she does, " 'it's re a lly im p ossible to stay in one place m o re than a
couple of months at a tim e. One gets so stale and w ilted, so u n u tte r
ably bored' " (p. 231).
Although cataloging th ese various incom plete "love" rela tio n
ships d ram atizes th eir deficiencies and allows m o re com prehensive
exploration of the philosophical b a se s , the s a tiric stru c tu re re sts on
the "abrupt tra n sitio n s" of the o rd e r in which they appear. Within the.
firs t two chapters all of the p o ssib ilities but the R am p io n s' appear in
d ensely-textured o rch e stratio n . W a lte r's e a rly adm iratio n for M a r
jo rie 's "virtue" is juxtaposed with his p re se n t recognition of its
"cold," "bloodless," "half-dead" qualities. His p ast a rd o r for h e r is
con trasted with his p re se n t feeling of being trap p ed by duty and pity.
Both situations a re c o n tra sted with the equally unacceptable situation
of lusting a fte r Lucy. W alte r's situation is then c o n trasted with his
fa th e r's p ast "healthy" sen su ality with Hilda T antam ount and others.
Because Lady E dw ard, unlike M a rjo rie C arling, had not given up
" 'all fo r lov e,' " and b ecau se John Bidlake, unlike W alter, was a happy
sen su alist and also "drew the line at no s o r t of frig h tfu ln ess" (p. 24)
if he w anted to get out of a relatio n sh ip , they enjoyed "a decent, good-
hum oured, happy sen su ality ," which was "w arm , n a tu ra l, and, being
natural, good so far as it w ent" (p. 23). In c o n tra st to th ese re la tio n
ships of W a lte r's and also to L ord E d w ard 's "fo ssil child's reticent
apology for love" (p. 23), the relatio n sh ip of Hilda and John is healthy.
T here is the lim itation, how ever, e x p re ss e d in "so fa r as it went."
Then, too, M a ry B e tterto n 's ugly body se rv e s as a m om ento m o ri for
the now old John Bidlake; fo r one whose relatio n sh ip s depend on sexual
85
a ttrac tiv e n ess, old age and the decline of the body a re appalling.
Fanny Logan rein fo rce s the fact of death, with h e r sentim ental,
"exquisite" sadness over h e r dead husband. M eanwhile, Hugo Brockle
is a ttrac ted to the profile of h e r daughter.
The p o ssib ilities and d isto rtio n s of love develop through this
kind of juxtaposition, the c o n tra sts and sim ila ritie s heightening the
w eaknesses of each. Until the en tra n ce of M ark and M ary Ram pion in
C hapter 8, Old Bidlake and Lady E dw ard re p re s e n t the happiest r e l a
tionship because they joined affection with physical e x p ressio n and
theory with p ractice. An im p o rtan t issu e that runs throughout the novel
is the choice betw een preconceptions and spontaneous action. W alter
would be happier if he could be frightful like his father. Instead, he
m akes him self and M a rjo rie unhappy by tryin g to fulfill an obligation
that he cannot live up to. Ram pion stands firm ly against such p r e
conceptions, but the crux of the m a tte r rem a in s unsolved. What if, as
W alter ru m in ates, you re a lly do not like the poor and the sick ? Do
you rem ain , as Ram pion advocates, loyal to your ta ste s or do you try
to fo rm nobler ta ste s ? In P oint C ounter P o in t, the nobler ta ste s a re
im possible to acq u ire, and trying to avoid the "b a se r" ones leads only
to fru stratio n . B rave New W orld w ill solve the conflict by conditioning
people to accede to th eir in stin c ts. Island w ill propose ways to educate
people to fulfill th e ir higher yearnings.
In addition to the counterpoint betw een liking som eone p e r
sonally but not sexually and sexually but not p erson ally , between
prom iscuity and childlike nonsexuality, between duty and d e sire , th e re
is the fu rth er counterpoint of individuals' shifting positions in various
relationships. M ost of the relatio n sh ip s p o rtra y unbalanced affections,
and m ost people a re on both ends of the sp e ctru m , wanting som eone
they cannot have and being w anted by som eone to whom they do not give
enough: W alter wants Lucy m o re than she wants him , M a rjo rie is
m o re devoted to W alter than he is to h e r, E linor is m o re preoccupied
with Phil, Phil with M olly, W ebley with E lin o r, Sidney with Gladys,
Rachel with Sidney, E thel Cobbett with B urlap, and B urlap with
B eatrice. Huxley en d o rses R am pion's cham pioning of non-conceptual
izing by m aking all of the relatio n sh ip s in which the concept would p r o
sc rib e the action (i.e . , lu st without love would be frowned upon)
resolve itself by being lived through: W alter lo ses Lucy to another and
M arjo rie gets him back; th en M a rjo rie becom es religious and d oesn't
need W alter any m ore; P h il, thw arted and im patient with Molly, r e
turns re m o rse fu lly to E linor; Webley is killed and th ere fo re rem oved;
Sidney is reje cted by G ladys, and, like Old John Bidlake, re tu rn s home
to die; E thel Gobbett kills h e rs e lf, and B urlap is fre e to pursue his
childlike wooing of B e a tric e with an untroubled conscience.
The balanced relatio n sh ip s a re few, and the balance is usually
the re su lt of lack of love. John Bidlake and his wife have a rriv e d at a
87
situation in which, u nless he is feeling sick and in need of nursing,
they seldom see each o th er. S im ilarly , L ord E dw ard is m o re in te r
ested in his scien ce, and Lady E dw ard in h e r other so cial life, than
they a re in each other. John Bidlake and Lady Edw ard m anaged, in
addition to th e ir m a rita l balances, to have an equal relationship b e
cause neither lo st his head and sa c rific e d all fo r love. They a re d if
feren tiated fro m Lucy by th e ir e x e rc ise of som e, if not the traditional
kind of, re s tra in t, and now they a re good friend s as they once w ere
good lo v ers.
The only stro n g , balanced relatio n sh ip is between M ark and
M ary Ram pion, whose p e rso n al com p lem en tarity im plies the inclusive -
n ess of th eir love. In c o n tra st to the p a ra lle l but uneasy m ix of e m o
tion and in tellect in E lin o r and P hilip, this "noble savage" and b rillian t
intellectual join and influence each other to fo rm w ell-balanced wholes.
As such, they exem plify what Huxley w rote in p raise of L aw rence in
another context: "To be a f i r s t- r a te hum an being, a m an m ust be a
14
f ir s t- r a te anim al and a f i r s t - r a t e th in k e r."
In c o n tra st to the "ch ild ren ," who unsuccessfully fight the
d e sire s of th e ir bodies, the Ram pions espouse " 'physical love as the
source of light and life and beauty' " (p. 213). Although M ark never
explains this philosophy fully, it is undoubtedly m eant to suggest
H uxley's understanding of L aw ren ce's attitude tow ard sex as described
in the Introduction to L aw re n ce 's L ette rs:
88
F o r L aw rence, the significance of the sexual experience was this:
that, in it, the im m ed iate, non-m ental knowledge of divine o th e r
ness is brought, so to speak, to a focus. . . . Sex is som ething
not o u rselv es th at m akes for . . . life, for divineness, for union
with the m y ste ry . P aradox ically, this som ething not o urselves is
yet som ething lodged within u s, this quintessence of o th ern ess is
yet the qu in tessen ce of our p ro p er being. "And God the F a th e r,
the In sc ru ta b le, th e Unknowable, we know in the F le sh , in woman.
She is the door of ou r in-going and our out-com ing. In h e r we go
back to the F a th e r; but like the w itnesses of the T ran sfig u ratio n ,
blind and unconscious.
It is a weak spot in this novel of ideas that the contrapuntal c h a ra c te r
does not explain th is c e n tra l doctrine in m o re detail. How this F le sh
leads from the guilt of W alter, the passin g enjoym ent of Bidlake, the
fru stra tio n of P hil w ith Molly, and the boredom of Lucy to "union with
the m y ste ry " re m a in s untold. R am pion's directive is to be " 'loyal to
one's ta ste s and in stin c ts" (p. 16), but for the people of Point Counter
Point, this is too sim p listic . F o r th ese descendants of V ictorian
m o rality and log ical po sitiv ism , instinct m eans sexual license and
rebellion r a th e r th an G reek "harm ony" or W hitm an's "b e a stlin e ss."
F o r M ark and M ary Ram pion, it p resu m ably m eans what Huxley calls
L aw rence's " 'n a tu ra l lo v e,' " in which "the re s tra in ts M r. Law rence
would im pose on sexual im pulse, so as to tra n s fo rm it into love,"
would not be the " a rtific ia l" ones of "religious sp iritu ality " but "em o
tional" ones, of the "sam e p erso n al n a tu re as the i m p u l s e ." ^ A p p a r
ently, this idea w orks fo r the R am pions, but the failu re of o thers to
reach a s im ila r dynam ic equilibrium indicates the difficulty, if not the
im possibility, of w id esp read conversion.
89
R am pion's attitude tow ard love is p a rt of his b ro a d e r m e ta
physical outlook, in which the goal is to harm onize and balance one's
d isp arate p a rts of " 're a so n , feeling, in s tin c t.'" He attrib u tes the
G reeks and Blake with this ability " 'to live harm oniously, with th e ir
whole being' " (p. 107), but m odern m en have becom e " 'lo p -sid ed '
"C ivilization is harm ony and com pleteness. . . . B a rb a rism is
being lop-sided. You can be a b a rb a ria n of the intellect as well
as of the body. A b a rb a ria n of the soul and the feelings as well
as of sensu ality. C h ristian ity m ade us b a rb a rian s of the soul and
now science is m aking us b a rb a rian s of the intellect. Blake was
the la s t civilized m a n ." (p. 107)
Ram pion deplores the " 'C h ristian -in te lle ctu a l-scien tific d ispensation' "
because it has caused people to speculate about things which can n e v er
be fully known and then try to govern th eir behavior in accordance with
th e ir th e o rie s. T hese " 'non-hum an tru th s ' " a re th e re fo re not only
" 'irre le v a n t' " but " 'd an g ero u s' " because they d istra c t people fro m
" 'the im portant hum an tru th ' " of living and tem pt them to " 'falsify
th e ir e x p erien ce' " to m ake th e ir lives fit th e ir a b stra c t th eo ries
(p. 406). The re s u lt, according to Ram pion, is " 'a s o rt of self-
destructio n, . . . som e s o rt of death. You try to be m ore than you a re
by nature and you kill som ething in yourself and becom e l e s s ' " (p. 407).
H ere is the c ru x of the philosophical counterpoint between
Ram pion and Huxley. Huxley obviously ag rees th at the lopsidedness
that C h ristianity and scien ce have fo ste re d is deplorable, and he co n
tinuously p ra is e s L aw rence for "crusading for . . . the ad m issio n by
the conscious spirit of the right of the body and the instincts, not
17
m e re ly to a begrudged ex isten ce, but to an equal honour with its e lf ."
Ram pion and L aw rence, how ever, go beyond this equality of the body
to a su p re m ac y over the conscious intellect. At this point, Huxley
d isa g re e s. J u s t as the "com forting unity" of "contem plative m ono-
18
th eism " p re s e n ts an "u n reality ," so does an in sisten ce on only the
"d irect p a rticip a tiv e knowledge of the w orld's d iv ersity ." Huxley feels
19
that "m onotheism and poly th e ism a re equally tru e ," and although for
20
p rag m atic re a so n s he sanctions polytheism , he does not advocate
renouncing a ll " 'non-hum an tru th s .' " R ather, he suggests learning to
live "in co n sisten tly ," as "both the intellectual and the spontaneous
2 1
anim al being." T h eo retically , Rampion espouses this kind of c o m
p leten ess, but in p rac tic e his reactio n to past evils causes him to d is
tru s t in te lle ctu al preconceptions.
B urlap and Spandrell illu stra te R am pion's contention that
C h ristian , non-hum an tru th s can be both " 'dangerous' " and " 'i r r e l e
v an t.' " As b iographer and th eo re tic al follow er of St. F ra n c is , B urlap
re p re s e n ts fo r R am pion a " 'h atred of life ' " because " 'St. F ra n c is . . .
sim ply left half of existence out of account' " (p. 123). In a c o n te m
poraneous e ssa y , Huxley c ritic iz e s St. F ra n c is 's sa c rific e of "the
whole for th at sm a ll p art of [his] . . . being which has intellectually
22
fo rm ulated principles and a conscious w ill," but Huxley views this as
a m isapp lication of principles and conscious will ra th e r than a rea so n
91
to deny th em altogether. Even w orse than B urlap 's avowed relig io n is
his religious p ra c tic e . Since m o st people can or w ill not, like Je su s
and St. F r a n c is , deny th e ir bodies, they m u st becom e either tro u b led ,
like W alter, o r hyp ocritical, like Burlap. B u rlap 's hy p o critical,
childish sexuality is th e re fo re im portant for exem plifying R am pion's
contention th at if you try to becom e m o re than you a re , you in stead
becom e le s s .
The sam e is tru e of S pand rell's attem pts to prove the existen ce
of God by using sex to re a c h " 'the m ost astonishing pitch of d ep rav ity ' "
(p. 119). R am pion's objection is that this lasciv io u sn ess, which is
only " 'the a sc e tic contem pt fo r the body ex p ressed in a different w ay' "
(p. 123), is another form of " 'death' " because Spandrell is " 'too busy
thinking about death and God and tru th and m y stic ism ' " to be " 'able to
liv e ' " (p. 136). The ascendancy of R am pion's stance develops along the
lines of p ra g m a tism ra th e r than of truth; Spandrell is both unhappy and
unsu ccessfu l. His m ise ra b le little escapade with H a rrie t W atkins is
d irectly c o n tra ste d with M a ry 's touching rem iniscence of h e r happy
relatio n sh ip w ith M ark. S p an d rell's failure to find " 'the e sse n tia l
h o r r o r ' " in m u rd erin g W ebley rein fo rces R am pion's contention th at
one can n e v e r, as a hum an being, apprehend " 'nonhuman t r u th .' " The
irre le v a n c e of the se a rc h becom es especially c le ar in the la s t two
scenes of the novel. Ram pion says that even if the Heilige D ankgesang
is " 'the beatific vision . . . [of] heaven,' " it is " 'the a rt of a m an
92
w ho's lo st his body' " and is th e re fo re death, the negation of life
(pp. 436-437). Spandrell then, in effect, kills h im self in a la s t effort
to prove the ex isten ce of God. All that Huxley shows is not the r e v e la
tion of God but the continuation of life. Instead of any rea ctio n to
S p an d rell's death, th e re is only the last notes of "H eaven," the s c r a tc h
ing needle, and then the ironic sw itch to B urlap and B e atric e, "two
little children," splashing in the bathtub, and the final ironic w ords of
the novel: "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven" (p. 44). B eethoven's
vision of heaven m ay be tru e in som e speculative se n se , but it is i r
re le v a n t to living.
Two c h a ra c te rs , how ever, for whom relig io n is both v e ry r e l e
vant and com forting, provide a contrapuntal point of view. R achel
Q uarles and h e r protegee M a rjo rie C arling find happiness in religious
p rac tic e ra th e r than theory, and th e ir fairly trad itio n a l C h ristia n ity is
p o rtray ed in a m ostly positive m anner. This sym pathetic view to w ard
M rs. Q uarles a ris e s m o re fro m counterpoint of p e rso n alitie s than
fro m an exam ination of sp iritu a l value. C ontrasted m o stly with h e r
husband's se lf-c e n te re d , hyp ocritical pretentions and his w horing after
p assio n and p ra is e , M rs. Q uarles is efficient, level-headed, p e r
ceptive, and likeable. She is com passionate with M a rjo rie and u n
p reten tio u sly gives h e r consolation. Under M rs. Q u a rle s's tu telag e,
M arjo rie also finds solace in C h ristianity, though her v e rsio n is m o re
specifically e sca p ist. She sees W alter and the w orld as "sm a ll and
93
insignificant, . . . as though one w ere looking . . . through the w rong
end of a p air of field g la s se s," w hereas "God and Je su s . . . loom ed
overw helm ingly la rg e " (pp. 358-359). In spite of R am pion's c o n tra s t
ing view s, when M arjo rie is co n trasted with h e r p re -re lig io u s self,
with D r. F is h e r 's incom plete, scientific explanation of h e r p ro g re s s ,
and especially when h e r "golden tran q u ility " (p. 363) (which is d e
sc rib ed in the sam e te rm s of quiet as those of G um bril Ju n io r, Lypiatt,
and Calamy) is co n trasted with W alte r's lying u p s ta irs crying with his
"face buried in the pillow s," h e r religion is a positive f o r c e .
The advantage of the religion of these w om en o v er that of B u r
lap and Spandrell is that it is p rim a rily experienced ra th e r than th e o
re tic a l, and the women a re unobtrusively faithful, ra th e r than o b tru
sive and unfaithful,to th eir ideals. A lso, in c o n tra st to the C h ristian ity
of the o th e rs, that of M rs. Q uarles and M a rjo rie is not so p ro sc rip tiv e
about sex and m o rality . T hese two exam ples of an experienced, God-
oriented religion show H uxley's continued in te re s t in a m o re so lita ry ,
contem plative sp iritu a l path than R am pion's, but without the u n d e s ir
able trappings that C hristianity has accru ed through the y e a rs. The
m ajo r c ritic is m of M rs. Q u a rle s's C h ristian ity com es fro m E linor
who, sh arin g R am pion's lack of in te re s t in "the o ther w orld," feels
uncom fortable with h e r m o th er-in -law :
M rs. Q uarles was unobtrusively but ard en tly relig io u s and lived
to the b est of her ability in accordance with h e r beliefs. E linor
adm ired , but felt that it was all ra th e r ab su rd and superfluous.
94
. . . The other w orld bored her; she w as in te re s te d only in this.
. . . Religion and . . . all tra n sc e n d e n ta l m o ra lity , all m e ta
physical speculation seem ed to h e r n o n sen sical. . . . T h ere was
no getting behind the im m ediate e x p erien c e, (p. 266)
E lin o r's c ritic is m m ust be exam ined, how ever, in the light of h e r later
m etap h y sical uncertitude when W ebley and little P hil die; h e r inability
to get behind the im m ediate experience leaves h e r incapable of acc ep t
ing death, and this shortcom ing und erm in es h e r d is m is s a l of M rs.
Q u a rle s's C hristianity.
A ccording to Rampion, science has m ade us " 'b a rb a ria n s of
the in te lle c t' " just as C hristianity has m ade us " 'b a rb a ria n s of the
soul' " (p. 407), and Huxley p o rtra y s L o rd E dw ard as a capable sc ie n
tis t and an em otional child. Huxley d isa g re e d w ith L aw rence in his
23
denunciation of all scientific w ork, how ever; Huxley deplored the
m isapp lication of scientific re s e a r c h and its glo rificatio n of re a so n
over all e ls e , but he did not wish to abolish all ratio n al p ro c e ss e s .
T h e re fo re L ord E dw ard's re s e a rc h , like S h e a rw a te r's m ea su rin g of his
own sw eat and his m utilation of his la b o ra to ry a n im als, is an e x a g g e ra
tion of the unim portance of m uch scien tific r e s e a r c h and of its callous
unconcern for its subjects. It is of little p ra c tic a l im p o rtan ce to the
w orld to know at what stage the re g e n e ra te d tis su e of a new t's tail,
when grafted onto the stum p of an am putated fo re le g , will tu rn into a
fo releg and when it will continue to grow as a ta il. This irre le v a n c e is
95
underlined by Lord E dw ard 's p erso n al life. E ating "lunch" at 8 P. M. ,
refusing to deal with m oney o r other p ra c tic a l a ffa irs , m isu n d e rsta n d
ing the c h a ra c te r of his wife, he is v e ry m uch iso lated fro m the world.
M ost dam ningly, his scientific knowledge does not c a r r y over into even
his own, m uch less o th e rs ', p erso n al lives; although, "intellectually,
in the lab o ra to ry , he understood the phenom ena of se x ," he rem ained
"in p ra c tise and em otionally . . . a fo ss il m id -V ic to ria n child" (p. 23).
As such, he is the p e rfe c t targ et for R am pion's rid icu le, and Ram pion
draw s him as one of the m any "hum an m o n s te rs , huge-headed c r e a
tu re s , without lim bs or bodies, c reep in g slu g -lik e on vaguely slim y
extensions of chin and neck" (p. 214).
In addition to its effects on the individual sc ie n tist, science has
the additional danger of occasional p ra c tic a l applications, the m ost
heinous of which, for Ram pion and Huxley, is the " 'stinking m achine' "
(p. 306). Exem plifying sc ien c e's w illingness to im plem ent knowledge
without co n cern for sp iritu a l or "hum an" values m o re im portant than
econom ic efficiency or saving tim e and effo rt, in d u stria lism th rea te n s
to m echanize people into unthinking ro b o ts, to specialize and sta n d a rd
ize, and rep lace " 'a ll the vital and fundam ental things in human
n a tu re ' " with " 'in c re a se d boredom and r e s tle s s n e s s ' " and " 'finally a
I
kind of individual m a d n e s s '" (p. 307). U nfortunately, Ram pion has no
viable solution to his valid c ritic is m s ; his only thought is to go back to
a nonindustrial w orld which, as Philip points out, is im possible.
96
A nother a re a in which R am pion e x p re ss e s valid c ritic is m but
without a viable alternative is p o litics. In his Introduction to D. H.
L aw ren ce's L e tte r s , Huxley sta te s th at "political advice fro m even
'* the m o st gifted of religious innovators is always inadequate; fo r it is
nev er, at bottom , advice about p o litics, but always about som ething
24
e lse ." In W orld W ar I, L aw rence wanted to deal with " 'the h e a rt of
the individual fig h te rs' " ra th e r than with the " 'a rm ie s and nations and
25
n u m b e rs.' " S im ilarly, R am pion is im patient with " 'all this political
squabbling' " (p. 305) because it deals with the species ra th e r than the
individual, and with m a te ria l needs ra th e r than psychological ones. He
sees no sense in choosing betw een the politicians because in th e ir one
point of agreem ent, " 'the in trin sic excellence of the in d u stria l stink
and the n ecessity of standardizing and specializing e v ery tra c e of gen
uine m anhood and womanhood out of the hum an r a c e ,' " they a re all
" 'bound fo r h e ll' " (p. 305).
R am pion's solution is , like L a w re n c e 's, not rea lly political:
"The root of the e v il's in the individual psyche; so it's th e re , in
the individual psyche, that you'd have to begin. The f ir s t step
would be to m ake people live duali s tic a lly , in two com partm ents.
In one com partm ent as in d u stria liz ed w o rk e rs, in the other as
hum an beings. As idiots and m achin es fo r eight hours of every
tw enty-four and r e a l hum an beings for the r e s t." (p. 307)
Ram pion hopes that eventually people would give up the m achine a lto
gether and re tu rn to a kind of idyllic noble savagery: "'go b a c k --
p refe rab ly on foot, without the stinking m ach in e' " (p. 306).
97
He ex p re sses this m ost fully in a painting showing a naked woman
nursing h e r child while a m an and a boy and a cow and a leopard look
on. The im portant point fo r R am pion is " 'the living relationship of the
figures to each other and the r e s t of the w orld. The cow [is] . . .
happily in touch with the hum ans in som e m ilky, cud-chew ing, bovine
26
way. And the hum ans a re touch w ith it' " (p. 309).
Huxley uses Phil to c o rro b o ra te R am pion's c ritic is m of indus
tria lis m by outlining a co n trastin g , ugly p ictu re of " 'the civilized
w orld' " with the m other feeding the baby synthetic m ilk on a concrete
sidew alk and everyone being too co n cern ed with his possessio ns to be
"in touch" with each other (p. 309). Huxley also uses Phil, however,
to strik e a note of realism : " 'The tro u b le is that, given our existing
w orld, you c an 't go back, you c a n 't s c r a p the m ach in e' " (p. 306). He
th ere fo re suggests m aking c o m p ro m ise s and choosing a leader who will
take you to hell " 'm ore slow ly' " than the o th ers. Beyond that, neither
Phil nor Huxley offer any re a lis tic p o litical solution. Illidge is too
silly personally and too in co n sisten t politically for us to take him
se rio u sly , and W ebley, in spite of his p e rso n al c h a rism a , is p o r
tray e d as a m ore talented " 'stage m a n a g e r' " than political th e o re ti
cian: it is the spectacle of the re g im e n t, its d rill and singing and uni
fo rm s, and the quality of his voice th at th rill people, ra th e r than what
he is saying. R am pion's usefu ln ess is lim ited, how ever, by his in
ability to effect change for the m a s s e s . Although Huxley sym pathizes
98
with R am pion's em phasis on the individual and his learning to be a re a l
27
hum an being outside of w ork h o u rs, he e x p re s s e s , through P hil, the
im p racticab ility of ignoring "the n u m b ers" of politics.
