Wandering into Brave New World explores the historical contexts and contemporary sources of Aldous Huxley's 1932 novel which, seventy years after its initial publication remains the best known and ...most discussed dystopian work of the twentieth century. This new study addresses a number of questions which still remain open. Did his round-the-world trip in 1925-1926 provide material for the novel? Did India's caste system contribute to the novel's human levels? Is there an overarching pattern to the names of the novel/s characters? Has the role of Hollywood in the novel been underestimated? Is Lenina Crown a representative 1920s "flapper"? Did Huxley have knowledge of and sources for his Indian reservation characters and scenes quite independent of and more accurate than those of D. H. Lawrence's writings? Did Huxley's visit to Borneo contribute anything to the novel? New research allows substantive answers and even explains why Huxley linked such figures as Henry Ford and Sigmund Freud. It also shows how the novel overcomes its intense grounding in 1920s political turmoil to escape into the timelessness of dystopian fiction.
Aldous Huxley: The Political Thought of a Man of Letters examines Huxley's political thinking through an analysis of Brave New World, his most successful political manifesto. This bookhighlights his ...contributions to contemporary political theory.
"An outstanding book."-James Sexton "A welcome and necessary update of the life of one of the twentieth century's most provocative intellectuals."-Dana Sawyer A rich and lucid account of Aldous ...Huxley's life and work. Aldous Huxley was one of the twentieth century's most prescient thinkers. This new biography is a rich and lucid account that charts the different phases of Huxley's career: from the early satirist who depicted the glamorous despair of the postwar generation, to the committed pacifist of the 1930s, the spiritual seeker of the 1940s, the psychedelic sage of the 1950s-who affirmed the spiritual potential of mescaline and LSD-to the New Age prophet of Island. While Huxley is still best known as the author of Brave New World, Jake Poller argues that it is The Perennial Philosophy, The Doors of Perception, and Island-Huxley's blueprint for a utopian society-that have had the most cultural impact.
Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Aldous Huxley (18941963), Temporaries and Eternals focuses on the music column that Huxley wrote for The Weekly Westminster Gazette in 192223. ...Readers of Huxleys novels, essays and travel writing will be aware of the wealth of musical detail in these works, and this book suggests that such references can only be fully understood in the context of the opinions voiced in Huxleys music criticism. Not only does Huxleys column offer a fascinati.
This essay reinvigorates the Huxley/Osmond theory that psychedelic drugs can occasion a cross-cultural mystical experience characterized by a sense of “unity with ultimate reality.” It offers a ...long-overdue rejoinder to the position of Constructivist authors such as Steven T. Katz, Hans Penner, and Stephen Prothero that Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy is a defunct position. Specifically, the essay answers three erroneous charges: (1) that Huxley posited his viewpoint as the “core” or “essence” of religion, (2) that Huxley believed he was describing a set of universally shared religious beliefs, and (3) that Huxley’s position depends on a belief in—and the possibility of—a state of “pure consciousness.” In all cases, these charges will be shown to be erroneous. Moreover, it will also be argued that these claims are inaccurate for most forms of the Perennial Philosophy, and that the Perennial Philosophy is not a homogenous viewpoint, but rather a family of theories as are Existentialism, Postmodernism, and Idealism. The essay ends with a look at new directions for testing the Huxley/Osmond position, including with psychedelic drugs.
Although Abraham Maslow never specified how eupsychia (his paradigm for the best possible human society) might be achieved, he was inspired in the 1960s by Aldous Huxley’s notions that major changes ...in education were vital for its attainment: in Maslow’s view, spurring personality growth and fulfillment and ultimately leading to self-actualization on a societal level. In this light, Maslow’s scattered writings on the necessity for revisioning education provide meaningful direction for realizing the eupsychian ideal. Drawing particularly on his enthusiasm for revamped pedagogy as presented in Huxley’s utopian novel Island and related writings, we highlight three elements that Maslow deemed crucial: valuing children’s constitutional and temperamental differences, incorporating somatic and movement education including dance, and, related to peak experiences, fostering a sense of wonder. We also add a fourth element that Maslow was beginning to embrace at the time of his death—eudaimonic education comprising aspects such as volunteerism, mentoring, and civic engagement.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World promised an enduring, happy society as long as it followed rigid, scientifically defined social rules. Just as this supposed utopia led to immense human suffering as ...people were constrained to predefined societal roles with limited opportunity for self-expression, conservation initiatives that impose predefined conceptions of well-being onto the poor and politically disadvantaged will meet with tenuous success. In this special feature, we provide a selection of studies that address the how and why of integrating human well-being into conservation practice focusing predominantly on local perspectives. Authors focus on how engagement with local populations is driven, implicitly or explicitly, by the pursuit of a more just conservation and recognition of local voices in deciding their fate.