F o r M ark and M ary, in the height of th e ir productivity and in
good health, R am pion's d e s ire to live ra th e r than conceptualize is a
satisfying philosophy. Old age and encroaching death, how ever, ra is e
problem s. As Huxley w rite s , "L a w re n c e 's, I should say, was not a
28
very good philosophy fo r old age o r failing p o w ers." . In fact,
L aw rence's attitude to w ard his own last illn e ss and approaching death
constituted fo r Huxley a se rio u s defect in L aw ren ce's philosophy:
Often, a la s, tow ards the end, the laughter was b itter, and the
high sp irits alm o st te rrify in g ly savage. . . . The se c re t con-
siousness of his dissolution filled the la s t y e a rs of his life with
an overpow ering sa d n ess. . . . And because the sadness . . . was
so unspeakably deep, his m o ck ery was frighteningly s a v a g e . ^9
F o r this reaso n , the high nu m b er of deaths and people's reactio n s to
them a re an im p o rtan t p a rt of the philosophical counterpoint in Point
Counter P o in t. Old age and death a re virtu ally absent in C rom e Y el
low and Antic H ay. They ap p ear in Those B a rre n L ea v es, but as the
concern only of C ardan and M rs . Aldwinkle. In Point Counter P o in t,
they abound to show shortcom ings in R am pion's philosophy.
B idlake's im pending death re p re s e n ts the m ost im portant
c ritic ism of R am pion's philosophy because of the close resem blance
between Ram pion and the younger Bidlake. Having lived by his
instincts ra th e r than by any preconceptions and having painted
99
sen su ally , Bidlake lived as Ram pion p re s c rib e s . Now grow n old, the
once healthy se n su a lis t is as m uch pained by his failing body as he was
p leased by its e a r lie r exuberance. Philip sta te s it som ew hat brutally:
D eplorable . . . to see an Olym pian reduced by a little tu m o u r
[sic] in his sto m ach to a state of sub -h u m an n ess. But perh aps
. . . he was alw ays sub-hum an, even when he seem ed m o st
Olympian; p erh ap s being Olym pian was ju st a sym ptom of su b
hum anity. (p. 356)
C an tak erous, irr ita b le , se lf-c e n te re d , following his own p riv ate r e l i
gion of not adm itting any of the f a c ts , B idlake, in his failu re to p re p a re
for death, r a is e s questions about the efficacy of R am pion's philosophy.
E lin o r's p a ra lle l inability to deal with little P h il's death e m
phasizes this deficiency. She has been allied with R am pion's n on
conceptualizing in c o n tra st to the religious p recep ts of M rs. Q u arles,
the political a b stra c tio n s of W ebley, and the intellectual ones of
P hilip. H er re a c tio n of feeling "trapped" and "caged," of feeling it
"cynical" to c a te r to the dem ands of h e r own body during little P h il's
illn e ss u n d erlin es the need for philosophical provision for sick n ess
and death.
The re a c tio n s to W ebley's death also show how little people
u n d erstan d death. F o r those com m itting m u rd e r fo r a p rin cip le , r e
ligious o r p o litical, it is a failu re. Instead of proving the ex isten ce of
God, Spandrell finds only death, "d isg u st," and "m aggots at the c o re
of the fru it of the tr e e of good and evil" (p. 410). Instead of ridding
h im self of a p o litical enem y, Illidge d isco v ers that W ebley is m o re
100
effective as a dead m a rty r than as a live le a d e r. Although m u rd e r does
N
not actualize S p an d rell's religious preconceptions, it does j a r both
Illidge and E lin or out of th e ir facile d ism issa ls of "m etap h y sical
sp ecu latio n " and "transcendental m o ra lity ." F o r Illidge, political
th e o rie s suddenly becom e utterly irre le v a n t in the face of death, and
fo r E lin o r, who n ev er before thought it im m o ra l to have an affair with
W ebley, W ebley's death seem s to be a punishm ent for co n sid erin g
being unfaithful to Phil.
T h ree o th er deaths, actualized o r p ro jected into the fu tu re,
show p eople's im p ro p e r use of death as an escape fro m p ro b lem s they
cannot solve. Sidney Q uarles wants to die ra th e r than face the h u m il
iating consequences of the exposure of his affair w ith Gladys. E thel
Cobbett is so disillusioned by the hypocrisy and se lfish n e ss of B urlap
th a t she w ill kill h e rs e lf to escape the d iscrep an cy betw een his ideals
and rea lity . Spandrell wants to be e ith er superhum anly bad o r good,
and he kills h im self ra th e r than live with failu re.
P hilip Q uarles se rv e s two im p o rtan t functions. One is to act
as the m a jo r counterpoint to Rampion. The o th er is to v erb alize
lite r a r y th eo ry . In the firs t ro le, he is im p o rtan t b e ca u se, ash e.n o tes,
he and R am pion s ta r t from such different points that the coincidence of
th e ir opinions se em s to validate them . The c o n tra st, of c o u rse , is
th a t P hilip only believes them intellectually; he cannot live th em as
R am pion can. The difference both in c re a se s and d im in ish es R am pion's
sta tu re .
M ost of the a rtistic th eo ries have been m entioned before. In
this novel, the m u sicalization of fiction, with the point and c o u n te r
point of the title and the m ultiple point of view, is a th em atic im age
as w ell as a lite ra ry theory. It underlines R a m p io n ’s d e sire fo r c o m
p reh en siv en ess and for a balance of w a rrin g o pposites. The other
m a jo r idea, that a w rite r be a zoologist of fiction, points to subhum an
c h a ra c te ris tic s of people that re s u lt, Ram pion contends, not fro m
being too "beastly " but fro m not being "beastly" enough, in the W hit
m an sense of the word.
Point C ounter Point follows P h ilip 's definition of a novel of
id ea s, in which each c h a ra c te r is "im plied" through "the ideas of
which he is the m outhpiece" (p. 302). The sen ten ce that follows
achieves sp e cia l them atic significance fo r th is novel: "In so fa r as
th e o rie s a re rationalizations of sen tim en ts, in stin c ts, dispositions of
soul, this is fea sib le" (p. 302). In Point C ounter P o in t, c h a ra c te rs
a re su c ce ssfu l to the extent that th e ir th e o rie s do a cco rd with th e ir
instincts and soul. This coincidence is R am p io n 's stren g th . It is
also B idlake's e a rly strength , M rs. Q u a rle s 's relig io u s stren g th , and
the so u rce of M a rjo rie 's la te r happiness. It is people like W alter,
whose th eo ries do not coincide with th e ir in stin c ts, who a re unhappy,
and people like Sidney Q uarles and B urlap, w hose v erb al espousals do
not coincide with th eir actions, who a re lu d icro u s.
102
The m usicalization of fiction, based on point and counterpoint,
fo rm s the stru c tu re . As in the e a r lie r novels, th e re a re m ostly d is
s im ila r people solving, o r m o re often not solving, the sam e problem s
in a s e r ie s of "parallel co ntrap u n tal p lo ts" (p. 301). T h ere are few er
sim ila rs solving d issim ila r p ro b le m s, but th e re a re m any sim ila rs
confronting sim ila r p ro b lem s. We have seen the developm ent of these
counterpoints in love, relig io n , scien ce, politics, and death. They
develop som ew hat m ore co m plicatedly in P oint Counter P oint than in
e a rlie r novels because the p airin g of lo v ers changes so m uch that in d i
viduals c o n tra st with th e m se lv e s. C hapter 28, for in stan ce, shows
Phil wanting from Molly the w arm th th at E lin or always wants fro m
him . The next scene shows W ebley wanting fro m E lin o r the w arm th
she always wants from P h il. P h il and E lin o r th ere fo re c o n tra st with
them selves as well as with the o th ers in both of th e ir ro le s. The
situations also provide iro n ic counterpoint. Phil lu sts after Molly
against his b e tter judgm ent; E lin o r's judgm ent p re s c rib e s an affair
with W ebley, but her body re fu s e s .
One technical idea that P hilip pro poses but Huxley never u ses
is the "asso ciatio n of id e a s" fro m L ucy's laughing m outh to the gaping
jaws of crocodiles in India, all w ithin P h il's stre a m of consciousness.
Although Huxley does use m any u nflattering com parisons to anim als,
he does not use a c h a ra c te r's s tr e a m of consciousness. He chooses,
instead, to juxtapose different people as his own s a tiric consciousness
103
w ishes, fo rm in g not so m uch com parisons as unflattering c o n tra sts in
a disjointed w orld.
T his freq u en t use of the a u th o r's point of view is linked with
another p a rt of the m u sica liz atio n of fiction idea th at Huxley u se s m uch
m o re in P oint C ounter Point than in the three preceding novels:
The nov elist can a ssu m e the god-like creative privilege and
sim ply e le ct to c o n sid er the events of the sto ry in th e ir v ario u s
a sp e c ts--e m o tio n a l, scien tific, econom ic, religious, m etap h y
sic al, etc. (p. 301)
The m o st notable exam ple of this is the d escription of B ach 's Suite in
B M inor in the second chap ter. The conductor, "bending in sw an -like
undulations," looks as if he w ere "dancing to the m u sic" (p. 26). The
flutist "glueily k is s e d his flu te," and as he blew,
A cy lin d ric a l a ir colum n vib rated. . . . In the opening larg o
John S eb astian had, with the help of Pongileoni's snout and the
a ir colum n, m ade a statem ent: T h ere are grand things in the
w orld, noble things; th ere a re m en born kingly, (p. 26)
In addition to the c o n tra st betw een the physical and the m etap h y sic a l
d escrip tio n s, th e re is also th at betw een the anim al im ages applied to
the two p e rfo rm e rs and the "kingly" dream s of Bach.
T he effect of these various techniques is the goal for which
Philip striv e s:
"The e sse n c e of the new way of looking is m ultiplicity. M ulti
plicity of eyes and m ultiplicity of aspects seen. . . . One p e rso n
in te rp re ts events in te rm s of bishops; another in terms of the
price of flannel c am iso le s; another . . . in te rm s of good tim e s .
. . . E ach se e s . . . a different aspect of the event, a different
lay er of re a lity . " (p. 197)
104
T his m u ltip licity , a lite ra ry counterpart to R am pion's philosophical
"in co n sisten cy ," re fle c ts H uxley's desire to p re se n t the "Whole T ru th "
r a th e r than "chem ically pure distillations of the Whole T ru th ," as
30
trag e d y does. In effect, Huxley is advocating the p resen ta tio n of life
as it is, in all of its d iv ersity , without subjection to a u th o rial " s im
plification." As he e x p re ss e s it in a contem poraneous e ssa y ,
I r e g a rd the c la s s ic a l discipline, with its insistence on e lim in a
tion, concentration, sim plification, as being . . . e sse n tia lly an
escap e fro m . . . the g re a te st difficulty--w hich is to re n d e r a d e
quately, in te rm s of lite ra tu re , that infinitely com plex and m y s
te rio u s thing, actual reality . The w orld of the m ind is a c o m fo rt
able W om bland . . . to which we flee fro m the bew ildering . . .
m u ltip licity of the actual world. . . . Our m o st refined th e o rie s
. . . a r e but . . . b arb aro u s sim plifications of a re a lity that is
. . . infinitely com plex.^ *
T his m u ltila y e re d re a lity is the logical a rtistic goal fo r a w r ite r c o m
m itte d to th e "cool indifferent flux of intellectual c u rio u sity ." Huxley,
how ever, is not Phil, and in spite of his a s s e rtio n to the c o n tra ry , he
32
was n ev er a "P y rrh o n ic aesth ete." All of his w ritin g re fle c ts the
d e s ire to re a c h beyond prejudicial narro w n ess to b ro a d e r m inded,
individually chosen values. His counterpoint is n ever a m e re re c o r d
ing of different points of view but always im plies value o r lac k of value.
He judges value by its observable pragm atic function ra th e r than
according to som e a b s tra c t philosophical projection of tru th . T h e r e
fo re , when he su m m a riz e s his a rtistic goals in the following quotation,
his verb " 's a y s ' " is itself m ultilayered:
105
A rt . . . is also philosophy, is also science. O ther things being
equal, the w ork of a rt which . . . "sa y s" m ore about the u n iv erse
w ill be b e tter than the w ork of a r t which says l e s s . ^
One other technical device Philip proposes is the use of a
novelist within the novel who is also a zoologist and can th ere fo re
" illu stra te hum an v ices" through sim ila r habits of an im als. Although
P h ilip , Huxley's novelist, m u ses on th ese p o ssib ilities only o c ca sio n
ally, Huxley c a r rie s them out w ith a vengeance. The "v ices" that a n i
m als in Point Counter Point illu s tra te are' m ostly m ind-body im b a l
an ce s, and the wom en range fro m "m an -eatin g w om en" to sex less
"guinea p igs." Lady E dw ard, unfaithful wife and calculating lo v er, is
one of the "m an-eating w om en." H er daughter Lucy is not only a
" 'm a n - e a te r 1 " but also a " 'c o b ra ,' " a " 'w easel,' " and the " 'co n su m
m ate flow er of this charm ing civilization of o u rs, . . . a . . . p e r
fum ed im itation of a savage or an an im al' " (p. 57). M ary, on the
o ther hand, is a genuine "noble savag e." E lin o r, like Ram pion, is not
com pared to any anim al until she is in the situation she cannot handle.
When W ebley is dead and little P hil dying, she becom es like "a rabb it
in a tra p , . . . caged within h e r own sn a re " (p. 418). M ost ludicrous
is M a rjo rie who, uncom fortable with h e r body, eats "like a guinea
p ig --a s though [E linor noted] the p ro c e ss of eating w e re [like sex] an
indelicate and ra th e r disgusting affa ir" (p. 296).
The m en re p re se n t a s im ila r range fro m untam ed, passionate
lions to " 'filthy old b e a s ts .' " Old Bidlake is "the old lion" who once
106
loved with "a tig e ris h p a ssio n ." W ebley, before going to see E lin o r,
is "the re s tle s s lion, a little before feeding tim e " (p. 373), and a fte r
his death his continued political potency m akes him fo r Spandrell " 'the
dead lion.' " The in siste n t s tre e t vendor at P o rt Said, waiting to pounce
on Phil, is "a hungry lio n." Significantly, Ram pion is not likened to any
anim al, but he w ishes people could be m o re tru ly "beastly" instead of
being " 'gelded c a ts ' " and " 'dom estic a n im a ls,' " reflecting the
" 'unwholesome tam en e ss of our w o rld .' " He sees W alter with Lucy
acting like a " 'ra b b it in fro n t of a w e a s e l.' " F o r Lucy, W alter is m o re
like a "whipped dog" until he finally acts out of fru s tra te d lu st like " 'a
wild b e a st,' " and she becom es his m is tr e s s . Gladys calls the la s c iv
ious Q uarles " 'a d irty old pig' " and a " 'filthy old b e a st' " (p. 373).
At the o ther e x tre m e a re the "children." B urlap is a "child"
sexually, but he is also , fo r M ary, a " 'v u ltu re' " and a " 'sp iritu al
le e c h .'" He is the "D oppelganger." Sexually, Lord Edw ard also is a
"child" and a "fossil boy," but when he h e a rs Bach, he is "a dog with
the sm ell of ra b b its" (p. 35) and "the b e a r whom the sm ell of m o la sse s
constrains in spite of all his fe a rs to v isit the h u n te r's cam p" (p. 36).
He is even like a daring " lo v e r." Spandrell, with his preoccupation
with good and evil, is a " 'p erm an en t ad o lescen t' " and a "dung b e e tle 's
m aggot." E linor views h e r unem otional intellectual husband as a
" 'monkey on the superh um an side of hum anity . . . alm o st hum an' "
(p. 80). Molly thinks P hil is , like h e r, a " 'fa iry ,' " a " 'zoologist of
107
fiction,' " and a " 'scien tific puck.' " Phil views h im self, w ith his c o n
stant investigation and change of attitudes, as an in tellectu al "am o eb a."
L ittle P hil, who re p e a ts what his eld ers say, is a p a rro t, and Illidge
is not even an anim al but a vegetable. He is " 'the c a rro ty little m a n ' "
who, when he b lu sh es, is "a beetroot to the roots of his c a r r o t-
colored h a ir" (p. 44). He, like Spandrell, is a sso c iated w ith m aggots:
"Talking about hum an beings as though they w ere indistinguishable
fro m m aggots filled him w ith a peculiar satisfaction" (p. 134).
The an im al im ages reflect one side of the counterpoint, and
perhaps the predom inant one, but th e re a re also ideals of nobility and
harm ony. In addition to R am pion's living exam ple of in teg ratio n ,
Huxley e x p re s s e s , through the two m u sical pieces, Claude B e rn a rd 's
scientific w riting, and som e of the paintings, his hope of som e t r a n
scendental ideal that does not m ake people into superhum an m onkeys.
T his ideal is only occasionally glim psed, how ever, and the two m u sic a l
p ieces, which alm o st open and close the novel, envelop it in a c o n tra
puntal tension:
John S ebastian [Bach] . . . made a statem ent: T h ere a r e g ran d
things in the w orld, noble things. . . . But of an e a rth th a t is ,
oh! com plex and m ultitudinous. . . .You seem to have found the
truth ; c le a r, definite, unm istakable. . . . But it slips out of your
g rasp to p re s e n t its e lf in a new aspect among the cello s. . . .
(p. 26)
Huxley longs fo r a unified tru th that includes all the m u ltip licity , but
he has not found it. Beethoven's A M inor Q uartet clo ses P o in t C ounter
108
P o in t on a s im ila r note of am biguity. It c re a te s "the c alm of s till and
rap tu ro u s contem plation" that, like G um bril J u n io r's c ry s ta l w orld,
grow s and intensifies itself. It is not a drow sy o r sleepy calm but an
active one, in which "the m iraculo us paradox of e x te rn al life and
e te rn a l rep o se was m u sica lly rea liz ed " (p. 439). In addition to being,
as Ram pion objects, " 'not hum an,' " how ever, it is also not lasting.
The m u sic was proof; God existed. But only so long as the violins
w ere playing. When the bows w ere lifted fro m the strin g s , what
th en ? G arbage and stupidity, the p itiless drought, (p. 435)
F o r Huxley, how ever, unlike Rampion, this ineffable heaven is too
p e rfe c t to renounce altogether.
Claude B e rn a rd 's w riting sim ila rly re fle c ts H uxley's d is a g re e
m en t with R am pion and L aw rence over the p o ssib ilitie s of science.
The living being does not form an exception to the g re a t n a tu ra l
harm ony which m akes things adapt th em se lv e s to one another.
. . . F a r fro m that, it is a m em b er of the u n iv e rsa l c o n c e rt of
thing s, and the life of the anim al, fo r ex am ple, is only a fragm ent
of the to tal life of the u n iv erse, (p. 31)
Couched in m u sic a l te rm s of harm ony and the u n iv e rsa l co n cert,
B e rn a rd 's w riting e x p re ss e s H uxley's conviction th at scientific theory
can be in teg rativ e ra th e r than, as R am pion sa y s, " 'v iv isectin g ' " and
b ro a d in scope ra th e r than, as Huxley has p o rtray e d its m isapplication,
picayune. Such th eo ry can engender such positive attitudes as Lord
E d w a rd 's ecological d e sire to save the tons of phosphorous th at a re
w asted e v ery y e a r, a d e sire that is born of a B e rn a rd -in s p ire d feeling
of so lid a rity with the w orld.
109
R am pion's so lid arity takes a m o re anthropom orphic form .
Although his hum ans, in a painting d isc u sse d e a r lie r , a re in contact
with the cow and the leopards and "the r e s t of the w o rld ," the people
a re the cen ter of the painting. In fact, in the painting Ram pion m is
chievously shows B urlap, the naked m an and wom an em bracing are
"the source of the illum ination of the p ic tu re " (p. 309). F o r him ,
hum an, physical love brings contact with the "numinous m odes of
e x isten ce." F o r P hil and Huxley and o th e rs , no m a tte r how appealing
it sounds theoretically, it does not.
Point C ounter P oint is a rich ly tex tu red polyphonic pro se piece
advocating integration ov er co m p artm en talizatio n . The need fo r this
integration is p o rtray e d fully, but the m ethods for reaching it are too
vague for philosophical su c c e ss . R am pion fortuitously fell in love with
a com plem entary p e rso n , who enabled him to achieve his integrated
way of life. Phil, how ever, in a s im ila r situation, rem ain s an in te l
lectual, and o th e rs , like B urlap and S pan d rell, who com e under R a m
pion's sway, continue th e ir u n sa tisfa c to ry liv es. M ost people have
been too m uch influenced by th e ir so ciety to sim ply drop all of th eir
conditioning and becom e balanced hum an beings. A lso, people are not
all the sam e and th e re fo re cannot all accept the sam e solutions. Some
c ritic s have viewed Point C ounter Point as a "L aurentian in terlu d e"
and have th e re fo re overlooked the im p o rtan ce of the contrapuntal te n
sion between Huxley and L aw ren ce contained th ere in . On the subject of
110
love, the fact of R am p io n 's sin g u larity in his happiness, his inability
to influence o th e rs , is significant. In relig ion, the m usic and M rs.
Q uarles and M a rjo rie show H uxley's continued in te rest in a t r a n
scendental religion d ifferen t fro m R am pion's. Ram pion's u n rea listic
attitudes about p o litics, his lack of an educational program for train in g
people to be d ifferent, and his ignoring of death all point to his w eak
n e sse s. Huxley a d m ire d L aw ren ce, but he could not em ulate him . He
not only needed a d ifferent a n sw er, but he wanted to help oth ers find
th e irs. To educate people to find m o re m eaningful goals, without
im pinging on th e ir fre e d o m , was his continuous problem . Both his
inclinations and his u n c e rta in tie s a re contained in the d escriptio n of the
counterpoint of the Bach Suite:
The Sarabande . . . is a slow and lovely m editation on the beauty
(in spite of sq u alo r and stupidity), the profound goodness (in spite
of all the evil), th e oneness (in spite of such bew ildering d iv e r
sity) of the w orld. It is a beauty, a goodness, a unity that no
intellectual r e s e a r c h can d isco v er, th at analysis dispels, but of
whose rea lity the s p irit is fro m tim e to tim e suddently and o v e r
whelmingly convinced. . . . Is it illusion or the revelation of
profoundest tru th ? Who k n o w s ? . . . (pp. 26-27)
I l l
Notes
* Aldous H uxley, Antic Hay (New Y ork and Evanston: H a rp er
& Row, P e re n n ia l L ib ra ry , 1965), p. 281.
^Ibid. , p. 257.
3Ibid. , p. 7.
4
I b i d ., p. 263.
3 Ibid. , pp. 163-165.
3 Aldous H uxley, T hose B a rre n L eaves (New York: H e a rs t
C orporation, an Avon Book, 1956), p. 216.
7Ibid. , p. 296.
3Ibid. , p. 294.
^Ibid. , p. 269.
10Ibid. , p. 267.
^ A ld o u s H uxley, Point Counter Point (New York: H a rp e r &
Row, a P e re n n ia l C la ssic , 1965), p. 213. (All other quotations fro m
Point C ounter P o in t in this c h ap ter will be indicated in text by page
num bers enclosed in p a re n th e se s. )
12
Aldous H uxley, ed. , The L ette rs of D. H. L aw rence (New
York: Viking P r e s s , 1932), pp. xiv-xvi.
13
Aldous H uxley, "F ashions in L ove," Vanity F a i r , S eptem ber
1924, re p rin te d in Do What You W ill (London: Chatto & Windus, 1929),
p. 139.
14
Aldous H uxley, "To the P u ritan All Things A re Im p u re,"
Music at Night and O ther E ssa y s (London: Chatto & W indus, 1931),
p. 180.
15
Huxley, L e tte rs of D. H. L aw ren ce, p. xii.
^ H u x le y , "F ashions in Love," p. 140.
112
1?Huxley, "To the P u ritan ," pp. 179-180.
18
Aldous Huxley, "W ordsw orth in the T ro p ic s ," Do W hat You
W ill, p. 128.
^ A ld o u s Huxley, "One and M any," Do W hat You W ill, p. 39.
^ I b id . , p. 45.
21
Huxley, 'W ordsw orth in the T ro p ic s," p. 126.
22
Aldous Huxley, "F ra n c is and G rig o ry ," Do W hat You W ill,
p. 151.
23
Huxley, L ette rs of D. H. L aw re n ce , pp. xiv-xvi.
Ibid. , p. xxvn.
25 ................
Ibid. , pp. xxvii-xxviii.
2 6
L aw re n ce 's ability to "get inside the skin of an anim al [ e s
pecially his cow, B lack-E yed Susan] and te ll you in the m o st convincing
d etail how it felt and how . . . it thought" was a constant m a rv e l to
Huxley (ibid. , p. xxx).
^ 7Aldous Huxley, "Spinoza's W orm ," Do W hat You W ill, p. 91,
and "W ordsw orth in the T ro p ic s," p. 126.
28
Huxley, L ette rs of D. H. L aw re n ce , p. xx.
29t
Ibid. , p. xxxi.
30
Aldous Huxley, "T ragedy and the W hole T ru th ," M usic at
Night and O ther E s s a y s , p. 13.
31
Aldous Huxley, V ulgarity in L ite ra tu re (London: Chatto &
W indus, 1930), p. 18.
32
Aldous Huxley, B rave New W orld (New York: H a rp e r & Row,
P e re n n ia l C la ssic , 1969), p. viii.
33
Huxley, V ulgarity in L ite ra tu r e , p. 59-
34
Je ro m e M eckier, Aldous Huxley: S a tire and S tru c tu re (New
York: B arnes & Noble, 1969), p. 76.
CHAPTER HI
BRAVE NEW W ORLD:
FREEDOM VERSUS "HA PPIN ESS"
The W orld State of B rave New W o rld , an am plification of
Scogan's R ational State and of R am pion's "h ell," is the logical exten
sion of H uxley's c ritic ism s of tw e n tieth -c en tu ry civilization. Although
the d isc o v eries of m odern science allow the "perfection" of the te n
dencies, the attitudes p ortrayed a re only an ex ag g eratio n of the m odern
w illingness to relinquish individuality to b o rin g jo b s, dogm atic r e l i
gions, c en tralize d g o v ern m en ts, and p a ssiv e e n te rta in m e n ts. W estern
w o rship of econom ic efficiency and sc ien tific p ro g re s s and avoidance
of thought and pain a re joined with E a s te r n preoccupation with c o l
lective m a te ria l needs over individual sp iritu a l ones to produce a
society of unthinking, "happy . . . drops w ithin the Social R iv er."
The counterpoint is betw een the h o r r o r s of th is sta b le , cen tralized
sta te and the less dem eaning but also objectionable conditions of the
p r e - F o r d dispensation and of the Savage R e se rv a tio n , producing the
choice, as Huxley puts it in his F o re w o rd , "betw een insanity on the
113
114
one hand and lunacy on the o th e r" (p. viii). The contrapuntal te c h
nique is esp ecially useful in th is novel, which co n cen trates on exposing
m o re blatantly than e v er the deficiencies of co m plem en tary ideas.
Huxley continues to feel, as Ram pion e x p re sse d , that the
" re a lly revolutionary revolution is to be achieved . . . in the souls and
flesh of hum an beings" (p. x). He th e re fo re views biological sciences
as the m ost deadly political tools because they have the power to a lte r
the goals and capabilities of hum an beings. The p o rtra y a l of "th e
advancem ent of science as it affects hum an individuals" (p* ix) is t h e r e
fo re pervasive in all a sp ects of the W orld State.
Love, fo r instance, is shaken at its v ery ro o ts. With H atch
e rie s and Conditioning C e n te rs, sex is no longer n e c e s s a ry for p r o
creation , parenthood is no lo n g er n e c e s s a ry for c h ild -ra isin g , and
love is not only u n n e c e ssa ry but a th re a t to the stab ility of the State.
Im personal prom iscuous sex has rep la ce d the ideal of m onogamous
love. Huxley, how ever, continues to value individual needs over
so ciety 's efficiency, and his counterpoint shows his d issatisfactio n
with passio n less sex and a m ec h an ica l m ode of p ro creatio n as well as
with the o ld er, u n re a lis tic , and often claustrophobic, sexual m o re s .
As e v e r, Huxley sid es ag ain st attitudes that a re unnatural or
not all-in clu siv e. M ustapha Mond d e p re ca tes p re -F o rd ia n m o res that
dem anded unnatural sexual r e p re s s io n before the age of twenty and
th ere fo re led to " 'su rre p titio u s a u to -e ro tic is m and hom osexuality' "
115
(p. 21). Mond reco gnizes " 'the tem ptations, . . . the lonely r e
m o rs e s , . . . and the endless isolating p a in 1 " th at a ro se fro m people
having " 'prohibitions they w ere not conditioned to obey' " (p. 27). H ere
is the c ru x of the problem of free choice th at W alter cogitated. If one
trie s to th w a rt his instincts in p ursuit of seem ingly m o re noble goals,
he often fails and feels guilty. With the exception of R am pion, p r e
vious Huxley c h a ra c te rs indicate that perm an en t changes of ta s te m ay
be im p o ssib le. Being conditioned to accede to your in stin cts rem o v es
the n e c e ssity of m aking the choice.
The e x tre m e to which the W orld State has conditioned people is
unnatural and, in a continuation of e a rlie r im ages of underdevelopm ent,
infantile. In quick interpolations of the C o n tro lle r's sp eech with scenes
with Fanny and L enina in the locker room and with F o s te r, the A s s is
tant P r e d e s tin a to r , and M arx in the elev ato r, the " 'unspeaking agoniz
ing p le a s u re ' " (p. 25) for a m other nursing h e r baby is juxtaposed with
Fanny having a ch em ical Pregnancy Substitute; the " 'reek in g . . .
em otion[s]' " (p. 24) of lo v ers and fam ilies a re c o n tra sted w ith P a ssio n
S urro gates; and the "high sp u rts of the fountain, [the] fie rc e and foam y
. . . wild je t" of "m o th er, monogam y, ro m a n c e ," a re c o n tra ste d with
the "twenty piddling little fountains" (p. 27) of sexual p ro m iscu ity
without em otion. W ithin the individual sc e n e s, too, the "conventional"
view of "ev ery one belongs to every one e ls e " (p. 29) is c o n tra ste d with
L enina's not " 'feeling v ery keen on p ro m iscu ity lately ' " (p. 28)
116
and B e rn a rd 's thinking th at H enry and the A ssista n t P re d e stin a to r a re
" 'talking about h e r as though she w ere a bit of m ea t, . . . like m u t
ton. D egrading h e r to so m uch m utton' " (p. 30). T he p re m ise u n d e r
lying this counterpoint is that u n p ro cre ativ e p ro m iscu ity is not only
less sp ectacu lar than p ro cre ativ e, em otional sex but is also so d efi
cient that the innate needs for passion and p ro c re a tio n m u st be s a t i s
fied by synthetic m ethods. The DHC e x p re ss e s both of th e se attitudes
in a passage m ade ironic by the use of the w ord infantile: " 'Alphas
are so conditioned that they do not have to be infantile in th e ir e m o
tional behaviour. But . . . it is th e ir duty to be infantile, even against
th e ir inclination' " (p. 65).
The m ajo r counterpoint on love rev o lv es around John and
Lenina. John's S hakespearean ideal of ch astity offers nobility but also
fru stra tio n , re m o rse , and defeat b ecause of its defiance of n atu ral
d riv es. L enina's "stric tly conventional" p ro m iscu ity offers stability
because it accom m odates the d e sire s of the body, but it kills the p a s
sion and g randeur that re s u lt fro m love and overcom ing ob stacles.
The m o st ironic juxtaposition is John 's n aively projecting onto Lenina
the quality of " 'beauty too ric h for u se , fo r e a rth too d e a r' " (p. 120),
while she is "belonging" to the A rch -C o m m u n ity -S o n g ster. H er p r o
m iscu ity is a drug, a d istrac tio n fro m thinking, continuing the subju
gation of the m asse s:
117
"Hug m e till you drug m e , honey;
Kiss m e till I'm in a com a:
Hug m e, honey, snuggly bunny;
L ove's as good as s o m a .1 1 (p. 112)
But John's contrasting reactio n is rid icu lo u s in its ex trem ity of pla-
tonic w orship. "Pained, d e sirin g , and ash am ed of his d e sire " (p. 114),
he throw s h e r away fro m him and la te r whips his re c a lc itra n t body for
feeling its n atu ral d e sire s.
As with all of the issu e s of B rav e New W o rld, th e re is no p o si
tive norm . John's love for his m o th e r, though touching at tim e s, is
also fraught with jealousy, anger, and fru s tra tio n . Lenina, who ap
p aren tly acquires som e feeling fo r John b ecause of the " 'in terv al of
tim e betw een d e sire and its co nsum m ation' " (p. 29), m anages only to
fo rg et to innoculate a bottle and to take refuge fro m John's rejection
of h e r in som a. B ern ard wants to feel "p assio n " but never does. The
relatio n sh ip s of the conform ing o th e rs a re not even relatio n sh ip s of
in teractio n and carin g and growth, but a re only d istractio n s fro m
thinking. The contrasting ideal of m onogam y on the re s e rv a tio n is,
like John's chastity and p re -F o rd ia n m onogam y, u n rea listic ; Linda is
sco rn ed because m en, train ed to value m onogam y, d e sire h e r in spite
of th e ir ideals.
Like love, individual relig io n is dangerous to social stability,
but, like love, m an 's need to be p a rt of som ething bigger than him self,
2
to have som e so rt of m eaning, is innate, according to Huxley.
118
Recognizing th is need, the W orld State h as, with the aid of scien ce,
replaced individual, G od-oriented religions with a group, State -
oriented one. In te rm s rem in isc e n t of C alam y 's yearnings, M ustapha
Mond e x p re sse s the danger of religious o r philosophical m eaning to
social stability:
Once you began adm itting explanations in te rm s of purpose, . . .
it . . . m ight e asily decondition the m o re unsettled m inds am ong
the higher c aste s - -m ake them lose th e ir faith in happiness as the
Sovereign Good and take to believing instead that the . . . purpose
of life was not the m aintenance of w ell-bein g, but som e in te n sifi
cation and refining of co n scio u sn ess, som e enlargem ent of know
ledge. Which w as, the C ontroller refle cted , quite possibly tru e .
But not, in the p re s e n t c irc u m s ta n c e s , adm issible, (pp. 119-120)
Serving stability ra th e r than tru th , scien ce, by p erv ertin g
N ature's way, has rem o v ed the chance fo r pursuing m eaning. As M u s
tapha explains to the Savage, quoting M aine de B iran, " 'the relig ious
sentim ent tends to develop as we grow o ld e r' " because as we becom e
less active and involved in " 'phenom enal existence, . . . we feel the
need to lean on som ething that abides, . . . an absolute and e v e rla stin g
tru th ' " (p. 158). Such com pensation is "superfluous" in Brave New
W orld, how ever, because " 'youthful d e s ire s n ever fail. . . . What
need have we of rep o se when our m inds and bodies continue to delight in
activity? of consolation, when we have so m a ? of som ething im m ovable,
when th ere is the social o r d e r ? ' " (p. 159). John counters with the
d e sire for nobility and h e ro ism , but M ustapha says that the p hysio
logical need is m et by Violent P a ss io n S urrogates and the p ra c tic a l
119
need.by so cial stability. It is a sobering thought that h e ro ism com es
only at the p rice of so c ial instability.
The applied relig io u s counterpoint is between the State S o lid a r
ity S ervices and the o ld er, G od-oriented religions of C h ristian ity and
the Savage R eserv atio n . Some of the m o st m ordant irony in the novel
appears in the d escrip tio n of B e rn a rd 's Solidarity S ervice, whose d e
votional language and m in d less ritu a l is pointedly rem in isce n t of
C h ristian com m union. The use of th ese trappings to produce not
sp iritu a l "atonem ent" with God but sexual joining with the o ther eleven
hum an " 'drops w ithin the Social R iv e r' " is the m a s te r stro ke of iro n y
in d escrib in g this institution trad itio n ally so opposed to prom iscuous
sex.
The s a tire of the S olidarity Service is on two lev e ls. One is the
exaggeration and d isto rtio n of the Communion se rv ice to im ply that
C h ristian ity is only m a s s h y s te ria brought about by a rtific ia l aids.
"The loving cup" of wine has becom e the m ore intoxicating som a; the
m u sic and the "su p e rn a tu ra l Voice" intoning "F ord, F o rd , F o rd ,"
produce "m elted bow els"; "His Com ing" refe rs to the appearance of the
hero of dehum anization, F o rd , whose nam e conveniently rh y m es w ith
Lord; and the final end of "th e incarnation of the G re ater Being" s a t i
riz e s C h ristia n ity 's o rien tatio n tow ard death and Heaven in stead of life
on e a rth (pp. 54-55):
120
"C om e, G re a te r Being, Social F rie n d ,
A nnihilating T w elve-in-O ne !
We long to die, for when we end,
Our la rg e r life has but b e g u n !" (p. 54)
The other level of s a tir e com es fro m the c o n tra st betw een everyone
e ls e 's fe v e rish exaltation and B e rn a rd 's failu re to " 'hear Him c o m
ing' " (p. 56) and his continued preoccupation with M organa's single
eyebrow. While o th e rs a re "fused into the G re ater Being" (p. 57), he
rem ain s " s e p a ra te ," an unintoxicated individual. The Solidarity S e r
vice is a ritu a lis tic acting out of the annihilation of individuality for
the so lid arity of the sta te and exem plifies Huxley's c ritic is m of
accepting unexam ined belief.
The relig io n of John Savage and the Savage R eserv atio n shows a
sim ila r ritu a lis tic se lf-a b a s e m e n t to please the gods. On the r e s e r v a
tion, a young m an is proud to be whipped to show that he can suffer pain
without crying out and th e re b y prove his manhood and prom pt the gods
to send ra in . E ven m o re ex tre m e ly , John whips him self, yelling,
" 'kill it, kill it' " (p. 176), b ecause his ideal of love does not allow fo r
physical d e s ire . T his annihilation of the flesh in the in te re sts of
g re a te r individual nobility is com plem entary to the o rg ia stic lo ss of
individuality in the S olidarity S ervice. John Savage's death is the
physical c o u n te rp a rt to the m etap h y sical deaths of the o th ers.
B rav e New W orld p o rtra y s H uxley's continuing d istru st of
organized, ritu a lis tic relig io n s, while at the sam e tim e pointing to
121
m an 's yearning for sp iritu a l significance. Still m irro rin g C h ristia n
sep aratio n of m ind, body, and soul, the choice p resen ted is betw een
the "insanity" of ritu a lis tic sexual fulfillm ent to reduce individuality
and the "lunacy" of sexual negation to in c re a se individual sp iritu a lity
and nobility. T he hum an yearning for m eaning, though n ever finding a
viable channel, is e x p re sse d by the th ree who a re lea st conditioned by
the State. M ustapha reco g n izes the need but sees it as in ad m issib le
because dangerous to the State. Helm holtz feels th at he has an " 'e x tra
latent p o w e r,' " but he does not yet know what it is . John has a feeling
about God th at, not p a rt of his dogma, is perso n al and e x p erien ced and
re se m b le s the intuitive, deep quiet of the e a r lie r novels. It has to do
with "solitude" and "night" and "the m e sa lying pale under the m oon"
and "the plunge into shadowy d a rk n e ss." But, like all tru ly relig io u s
e x p erien c es, th e re a re "no w ords. Not even in S h ak esp eare" (p. 156).
In B rav e New W o rld , Huxley explains the philosophical b a sis
for his objection to W estern so c iety 's p ra ise of youth and n e g le ct of
death, which the W orld State adheres to in exaggerated form . Old age,
as M ustapha rec o g n iz e s, offers people the chance " 'to renounce, r e
tire , take to relig io n , spend th e ir tim e reading, thinking - -thinking!' "
(p. 37). Since relig io n , reading, and thinking th re a te n p eople's co n
ditioning to view happiness as the highest good, science has abolished
" 'all the physiological stig m ata of old age' " and also " 'all the old
m an 's m en tal p e c u lia ritie s ' " (p. 37). The re s u lt is that people n ever
122
need to exam ine the m eaning of life o r death at all: " 'N ow --such is
p r o g r e s s - - th e old m en w ork, the old m en copulate, the old m en have
. . . no le is u re fro m p lea su re , not a m om ent to sit down and th in k 1 "
(p. 37). The W orld C o n tro lle r's h isto ry of conquering old age is
in te rs p e rs e d w ith ironic juxtapositions of M arx 's im patience w ith
m in d le ss, "hypnopaedic w isdom " and of exam ples of the su b stitu tes
fo r thought, s o m a , sex, and O bstacle Golf, followed by m o re d is
senting M arx.
D eath offers s im ila r th re a ts to social stab ility . F o r the in d i
vidual dying, the confrontation of the cessatio n of life offers the chance
to exam ine the m eaning of life. T h erefo re, the dying a re d is tra c te d by
s o m a , telev isio n , rad io , and scent boxes and a re th ereb y kept in a
sta te of "infantile contentm ent" and unaw areness. Since acquaintances
m ight feel dangerous em otions of sadness at the lo ss of som eone,
people a re conditioned fro m an e a rly age to take dying as a m a tte r of
c o u r s e - - " 'like any o ther physiological p r o c e s s '" (p. 138). A ctually,
death has p ositiv e overtones because conditioning c o n sists of a s s o c ia
tion w ith delectable sw eets and gam es of e ro tic play. Huxley im plies
th at death and old age, like love and religion, have im p o rtan t functions
in th e ir n a tu ra l state that can be rem oved only by physiological and
psychological change.
M odern W e ste rn e rs do not know how to use th ese opp o rtu n ities,
how ever, as the counterpoint betw een this "im becile h a p p in e ss" and
123
John 's painful rea ctio n to L inda's death shows. Although the d r a w
backs of the opposing view a re c le a r, John's is no m o re su c c e ssfu l.
His is the fountain of stro n g em otions, but in spite of his d e s ire to
re m e m b e r only the good things about Linda, the "jealousies and u g li
n e s s e s and m is e r ie s " (p. 138) also com e flooding in. His a ttem p ts at
m aking L inda m o re aw are f ir s t m ake h e r confuse him with Pope and
then see him as John, but as "an in tru d er into that p a ra d isa l M alpais
w here she had been . . . with Pope" (p. 139). M ore im p o rtan tly , even
if John could bring h e r to m o re re a listic a w are n ess, he would not know
how to channel it. When she finally becom es aw are, it is only to s u f
fe r fro m h e r u nsuccessful efforts to fill her lungs with oxygen.
T he excuse for all of this conditioning is, as we have noted
b e fo re , so c ial stability. The political counterpoint in B rave New
W orld is betw een a governm ent offering u n iv ersal com fort and h a p p i
n ess at the expense of p erso n al freedom on the one hand and g o v e rn
m ents affording p e rso n al freed o m but unable to provide lastin g stab ility
o r u n iv e rs a l com fort and happiness on the o th er. John em bodies and
sta te s the m a jo r c ritic is m of the W orld State. He deplores the e x tin c
tion of the paths for approaching tru th and b e a u ty --a rt, u n fettere d
sc ie n c e , and re lig io n --b u t the epitom e of the defects of the W o rld 's
philosophy is the reduction of individuality to the indistin guish ability
of n in e ty -six tw ins, whose "m aggoty" appearance m akes him p h y si
cally ill. The DHC's statem en t of m orality ironically u n d e rlin es the
124
ex trem ity of the devaluation of the individual: " 'No offense is so h e i
nous as unorthodoxy of behavior. M urder kills only the individual.
. . . Unorthodoxy . . . strik e s at Society its e lf' " (p. 99).
The W orld C ontroller e x p re sse s the contrapuntal point of view:
people did not know what to do with th e ir freedom when they had it.
The p re -F o rd ia n s had " 'liberty to be inefficient and m ise ra b le . F r e e
dom to be a round peg in a sq u are hole' " (p. 31). He nam es the d ra w
backs of unstable so c ietie s, m o st of which B e rn a rd and L enina find
during th e ir v isit to the Savage R eservation: old age, d ise a s e , poverty,
even sta rv a tio n , fe a r of death, philosophical a n g st, isolation, and p a s
sions. The f ir s t, having to do with health and physical com fort, are
unsolved p ro b lem s of today's w orld and of the Savage R eserv atio n .
The o th e r, m o re philosophical ones, a re problem s that help the in d i
vidual to define him self as he trie s to solve them . Although they
th re a te n w orld stability because of th e ir in d iv id u a l-c e n te re d n e ss, this
very quality m akes the non-organization m an " 'claim th em a ll' " (p.
163) with the Savage. The only possible m iddle ground betw een th ese
two e x tre m e s is the islands to which the intelligent, not totally con di
tioned, individuals a re sent.
The im plication of the political counterpoint is the n e c e ssity of
a society like th at in Islan d. G overnm ent should see that basic p h y si
cal needs a re m et, and it should also help people to use th e ir freed o m
in a m an n er th at is satisfying to them . It should n e v er, how ever, use
125
th e individual for com m on good at the expense of his p e rso n al needs.
The econom ic p ractices of the W orld State provide som e of the
m o st vivid exam ples of subjugation of the individual to the in te re s ts of
the State. The efficiency of H enry F o rd 's m a ss production is applied
to the c re atio n of people to produce Bokanovsky G roups of "infantile"
people whose "endlessly repeated face" (p. 150) d riv es the Savage
c ra z y . Since m o st jobs a re repetitive and m onotonous facto ry work,
if the w o rk ers w ere Alphas, " 's e p a ra te and u n related individuals of
good h ered ity and conditioned . . . to be capable . . . of m aking a
fre e choice and assum ing resp o n sib ility ,' " they would, as the W orld
C o n tro ller explains, " 'go m ad . . . o r s ta r t sm ash in g things up' "
(p. 51). T h ere fo re , ra th e r than c re a te jobs that would be in te restin g
to such independent individuals, the W orld State c re a te s people, like
m achines and tools, to fit the specifications of th e ir jobs. Even when
people a re not one of n in ety -six identical tw ins, th e ir lives a re still
determ ined by th e ir econom ic function. H enry F o s te r explains that
fo r je t re p a ir m en, who w ill have to w ork upside down, they rotate
th e ir bottles and regulate oxygen supply so that " 'they le a rn to a s s o
ciate topsy-turvydom with w ell-being; in fact, th e y 're only tru ly happy
when th e y 're standing on th eir h e ad s' " (p. 11). F o r the sake of a job,
people's whole lives a re turned upside do w n--m entally and sp iritu ally
as well as physically.
126
This kind of econom ics is obviously stab le because people are
b red and conditioned to be w ell-suited fo r th e ir jobs and to like them .
T h ere is no com petition or seeking for individual glory. W ork is
another kind of drug because it keeps people occupied; M ustapha says
that th ere a re inventions that would allow th e low er c a ste s to w ork
few er h o u rs, but these devices re m a in unused b ecause le ss w ork would
c re a te u n rest.
One of the m ost damning aspects of th is m ech anization is its
superfluity. In o rd e r to support these efficient fa c to rie s , people have
to be conditioned to consum e as fast as p o ssib le . In exaggerated but
recognizable extension of p resen t ten d e n cies, sp o rts req u ire elaborate
equipm ent, clothes m u st be of the la te s t sty le , and people m u st be
unable to e n te rta in them selves without ela b o rate aids. The condition
ing that a s s u re s this c o n su m erism is as p re ju d ic ia l and m indless as
M adison Avenue advertising.
The p o rtray al of the econom y of the Savage R e se rv a tio n is
slight. In c o n tra st to the W orld State, it has no m ach in ery , an d its a g ri
cu ltu re depends on the whims of the gods to send rain . C onsum erism
is nonexistent, and the Indians use unsynthetic cloth that la sts and
la sts and then can be rep a ired by all but Linda. P o v erty is im plied but
not shown. Although not an efficient econom ic sy ste m , it allows indi
vidual se lf-re sp e c t.
127
A nother, unworkable counterpoint is the society of only Alphas
th at failed because all of them w e re too b o red with the m enial jobs to
do them . Although M ustapha u ses this as proof that the W orld S ta te
has the only feasible econom ic solution, this is a false dilem m a. It
r e s ts on the p rem ise that all labor m u st be efficient and th e re fo re
m echanized. It also assu m es that people m u st be intelligent to be
independent, fulfilled hum an beings.
The falsen ess of th ese assu m p tio n s is suggested by John's
attem pts at self-sufficiency at the end of the novel. The counterpoint
is betw een m ass production, which is econom ically efficient but r e
quires boring factory jobs, and the m o re individual w ork, which is
le ss efficient but m ore fulfilling to the w o rk e r. In c o n tra st to the
W orld S tate's exaggeration of W estern c o n su m e rism and in d u strial
jobs of infantile m entality and n a rro w sco p e, John tr ie s to set up his
own garden, to hunt his own food, m ake his own sim ple bow and arro w
with skill and p rid e, and live sim ply, off of his own ingenuity. Like
R am pion's, this is not a w orkable solution, given our p resen t popula
tion, but it indicates a d irectio n of self-su fficien cy and pride in one's
w ork that is the only altern ativ e to the boring jobs of the W orld State.
Science is the m eans by which this " 'utopia' " is m ade " 'r e a l-
3 4
izab le.' " It is , as Huxley sa y s, the " P ro c r u s te s in m odern d re s s "
which, through eugenics, a science of hum an d ifferen ces, conditioning,
and som a, m akes people into w hatever is d e sire d . The m ost im po rtant
128
com m on denom inator to all of its p ro jects is the ability to m ake people
love th e ir servitu de, th ere b y m aking fo rce u n n ecessary . In addition
to the trium phs of the biological sciences that m atch people p erfectly
with th e ir jobs and th e ir c a ste s and th e ir existential situ atio n s, th e re
a re all the gim m icks of the o ther scien ces that provide physical c o m
fo rt and busy, d istra c te d le is u re . The " F e e lie s ," O bstacle Golf, and
som a all receiv e em p hasis because th ese d istrac tio n s fro m thought
about value or purpose r e p re s e n t fo r Huxley such an im p o rtan t th re a t
5
to hum an fulfillm ent in the tw entieth century.
B e rn a rd and H elm holtz both e x p re ss d issa tisfac tio n with th e ir
conditioning and the m eaningless d istra c tio n s, but the Savage e x
p re s se s the stro n g e st contrapuntal point of view. A gainst the w onders
of m o d ern science he pits the hum an im agination and the soul. When
the Station M aster tr ie s to im p re ss him with the speed of the Bom bay
G reen Rocket, "John thought it v ery nice. 'S till,1 he said, 'A riel
could put a girdle round the e a rth in forty m in u te s.' " In his re p o rt on
the Savage to M ustapha Mond, B e rn a rd attrib u tes this lack of " 'awe of
civilized inventions' " at le a st p a rtly to his in te re s t in " 'the so u l,'
which he p e rs is ts in reg a rd in g as an entity independent of the physical
environm ent' " (p. 106).
The counterpoint on love, religion , old age, death, politics,
econom ics, and science revolves around conflicting evaluations of
soul and physical surroundings. Still a zoologist of fiction, Huxley
129
em phasizes the subhum anness of elim inating the soul through repeated
analogies to unthinking, m ass anim als like m aggots, aphids, and ants
and to babies, infants, and im b eciles. In a step backw ard evolution-
a rily , people a re no lo n g er viviparous but a re essen tially hatched out
of glorified eggs in the H atchery. The D irec to r of H atcheries and
Conditioning even w ishes that science could m ake hum ans " re v e rt . . .
to the norm ality of dogs and cow s" (pp. 9-10), which reach m aturity
m ore quickly than hum ans and a re th ere fo re m o re efficient as work
so u rc es. At the o th er e x tre m e , hum ans a re counterpointed with m a
chines and synthetic inventions and are again less proficient; only
"M ustapha M ond's o ra to ry was alm ost up to synthetic standards" (p.
150). This inefficiency in c o n tra st to anim als and m achines im plies the
W orld S tate's m isu se of hum anity. Humans take longer to m ature b e
cause they have .m o re to re a c h than m e re physical m atu rity as social
and econom ic functions, but th ese intellectual, em otional, and s p i r i
tual goals a re in ap p ro p riate and th reaten in g to the W orld State. T h e r e
fo re, it is populated by se c o n d -ra te anim als and m achines.
A nother group of im ages shows m o re specifically what has been
forfeited. R epeating that " 'in sp ired saying of Our F o rd 's: H istory is
bunk,' " the W orld C o n tro ller w aves his hand and, as though it w ere
"an invisible fea th e r w hisk," he
brushed away . . . the dust . . . [of] Thebes and Babylon and
Cnossos and M ycenae, . . . O dysseus, . . . Job, . . . Ju piter
and Gotam a and J e s u s , . . . those specks of antique d irt called
130
Athens and R om e, J e ru s a le m and the Middle Kingdom. . . .
W hisk, the c a th e d ra ls . . . King L ear and the Thoughts of P a sc a l.
W hisk, P assio n ; w hisk, Requiem ; whisk, Symphony; whisk. . . .
"Going to the F e e lie s this'evening, H e n ry ? . . . I h e ar . . .
th e re 's a love scene on a b e arsk in rug. . . . E v ery h air of the
b e ar reproduced. T he m o st am azing tactual effects." (pp. 22-23)
The g randeur of love and relig io n provides m ore counterpoint through
the ironic use of l ite r a r y allu sions. Lenina, prep arin g for h e r date
with H enry F o s te r , "p re se n te d the nozzle to her b re a st as though she
m eant to com m it su ic id e " (p. 24). Instead of an asp ending a violent
passion, th e re e m e rg e s on this pneum atic, em otionless woman only
"th e finest talcu m po w d er." The E m bryo Store h as, like M ilton's hell,
"darkness . . . v isib le ," and its "three tie r s of ra c k s ," attended by
"dim red sp e c tre s of m e n and w om en" (pp. 6-7) is ironically r e m in is
cent of D ante's Inferno. O ther ironic c o n tra sts to the past a re e m
bodied in the a lte ra tio n of C haring C ro ss to Charing T, Big Ben to
Big H enry, and the u se of Stoke Poges for Obstacle Golf. Significantly,
all of the im ag es of g ra n d e u r a re p re-m o d e rn .
Im ages of c rim so n , red , synthetic, and insufficient light
abound to d e sc rib e the m ental blindness of these w orld citizen s,
explicitly applied to th e liftm an, who resid e s in "the tw ilight of his own
habitual stu p o r" (p. 39). The repetitive use of the bottle e x p re s s e s a
sim ila r condition of w om blike unaw aren ess, the "quite im p en etrab le
wall between the a ctu al un iv erse and th e ir m inds" (p. 52). Soma and
conditioning m ake " 'each of us . . . go through life inside a b o ttle' "
131
(p. 37), the C on troller notes. All of these "sim ian lim ita tio n s" are
included in the ironic u se of the title. M ore than once, as John Savage
looks at the "m aggoty" Bokanovsky groups of tw ins, he thinks sadly,
" 'O b rav e new w orld th at has such people in i t 1 " (p. 142). P e o p le's
nam es identify m any of the so u rc e s of this to ta lita ria n sta te , joining
the W este rn w orld's econom ic dehum anization through F o rd with the
E a s te rn w o rld 's po litical dehum anization through T ro tsk y , Lenin, and
M arx.
F ive people offer varying degrees of counterpoint to the W orld
State. Lenina e x p re ss e s disinclination tow ard (and by im plication the
u n naturalness of) being always sexually prom iscuous, but she is not a
serio u s reb e l. L a te r she se rv e s as a counterpoint to B e rn a rd , who
reco g n izes conditioned resp o n se s as such and wants to be " 'fre e --n o t
enslaved by m y conditioning' " (p. 61). While she re c ite s official,
hypnopaedic re s p o n se s, he e x p re ss e s the d e sire to be " 'm o re m e,
. . . m o re on m y own, not so com pletely a p art of som ething else.
Not ju st a cell in the so c ial body' " (p. 60). To this end, he wants to
be alone ra th e r than playing " 'id io tic' " gam es, he wants " 'p a ssio n ' "
in stead of prom iscuous sex, he is disdainful of the equation of hypno
paedic repetitions with tru th , and he rem ain s "unatoned" during the
Solidarity S erv ices.
B e rn a rd 's objections and o bjectives, however valid, are
prom pted as m uch by his dim inutive sta tu re , which caused him to be a
132
d issatisfied o u tsid e r, as by his intellectual independence. T h ere fo re ,
although at f ir s t he e x p re ss e s the m ajo r objections to the W orld State,
his ris e in so cial sta tu re that accom panies his p resen tatio n of the S av
age quells his in tellectu al dissatisfaction: "Success went fizzily to
B e rn a rd 's head, and in the p ro c e ss com pletely reconciled him (as any
good intoxicant should do) to a w orld which, up till then, he had found
very u n sa tisfa c to ry " (p. 105).
T he fall of B e rn a rd as ra is o n n e u r, who is som ew hat lik elllid g e,
is accom panied by the r is e of H elm holtz W atson, who is m o re in the
position of C alam y. An "E scalato r-S q u ash cham pion" and a v ery s u c
cessful lo v e r, H elm holtz "had rea liz ed . . .th at sp o rt, women, c o m
m unal a ctiv itie s w e re only . . . second bests. R eally, and at the b ot
tom , he w as in te re s te d in som ething e lse. But in what?" (p. 45). He
stands fo r the intuition of som e deeper m eaning, which, how ever, he
is unable to define. Although he appears infrequently, he sets a n o rm
of hum ility, courage, g en ero sity , and loyalty that m akes B e rn ard
seem ludicrous by c o n tra st. Into the social instability that John Savage
m o m en tarily c re a te s with his obstruction of som a distribution, H elm -
hotz infuses som e m e a s u re of h e ro ism .
John Savage, born into another culture, provides the m o st co n
sisten t counter point throughout the la s t half of the novel. Unlike the
other re b e ls , he has altern ativ e ideals in addition to his c ritic is m ,
and, as we have seen , th ese ideals underm ine the W orld State, the
133
other re b e ls , and h im self. His d e sire for love, which H elm holtz, to
his d e trim e n t, cannot un d erstan d , shows the lim itations of Helm holtz
and th e o th e rs, but Jo h n 's disem bodied ex trem ity points again to
Denis and W a lte r's pro b lem of taking lite ra tu r e 's intensity and ro m a n
ticism too lite ra lly . He provides the m o st im portant counterpoint to
the loss of love, m eaning, h e ro ism , and individuality in the W orld
State, but his a lte rn a tiv e values re p re s e n t another, u n realistic
ex trem e. His incom prehension of Lenina and his suicide show the in
effectiveness of one so naive and the im possibility of returning, as
Rampion had hoped, to Noble Savagery.
Savage's c ritic is m and ingenuous id ealism are co n trasted with
the m o re com plete understanding of M ustapha Mond. A fo rm er in d e
pendent sc ie n tist and a m an who has rea d S hakespeare and o th er old
books, he u n d erstan d s the old w orld and the new. Not at all a tyran nic
p o w er-lo v er, his w illingness to dehum anize people, in full knowledge
of altern ativ e v alu es, re p re s e n ts the biggest blow to hum an freedom
and nobility. Although his con version is not explained in enough detail
to be totally convincing, the counterpoint is e x p re ssed in the exchange
between him and John Savage. John ob jects,
"But I don't want com fort. I want God, I want poetry, I want
re a l danger, I want freed o m , I want goodness. I want sin."
. . . "Y ou're claim ing the right to be unhappy, . . . to
grow old and ugly and im potent, . . . to have syphilis and c a n
c e r, . . . to have too little to eat; the rig h t to be lousy; the right
to live in constant apprehension of what m ay happen tom orrow ; the
rig h t to catch typhoid; the right to be to rtu re d by unspeakable
134
pains of e v ery kind." (p. 163)
Surely a m an of M ustapha's intelligence would re a liz e that th is is at
lea st p a rtia lly a false dilem m a, but, disappointingly, in the in te re s ts
of p olitical stability and physical w elfare, he benignly ru les a w orld of
m aggots.
The m o st disco uraging p rem ise of B rave New W orld is that
R am pion's solution of following one's instincts is too sim p listic and
th at m e re free d o m is not enough. The Savage R e se rv a tio n shows that
even am ong so c ietie s u n tram m eled by m odern civilization, people do
not always m ak e w ise o r happy choices. H uxley's anthropology is not
a ll-in c lu siv e, but the fact of m o d ern civilization m akes that a moot
point. Given the p re s e n t state of the w orld, with its p ro life ra tio n of
re p re s s iv e and fru stra tin g conditioning, m en m u st be re tra in e d to use
th e ir free d o m in the m o st fulfilling m anner. Such train in g m u st in
clude the n a tu ra l inclinations fo r love, but without u n n e c e ssa ry r e p r e s
sion and p o ss e s siv e n e ss , and fo r religion, but without dogm a, and must
be harm onious with the n a tu ra l cycle of youth, old age, and death.
T hese need s, and the fa ilu re s of previous societies to m eet them , a re
the backdrop fo r Island.
I
135
Notes
* Aldous Huxley, B rave New W orld (New York: H a rp e r & Row,
P e re n n ia l C la s sic , 1969b p. 59. (All other quotations fro m B rave
New W orld in this ch ap ter w ill be indicated in text by page n u m b ers
enclosed in p a re n th e se s.)
2
Aldous H uxley, ( "B eliefs and A ctions," M usic at Night and
O ther E ssa y s (London: Chatto & W indus, 1931), pp. 115-117.
^Ibid. , p. v.
^Ibid. , p. xi.
5
See Aldous Huxley, " P le a s u re s ," On the M argin (London:
Chatto & W indus, 1923), pp. 46, 51; "W ork and L e is u re ," Along the
Road (London: Chatto & W indus, 1925), pp. 224-237; "Spinoza's
W orm ," Do What You W ill (London: Chatto & Windus, 1929). pp. 213-
225; and "R evolutions," Do What You W ill, p. 83.
CHAPTER IV
ISLAND: COUNTERPOINT AND SYNTHESIS
C rom e Y ellow 's counterpoint betw een m ind, body, and soul
re fle c ts H uxley's co n cern with m odern W estern m a n 's "se lf-d iv isio n "
and im p lies his conviction that only through in teg ratio n of the th re e
can people com m unicate, have m eaningful relatio n sh ip s, and m ean in g
ful liv e s. In Antic H ay, he rew orks this them e w ith in c re a s e d a c e r
bity, and in Those B a rre n Leaves he proposes a ten tativ e, sp iritu a l
a n sw e r with C alam y 's w ithdraw al fro m the b a rre n , u n in teg rated no rm .
C h elifer e x p re ss e s Huxley's rese rv a tio n , how ever, th at the co n tem
p lative life is also lopsided, and it was th erefo re logical th a t Huxley
would be draw n to L aw ren ce's apparent ability to overcom e the V ic
to ria n devaluation of the body in his m y stical joining of body and
s p ir it. Point C ounter P o in t, how ever, rec o rd s H uxley's u n su ccessfu l
a tte m p t to accept L aw ren ce's approach to the "num inous m odes of
e x iste n c e " only through physical love; although R am pion is proposed as
the n o rm and the an sw er to the self-division of the o th er c h a ra c te r s ,
the counterpoint with Philip rev eals the lim itation of R am p io n 's anti-
in te lle c tu a lism . B rave New W orld depicts a c o m p lem e n ta ry e x tre m e ,
136
137
and this society, devoid of love o r sp iritu a l value, d e m o n stra te s the
inadequacy, and even the danger, of defining hum an values through
re a so n alone.
Having found the unphysical sp iritu al, the physical sp iritu a l,
and the ratio n al paths to be deficient, Huxley continued to pro b e, and
the exploration of different religions is the p rim a ry focus of the th irty
y e a rs that se p a ra te B rave New W orld from Islan d . In 1934, two y ears
a fte r B rave New W orld, he m oved to Los A ngeles, w h ere he and
C h risto p h er Isherw ood becam e active spokesm en for the Vedanta Soci
ety. The c h ap ter on "B eliefs" in Ends and M e an s, published in 1936,
explains his change in attitude tow ard religion and the re a so n s for this
change, so a b rie f exam ination of this essay is n e c e s s a ry fo r an un
derstand ing of H uxley's la te r novels. He begins with the a sse rtio n that
the doctrine of m ean in g lessn ess com es from m aking "the e r r o r of
identifying the w orld of science, a w orld fro m which a ll m eaning and
value has been deliberately excluded, with ultim ate re a lity ." Because
the "hunger for m eaning and value" is a basic hum an need, people su b
stitu te "such doctrines as nationalism , fascism , and revolutionary
2
com m unism " fo r m o re transcendent values. U nfortunately, the resu lts
of th is substitution a re "only evil and d isa stro u s"; they lead to "deified
n atio n s" and th ere fo re to re a rm a m e n t and the prob ability of general
3
w ar. Appalled by the "poisonous nature of the f ru its " of this philoso
phy of u ltim ate m ean in g lessn ess, Huxley says th at in sp ite of the u n
138
convincing nature of the usual th eist argum ents and the fact that th e ism
w ill probably never be proved by logical arg um ent, th e re a re two r e a
sons fo r m aking an act of faith. The f ir s t is pragm atic; the re s u lts of
n o n sep araten ess and nonattachm ent, love and cooperation, a re su p e rio r
to the stultifying fru its of se p a ra te n e ss. The second is that "the c ra v
ing for explanation, which is a craving for identity behind d iv ersity , is
actually satisfied by the re a l world; for the re a l w orld rev e als itself as
4
being in effect a unity in d iv ersity ." T his is tru e not only on the phy
sic al level but also in the experience of all of the m y stic s. Huxley
th e re fo re posits "belief" in a unity tran scending d iv ersity and fo rm u
lates a philosophy that sees union with an unindividualized Divine
Ground as the ultim ate aim of m ankind. B ecause this "P eren n ial
P hilosophy," which is the su m m ary of the com m on e x p erien ces of all
m y stic s, inform s all of H uxley's la te r w riting, it is n e c e s s a ry to quote
its four basic points in full:
F ir s t: the phenom enal w orld of m a tte r and of individualized
consciousness . . . is the m anifestation of a Divine Ground within
which all p a rtia l re a litie s have th e ir being, and a p a rt fro m which
they would be nonexistent.
Second: hum an beings a re capable not m e re ly of knowing
about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also re a liz e its
existence by a d irec t intuition, su p e rio r to d isc u rsiv e reasoning.
This im m ediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is
known.
T hird: m an p o sse sse s a double n a tu re , a phenom enal ego and
an e te rn a l Self. . . .
Fourth: m an's life on e a rth has only one end and purpose: to
identify him self with his etern al Self and so to com e to unitive
knowledge of the Divine Ground.^
139
Obviously, the effects of these conclusions a re fa r-re a c h in g . Instead
of being hollow ritu a l to be satirized , relig io n is now a positive
answ er. In H uxley's fiction, th erefo re, the counterpoint betw een
m ind, body, and s p irit takes a back seat to the new one betw een the
fa m ilia r, d issatisfied people concentrating on th e ir "phenom enal ego"
and new, religious c h a ra c te rs concentrating on th e ir "e te rn a l self."
Until Isla n d , how ever, concentration on the e te rn a l self precludes
in te re s t in the sexuality of the "phenom enal se lf," so the problem of
self-d iv isio n still is not solved.
E y eless in Gaza reflects Huxley's new convictions. Anthony
B eav is's life is presented in four intertw ined tim e fra m e s that c o u n te r
point his e a rly philosophy of m eaninglessness with his la te r conversion
to Buddhism . D r. M iller, the firs t of a s e rie s of guru fig ures in
H uxley's fiction, convinces Beavis on the p rag m atic grounds e x p re sse d
in "B eliefs" that com passion, unity, and com m itm ent a re b e tte r than
detachm ent, se p a ra te n e ss, and a im le ssn e ss. Unlike C alam y, whose
s im ila r d issatisfactio n led him to r e tir e to contem plation at the end of
Those B a rre n L e a v e s, B eavis's conversion allows him to in teg rate his
convictions into the actions of his daily life. The apprehension through
m editation of a tran scen d en t unity leads logically to co m passion for
one's fellow m an, which D r. M iller e x p re ss e s through his itin eran t
m edical p rac tic e and Beavis through his active appeal fo r pacificism .
Huxley is working tow ard a religious life that also includes the aspects
140
of re a lity that C helifer accuses C alam y of ignoring. Still, Beavis and
M iller a re celibate; physical love, as exp erienced in the W estern
w orld, is too powerful a th rea t to sp iritu a l growth.
W ritten in 1936, under the shadow of fa s c is m in Spain and the
r is e of H itler in G erm any, E yeless in Gaza re fle c ts m o re concern
with governm ent than any of the e a rlie r novels except B rave New W orld
and shows the relationship between the tre e of relig io n and its societal
fru its . This connection re s ts on th re e basic p re m is e s . The f ir s t is
th at positive ends never justify bloody m ean s. M ark Staithes tr ie s to
help in the wrong way, by physical violence, while M iller and Beavis
w ork through nonviolent, loving channels, channels that a re exam ples
of, as w ell as m eans tow ard, an end. M iller e x p re ss e s H uxley's con
viction that attitudes produce like attitudes; violence begets violence,
and love begets, m ost of the tim e, love. The second p re m ise is that no
m a tte r how m uch m eaning political fe rv o r gives o n e's life, it cannot,
ultim ately, take the place of religion. H elen's disillusionm ent with the
cause and h e r subsequent re tu rn to a im le ssn e ss after E k k i's death a re
co n trasted with Anthony's new-found religious conviction to show that
only attention to transcendent goals gives lastin g m eaning. E kki's
death is itself an exem plum of the volatility of violence. The th ird
issu e is the dependence of the individual on his society. In the firs t
th re e novels, Huxley showed people living ato m istic, se lf-c e n te re d
lives without com m unication or em pathy, but he e x p re ssed no in te re st
141
in dealing with this problem on a governm ental level. P oint Counter
P oint still dealt with a philosophy of tru th o r m eaning on a p erso n al,
individual level, with no thought of the crow d. B rave New W orld
showed how a governm ent could m isu se its power to abrogate individual
freedom in the in te re sts of the seem ingly positive goals of u n iv ersal
harm ony and satisfaction. E y eless in Gaza is the f ir s t novel to s tr e s s
the individual's need for a supportive so ciety and to show the in te g ra
tion of a positive philosophy with so c ietal living. A Buddhist cannot
believe in a philosophical unit without being concerned fo r his fellow
m en, who a re m inifestations of th at sam e Unity. Nor can he do ill to
som e of his fellow m en fo r the sake of o th e rs ' id eals.
A fter Many a Sum m er relinquishes the political aspects of the
dilem m a to focus m ore closely on the c o n tra st betw een Jo Stoyte's
unsuccessful attem pt to achieve longevity and M r. P ro p te r's a p p a r
ently su ccessfu l attem pt to find e te rn ity outside of tim e. The ludicrous
ending is only the .C aesarian e x tre m e of Stoyte's d e sire to beat God
ra th e r than m eet Him, and its scathing s a tire , along with B aby's hypo
c ritic a l lu st, P ete Boone's m isp laced id e a lism , P o rd a g e 's irre le v a n t
erudition, and Dr. O bispo's vulturous use of pow er, point to the u n
feasibility of com pro m ise. As P ro p te r explains it, the b e st one can do
on the strictly hum an level is to avoid doing h arm ; to rea ch positive
good, one m ust tran scen d the level of tim e and personality. Such good
cannot be achieved by "m ass production m eth ods" of re fo rm but can be
142
reached only by individuals. The best that one can do, th e re fo re , in
P ro p te r 's eyes, is to find one's own etern ity and help o th ers be fre e
enough fro m econom ic and political co n strain ts to w ork on th e irs .
B asically, how ever, his em phasis is on tran scen d in g this w orld ra th e r
than on living in it. In fact, he is p e ssim istic about the possib ility of
change on the hum an level.
This dichotomy is e x p re ssed even m o re stro n g ly in T im e Must
Have a Stop, the culm ination of the religious novels. In his diary,
Sebastian states the "M inimum W orking H ypothesis," which is a r e
statem en t of the P eren n ial Philosophy quoted e a r lie r , and E u stace
B arnack actually encounters the B right Light of the Void. Although
this was Huxley's favorite novel, it has s e v e ra l p ro b lem s. F o r
W estern re a d e rs who have not read the T ibetan Book of the D ead, the
experience of E u sta c e 's s p irit after death is la rg e ly in co m p reh en sib le,
and it seem s no less silly than the seances that Huxley sa tiriz e d t h i r
teen y e ars e a rlie r in The W orld of L ight. T h ere is also a philosophi
cal problem of how one reconciles the ideal of dying to o n e's ego to
m ake room for God and of eschewing tim e for e te rn ity with the fact of
living the life of an individual in tim e. Bruno c o n ce n tra te s on reaching
the e te rn a l self and does not ad d ress him self to this problem . In fact,
he acknowledges the conflict only in te rm s of the difficulty of finding
one's etern al self, but this seem s to re p re s e n t an o v ersig h t on Hux
ley 's p a r t- - o r an inability to know what answ er to put in B runo's
143
m outh. Huxley still has not found the answ er to C h e life r's objection.
The counterpoint provided by the unreligious c h a ra c te rs im plies the
need for conversion, but it w ill be another fifteen y e a rs before he is
able to show, in Islan d , religion enriching daily life in stead of c o m p et
ing with it.
Island is a fitting concluding novel for H uxley's c a r e e r because
it reso lv es the dichotom ies that have plagued all his thought and w r it
ing. In the e a rlie r th re e religious novels, the Buddhist spokesm en had
v ery lim ited influence, and the m ajo rity of the c h a ra c te rs continued to
lead th e ir a im le ss , se c u la r lives. P a rt of the re a so n fo r this was the
lack of integration betw een secu lar d e sire s and religious p rin cip les.
Island is the m ost am bitious novel and also the m ost satisfying philo
sophically because it in teg rates religion into people's daily liv e s, and
its educational sy ste m , political stru c tu re , and belief in T a n tra m ake
sp iritu a l satisfactio n accessib le to a w ider range of people.
As usual, the negative contrapuntal c h a ra c te rs s e rv e to em p h a
siz e the goodness of the au th o r's point of view, but in this novel they
also se rv e another im portant function: Will, especially, is the r e p r e
sentative of our culture in a foreign place and th ere fo re m akes the
approach to this utopian society seem m o re possible. The d irec t
descendant of Denis Stone and W alter Bidlake, Will em bodies once
m o re the m o d ern W estern ailm ent of being an in tellectu al sophisticate
but a sp iritu a l and em otional child. M ore than his p re d e c e s s o rs , he
em bodies other problem s that are attributable to conditioning by his
u n satisfacto ry society ra th e r than to heredity. His in itial w illingness
to ruin P a la for m oney is both the product of A m e ric a 's lack of r e
m un eration fo r c re ativ ity and an extension of L ord A ldehyde's em bodi
m ent of W estern c ap ita lism 's single-m inded p u rsu it of m oney. Colonel
Dipa re p re s e n ts underdeveloped c o u n trie s ' substitution of m a te ria l
goods and national stre n g th for sp iritu a l and em otional satisfaction.
Although he se rv e s as a diplom at, M r. Bahu is in som e ways the c o m
m on m an who im pedes id ealistic change in the nam e of re a lism ; he
recognizes the su p e rio rity of the P alan ese way of life, but he allies
him self w ith the forces th at will take over eventually. M urugan r e p r e
sents the susceptibility of the in c o rre c tly educated child, under the
sway of a p o ssessiv e parent, to the C olonel's "T esta m e n t according to
S ears. The Rani, with h e r capitalized w ords and ex cessiv e tonnage,
re p re se n ts not only the false sp iritu ality of P r is c illa W im bush but also
7
the dangers of following som eone e ls e 's "L ittle V oice." The Rani and
M urugan, although rep re se n tin g a th re a t to P a la , a re so c aric a tu re d
that they a re m o re objects of Huxley's e a r lie r kind of s a tire than
serio u s em bodim ents of philosophical is s u e s . Colonel Dipa, M r.
Bahu, L ord Aldehyde, and especially W ill, how ever, a re frighteningly
re a lis tic , and the su c ce ss of the novel depends in p a rt on on e's re c o g
nition of th e ir stances as rep resen tativ e and u n d e sirab le. In this trip
through W onderland, Will is our re p re se n ta tiv e and guide, and on each
145
topic the counterpoint is p rim a rily betw een his le ss d e sirab le, fam ilia r
way of doing things and P a la 's .
Huxley introduces the dichotom ies of the outside w orld in the
fir s t chapter through W ill's delirious m using s. Like W alter Bidlake
with M arjo rie C arling and Lucy T antam ount, W ill has been to rn b e
tw een his sex less love fo r his s is te r - o f- m e rc y wife and his loveless
sex for his m is tr e s s , B abs. The situation is d ram a tiz ed by M olly's
killing h e rse lf and by the P o r te r 's Gin light outside B ab's bedroom ,
which changes "the S acred H eart" inexorably into "the E ssen tial H o r
r o r ," death (p. 9). Even without th e se trap p in g s, W ill's in co m p ati
bility with his to o -sp iritu a l wife, his loveless sex, and the accom pany
ing guilt and anger a re all too fa m ilia r.
Susila and Dugald, Dr. R obert and L akshm i, Radha and
Ranga, Vijaya and Shanta provide co n trastin g exam ples of in teg rated ,
satisfying love, which is apparently the n o rm in P ala. In c o n tra st to
W ill's relationships, these all co n sist of positive com plem entation of
differences, of sharing on m any lev e ls, of giving to the o th er p e rso n
without p o ssessiv en ess o r exploitation, and of the joining of agape with
e r o s . T hese satisfying, balanced rela tio n sh ip s a re m ade possible gen
erally by the healthier psychic state of people in P a la and specifically
by the teaching of the a rt of loving, o r M aithun a, in the P a lan e se
schools. As we will see in m ore detail la te r, the teachings of applied
psychology in school helps people to be com fortable with th em selv es
146
and with oth ers who a re different from them . T hey le a r n how to deal
with anger and fru stra tio n and a re secu re enough to be able to love
without p o ssessiv en e ss.
One of the m ost im po rtant boons to love and to Huxley's p h ilo s
ophy is the integration of T a n tra into the P a lan e se relig io n of M ahayana
Buddhism . T h ere are two basic schools of Buddhism : a Hinayam a
Buddhist renounces the w orld to try to escape to N irvana, but as a
M ahayana Buddhist, " 'you accept the w orld and . . . m ake use of
everything you do, of everything that happens to you, . . . as so m any
m eans to your liberation from the p riso n of y o u rse lf.' " T a n tra , the
8
yoga of love, is a logical extension of this point of view.
Radha and Ranga explain to Will the P e re n n ia l P hilosophy's
view of the relationship between the Divine Ground and the individual
ego in the S anskrit phrase T at tuam a s i , "thou a rt T h at;" in other
w ords, the Divine Ground is in you. In T a n trik theology, it is sp e cifi
cally the "woman [who] in carnates . . . the m y s te ry of Being, . . .
9
and the divine, the inapprehensible e sse n ce of the ultim ate re a lity ."
M aithuna is the T antrik p ractice of coitus r e s e r v a tu s , which allows
one to contem plate the T hat that the sexual p a rtn e r is and by extension
that one is , the " 'n o t-self,' " as Radha e x p re ss e s it, that you both a re .
It is sim ila r to the "chewing g ra c e ," another relig io u s p rac tic e that we
w ill discuss la te r, in helping one to focus on the " 'n o t-se n sa tio n in
every sen satio n ' " (p. 81). In this contem plative se x , " 'sensual
147
p le a s u re 1 plays the p a rt of a 'vehicle' for it produces the m axim um in
tension that abolishes n o rm al consciousness and inaugurates the n ir -
vanic state, s a m s a r a , the paradoxical ex p erien ce of u n i t y . M a n
escap es the dom ination of tim e by controlling te m p o ra l rhythm s like
breathing, but if sem en is em itted, "the yogin falls under the law of
tim e and death" and has only "carnal relatio n s w ith w om en." M a rce a
E liade explains the purpose of T an tra in te rm s of Hindu and Buddhist
beliefs:
The absolute rea lity , the U rgrun d, contains in itself all dualities
and p o laritie s, but reunited, rein teg ra te d , in a state of absolute
Unity (advaya). The creation, and the becom ing that a ro se fro m it,
re p re s e n t the sh atterin g of the p rim o rd ial Unity. . . . In c o n se
quence, m an experiences a state of duality (object-subject, e t c .) - -
and this is suffering, illusion, "bondage." The purpose of the tan-
tric Sadhana is the reunion of the two p o lar p rin cip les w ithin the
d isc ip le's own b o d y .^
The espousal of Maithuna re p re se n ts a m a jo r breakth rough in
Huxley's thought. The C hristian attitude of antagonism betw een s p irit
and body, which has been a problem throughout his c a r e e r , is reso lv ed .
Not only a re they no longer antagonistic, but the body becom es a
vehicle for religious experience. Another im p o rtan t asp ect of T a n tra
is th at, unlike C h ristianity, it does not deny a b a sic hum an drive and
is th ere fo re m o re am enable to su c ce ss. As Radha points out, it is
both " 'pragm atic and o p eratio n al1 " (p. 78) b ecause it also offers a
m eans for testin g a concept. This integration of concept and e x p e ri
ences is cen tral to P alanese attitudes. Nand Pandy, in his d is s e rta -
148
tion, "The Influence of Hindu and Buddhist Thought on Aldous Huxley,"
m akes the point that Huxley's argum ent for tran scen d in g p erso n ality
has been accom panied by "an e v e r-in c re a sin g in sisten ce upon a direct
and im m ediate experience of Reality, on an extension of perception to
13
regions beyond se n se ." Maithuna offers this opportunity.
The other new factor that Huxley introduces into his love r e l a
tionships is a loo ser definition of the fam ily. Echoing the W orld Con
tr o lle r 's depiction of the stifling nature of p re -F o rd ia n fam ilie s,
Susila c o n tra sts the fam ilies of W ill's w orld with those of Pala:
"Take one sexually inept w age-slave, . . . one d issa tisfie d fe
m ale, two or (if p refe rred ) th re e sm all telev isio n addicts; m a r i
nate in a m ixture of F re u d ism and dilute C hristianity; then bottle
up tightly in a fo u r-ro o m flat and stew for fifteen y e a rs in th e ir
own ju ic e." Our recip e is ra th e r different. "Take twenty se x u
ally satisfied couples and th eir offspring; add scien ce, intuition
and hum or in equal quantities; steep in T an trik Buddhism and s im
m e r indefinitely in an open pan in the open a ir over a b ris k flam e
of affection. " (p. 93)
Although the P alan ese have nuclear fam ilie s, p o ssessiv en e ss tow ard
ch ildren and conflict between paren ts and ch ild ren a re alleviated by the
existence of Mutual Adoption Clubs. Any child has betw een fifteen and
tw enty-five p airs of m others and fath ers fro m which to choose. In
addition to daily events of babysitting and s trife , the MAC offers
children like Dugald M acP hail's other fathers when th e ir own is dead.
The re su lts of this " 'hybridization of m ic ro c u ltu re s ' " a re , according
to Susila, " 'healthier relationships in m ore respon sible groups, w ider
sym pathies and deeper understandings' " (p. 93). In addition to giving
149
parents m o re freedom fro m th eir ch ild ren and v ic e -v e rs a , th ese open
fam ilies also give old people " 'som ething challenging and useful to do;
. . . people they can c a re for and be loved by in re tu rn ' " (p. 93).
Huxley is c arefu l to point out, in the dialogue between Susila
and W ill, that these MACs a re as different fro m C hinese com m unes as
they a re fro m W ill's own fam ily. MACs a re not m ilita ris tic , not run
by the governm ent, not oriented tow ard inculcating dogm as and creating
good p arty m e m b e rs, and children a re not taken away fro m th e ir
parents; they are given additional ones. T h eo retically , MACs offer
m o re freed o m than e ith er Chinese com m unes o r exclusive fam ilies.
The theory gains by c o n tra st to the other a ltern a tiv e s. Will
describ es his situation, recognizably, as being caught betw een " 'a
sneering bully,' " who escaped into brandy, and " 'a C h ristia n m a r t y r ," 1
who escaped into High A nglicanism . Of th e se children, the little girl
was "frightened by the bully and blackm ailed by the m a r ty r 's appeal to
h e r b e tter feelings into a state of quivering im b ecility ' " (p. 94), and
the son becam e a cynical intellectual incapable of taking yes or love
fo r an answ er. Susila generalizes the situation by saying that in a
nuclear fam ily, if both p arents are " 'good, w ise and in te llig en t’ " the
children w ill em erge " 'm o re or le ss u n scath ed ,' " but since m ost
W estern parents a re " 'well m eaning but stupid, o r not well m eaning
and frivolous, or else neurotic, o r occasionally downright m alevolent
or frankly insane,' " the offspring do not fa re so w ell (p. 95). M urugan
150
is the shining exam ple of the child subjected to an overbearing p o s s e s s
ive m other with no father and no other p aren ts to escape to.
T h ere a re two other aspects of sexual relationships that a re
geared tow ard betterin g the society. One is b irth control. The old
R aja and D r. Andrew decided, as Dr. M iller and M r. P ro p te r had
before them , that people could be fre e to develop sp iritu ally only when
they had th eir basic needs taken care of sufficiently, and they saw the
growing population that re su lte d from th e ir m edical advances as a
th re a t to th e ir n a tu ra l re s o u rc e s . A lso, as Rendang shows W ill, high
population density leads not only to fam ine but also to d ictato rial gov
ern m en ts. T h ere fo re , b irth control is p rac tic ed through the M aithuna
that is taught in the schools and through the m o re conventional c o n tra
ceptive devices th at a re deliv ered fre e by the m ailm an.
Another a sp ect is the im provem en t of h e re d ita ry tra its through
deep fre e z e of sp e rm and a rtific ia l insem ation. Vijaya claim s that as
a re su lt of these two things, outstanding talen ts a re p re se rv e d and
intelligence in cre ased so m uch that w ithin a century " 'our averag e IQ
will be up to one hundred and fifteen' " (p. 195). In c o n tra st, W ill says
that " 'o u r s , at the p re se n t ra te of p r o g re s s , will be down to about
eighty five' in the W est, b e tter m edicine p re s e rv e s only " 'congenital
d eficiences' " and m akes " 'things a lot e a s ie r for future d ic ta to rs' "
(p. 195). F o r the P a lan e se , a rtific ia l insem ination has gained a c c e p
tance on the pragm atic grounds of the " 'c le arly dem onstrated . . .
151
su p e rio r q u a lity 1 " (p. 195) of the offspring and on the religious grounds
of the re in c a rn a tio n of su p e rio r k arm a. Unlike the H atchery of B rave
New W orld, th ese m ethods a re chosen (or rejected) e n tirely by the
individual couples, and the purpose is to im prove the ra c e ra th e r than
to c re a te id en tical robots. One of the m otifs that re c u rs throughout
Island is that with different application, science can as easily be used
fo r the good of people as fo r th e ir subjugation. Another is th at m e re
conventionality is insufficient rea so n for continuing a p ractice; by in i
tiating a rtific ia l insem ination, science can com bat the deleterio us
effects of its own efforts to prolong life, which has led to the p r e s e r v a
tion and p assin g on of m o re and m ore congenital d ise ases.
One of the m o st im portant aspects of Island is its reso lu tio n of
the antagonism betw een religious and secu lar needs. As we noted
e a r lie r in th is c h ap ter, Buddhism is p a rticu la rly am enable to this
integration because of its belief in the underlying Unity of Suchness and
because of its em p hasis on individual religious experiences in stea d of
on p ro sc rip tiv e m o re s . Unlike C hristianity, Buddhism , at le a s t c e r
tain sects of it, does not place conflict between sp iritu a l p ro g re s s and
bodily functions, and esp ecially with the influence of T an tra, it solves
the dilem m a that C helifer fir s t ex p ressed to Calam y at the end of
Those B a r re n L e a v e s.
P alan ese religion is presen ted on both the th e o re tic a l and the
p rac tic al lev e ls, with Will, Andrew M acPhail, M uru, and the Rani
152
providing negative counterpoints. The Old R a ja 's Notes on W hat's
What p re s e n t the Buddhist theory, basically em phasizing the need and
the ability to tra n sc e n d the prison of the go to achieve the " 'b lessed
experience of N ot-T w o.' " Concepts of atm an and A tm an a re ex p re ssed
unpretentiously in te rm s of m ind and Mind and of going fro m who you
think you a re to " 'Who You A re in F a c t.' " D r. R o b e rt shows the a d
vantages of Buddhism by contrasting the Old R a ja 's experience of
" 'the im m anent Infinite' " with Andrew M a cP h ail's C alvinistic fe a r of
God as " 'Wholly O th e r.' " Hindus and Buddhists believe that " 'Tat
tu am a si, thou a rt T hat, mind fro m Mind is not divided' " (p. 120);
th e re fo re , they do not flagellate them selves o r o th ers but go about the
positive business of finding their T hat, th e ir " 'b le sse d experience of
N ot-T w o' " (p. 120). C hristians, on the o th er hand, have as th eir
m a jo r p re m ise not that thou a r t that but that " 'God is wholly o th e r' "
(p. 121). If God, who is good, is wholly o th e r, th en it inevitably fo l
lows th at " 'm an is totally depraved' " (p. 121) and m u st be punished.
F o r D r. R o b ert, any religions which espouse this concept of original
sin a r e a cul de sac: " 'Tell them that good w orks a re as filthy as rags
in the eyes of God, but punish them ferociously fo r e v ery m isd e m e a n
our. T ell them that by nature th ey 're totally d ep rav ed , then beat them
fo r being what they inescapably a re ' " (p. 118).
Another negative aspect of C hristianity is exposed through the
counterpoint betw een symbolic rep re se n ta tio n and d ire c t experience.
153
Andrew M acPhail stopped believing in the C alvinistic God of his p a r
ents because he never saw any m anifestation of Him; he saw people
being wicked and blasphem ous without being punished. S im ilarly, Will
refu ses to believe in the C h ristia n God of his m o th er because he cannot
see Him. The Old R aja su m m a riz e s the difference between this unex
perienced belief and P a la 's " 'e m p irica lly ju stifie d 1 " faith that people
can experience th e ir Buddha n atu re in the quote that was cited in the
C rom e Yellow chapter:
" . . . God. As a som ething to be believed in. God is a projected
symbol. . . . God = 'God. '
F aith is som ething v ery different fro m belief. Belief is the
system atic taking of unanalysed w ords m uch too seriously. P a u l's
w ords, M oham m ed's w ords. . . .
F aith, on the c o n tra ry , . . . is the e m p iric a lly justified con
fidence in our capacity to know who in fact we a re , to fo rg et the
belief-intoxicated M anichee in Good Being. Give us this day our
daily F aith , but deliver u s, d ear God, fro m B elief." (p. 40)
Huxley rea liz ed as far back as 1929# in Do What You W ill, th at he m ust
go beyond m e re intellectual, sym bolic knowledge to the "nourishm ent"
14
of d irect exp erience, but he could not find an appealing channel. He
adm ired L aw rence's ex perientially o rien ted philosophy, with its in clu
sion of the body, but it, for different re a so n s , was as lim ited as
C hristianity. L aw rence's philosophy left him no choice but to ignore
death as long as possible and then face the consequences, while
Buddhism, by valuing unity over the se p a ra te n e ss of the individual,
includes death as a valuable p a rt of its schem e. S im ilarly, Law rence's
philosophy was anti-intellectu al, while Buddhism accepts m ind, body,
154
and sp irit. B uddhism , then, has the advantage of L aurentian ph ilo so
phy of being ex p erien tially oriented and of accepting the body, but it is
su p e rio r to L aw re n ce 's philosophy, in Huxley's eyes, because of its
g re a te r in clu siv en e ss. The Rani, the "self-canonized w orld sav io u r"
(p. 57) and "tycoon of P u re S pirituality " (p. 53), se rv e s as a re m in d e r
of the dangers of following religious evangelists in stead of finding one's
own sp iritu a l an sw ers.
The Buddhist faith in hum an capacities pervades P alan ese lives
and, in fac t, fo rm s the fram ew o rk for everything people do. The e x
p e rie n tia l religio us counterpoint revolves m ainly around th re e m ajo r
p ra c tic e s: M aithuna, m editation, and m oksha. With each of th ese,
W ill's re fu s a l to take yes for an answ er, and so m etim es M u ru's d is
dain, c o n tra sts with the obvious positive re p e rcu ssio n s of these p r a c
tic e s. M aithuna provides the m o st hum orous counterpoint, in the vein
of H uxley's e a rly s a tire , because it includes not only W ill's inept
attem pts at love but also the R ani's "clutching and devouring . . .
M o th er-L o v e" (p. 57) and M uru's w hite-pajam ad reje ctio n of Radha
fo r his hom osexual attachm ent to Colonel Dipa. The P alanese love
both another p e rs o n 's individuality and his suchness, his unindividual
ized B uddha-nature, while W ill, M uru, and the Rani can love n eith er.
Like all the c h a ra c te rs fro m C rom e Yellow onw ard, except for the few
positive contrapuntal ones, they a re too se lf-c e n te re d to be capable of
eith er se c u la r o r religious love; th e ir attachm ent to others co nsists
155
only of the pursuit of their own pleasu res and n e ed s. T ypically, the
e x tre m e s range fro m W ill's "h o rro r of being c o m m itted " to the R a n i's ’
clutching d e sire to control M uru's life.
M editation is a daily practice in P a la and, in keeping with r e c
ognition of the differences in people's te m p e ra m e n ts, is both so lita ry
and com m unal. In the room for group m editation, V ijaya explains the
difference betw een C hristian rituals and Buddhist m ed itatio n in te rm s
of painting. Gobind Singh's landscape is
"an actual m anifestation . . . of Mind. . . .T h e y [the m ountains,
clouds, etc.] m ean p recisely what they a re . . . . And th a t's why
this is a genuinely religious im age. P s e u d o -re lig io u s p ictu res
always re fe r to som ething else, som ething beyond the things they
r e p r e s e n t- - . . . som e absurd dogma fro m the lo ca l theology.
. . . We hang this kind of painting in our m ed itatio n ro o m [be
cause] . . . y o u 're alm ost forced to subm it to your im m ediate
experience; y ou 're practically com pelled to p e rfo rm an act of
self-know ing." (p. 188)
M editation reflects the Buddhist d esire fo r active self-know ledge rather
than for passive acceptance of someone e ls e 's belief.
M oksha-m edicine intensifies the effects of m editation; as M rs.
Rao explains it, m oksha is a banquet and m editation, daily eating. In
m o re theological te r m s , m oksha, which is the S a n sk rit w ord for "lib
e ra tio n ," provides " 'p rem y stical visions or the full-blow n m y stical
15
e x p erien c e,' " which m editation p re p a re s one for and follows up on,
m aking the m y stic al insights " 'perm anent and h a b itu al' " (p. 191).
P alan ese a re initiated into the use of m oksha as te e n a g e rs in a r e l i
gious serv ice that follows a difficult clim b. T he clim b p e rfo rm s the
156
dual function of preparing the ad o lescen ts for total receptiv ity through
the com plem entary expenditure of effo rt and of providing a first-h a n d
experience of the in te rrelatio n sh ip and reconciliation of opposites:
1 1 'the e v e r-p re s e n t th re a t of death' " m akes life " 'm ore inestim ably
p rec io u s' " (p. 165). This experience of " 'One in p lu rality ' " is what
Shiva sym bolizes, as D r. R obert d e sc rib e s him during the Initiation
S ervice. Both c re a to r and d e s tro y e r, Shiva dances the dance of p lay
ing and suffering, of ignorant, p o sse ssiv e selfhood and of enlightened
liberation fro m self, of suffering and the end of suffering, and, with
P a rv a ti, of " 'etern ity in love with tim e ' " (p. 176).
Will and M uru embody the c o n tra s t to this religious experience,
and D r. R obert e x p re sses the co unterpoint, again in te rm s of e x p e ri
ence versu s dogma. In P ala, the c h ild ren experience the clim b and
the m o k sh a, and Vijaya and D r. R o b e rt speak only to d irect th eir
attention. The initiation provides " 'two first-h a n d experien ces of
rea lity , from which any reaso nab ly intelligent boy or g irl can derive
a very good idea of w hat's w hat' " (p. 166). In c o n tra st, a C h ristian
C onfirm ation se rv ice is " 'just a p iece of theological rig m a ro le ,' "
which asks you " 'to believe' " in a proposition of which you have no
first-h a n d experience (p. 166). On the exp erien tial level, W ill sees
the c o n tra st betw een the "listening se re n ity , the hardly perceptible,
e cstatic sm ile that . . . w elcom es . . . a rev elatio n of tru th or
beauty" on the c lim b e rs' faces and M urugan's sitting "w earily slum ped
157
against a p illa r, picking his exquisitely G recian nose" (p. 176).
Obviously, this counterpoint is that of a s a tir is t, but the m o re o b je c
tive, th e o re tic a l one is c le a rly insightful.
Significantly, Island ends with W ill's f ir s t m oksha ex p erien ce,
accom panied at the end by the invasion of Pala. His gradual, in te lle c
tual understanding of P alan ese relig io n and culture had to culm inate in
a first-h a n d ex p erien ce, since the whole th ru st of P alan ese thought is
that sym bolic understanding is not enough. Ironically, Will is c o n
v erted to the P alan ese way of life ju st as the outside, " re a l" w orld
invades, but Huxley im plies the stren g th of his vision through W ill's
response: "The w ork of a hundred y e a rs destroyed in a single night.
And yet the fact re m a in e d --th e fact of the ending of so rro w as well as
the fact of so rro w (p. 296). In the end, the hope and resp o n sib ility lie
w here they always do, as the m ynah birds rem ind us in the closing
w ords of the novel, in individual com passion and attention.
It is im portant to note the differences betw een the use of som a
in the Solidarity S ervices of B rave New W orld and m oksha in the inia-
tion rite s of Isla n d . Some of the difference is achieved through point
of view; B e rn a rd trie s to experience som ething that he cannot, in spite
of his d e sire to, while W ill is convinced of, and la te r e x p erien c es, a
reality that he r e s is ts . The im plication is that the f ir s t is illu so ry
and the second self-evident. The differences go beyond the tech nical,
how ever; in B rave New W orld the Solidarity Service is , like the
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C h ristia n Communion S ervice it s a tiriz e s , " 'a piece of theological
rig m a ro le ' " with m indless chants that e x p re ss the " 'a b su rd dogm a' "
(p. 166), w hereas the P alanese se rv ice is an undogm atic, individual
experience of expanded consciousness. The S olidarity S ervice striv e s
to abolish individuality in an untranscendent and easily controlled
" 'so cial r i v e r ,' " while the initiation s e rv ic e helps to tra n sc e n d in d i
viduality in a religious and unlim iting app reh en sio n of unity.
In addition to these specifically relig io u s p ra c tic e s , Buddhist
a w are n ess, the "attention" that the m ynah b ird s squawk, influences
every asp ect of P alan ese life. M eals begin with a chewing grace that
draw s attention to the not-m e. C hildren pull the strin g s of sc are cro w s
that a re d re s se d like Gods and thereby s c a re away not only crow s but
also tendencies to re v e re sym bolic m an ifestatio n s of rea lity . Love-
m aking, politics, education, m edicine, e co n o m ics, and even dying a re
all influenced by the Buddhist em phasis on a w are n ess and the a ssu m p
tion that, although som e suffering is inevitable, tw o -th ird s of our pain
is u n n e ce ssa ry and comes fro m wrongly accepting " 'm e as I think I
a m ' " instead of " 'm e as I am in fact' " (p. 38). The goal is not to b e
lieve in the C h ristia n concept of a " 'Wholly O th e r' " God but to e x p e ri
ence a C lear Light that is beyond d escrip tion o r understanding. P a r a
doxically, C h ristian ity s tre s s e s the d e scrip tio n of som ething totally
different fro m us, while Buddhism em phasizes the inability to d escrib e
the experience of som ething that it inherent in u s. In exaggeration of
159
W estern evangelists, the Rani runs around proclaim ing that she "Un
d e rstan d s," while Buddhists quietly go about achieving, at least sp o
radically, shanti, the peace that p a sse s understanding. Island c ritic iz e s
C h ristian ity 's negative, sym bolic p ra c tic e s and ignores its m y stics,
while it s tre s s e s the positive B uddhist and Hindu p rac tic es and ig n o res,
except for the Old R aja buttering the fam ily lingam , the negative,
sym bolic ones that a re so prev alen t in India. As The P erenn ial P h ilo
sophy and Jesting P ilate a t t e s t , ^ t h i s stance is not taken out of igno
rance on Huxley's p a rt, but out of a belief that Buddhism , especially
with T antra m ixed in, is potentially m o re positive and m o re accessible
to experience by the m a sse s than C h ristian ity . The difference betw een
the Buddhism practiced in India today and P a la 's is attributable to edu
cation ra th e r than to a ltera tio n of the basic tenets of Buddhism.
A ppropriately, P a la n e se education reflects the Buddhist a w a re
ness of interconnection and th e re fo re , in co n tra st to W estern p re o c c u
pation with the intellect, tea ch e s all p a rts of the p e rso n --in te llec tu al,
em otional, and physical. It also teach es subjects in a way that
s tr e s s e s p ractical application in ste a d of th eo ry , and interconnection
instead of d iscreten ess. T hese policies re fle c t the goal of P alanese
17
education: self-actu alization, in the M aslow sen se of the word,
ra th e r than indoctrination or m e re inculcation of facts. Like religion
(religious and secu lar education a re not se p ara te), education striv e s
to help people find out who in fac t they a re , on both an individual and a
160
tran scen d en t level, and to live happy, fulfilled liv es. Such a goal is
achieved not by an ingestion of d isp a rate, sym bolic facts but by a
digestion of in teg rativ e, p ra c tic a l ones. Will c o n tra sts the P a lan e se
d e sire for actualization w ith the E a s t's use of education " 'for stre n g th -
ing the national s ta te ' " (p. 209), as in B rave New W orld, andthe W est's
use of p rep aratio n " 'for m a s s consum ption' " (p. 209). As other novels
have shown, the W estern problem is le ss a conscious plan to m ake
people into co n su m ers than an inability to do anything e lse . As Will
quotes fro m Saint P aul, the problem is the absence of m eans: " 'F o r
the good that I would, . . . I do not; and the evil that I would not, that
I do' " (p. 99). It is th e re fo re on the m eans for integrating d e sire and
ability that Huxley co n cen trates in his p o rtray al of P alan ese education.
The application of the biological scien ces, like psychology and
physiology, is th e re fo re one of the m a jo r em phases of P a lan e se e d u ca
tion and one of its m ajo r differences fro m W estern pedagogic efforts.
Instead of upholding fo r u n iv e rsa l im itation the ideal of " 'the sc h o larly
but Anglican football-playing gentlem an' " (p. 210), the P a lan e se
te a c h e rs a s s e s s the differences among th eir students and then educate
accordingly. The use of analogy with different types of anim als m akes
children see differences without attaching-any value judgm ents. The
re s u lt is that after identification and controlled m ixing at an e a rly age,
people le a rn to accept th em selv es and others without wishing that
eith er w ere som ething that he is not. In this fairly sim p listic fo rm a t
161
but with sound principle, this one device attacks two of the g rea test
psychological problem s of m odern W estern m an: p e rso n al in secu rity
(because few m e a su re up to the ideal that is held up fo r them ) and
intolerance of those who are different fro m them .
This idea is c a rrie d a step fu rth er to p rev en t the developm ent
of what Huxley calls P e te r Pans and M uscle People. B ased on the
idea that m ost c rim in a ls, m uch le ss d estru ctiv e r u le r s , a re eith er
little people who com pensate with power for th e ir in se c u rity or big
people who can easily bully people around, the P a la n e se p re fe r diag
nosis and prevention, through biochem istry and psychology, to the
W estern nonsolution of punishm ent. In other w o rd s, instead of talking
m o rality and fe a r of punishm ent, the P a lan e se act, trea tin g c rim e as
a scientific problem which can be solved, o r at le a s t alleviated, by
adm inistering horm ones to th e slow -developing P e te r Pans and by
red ire c tin g the unusual strength of the m u scle m en.
This red ire c tio n of energy is an im p o rtan t p a rt of P alan ese
education. M uscle m en lea rn to deflect th e ir love of power from
people to o b je c ts--lik e tre e s to fell and m ountains to clim b. O rdinary
people le a rn to re d ire c t the energy caused by negative em otions like
fe a r, envy, and anger into n eu tral or positive ones. Instead of either
acting on negative emotions o r re p re ss in g th em , the two options open
to Will, the P alan ese do deep breathing gam es o r sm e ll e x e rc is e s, o r
they fantasize silly situations or dance the R a k sh a si Hornpipe and
162
"stam p it out." Again, instead of a m e re , ineffective "thou shalt not,"
th ere is also a positive a ltern ativ e that "thou sh alt."
P alan ese education also teach es people the com plem entary
skills of exp ressing positive feelings; they le a rn to dance and m ake
love to ex p ress them and to m ed itate to get in touch with them . W h ere
as the W est ignores the psychological asp ects of a person, except as
sym bolic, academ ic knowledge o r as th erap y for serio u sly negative
ones, the P alan ese le a rn to re o rie n t the bad ones and express the p o s
itive ones. Among the positive on es, the m o st striking for the average
W estern re a d e r is that u sed in se lf-d e te rm in a tio n o r destiny control.
In its stro n g er fo rm s, this is a fo rm of hypnosis, as when Susila put
Will into a tran c e to alleviate his pain or when D r. Andrew used the
m agnetic passes for his o p eration on the Old R aja. When the P alan ese
p rac tic e it on th em se lv e s, how ever, it is m o re of a direction of a tten
tion than a tra n c e . When L akshm i says that th e re is pain but that it is
not h e r pain, she is echoing what the proponents of the Lam aze m ethod
of childbirth say; the pain is th e re , but you concentrate so h a rd on
18
your breathing that it is irre le v a n t or at le a st b earab le. A pparently,
the "painless childbirth" that A ndrew M acP hail initiated as one of his
refo rm s was based on the sam e kind of hypnotic suggestion that he used
on the Old R aja and his daughter, but through the y e ars the technique
has been im proved, so that Susila can teach children in a c la ssro o m
Will visits how to cut th e ir own pain off. The im portant aspect of all
163
this is that th e re is evidence that th ere are pow ers of the m ind which
could be of stron g benefit if we could only find out how to tap them .
The W est has been sk ep tical of them because of its em phasis on r a
tional explanation of phenom ena, and it has probably cheated itself
through it sk ep ticism .
A nother con cern of P a lan e se education is train in g c h ild ren " 'on
the conceptual level without killing th e ir capacity for intense n o n -v erb al
ex p erien ce' " (p. 210). Will em bodies the W est's failu re to solve this
problem , which was a c e n tra l co ncern of H uxley's. In a le tte r to
Hum phry Osmond, he e x p re sse d his evaluation of the negative aspects
of this sym bol m anipulation as w ell as his h o p e s, re a liz e d in Isla n d ,
for a b e tte r, m o re in teg rated educational system :
. . . U nder the c u rre n t dispensation the vast m ajo rity of individuals
lo se, in the c o u rse of education, all the openness to in sp iratio n ,
all the capacity to be aw are of other things than those enu m erated
in the S ears -Roebuck catalogue which constitutes the conventionally
" re a l" w orld. That this is not the n e c e ssa ry and inevitable p rice
ex torted for biological su rv iv a l and civilized efficiency is dem on
stra te d by the existence of the few m en and wom en who re ta in th eir
contact with the o ther w orld, even while going about th e ir business
in th is. Is it too m uch to hope that a sy ste m of education m ay som e
day be devised which shall give re s u lts , in te rm s of hum an develop
m en t? . . . It m ay be that m escalin e o r som e o ther ch em ical su b
stance m ay play a p a rt by m aking it possible for young people to
"taste and s e e " what they have learned about at second hand, o r
d irectly but at a low er level of intensity, in the w ritings of the
relig io u s, o r the w orks of poets, painters and m u s ic ia n s .^
Although P a la u se s m oksha fo r first-h a n d religious e x p erien c es, it
com bats the antagonism betw een conceptual sophistication and u n im
peded experience of m y ste ry m o stly through le ss rad ic al m eans like
164
bridge-building se ssio n s. After learning to d e sc rib e a g ardenia fro m
an analytical, scientific point of view, the ch ild ren in a c la s s ro o m that
W ill v isits a re asked to look at it as an a rtis t would and then as the
Buddha and M ahakasyapa saw it. In this way, c h ild ren le a rn to see the
scientific, a rtis tic , and religious viewpoints as co m p lem en tary ra th e r
than as antagonistic, and they lea rn the difference betw een public and
p riv ate sym bols. F o r the P alan ese,
" . . . train in g in receptivity is the com plem ent and antidote to
train in g in analysis and sym bol-m anipulation. Both a re a b so
lutely indispensible. If you neglect e ith er of them you'd n ev er
grow into a fully hum an being." (p. 226)
F o r them , W ill, whose training the the la tte r m akes him unable to say
yes to any of the fo rm e r, is a " 'm ental c a s e .' "
Another way of achieving this fully hum an developm ent is the
integration of actual experiences with conceptual learn in g . M ary
S arojini asks Will in a shocked voice how he le a rn e d about giving b irth
and dying if he did not see it in school. His an sw er is that he did not.
S im ilarly , rock-clim bing is a branch of applied eth ics, and m oksha-
m edicine provides a sp iritu a l experience. F ro m the P a lan e se point of
view, W este rn ers a re " 'F la to n ists' " who re a d books and w orship
" 'a b stra c t m a te ria lis m ' " instead of m ixing the sym bols with co n crete
experience. The danger of this attitude, as V ijaya explains it, is that
" 'a talent fo r m anipulating sym bols tem pts its p o s s e s s o rs into habitual
sym bol-m anipulation, and habitual sym bol-m anipulation is an obstacle
165
[to] . . . concrete experiencing and the recep tio n of gratuitous
g ra c e s ' " (p. 192). Ram pion m ight have m ade this sam e statem ent,
but th e re is an im portant difference in the a ltern a tiv e s for each m an.
Ram pion, locked into a W estern attitude of e ith e r /o r , renounced intel-
lectu alism com pletely, while the P a la n e se educational sy stem allows
Vijaya and Dr. R obert to be both in tellectu als and re c e iv e rs of
" 'gratuitous g ra c e s .' "
Still another kind of p e rso n a l in teg ratio n is that of mind and
body. D r. R obert deplores the tendency in W estern intellectuals to be
" 'sitting addicts' " because without e x e rc is e " 'the life -fo rc e that used
find an outlet through striped m u sc le gets tu rn ed back on the v isc e ra
and the nervous system , and slow ly d e stro y s th e m ' " (p. 148). To
avoid this self-destruction, all P a la n e se do at le a st an hour and a half
of physical labor a day. In addition, they a re taught how to use th e ir
bodies with a " 'm inim um of s tra in and a m axim um of a w a re n e ss' "
(p. 198), so that preventive th erap y also becom es a positive yoga of
w ork. Will provides som e of the counterpoint by describing his
fa th e r's negative exp ression of a g g re ssio n on his fam ily ra th e r than
the positive use he could have m ade of it by chopping wood. Mr.
Menon provides the re s t in d escrib in g two em inent sch o lars he m et
in England, who, like Lord E dw ard and S h earw ater, had developed
th e ir intellect at the expense of all e lse .
166
M r. Menon also contends that because of P a la 's d isin te re st in
m ilita ry w orld pow er, in scien tific em inence, and in c o n su m erism , it
can forego a rm a m e n ts, m oon equipm ent, and heavy industry to pursue
" 'the m odest am bition to live as fully hum an beings in harm ony with
the r e s t of life on this islan d ' " (p. 218). Toward th is end, it has a
very integrative educational sy ste m , which he su m m arize s:
"T hey're taught to pay attention to what they see and h e a r, and at
the sam e tim e th e y 're asked to notice how th eir feelings and d e
s ire s affect what they experience of the outer w orld, and how
th e ir language habits affect not only th e ir feelings and d e sires but
even th e ir sen satio n s. What m y e a rs and my eyes re c o rd is one
thing; what the w ords I u se and the mood I'm in and the purposes
I'm pursuing allow m e to p e rc eiv e , m ake sense of and act upon is
som ething quite different. So you see it's all brought together
into a single educational p ro c e ss . What we give the ch ild ren is
sim ultaneously a tra in in g in perceiving and im agining, a training
in applied physiology and psychology, a training in p ra c tic a l ethics
and p rac tic al religion, a train in g in self-know ledge. In a word, a
training of the whole m ind-body in all its a sp e c ts." (p. 216)
Because he is reactin g to W estern educational goals and te c h
niques, Huxley em p h asizes policies that co n tra st with, and offer a n ti
dotes to, the deficiencies he se es in W estern education. Many of these
lie in the re a lm of applied biological sciences like psychology and
physiology and include sp ecifically the acceptance of individual p e r
sonal differences, prevention of P e te r Pans and m uscle people, the
red irectio n of negative e m o tio n s, the joining of conceptual abilities
with n o n -v erb al e x p e rie n c e s , and the joining of m ind with body and of
thought with action. This is not to say that conceptualizing or sym bol -
m anipulation suffer but ra th e r that they a re enriched and complem ented..
167
As M r. M enon c la im s, " 'a train ed m ind-body lea rn s m o re quickly and
m o re thoroughly than an untrained one. It's also m o re capable of r e
lating facts to ideas and both of them to its own ongoing life ' " (p. 216).
It re m a in s , then, to look at the conceptual side of education.
In addition to the em phasis on biological sciences and on su b
je c ts that lead to g re a te r aw aren ess, the m a jo r innovations a r e the
techniques of teaching subjects and the bridge-building se ss io n s . M r.
Menon claim s that P a lan e se children " 'can le a rn at le a st th re e tim es
as m uch, fou r tim es as thoroughly, in half the tim e ' " (p. 217) because
of the policy of teaching general principles before p a rtic u la r ap p lica
tions. M athem atical logic and stru c tu re and scientific laws of p ro b a
bility a re f ir s t taught through gam es and puzzles. R oulette, spinning
coins, and rolling dice give children actual experiences of probability
ra th e r than unexperienced, sym bolic ru le s, and m o re specific p r in
ciples a re taught through Evolutionary Snakes and L adders and M en-
delian Happy F a m ilie s . The P alanese m ethod is m o re fun, m o re
ex p erien tial, and m o re efficient, according to M r. M enon, than the
W estern policy of sta rtin g with " 'u tilitarian tr ic k s .' " B ridge-building
se ssio n s s e rv e not only to balance conceptualization with recep tiv ity ,
as we have alread y seen, but also to extend the early em phasis on gen
e ra l p rin c ip le s. In this case , the generalizations are in te rd isc ip lin a ry .
Ecology, which is taught as the introduction to scien ce, not only
teaches that all of the different system s of n atu re a re interdependent
168
but also invites analogy to applied ethics and religion. E ro sio n , for
in stan ce, m akes it c le a r that " 'all living is re la tio n sh ip 1 " and that
th e re m ust be " 'balance, give and take, no e x c e s s e s ' " (p. 219). It is
then easy to go " 'from conservation to m o r a lity - - . . . from the
Golden Rule in relatio n to plants and anim als and the e a rth that su p
ports them to the Golden Rule in rela tio n to hum an b ein g s' " (p. 220).
This hum an Golden Rule leads in tu rn to the need fo r com passion, so
that " 'elem en tary ecology leads straig h t to e le m e n ta ry B uddhism ' "
(p. 220).
E ducation lite ra lly pervades every a sp e c t of P a lan e se life, and
in so doing it enables people to live acco rdin g to two of the m ost basic
prin cip les of the novel. The f ir s t is e x p re sse d by Shanta, as she co n
tr a s ts the G enesis attitude of enm ity betw een the se rp en t and m an with
the Buddhist attitude of frien d lin ess, sym bolized by the c o b ra shielding
the m editating Buddha fro m the storm : " 'W isdom n ever puts enm ity
anyw here. All those se n se le ss, pointless cockfights betw een Man and
N ature, betw een N ature and God, betw een the F le sh and the S p irit!
W isdom doesn't m ake these insane se p a ra tio n s ' " (p. 200). This r e a li
zation of interconnection and unity also u n d e rlie s the second principle,
through which the Old Raja su m m arize s his and H uxley's goals for both
the individual and society:
" P a trio tism is not enough. But n eith er is anything else. Science
is not enough, religion is not enough, a rt is not enough, politics
169
and econom ics a re not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is
action how ever d isin te reste d , n o r, how ever sublim e, is con
tem plation. Nothing sh o rt of everything will rea lly do." (pp.
136-137)
E ducation is a key tool for helping people to attack on all fronts at
once.
P redictab ly, econom ics and politics a re viewed by the P alan ese
less as entities in them selves than as p a rts of a la rg e r picture and as
basically sub serv ient, like everything e ls e , to self-actualizatio n.
P a la evaluates both the w ork people do and the products they m ake and
im port in te rm s of personal fulfillm ent. In d irec t c o n tra st to B rave
New W orld's sa crifice of hum an individuality and satisfaction for
m echanistic efficiency, P a la sa c rific e s econom ic efficiency for hum an
satisfaction. People change jobs often because this policy enables them
to continue to le a rn new skills and to m ee t different kinds of people.
Also, beginning as adolescents, they spend ninety m inues a day at
m anual lab or (p. 149). Will in te rp re ts this policy as a re tu rn " 'to
good old child la b o r,' " but D r. R o b ert, whose a v ersio n to 1 1 'sitting
addicts' " we have already noted, explains that it actually m eans going
" 'forward from bad new child id le n e ss' " (p. 149). He a sse r ts that
since W estern teen ag ers don't w ork, " 'they have to blow off steam in
delinquency or else th ro ttle down ste am till th e y 're ready to becom e
dom esticated sitting addicts' " (p. 149). U n iversally, econom ic policies
favor individual in te re st and use of m ind and body over econom ic
efficiency.
170
This attitude is a luxury m ade possible by four things: e le c
tric ity , b irth co n tro l, a g ric u ltu ra l re s e a rc h , and a lack of c o n s u m e r
ism . A g ricu ltu ral r e s e a rc h has allowed the P alan ese to im prove th e ir
crop yield, and b irth control has held the population in check. The
com bination of th ese two, plus e le ctricity to p re s e rv e foods, allows
the P alanese to produce enough food for its population. The lack of
co n su m erism fre e s them fro m the need eith er to have heavy in du stry
(which n e c e ssita te s boring jobs) o r to tra d e with the outside w orld
(which n e c e ssita te s contact with the outside w orld and the production
of com m odities for trad e ). F ro m the tim e of M r. P ro p te r's c o m
m unities, econom ic self-sufficiency has been linked in H uxley's m ind
with political autonom y. Will notes the difference betw een the happy,
healthy people in P a la, with its fairly equal distrib ution of w ealth, and
the m illions of starv in g , sick people in Rendang, with its deplorable
ex trem es of w ealth and poverty. D r. R obert e x p re sse s the c o n tra st in
te rm s of cause and effect: " 'E le c tric ity m inus heavy in d u stry plus
b irth control equals dem ocracy and plenty, ' " w hereas " 'e le c tric ity
plus heavy in d u stry m inus birth control equals m is e ry , to ta lita ria n is m ,
and w a r' " (p. 150).
Throughout the n o v e ls, Huxley has attacked c o n su m erism as an
im portant ob stacle to c reativ ity , serio u s thought, im pro vem ent, and
satisfaction, and in Island he em phasizes the P alan ese ability to reso lv e
this problem . In P a la, people w ork " 'tow ards happiness fro m the
inside out, through health, through aw eveness, through a change in
o n e's attitude tow ards the world; not tow ards the m ira g e of happiness
fro m the outside in, through toys and pills and n on-stop d istra c tio n ' "
(p. 149), as the W est and the developing c o u n tries do. M urugan r e p
re s e n ts the a v arice of underdeveloped c o u n trie s, and Huxley s a tiriz e s
this substitution of econom ic goods for sp iritu a l goals by couching
M urugan's attitude in the B iblical te rm s of tem ptation:
The se rp e n t tem pted m e and I did e a t. The tr e e . . . was called
the T re e of C onsum er Goods, and to the inhabitants of e v ery
underdeveloped Eden, the tin iest ta ste of its fru it . . . had the
power to bring the sham eful knowledge th at, in d u stria lly speaking,
they w ere s ta r k naked, (p. 139)
M urugan tells Will that the P alanese a re not in te re s te d in " 'p ro g re s s '
because of th e ir constant sex and th eir " 'b eastly dope'"; D r. R obert,
how ever, says that M uru is tem pted by c o n su m e rism only because of
his m iseducation and his refu sal to use " 're a lity r e v e a le r s .' "
In s tr ic t econom ic te rm s , Huxley is a p p ro p ria te vague; he is
not in te re ste d in the workings of the sy stem so m uch as in the philoso
phy behind it. E xcept for the rejectio n of c o n su m e rism and D r.
R o b e rt's fo rm u la about birth control, e le c tric ity , and heavy industry,
the only specific he gives is that the P a la n e se a re n e ith er cap italists
nor state so c ia lists but " 'c o o p e r a to r s .'" P re su m a b ly , Huxley e n
visages a sy stem that combines the advantages of c a p ita lism and
so c ia lism without the disadvantages of com petition and p riv ate ow ner
ship on the one hand or of state control on the o th er. E ncom passing
172
everything from te rra c in g and irrig a tio n of ric e fields to " 'cooperative
techniques for buying and selling and p ro fit-s h a rin g ' " (p. 150), this
econom ic cooperation is co n sisten t with Buddhist concepts of unity and
com passion.
F o r Huxley, econom ic policy is clo sely linked to political
policy. The reaso n , as D r. R o b ert explains, is that
"As population rush es up, p ro sp e rity goes down. . . . And as
p ro sp e rity goes down, discontent and rebellion, . . . political
ru th le ssn ess and one-p arty ru le , n atio n alism and bellicosity b e
gin to rise . Another ten o r fifteen y e a rs of uninhibited breeding,
and the whole w orld . . . w ill be fa irly craw ling with G reat
L e a d e rs, all dedicated to the su p p re ssio n of freedom , all arm ed
to the teeth [and] . . . all sc re a m in g fo r L e b e n sra u m ." (p. 151)
In keeping with its recognition of the in te rre la te d n e s s of everything,
P ala pro tects individual freed o m not m e re ly through political policies
but through a m u ltila te ra l approach. Its controlled population and
resu lta n t p ro sp erity , coupled with individual happiness, elim inate the
need fo r a G reat L eader proposing w id esp read " re fo rm ." A lso, since
the econom ic sy stem does not allow anyone to becom e m o re than four
or five tim es ric h e r than the a v e ra g e , th e re a re no om nipotent finan
c ie rs . S im ilarly, its p acificism elim in ates the need for a unified m il
ita ry com m and. Since th e ir " 're lig io n s tr e s s e s im m ediate experience
and deplores belief in unverifiable d o gm as' " (p. 152), th ere a re no
powerful religious le a d e rs . A final safeg u ard is the sy stem atic c u lti
vation of skepticism in P a la, so th at people analyze what they hear and
rea d ra th e r than responding em otionally.
All of th e se m e a su re s allow P a la to be 1 1 'a fed eratio n of se lf-
governing u n its , geographical u n its, professional u n its , econom ic
units [with] . . . plenty of scope for sm a ll-sc a le in itiative and d e m o
cratic le a d e rs , but no place for any kind of d ictato r at the head of a
centralized g o v e rn m e n t1 " (p. 152). P a la has laws and co u rts but has
little use for them b ecau se of its preventive m edicine and education,
its MACs and group th erap y , and its m edical tre a tm e n t and m o k sh a -
m edicine. Even M uru, as the R aja of P ala, can not defeat P ala; he
can only cooperate with the m ilita ry stren g th of Colonel Dipa, with
which P a la has chosen not to com pete. To the counterpoint of M uru-
gan's adm iration fo r Colonel D ipa's strong lead ersh ip and in sp ira tio n
of devotion and s e lf-s a c rific e , Vijaya and D r. R obert stand f ir m in
their conviction th at th ese attitudes a re incom patible with " 'decency,
reason, and lib e r ty 1 " (p. 153).
Like the econom ic sy stem , the political one is only vaguely
defined. M uru te lls Will that P ala is a constitutional m on archy, but
that concept is developed only as an absence of c en tralize d pow er. The
im portant point fo r Huxley is not the m echanics of the sy ste m , but the
m axim ization of individual freedom . T h erefore, he wants sm a ll,
self-governing, com m unal units and attacks economic and psychological
problem s at th e ir so u rc e ra th e r than through negative, political law s.
Island is a blueprint of a Rational State, but with a ratio n ality that is
humane b ecau se it is tem p ere d with other values. In fact, the ratio n al
174
explanations of P alan ese institutions expose the irra tio n a l p rejudices
behind m any of our p rac tic es. And yet we continue to be caught in
power plays by groups rep resen tin g th e ir own in te re s ts .
Men of science have been favorite objects of H uxley's s a tire
b ecause of the development of th e ir intellect at the expense of th eir
em otions and because of their p u rsu it of in tellectu al knowledge without
useful application. In Pala, both of these p ro b lem s have been r e
solved, as we have already seen; m en of scien ce a re tra in e d in re c e p
tive, sp iritu a l pow ers as well as conceptual ones, and the em phasis in
scientific studies is on biological channels r a th e r than on c h e m istry or
physics. As a re s u lt of these changes , scientific p e rs o n a litie s a re m o re
a g re ea b le, and m edical trea tm e n t is superb.
The big m edical im provem ent, as R adha explains to W ill, is the
em phasis on prevention on all fro n ts. In c o n tra st to W estern d o ctors,
who a re paid only fo r curing, P alan ese doctors a re also paid to keep
people w ell, and they look not m e re ly for physiological a n sw ers but
also for " 'chem ical answ ers, psychological a n sw e rs, an sw ers in te rm s
of what you eat, how you m ake love, what you se e and h e a r, how you
feel about being who you are in this kind of a w o rld 1 1 1 (p. 69). In other
w o rd s, m edicine is an extension of P alan ese education and psychology
and Buddhism , and the poem that m edical people m e m o riz e at the
beginning of th e ir training reflects this attitude:
175
" 'I' " am a crow d, obeying as m any laws
As it has m em b ers. C h em ically im pure
A re all "my" bein gs. T h ere's no sin gle cure
F or what can never have a sin g le ca u se." (p. 69)
In eith er prevention or cu re, P a la n ese m ed icin e attacks on all fronts
at once, " 'from diet to autosuggestion, from negative ions to m ed i
tation' " (p. 69), helping people be not only not sic k but vibrantly w ell.
Radha presen ts the W estern counterpoint through her reaction
to som e A m erican doctors who v isited P ala the year b efore. They
have " 'm arvellous a n tib io tics—but ab solu tely no m ethods for in c r e a s
ing r e sista n c e , so that antibiotics won't be n e c e ss a r y '" (p. 69). S im
ila r ly , they perform " 'fantastic o p era tio n s--b u t when it com es to
teaching people the way of going through life without having to be
chopped up, absolutely nothing' " (p. 69). In other w ords, her c r it i
c ism lie s in the lack of recognition that a body is a com plex organism
that can be made m ore or le s s r esista n t to d is e a se . S im ila rly , she
c r itic iz e s the A m erican p sy ch ia trists b ecau se they, too, " 'never attack
on all the fronts; they only attack on about half of one front' " (p. 70).
By this sh e m eans that they ignore p h ysical fro n ts, and on the psych o
lo g ica l front they pay attention only to the negative unconscious and
forget the positive uncon scious, which could be trained to open itse lf
to Buddha Nature. M ost shocking of a ll to Radha is the W estern p sy
ch ia trists ' idea of norm alcy:
"B elieve it or not, a norm al human being is one who can have an
orgasm and is adjusted to so ciety . . . . No question about what
176
you do with your o rg a s m s. No question about the quality of your
feelings and thoughts and p ercep tio n s. And then what about the
society y o u 're supposed to be adjusted to ? Is it a m ad so ciety o r
a sane one? And even if it's p re tty same, is it right that anybody
should be com pletely adjusted to it ?
In both ph ysical and psychological m edicine, then, W estern doctors
view people as patients to be c u re d of abn orm al, negative sym ptom s
instead of as people to be helped tow ard self-actu alizatio n .
P a la 's hig h er stan d ard s for n o rm alcy , above m e re c u re o r even
prevention, affect e v ery asp ect of life and link Huxley with a v ery
im portant and fa irly new bran ch of psychology, T hird F o rc e o r H um an
istic psychology. Instead of concentrating m e re ly on the negative u n
conscious, like the F re u d ia n s, o r on the lim itations im posed by the
stim u lu s-re sp o n se se t, like the B e h a v io ris ts, th ese psychologists,
following the le a d e rs h ip of A braham M aslow, explore a T h ird F o rc e ,
the positive cap ab ilities of m an. As M aslow e x p re sse s his goals in
the preface to T ow ard a Psychology of B eing,
T hese new developm ents m ay v ery well offer a tangible, usable,
effective sa tisfa c tio n of the "fru stra te d id ea lism " of m any
quietly d e sp e ra te people, esp ecially young people. T hese p s y
chologies give p ro m ise of developing into the life-philosophy,
the re lig io n -s u rro g a te , th e v a lu e -sy ste m , the life -p ro g ra m that
these people have been m issin g . Without the tran scen d en t and
the tra n s p e rs o n a l, we get sick , violent, and n ih ilistic, o r else
hopeless and apathetic. We need som ething "bigger than we a re "
to be awed by and to com m it o u rselv es to in a new, n a tu ra listic ,
non-churchly se n se , perhaps as T horeau and W hitm an, W illiam
Jam es and John Dewey did.20
In o ther w o rd s, T h ird F o rc e psychology a s s e r ts , like Huxley, that,
given the opportunity, people would ra th e r take yes than no fo r an
177
an sw er, and it explores the m ethods of activating this positive attitude.
It also recogn izes W estern so ciety 's re m is s n e s s in providing viable
channels fo r transcendence of the self and th e re fo re contends that
m e re adjustm ent to the present society is not enough. One of M aslow 's
m o re im portant concepts is what he calls "sy n e rg y ," the idea that a
society and an individual can be m utually re in fo rc in g in th e ir aim s and
m ethods ra th e r than antagonistic. Huxley has re c e iv e d recognition
fro m th ese hum anistic psychologists fo r his o p e ra tio n a l blueprint of
21
a society actualizing these higher goals of sa tisfac tio n .
One of the m ost striking m edical u ses of co nsciou sness in P ala
is D estiny Control o r Self D eterm ination. S u sila explains its su b stitu
tion for the W estern use of b a rb itu rates in p arab o lic te r m s . In both
c a s e s , the little child, who wants to help but who only gets in the way,
with his feelings of pain and w o rry and sin and m oney and the future,
is sent off so th at the grow n-ups can w ork in p eace. But in one case ,
the b a rb itu ra te s kill not only the pain and w o rry but also dull all levels
of conscious a w are n ess, while in the o th er, the individual controls his
own rea ctio n to pain and is still able to function on o ther lev els. When
asked for a m o re scientific definition of the g ro w n -u p s, Susila answ ers
that they a re a m ix tu re of m ind and physiology, capable of thinking
" 'sim ultaneously of the C lear Light of the Void and the vegetative n e r
vous sy s te m ' " (p. 98). She explains that one le a rn s to visu alize what
one would like to happen, and often it does. This is s im ila r to V ijaya's
178
statem ent that " 'if p ra y e rs a re so m e tim e s answ ered it's b ecause, in
this very odd psycho-physical w o rld of o u rs, ideas have a tendency,
if you concentrate your m ind on th e m to get th em selv es re a liz e d ' " (p.
186). Susila re fe rs any m o re scien tific explanations to a " 'neuro-
theologian' " and offers in stea d c o n c re te exam ples of its usefulness.
It helped Will feel re fre sh e d and re la x e d , it enables painless child-
b irth s, m o re d ram atically , it enabled D r. Andrew to p erfo rm an op
eratio n on the Old R aja without a n a e sth e tic s, and it helps L akshm i
endure the pain of dying of c a n c e r while rem ain in g a le rt to do the b u si
ness of dying.
Throughout the nov els, H uxley has em phasized m odern W estern
m an 's inability to deal com petently w ith death. M r. C ardan looked for
external rath er than in te rn al c o m fo rt in G ra c e 's m oney, and h e r un
expected death d em o n strated the inefficacy of that approach. M rs.
Aldwinkle trie d to look and act and fee l young enough to escape thoughts
of encroaching death, but this s o r t of self-d elu sio n is also obviously
inadequate. Even M ark R am pion had sp iritu a l answ ers that p ertain
only at the height of one's a b ilitie s , not in old age and death. People in
Brave New World w ere able, th ro u g h youth h o rm o n es, som a and other
d istractio n s, and death conditioning, to avoid fearin g death o r even
thinking about it as a significant event. Since people w ere so undiffer
entiated and love and souls n o n ex isten t, death was not im portant; any
one could be replaced by rep lic a tio n of the sam e genetic form ula.
179
Death achieves significance only if the p erso n dying is im p o rtan t a n d /o r
if som e s o rt of a fte rlife is envisaged. Since both of these conditions
p ertain in P a la , " 'thanatology' " is the " 'ultim ate s c ie n c e ,1 " and
learning how to die is one of the m o st im portant parts of one's
education.
Since everything we have d isc u sse d thus far involves the h eig h t
ening of individual w orth, we w ill co ncentrate h e re on the belief in life
after death and on the m ethodology of the a rt of dying. As M ahayana
Buddhists, the P alaiiese believe that through m editation and m oksha
and also through death, they can tra n sc e n d th eir individual se lf to
apprehend th e ir " 'n o t- s e lf.1 " This " 'n o t-se lf' " is H uxley's d e s c r ip
tive equivalent of the Ja p an e se w ord so n o -m a m a , which Suzuki tr a n s -
22
lates as "su c h n e ss" and which E vans-W entz, in The T ibetan Book of
the D ead, on which the dying technique is based, calls the "C lear Light
23
of the Void." F o r B uddhists, life co n sists of suffering, and the end
of suffering is achieved finally by getting off the wheel of incarnation
to becom e re in te g ra te d with the C lear Light in eternity. This is the
purpose of life and the significance of the concept of k a rm a , which
states that the d e sira b ility of your next incarnation is earn ed by your
goodness in this incarnation. E ustace B arnack m is u s e s , by Buddhist
stan d ard s, his apprehension of the Light after his death because he is
so attached to se n su a l p le a su re s that he is fru stra te d by the Light and
his loss of body and w ants only to be rein carn ated .
180
L akshm i, how ever, has lived a life of searc h in g fo r, and
finding, the Light, and she needs to be a le rt when she leaves h e r
e a rth ly body behind, so that she can go to w ard the Light with receptive
ness and w ithout fe a r. This aw areness is the re a so n for the absence
of b a rb itu ra te s and for S u sila's guru role in helping h e r to die. A p
pealing to the sam e p a rt of the m ind that the jackdaw s of W ells draw
forth in W ill, Susila helps L akshm i to d isso c iate h e rs e lf fro m her
pain and h e r body and to focus her attention on the C lear Light to which
she is going. This one of the m ost moving scenes of the book, with its
ten sio n betw een the sadness that those who love h e r feel and the u n
se lfish dedication they e x ert in helping h e r die. With te a r s on his
cheeks, D r. R o b e rt's voice is tender but firm , as he te lls L akshm i to
shed h e r " 'old w orn-out body . . . like a pile of w orn-o ut c lo th es' "
(p. 270) and go to the Light. P a rt of the im m ediacy undoubtedly com es
fro m H uxley's p erso n al experience of this scene in which he played the
24
p a rt of S usila and D r. R obert for his dying wife, M aria.
Given our inability to see beyond death, we can judge the co n
tra s tin g p ra c tic e s only on pragm atic grounds. D r. R o b ert u ses the
young people's happy dancing to rem ind L akshm i of lightness and joy,
while the Aunt M arys of the W estern w orld, without h e r faith in the
Light, acq u ire a " 'm alignant envy of other p e o p le 's health and h ap p i
ness [and] . . . a b itte rly querulous self-p ity , an abject d e s p a ir 1 "
(p. 263). F o r those watching, like Will, th ese deaths re p re s e n t an
181
experience of the " 'E ssen tial H o rro r' " (p. 242), a le s so n in " 'P u re
and Applied P o in tle s s n e s s .' " W hatever m eta p h y sic a l re s e rv a tio n s one
m ay have, p ragm atic considerations dem and c o n v ersio n .
It is fitting that the last two scenes of Islan d a re L ak sh m i's
dying and W ill's m oksha experience, two e x p erien c es of the Light to
culm inate the pages of theory. The stren g th of the novel is that w hat
e v e r p ra c tic a l problem s one would encounter in attem pting to bring a
so ciety like P a la into existence, m any of its re fo rm s a re b ased on
accepted W estern th eo ries of psychology and on re c o rd e d experiences
of E a s te rn religious m en. In this sense it conform s to A risto tle 's
s tr ic tu r e , quoted at the beginning of the book: "In fra m in g an ideal
we m ay a ssu m e what we wish, but should avoid im p o s sib ilitie s." What
is a ssu m e d is that people want and can have m o re p ositiv e lives. What
is m o re im probably d e sire d is that th ere a re people and places re c e p
tive to this kind of m u ltila tera l change. W ithin the context of the island
of P a la , existing beyond the re a c h of m o d ern W e ste rn living, the s o c i
ety th at the Old R aja and D r. Andrew M acP hail c o llab o rated to c re a te
is not so im possible. In the w orld that W ill com es fro m and that we
live in, w here old attitudes and practices would have to be abolished
b efore the new could take th e ir places, w here people with the
d e s ire s of M uru for consum er goods and L e a d e rs and national
pow er e x ist, the possibility for effecting th e se changes is m o re
bleak. The way, how ever, begins with the individual and his c u ltiv a
tion of the qualities of which the m ynah b ird s s e rv e as re m in d e rs , even
at the end of the book when Colonel Dipa has invaded: K aruna and
A ttention.
183
Notes
* Aldous Huxley, Ends and M eans: An Inquiry into the N ature of
Ideals and into the Methods E m ployed fo r T h eir R ealization (New York:
Greenwood P r e s s , 1969), p. 309 (firs t p rin te d in 1937).
^Ibid. , p. 311.
^Ibid. , p. 318.
^ Ib id ., p. 325.
5
Aldous Huxley, Introduction to The Song of God: Bhagavad-
G ita, tra n s . Swami P rabhavananda and C h risto p h er Isherw ood (New
York: M entor, 1954), p. 13.
T hese four points originally ap p ea re d in slightly different form
in an e ssa y entitled "The M inim um W orking H y p o th esis" in the Vedanta
Society's m agazine, Vedanta and the W e st, M arch 1939, and was r e
p rin ted in Vedanta for the W estern W o rld , ed. C h risto p h er Isherw ood
(New York: Viking P r e s s , I960) and w as p a ra p h ra se d under the sam e
nam e in S ebastian's d iary in Tim e M ust Have a Stop (New York:
H a rp e r & B ro th e rs, 1944).
£
Aldous Huxley, Island (London: Cox & W yman, L td ., Penguin
Books, 1964), p. 139. (All o ther quotations fro m Island in this ch ap
t e r will be indicated in the text by page n u m b ers enclosed in p a re n
th e s e s . )
7
H uxley's Grey E m inence (New York: H arp er & B ro th e rs, 1941)
and The Devils of Loudun (New York: H a rp e r & B ro th e rs, Colophon
Books, 1965) a re h is to ric a l studies th at show a s im ila r m isu se of
pow er by genuinely religious m en who tr ie d to im pose th e ir dogm a on
o th e rs. All of Huxley's religious studies m ade him in creasin g ly a n ti
c le ric a l even while he was recognizing the need for religious m eaning
in on e's life.
g
T an tra is a pan-Indian ideology, dating fro m the fourth c e n
tu ry A. D. , that was a ssim ila te d into all the g re a t religions of India
[see M ircea E liade, Yoga: Im m o rtality and F re e d o m , tra n s . W illard
R. T ra sk (Princeton: P rin c eto n U niversity P r e s s , 1970), p. 200],
This inco rporation of T a n tra into both H induism and Buddhism explains
H uxley's (Ranga's) d escrip tio n of a M ahayna Buddhist p ra c tic e in the
Hindu vocabulary of yoga.
184
9
Ibid. , p. 203.
^ Ib id . , p. 268.
^ Ib id . , p. 262.
*^Ibid. , p. 200.
13
Nand Pandy, "The Influence of Hindu and Buddhist Thought
on Aldous Huxley" (Ph. D. d is s e rta tio n , Stanford U niversity, 1964)
(unpaged abstract).
14
Aldous Huxley, Do What You Will (London: Chatto & Windus,
1929), p. 45.
15
R. C. Z aeh n er, in his M y sticism S a c re d and Profane (New
York: Galaxy, 1959), has a cc u sed Huxley of m isu sin g the word "m y
stic ism " in describing his m e sc a lin e experience in D oors of P e rc e p
tio n , but according to Z a e h n e r's logic, Buddhist m y stic ism , which
does not include apprehension of an individualized God, is "profane,"
while only C h ristian m y s tic is m is " sa c re d ." Given this differentation,
Huxley would undoubtedly have been happy to join the ranks of the p r o
fane. Also, as both D oors of P e rc e p tio n and Island a tte st, the m e s c a
line o r m oksha experience is view ed m o re as a tool than as a su b s ti
tution for m ore trad itio n al paths to m y stic a l ex p erien ces.
^ The P eren n ial P hilosophy includes C h ristian m y stics, and in
Jesting Pilate he w rites th at riding in a tra in com p artm ent with som e
holy m an brought out his " a n ti-c le ric a lis m " to such an extent that he
paid m o re money to avoid rid in g with this "holy m an [of] . . . no p e r
sonal m e rit but a very g re a t office" (London: Chatto & Windus, 1926),
pp. 52-56.
17
See A braham H. M aslow , M otivation and P erso n ality (New
York: H arp er & Row, 1954), pp. 2ff. for h is listing of the c rite r ia
for self-actu alizatio n w hich P a la n e se education fac ilitates.
18
E lisabeth Bing, Six P ra c tic a l L essons for an E a s ie r C hild
birth (New York: G ro sse t & Dunlap, a B antam Book, 1967), pp. 15-
18.
19
The L ette rs of Aldous H uxley, ed. G rover Sm ith (New York:
H a rp er & Row, 1969), pp. 668-669.
185
20
A braham H. M aslow , T ow ard a Psychology of Being (New
York: Van N ostrand R einhold, 1962), p. iv.
21
See, for ex am p le, A braham M aslow, The F a r th e r R eaches
of Hum an N ature (New York: Viking P r e s s , 1971), p. 178. A full
list would be v e ry long and would include the fo rem o st sociologists
and psychologists of the p ast fifteen y e a rs . Ironically, o r m aybe f i t
tingly, Huxley enjoys an em inence among thinkers in th ese fields that
is totally lacking in the lite r a r y re a lm .
22
D. T. Suzuki, M y stic ism , C h ristian and Buddhist (New York:
H arp er & Row, 1957), p. 99-
23
W. Y. E vans-W entz, ed. , The Tibetan Book of the Dead
(Oxford: Oxford U niversity P r e s s , 1970), p. lxxi ff. (first printed
in 1927).
24
L au ra A rc h e ra Huxley, This T im eless M om ent (New York:
Ballantine, 1968), pp. 18-22.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION: ALDOUS HUXLEY AS THE
RENAISSANCE MAN
Island, with its attention to all aspects of the p e rso n , o ffers an
antidote to all the self-d iv isio n s of the e a r lie r novels. One of the c o m
pelling a sp ects of H uxley's w riting viewed as a whole is its logical
c o m p leten ess. The f ir s t th re e novels depict people who a re "lo p
sided" in th e ir e x cessiv e orientation tow ard e ith er m ind, body, o r soul,
and the contrapuntal technique rev eals both im plicitly and explicitly the
inadequacies of all th re e . In the succeeding novels, Huxley tak es fir s t
the em otional, then the ratio n al, and finally the sp iritu a l to th e ir
C a e s a ria n e x tre m e s fo r the purpose of evaluative judgm ent. Then, dis-
sa tisified with the incom pleteness of all th re e , he m anages to sy n th e
siz e, m ainly through the vehicle of Buddhist te n e ts, all th re e needs
and ab ilities into a co m plem en tary ra th e r than an antagonistic whole.
At this point he tells us th at "'nothing sh o rt of everything will re a lly do,"'
and m id st the sk e p tic ism and invasion of o u tsid e rs, he te lls us to pay
attention to everything th at we a re h e re and now.
186
187
H uxley's technical contribution to the novel of ideas is the u se
of counterpoint. In the e a rly novels, the juxtaposition of the various
incom plete c h a ra c te rs em phasizes the sa tire of e g o cen tricity and c o m -
p artm en talizatio n . In Point Counter P o in t, the counterpoint betw een
M ark Ram pion andthe o th er, "lop-sided" c h a ra c te rs re v e a ls th e ir lack
of com pleteness and balance, but his counterpoint w ith P h il shows not
only P h il's self-acknow ledged lim itations but R am pion's as well. In
B rave New W orld, the counterpoint is le ss betw een specific individuals
th an am ong th re e so c ietie s. The W orld State has relin q u ish ed the
ideals of individual excellence of the Savage R e se rv a tio n and the p r e -
F o rd ia n w orld, but it boasts u n iv ersal achievem ent of its goals, while
the other two so cieties had noble goals which people seldom rea ch e d . •
In Isla n d , the counterpoint is between P a la and the E a s t and W est of
our existing world: Colonel Dipa and G re a te r R endang re p re s e n t the
rap a cio u s, to ta lita ria n governm ents of the E a s t, and W ill, M uru, the
R ani, Bahu, and L ord Aldehyde re p re se n t m isu se s of hum an potential
in the W est. P a la has m anaged to combine the id e a lism a sso c iated
w ith the Savage R e serv atio n and the p re -F o rd ia n w o rld with the effi
ciency of the W orld State. The im portant d ifferen ces betw een P ala
and the W orld State a re not only the re v e rs e d o rien tatio n in P a la of the
im po rtance of the individual over the State-but also th e m ethods of
reaching the goals; people are train ed through education ra th e r than
conditioned by m in d less, hypnopaedic wisdom .
188
F o r a novelist like Huxley, m o re in te re s te d in ideas than in
tra d itio n a l elem ents of the novel, this counterpoint is a useful te c h
nique. It provides a stru c tu re that is m o re g erm an e to his philosophi
cal goals than a lin e ar plot and also offers b rea d th and depth of vision.
In addition, it allows the developm ent of a point of view through in fe r
ence r a th e r than through explicit authorial pronouncem ent, though
som e c ritic s have com plained that his point of view is too indefinite,
while o th ers have claim ed that it is too didactic.* J e ro m e M eckier,
in his im portant w ork on this technique, sees little evidence of counter
point before Point Counter P o in t, and he c o n ce n tra te s on that novel and
E y eless in G aza. He refu ses to even discu ss Islan d b e cau se of its
2
tech n ical flaw s. One of the purposes of m y Island ch ap ter is to show
that this la s t novel re lie s very heavily on co n trap u n tal stru c tu re and
that m uch of its philosophical com pleteness and im p o rtan ce com es
fro m the counterpoint between the u n sa tisfac to ry p ra c tic e s of the r e p
re se n ta tiv e s of our existing w orld and the a lte rn a tiv e s proposed by
P a la. This counterpoint gives this utopian novel so m e footing in
"re a lity " as we know it and d em o n strates the n e c e ssity , if not the con
vincingness, of P a lan e se propo sals.
M ost c ritic s have been m o re relu ctan t than Huxley to relinq uish
conventional stan dard s for judging a novel, and they have, in varying
term in o lo g ies, c ritic ize d what F re d e ric k Hoffm an c h a ra c te riz e d as the
3
"exposition ra th e r than the dram atization of id e a s." W ithin the context
of the usual expectations of a novel, th is objection cannot be d ism isse d
b e ca u se the essay elem ent c ertain ly intrudes in the lengthy excerpts
fro m the Old R aja's Notes on W hat's What and in the long, didactic
sp e ec h es. But, since m any of the ideas p re se n te d in Island a re unfa
m ilia r to W estern r e a d e rs , this kind of explanation is n e c e s s a ry for
phil; ‘.ophical clarity . The exposition fac ilitates the contrapuntal d e
velopm ent of ideas and point of view, but it o b stru c ts the f a s t e r -
m oving dialogues and plot lines that a re c o n sid ered d e sirab le for nov
e ls . The im plication of m uch of the technical c ritic is m quoted in the
Introduction to this study is that since Huxley was m o st capable in
w riting e ssa y s, he should have confined h im self to that genre. Huxley
adm itted through P h ilip Q u a rle s's notebook that he was not "a congeni
ta l n ovelist" and that living with u n re a listic people "who can r e e l off
n eatly form ulated notions . . . becom es ra th e r tire s o m e , in the long
4
ru n ." He chose to w rite Island as a novel r a th e r than as an essay
5
b ecause he hoped to "reach a la r g e r and m o re v a rie d audience."
U nfortunately, m ost c ritic s have d isa g ree d w ith the " lite ra ry sagacity"
of this decision.
Even P e te r Bow ering, who is b asically an apologist for H uxley's
la te r novels, is willing to p ra is e only the "sh e e r intellectual density"
of Island and none of its fo rm al qualities as a novel. He contends that
while people in B rave New W orld actually live th e ir situation, the
P a la n e se only expound. He also a s s e r ts that while the Savage embodies
190
re a l conflict, W ill concedes too e asily to P a la 's m etaphysic. On this
b a sis, Bowering contends that Islan d has pushed the bounds of the
novel of ideas, which is alw ays s ta tic , too f a r, and that its lengthy
m onologues and absence of conflict m ake it an e ssa y in novelistic
f o r m .k
B ow ering's approach to Huxley is as a novelist of ideas. Within
this g en re, as he defines it, tra c in g its ro o ts to the house p arty novels
of Peacock, the conflict re s id e s in a c la sh of id ea s, e x p re ssed in d ia
logue, ra th e r than in any co m p licated action o r plot. Within this con
text, the absence of conflict o r the e x ce ssiv e use of conversation in
Island is one of degree r a th e r than kind. In fact, for m e, one of the
stre n g th of Island over T im e M ust Have a Stop, which Bowering sees
as the b est of the la te r novels, o r E y e le ss in G aza, which M eckier
dubs the b est, is that the counterpoint is m o re fully developed. Will
esp ecially re p re se n ts the con trap u n tal point of view on virtually every
issu e.
In Time Must Have a S top, the counterpoint is le ss satisfying
because the novel splits into th re e se c tio n s. In the f ir s t, John B a r-
n ack 's pointless, p ro testan t kind of s e lf-s a c rific e is co n tra sted with
his b ro th e r-in -la w 's grum py s e lf-c e n te re d n e s s , his s is te r 's m a rrie d
m a rty rd o m , his son's youthful o b se ssio n with a dinner jacket, and his
b ro th e r's sophisticated self-in d u lg en ce. The second p a rt revolves
around E u sta c e 's B ardol e x p erien c es and S eb astian 's dilem m a with the
191
Degas draw ing and his initiation into sex. The third p a rt c en ters on
S ebastian's diary and p re s e n ts in an e ssa y fo rm B runo's Buddhist
teachings of n o t-se lf and achievem ent of the C lear Light. Significantly,
Bruno is glim psed b rie fly only th re e tim es while alive. T here is little
p o rtray al of his life o r the possible applications of his teachings, and
th ere is little c la sh of dialogue o r contrapuntal ideas.
E yeless in G aza and A fter Many a Sum m er Dies the Swan suffer
fro m sim ila r p ro b le m s. D r. M iller in E y eless receiv es le ss space
than alm ost any o ther c h a r a c te r in the novel, and except for his p e r
form ance of the o p e ra tio n , he is m o re of a m outhpiece fo r his ideas
than a p o rtray ed , living exam ple. Anthony B eavis's co nversion to
M ille r's beliefs and its effects also rec eiv e negligible p o rtray a l. S im
ilarly , in A fter Many a S u m m e r, M r. P ro p te r indulges in som e lengthy
m onologues, without significant con tradiction or counterpoint, and then
disappears fro m the novel altog ether with the death of his convert, P e te
Boone.
M e c k ie r's negative c o n tra st of Island with B rave New W o rld , as
the other utopia, is also som ew hat a rb itr a r y because Island does p o r
tra y the happy re s u lts of th e P a la n e se philosophy. In addition to h e a r
ing about MACs, we see M ary S arojini and Tom K rishna benefiting
fro m having V iajaya and Shanta as a ltern ativ e parents. In fact, th e ir
fam ily situation is so peaceful and harm onious that Will alm o st a c
cepts "yes for an a n sw e r" on an em otional level. M ore im portantly,
192
we see both S u sila and D r. M acPhail battling with th e ir g rie f and s u c
ceeding, not b ecause it is easy but because it is im p o rtan t. A lso, we
see the adolescents m ountain-clim bing and experiencing m oksha
ra th e r than m e re ly having the th eo ries explained to u s. The two m ost
im p o rtan t sc en e s fo r p o rtray in g ra th e r than expounding a re L ak sh m i's
death and W ill's f ir s t experien ce with m oksha. Both a re m oving de
sc rip tio n s of v ery p e rso n al ex p erien ces, of application ra th e r than
theory.
The contention that the Savage em bodies m o re su c ce ssfu l con
flict than W ill ra is e s again the question of what kind of conflict is
ap p ro p ria te . W ill e x p re ss e s counterpoint verb ally throughout the
novel, and he does not so read ily capitulate to the P a la n e se point of
view as B ow ering im p lies. He deceives his hosts by sending the te le
g ra m to L ord Aldehyde, and he acts until the v ery end of the novel
m o re as an o b s e rv e r and the rep re se n ta tiv e of our w orld them as a
convert. It is significant that only at the end, a fte r his re s is ta n c e
has w orn away, does he take the m oksha-m edicine and experience the
re a lity so fo reig n to the W estern world.
I do not w ish to suggest that th e re a re no tec h n ic al flaws in
Isla n d . Obviously, the periodic long expositions of ideas a re often
tedious and forced; the conversation lacks the u rb an ity and wit d is
played in e a rly novels like C rom e Yellow. Nor does Will undergo the
kind of so u l-se a rc h in g conflict that the Savage does. He does, how
193
e v e r, re p re s e n t a contrapuntal point of view, and if, as Bow ering
sa y s, the conflict in a novel of ideas consists of a c la sh of ideas in
dialogue, then Island is not outside that re a lm . E sp e cially in c o m
p a riso n with other Huxley novels, which c ritic s have p ra ise d , Island
does not seem v ery ex trem e. The tech n ical c ritic is m of Island has
allow ed too m any c ritic s to ignore its fo r te : the id eas.
One of the m ost striking aspects of Island is its p resen ta tio n of
ideas fro m such d isp a rate sources on such a wide v a rie ty of topics.
M ore than any of his other novels, Isla n d , with its th e o rie s fro m e c o
n o m ics, politics, m odern science, W estern psychology, H induism ,
Buddhism , and even the e so te ric T antra, displays the u n iv ersality of
knowledge that Julian Huxley sees as Huxley's unique attrib u te:
His uniqueness lay in his u n iv ersalism . He was able to take all
knowledge for his province. What is m o re , he was able to in te
g ra te this astonishing range of fact and idea t o g iv e h im a c o m
p reh en siv e vision of m an and his p o s s ib ilitie s .'
Some people have ap p reciated this "incredibly w e ll-fu rn ish e d in te lli-
g
gence" and its "bold breadth of view that enabled him . . . to 'r e
le a s e ' the m inds of the intelligent [and] . . . show ed them how to s u r -
9
vey life h am p ered n eith er by prejudice n o r by ig n o ra n c e ."
M ost c ritic s have been m o re w ary, how ever; M ilton B irnbaum ,
for exam ple, is skeptical of H uxley's com petence in such a wide range
of knowledge and of his in te re s t in the significance of knowledge ra th e r
than in m e re intellectual virtuosity:
194
His w ritings encom pass so m uch d iv ersified m a te r ia l that one is
led to question his com petence as an authority in all fields. . . .
He was a ttra c te d to so m any facets of hum an e x p erien ce that we
w onder w hether he was m o re in te re ste d in knowledge itself o r in
the significance of the knowledge.10
Such c ritic is m is , it seem s to m e, both uninform ed and irre sp o n sib le .
To question H uxley's com petence in different a re a s because they a re
so m ultiple ra th e r than because of specific w e ak n e sses is to re fu se to
do one's hom ew ork and to und erestim ate Huxley e x tra o rd in a ry in te lli
gence, m em o ry , and breadth of reading. To a cc u se Huxley of being
m o re in te re s te d in knowledge itself than in its significance m eans i g
noring all of his e ssay s criticizin g "sym bolic" as opposed to "n o u rish
ing" knowledge and constitutes a m isrea d in g of all the intellectu al c h a r
a c te rs fro m Denis onward. F ro m D enis's re g re ttin g his inability to
get beyond his intellectual constructs to V ijaya's e x p re ssio n of the
dangers of getting caught in sym bolic m anipulation of knowledge, H ux
ley reco g n izes the need for applying knowledge and experiencing rea lity
ra th e r than m e re ly reading, w riting, and talking about it. All of the
religious and educational p ra c tic e s in Isla n d , fro m m o k sh a -m edicine
to applied psychology, are o rien ted tow ard helping people experience
things in stea d of having to accept other people's th e o rie s and d e s c r ip
tions .
In addition to this g en eral sk ep ticism , c ritic s have attacked
m any of the specific ideas as u n realistic visions of H uxley's too-
idealistic m ind. Huxley him self viewed Island as "a kind of Utopian
195
and yet re a lis tic phantasy about a so ciety (alas, hypothetical) whose
collective purpose is to help its m e m b e rs to actualize as m any as p o s
sible of th e ir d esirab le p o te n tia litie s ." ^ H um anistic psychologists,
who see our p re se n t society as re p re s s iv e and a re seeking new ways
of actualizing m o re positive potential, have recog nized the re a listic
and im portant n atu re of m any of the ideas and techniques in Island. In
fact, they a re using m odifications of som e of his techniques of applied
12
psychology. M ost lite ra r y c ritic s se e m to be unaw are of the p ro -
13
digious "p relim in a ry r e s e a r c h " that went into the p re p a ra tio n for
Isla n d , and have not recognized the re a lis tic potential of the ideas.
As his second wife L au ra has w ritte n ,
Aldous was appalled, I think (and c erta in ly I am) at the fact that
what he w rote in Island was not taken se rio u sly . It was tre a te d
as a w ork of science fiction, when it was not fiction, because
each one of the ways of living he d e sc rib e d in Island was not a
product of his fantasy, but som ething that had been tr ie d in one
place or another, som e of th em in our own everyday life. If the
way Aldous died w ere known [he died in a m an n er co n sisten t with
his p o rtray a l of L ak sh m i's death in Islan d ] it m ight awaken people
to the aw areness that not only th is, but m any o th er facts describ ed
in Island a re possible h e re and n o w .^
The ideas of Island a re im p o rtan t fo r th e ir cogency and th eir
relevance; to a re m a rk a b le degree they validate A ndre M a u ro is's con
tention that "w hatever the subject, Aldous H uxley's approach was that
15
of an e x p ert." Even the m isrea d in g s of Island and ignorance of its
so u rces se rv e to suggest that m any of the ideas d e serv e m o re serio u s
investigation and consid eration than they have yet receiv ed .
196
John Atkins has attribu ted the p ra c tic e of M aithuna to H uxley's
d istaste for the c arn ality of lo ve-m aking, and with blithe o v ersight of
the u n iv ersal p ractice of this coitus in te rru p tu s in the Oneida c o m
m unity, a s s e r ts that it would be to tally unfeasible for a "healthy young
16
m an ." Milton B irnbaum also contends, on what authority he does not
m ention, that "the act of love-m aking is to him [Huxley] p ersonally
17
revolting" and shows how this attitude p ervades Islan d :
What is significant to note about the th re e "happy" m a rria g e s . . .
is that in one of them (that of D r. and M rs. M acPhail) the wife
is dying of cancer; in the second, S u sila is the widow; . . . and
in the th ird (that of the V ijayas), the happiness is m e re ly stated,
not d ram atized in any way. F u rth e r m o re , it is difficult to take
the la st m a rria g e se rio u sly in asm u ch as th e ir child is the re s u lt
of AI. . . . W illis exposed to this "lum inous b lis s " when Susila
teaches him the yoga of love. What p re c ise ly this e n ta ils, how
e v e r, is left unexplained and u n d ram a tiz ed . F u rth e rm o re , the
appearance of the copulating in se c ts at the end of the book in d i
cates that the se a rc h for an ideal love rem ain ed abo rtive [because
the fem ale praying m antis eats the m ale a fte r intercourse].^®
The im aginativeness of this account should be obvious. The deaths of
L akshm i and Dugald em p hasize the P a la n e se ability to deal with
death successfully, to pay attention to dying when that is appropriate
and to living when that is a p p ro p ria te . T hese deaths do not show that
the s e a rc h for love has been "abortive"; in fact, the clo sen ess and
im portance of both m a rria g e s is em p h asized . The praying m an tis, to
which Susila d irects W ill's relu c ta n t attention, shows again the in clu
siv eness of the P alan ese, the re fu sa l to avoid pain or death in the
bliss to which W ill is try in g to esca p e. The Vijaya m a rria g e is very
197
touchingly d ram atized in the scene showing Shanta nursin g h e r new
baby, and only the la s t child is the product of a rtific ia l insem ination.
The twins a re genetically th e irs . E ven if all of th e ir ch ild ren w ere
produced in this m ann er, how ever, this technique of "im proving the
ra c e " would have no bearing on the happiness of th e ir m a rria g e .
Finally, the rea so n that Susila does not explain the yoga of love to Will
is that she is initiating him into m o k sh a -m e d ic in e , not the yoga of love.
Radha and Ranga have alread y explained this p ractice in detail to Will,
and it is significant that B irnbaum overlooks th e ir love altogether.
The use of drugs has been a so u rc e of confusion to som e c ritic s
of Islan d . They have u n d e re stim a ted the im portance of the education
that Huxley outlines as preceding the u se of m o k sh a , and they have
viewed it as an end in itself, as a "pharm acological" escape from
re a lity ra th e r than as a m eans fo r developing a different m ode of p e r-
19
ceiving reality . F o r the Scogans who can n ever take a "holiday"
fro m th e ir ratio n al p ro c e s s e s , m oksha is one of m any m ethods p ro
posed in Island for achieving a m o re recep tiv e approach to the num i
nous m odes of existence. It is indicative of Huxley's being a fo re
runn er of change that as the use of psychedelics has becom e m ore
20
w idespread, the c ritic s have taken a m o re understanding view. In
other a re a s , th e re is still m isre a d in g of his intentions and resistan c e
to change.
198
The other strik in g asp ect of the ideas in Island is th eir w ide-
ranging synth esis. E verything fro m politics to econom ics to m ethods
of reproduction is g eared tow ard actualizing as m uch of people's po
ten tial as possible. The c ru x of this actualization re s ts on the re c o n
ciliation of rational knowledge w ith recep tiv ity to the m y steriu m t r e -
m endum and of theory with ex p erien ce. This is Huxley's g rea test
philosophical victory, and his c arefu l delineation of this reconciliation
throughout all aspects of an individual's life, from learning science in
school, to m aking love, to m editating , is p a rtic u la rly im p re ssiv e .
Stephen Spender has m ade a perceptive distinction between
people's expectation of a w rite r and H uxley's writing:
It would be easy to think that a fte r his f ir s t novels Aldous Huxley
ceased to be a m an of le tte rs . It is c ertain ly tru e that his later
works do not show the kind of in te re s t in w riting . . . which we
expect from m odern w rite r s . But this m ay be because we have a
sense of the w rite r as som eone who u ses his experience to create
som ething we call a w ork of a r t, not his a rt as a vehicle to convey
his se a rc h for truth.^^
Although H uxley's w orks a re n ev er com pletely unpolished, his "passion
for T ru th ," as Spender calls it, is certainly stro n g e r than his in te re s t
in form . As Huxley e x p re sse d it h im self, " L ite ra tu re gives a form to
life, helps us to know who we a re , how we feel and what is the point
22
of the whole unutterably ru m m y b u sin e ss." Given this attitude,
23
Isla n d , which was "little publicized and g ro ssly m isunderstood,"
was for Huxley his m o st im p o rtan t work:
199
The outcom e of this deep and m an y -sid ed concern with . . .
hum an p o ssib ilities was his last fu ll-sc a le book, Island. This he
re g a rd e d as one of his m a jo r contributions to se rio u s thought, and
he was saddened and u p set by the incom prehension of so m any of
its re v ie w e rs, who tre a te d it as a not very su ccessfu l w ork of
fiction, and scien ce fiction at that.^4
Huxley had to w rite a utopian novel because our p re se n t society
does not allow enough satisfaction. It fo ste rs co m p artm en talizatio n ,
conform ity, and econom ic efficiency over self-actu alizatio n . Although
som e of his c h a ra c te rs found p a rtia l answ ers within this society, for
m o re com plete and u n iv ersal actualization, th e re had to be a new
society with new n o rm s. It seem s stran g e that c ritic s have not re c o g
nized the validity of his c ritic is m of our society enough to see the need,
if not the acceptability, of his ideas. If and when they do, p erhaps
Huxley will then gain em inence as the m an who took all knowledge as
his own, who fought sp ecializatio n and com p artm en talizatio n of the
tw entieth century w ith the hope fo r a com plete m an, a balanced m an, a
R enaissance m an. Maybe then he w ill achieve the reputation that Julian
id ea listica lly fo re se e s:
Above all he w ill go down in h isto ry as the g re a te s t h um anist of
our perplexed e ra , the m any-gifted: m an who in a chaotic age of
intellectual, a esth e tic , and m o ra l irre sp o n sib ility , u sed his gifts
to e n ric h m an in stead of to dim inish him , to keep alight hum anity's
sense of resp o n sib ility for its own and the w o rld's destiny and its
belief in itse lf and its vast unexplored p o s s ib ilitie s .^
200
Notes
^Stephen Jay G reenblatt, in T hree M odern S a tirists: Waugh,
O rw ell, and Huxley (New Haven: Yale U niversity P r e s s , 1968), p.
78, claim s that "a fundam ental flaw in his [H uxley's] w ritin g [is] . . .
the inability to adopt a c le a r position." W. Y. T indall, in "The
T rouble with Aldous Huxley," The A m erican S cholar 11 (O ctober 1942):
464, feels that his stro n g , didactic point of view ruins h is novels.
2
J e ro m e M eckier, Aldous Huxley: S atire and S tru c tu re (New
York: B arn es & Noble, Inc. , 1969), p* 189.
3
F re d e ric k J. Hoffman, "Aldous Huxley and the Novel of
Id e a s," F o rm s of M odern Fiction: E ssa y s C ollected in H onor of
Joseph W a rre n Beach, ed. W illiam Van O'Connor (M inneapolis: Uni
v e rs ity of M innesota P r e s s , 1948), p. 199.
4
Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point (New York: H a rp e r &
Row, 1965), p. 302.
5
L a u ra A rc h e ra Huxley, You Are Not the T a r g e t, w ith a F o r e
w ord by Aldous Huxley (North Hollywood: W ilshire Book Co. , 1972),
p. 254.
^ P e te r Bow ering, Aldous Huxley: A Study of the M ajor Novels
(London: Athlone P r e s s , 1968), pp. 181-182.
7
Julian Huxley, ed. , Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963: A M em o rial
Volume (New York: H a rp er & Row, 1965), p. 22.
g
Ibid. , p. 18.
^Ibid. , p. 14.
^ M ilto n B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley's Quest fo r V alues (Knox
ville: U niversity of T ennessee P r e s s , 1971), p. 178.
^ L a u r a Huxley, You Are" Not the T a rg e t, p. xii.
12
A braham M aslow 's idea of a synerg istic society could be d e
fined as Huxley has defined the goals of his utopian society. (Maslow
has actually found so cieties which he considers to be s y n e rg is tic .)
A lso, M aslow 's goals fo r self-actu alized m en are s im ila r to those in
Isla n d , fro m the peak experiences that m oksha allows to m eaningful
201
jobs to satisfying love relationships. It is in te re stin g that Huxley is
one of the 100 self-a ctu a liz ed m en that Maslow draw s fro m all over
the w orld, along with such m en as George W ashington and A lbert E in
stein . G estalt therapy is based on the sam e conviction as the applied
psychology in P a la 's school, of coming to le a rn and accept who you a re
and also to e x p re ss your negative em otions ra th e r than re p re s s in g
th em as our society tra in s us to do.
13
Aldous Huxley, F orew ord to You A re Not the T a r g e t, p. xii.
14
L au ra A rc h e ra Huxley, This T im eless M om ent (New York:
F a r r a r , Straus and Giroux, Ballantine Books, 1968), pp. 287-288.
15
Julian Huxley, A M em orial V olum e, p. 62.
*^John Atkins, Aldous Huxley: A L ite ra ry Study, rev. ed.
(New York: O rion P r e s s , 1967), p. xv.
17
B irnbaum , Aldous H uxley's Quest for V a lu es, p. 132.
18
Ibid. , p. 130.
19
Ibid. , p. 174, and L aura Huxley, This T im e le ss M om ent,
pp. 117-119.
20
See Bowering, Aldous H uxley, p. 208, and G eorge Woodcock,
Dawn and the D arkest Hour (New York: Viking P r e s s , 1972), p. 274.
21
Julian Huxley, A M em orial V olum e, p. 19.
22
Aldous Huxley, L ite ra tu re and Science (New Y ork: H a rp e r &
B ro th e rs , 1937), pp. 71-72.
23
L au ra Huxley, This T im eless M om ent, p. 184.
24
Julian Huxley, A M em orial Volume, pp. 23-24.
^ I b id . , p. 25.
S E L E C T E D BIBLIOGRAPHY
202
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books and A rticles by Aldous Huxley-
A fte r Many a Sum m er Dies the Swan. New York: H arp er & Row, a
Perennial C la ssic , 1965.
A long the Road: Notes and E ssa y s of a T ourist. London: Chatto &
Windus, 1925.
A ntic Hay. New York and E vanston: H a rp er & Row, P eren n ial L i
brary, 1965.
B ra v e New World. New York: H a rp e r & Row, a P eren n ial C lassic,
1969.
C ro m e Yellow. New York, T oronto, and London: G rosset & Dunlap,
Bantam Books, 1968.
The Devils of Loudun. New York: H a rp e r & Row, H arp er Colophon
Books, 1965.
T he Doors of P e rc e p tio n . New York: H arp er & Row, P erennial
L ibrary, 1970.
Do What You Will: E s s a y s . London: Chatto & Windus, 1929.
E n d s and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into the
Methods E m ployed fo r T h eir R ealization. New York: G reen
wood P r e s s , 1969.
E y e le s s in Gaza. New York, T oronto, and London: G rosset & c Dunlap,
Bantam Books, 1968.
G re y Eminence: A Study in R eligion and P o litics. New York: H arper
& B ro th ers, 1941.
H eaven and Hell. New Y ork and London: H arp er & Row, P erennial
L ibrary, 1971.
203
204
Isla n d . London: Cox & W yman, L td ., Penguin B ooks, 1964.
Jestin g P ilate: An Intellectual H oliday. New York: G eorge H. D oran
Co. , 1926.
The L e tte rs of Aldous H uxley. Edited by G rover Sm ith. New York
and London: H a rp e r fa Row, 1969.
The L e tte rs of D. H. L aw rence. Edited by Aldous Huxley. New York:
Viking P r e s s , 1932.
L ite ra tu re and S c ien ce. New York: H arp er & Row, 1963.
M o rtal C o ils. London: Chatto & Windus, 1922.
M usic at Night and O ther E s s a y s . London: Chatto & W indus, 1932.
On the M arg in . London: Chatto & Windus, 1923.
The P e re n n ia l P hilosophy. New York and Evanston: H a rp e r & Row,
H a rp e r Colophon Books, 1970.
Point Counter P o in t. New York: H a rp er fa Row, a P e re n n ia l C lassic,
1965.
P ro p e r S tu d ies. London: Chatto & Windus, 1927.
The Song of God: B hagav ad-G ita. Introduction by Aldous Huxley.
T ra n sla te d by Swam i P rabhavananda and C h risto p h er Is h e r-
wood. New York: New A m erican L ib ra ry of W orld L ite ra tu re ,
1951.
Those B a rre n L e a v e s . New York: H e arst C orporation, an Avon Book,
1956.
Tim e M ust Have a Stop. New York: H arp er & Row, a P e re n n ia l C la s
sic , 1965.
Vedanta for M odern M an. E dited with an Introduction by C h risto p h er
Isherw ood. New York: C ro w e ll-C o llie r, Collier Books, 1951.
Vedanta for the W este rn W orld. E dited with an Introduction by C hristo
pher Isherw ood. New York: Viking P r e s s , I960.
V ulgarity in L ite ra tu re . London: Chatto fa W indus, 1930.
205
Books and A rticles About Huxley
A tkins, John. Aldous Huxley: A L ite ra ry Study. Rev. ed. New York:
O rion P r e s s , 1967.
B each, Joseph W arren. "Counterpoint: Aldous Huxley." Tw entieth
C entury Novel: Studies in T echnique. New York: Appieton-
C e n tu ry -C ro fts, 1932.
B eerm an , H ans. "An Interview with Aldous Huxley." M idwest Q u a r
te rly 5 (1964):223-230.
B irnbaum , M ilton. Aldous Huxley*s Quest for V alues. Knoxville:
U niversity of T ennessee P r e s s , 1971.
Bowering, P e te r. Aldous Huxley: A Study of the M ajor Novels.
London: Athlone P r e s s , 1968.
Brooke, Jocelyn. "Aldous Huxley." W rite rs and T heir W ork, No. 55.
London: Longm ans, G reen & Co. , 1954.
B urgum , Edwin B e rry . "Aldous Huxley and His Dying Swan."
Antioch Review 2 (Spring 1942): 62-75.
D aiches, David. The Novel and the M odern W orld. Chicago: U n iv er
sity of Chicago P r e s s , 1939.
F irchow , P e te r. Aldous Huxley: S a tiris t and N o velist. M inneapolis:
U niversity of M innesota P r e s s , 1972.
Ghose, S isirk u m a r. Aldous Huxley: A Cynical S alvationist. New
York: New A sia Publishing House, 1962.
G licksburg, C harles I. "Huxley the E x p erim en tal N ovelist." South
A tlantic Q u arterly 52 (January 1953): 98-110.
G reenblatt, Stephen Jay. T hree M odern S a tirists: Waugh, O rw ell,
and H uxley. New Haven: Yale U niversity P r e s s , 1965.
H enderson, A lexander. Aldous Huxley. New York: R u ssell & R u ssell,
1964.
206
Hoffman, F re d e ric k J. "Aldous Huxley and the Novel of Id ea s." In
F o rm s of M odern F iction: E ssa y s C ollected in Honor of Joseph
W arren B each. E dited by W illiam Van O 'C o n n o r. M inneapolis:
U niversity of M innesota P r e s s , 1948.
H olm es, C harles M. Aldous Huxley and the Way to R eality . B loom
ington and London: Indiana U niv ersity P r e s s , 1970.
Huxley, Julian, ed. Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963: A M em orial Volume.
New York: H a rp e r & Row, 1965.
Huxley, L au ra A rc h er a. This T im ele ss M om ent: A P e rso n a l View of
Aldous Huxley. New York: F a r r a r , S traus and Giroux, 1968.
_________ . You A re Not the T a rg e t. F o re w o rd by Aldous Huxley.
N orth Hollywood: W ilshire Book Com pany, 1972.
Joad, C. E. M. R etu rn to Philosophy: Being a D efense of R eason, an
A ffirm ation of Values and a P le a fo r P hilosophy. New York:
E. P. Dutton & Co. , 1936.
M atson, Floyd W. "Aldous and Heaven Too: Religion Among the
In tellectu als." Antioch Review 14 (Septem ber 1954): 293-309.
M eckier, Je ro m e . Aldous Huxley: S a tire and S tru c tu re . New York:
B arnes & Noble, 1969.
Pandy, Nand. "The Influence of Hindu and Buddhist Thought on Aldous
Huxley." P h .D . d isse rta tio n , Stanford U niversity, 1964.
Rolb, C harles J. "Aldous H uxley." The A tlantic 153 (July-D ecem ber
1947): 100-117. R ep rin ted in The W orld of Aldous Huxley: An
Omnibus of His F ictio n and N on-F iction ov er T hree D ecad es.
New Y ork and London: H a rp e r & B ro th e rs , 1947.
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Hammond, Evelyn Braden
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Core Title
Aldous Huxley: Syncretic Synthesist
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Doctor of Philosophy
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English
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Casson, Allan Perham (
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732103
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