Huxley As Essayist

 Huxley was a far greater essayist than he was novelist. Because he
 wanted to "say something," to make his ideas known, to influence
 others, his novels often suffer because they are too didactic. Whole
 sections of his novels could be published as essays since he often
 makes particular characters spokesmen for his ideas. It was only in
 the essay that he was free to say without embellishment what he
 thought and why he thought it. Many of the themes and ideas
 Huxley develops and expands in his novels were also expressed in his
 essays.

 In his collection of essays Do What You Will (Doubleday, 1929),
 Huxley urges us to emulate the Greeks, to live a life which considers
 and accepts both the physical and spiritual elements of man, and to
 regard all manifestations of life as divine. At one point he says, "Man
 is multifarious, inconsistent, self-contradictory; the Greeks accepted
 the fact and lived multifariously, inconsistently, and contradictorily."
 In his novel Point Counter Point, the most admirable character and
 the spokesman for Huxley's ideas is Mark Rampion. In chapter nine,
 when speaking of the Greeks, he says, "They were civilized, they
 knew how to live harmoniously and completely, with their whole
 being. . .  We're all barbarians."

 In another collection of essays, Ends and Means (Harper, 1937), he
 discusses the work of the Marquis de Sade, a French novelist and
 libertine: "de Sade's philosophy was meaningless carried to its logical
 conclusion. Life was without significance. . . Sensations and animal
 pleasures alone possessed reality and were alone worth living for." In
 his novel After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Huxley creates a
 character who lives by this philosophy and shows where this
 philosophy ultimately leads. The character, Jo Stoyte, wishes to find
 the secret of longevity so he will be able to continue his pursuit of
 the sensual life; when he discovers that the price of longevity is the
 loss of humanity, he indicates his willingness to revert to an animal
 state in order to retain the animal pleasures.

 In another essay from the same collection Huxley discusses the
 change in values which resulted in the state achieving the highest
 value and significance to the detriment of the individual. "By the end
 of the twenties a reaction had begun to set in... The universe as a
 whole still remained meaningless, but certain of its parts, such as
 the nation, the state, the class, the party, were endowed with
 significance and the highest value." His concern with this transfer of
 value from the individual to the state resulted in his brilliant satire,
 Brave New World. In Huxley's Utopia the individual exists for the
 state, not the state for the individual. A little further on he
 discusses the role science plays in our lives and questions the
 ultimate value of scientific advances. Since the theme of Brave New
 World is "the advancement of science as it affects human
 individuals," we can immediately see Huxley's concern with the use
 and misuse of science: "We are living now, not in the delicious
 intoxication induced by the early success of science, but in a rather
 grisly morning after, when it has become apparent that what
 triumphant science has done hitherto is to improve the means for
 achieving unimportant or actually deteriorated ends."

 In another collection of essays, The Perennial Philosophy (Harper,
 1945), Huxley is concerned with the meaning of existence - with the
 ultimate end of man. He says, "The last end of man, the ultimate
 reason for human existence, is unitive knowledge of the divine
 Ground [a spiritual Absolute - a God - without-form] - the knowledge
 that can come only to those who are prepared to `die to self' and so
 make room, as it were, for God." In his novel Eyeless in Gaza, Huxley
 recounts the spiritual pilgrimage of Anthony Beavis towards this end.
 As he meditates upon his life and his experience, Anthony suddenly
 understands the meaning and purpose of life, "And now at last it was
 clear, now by some kind of immediate experience he knew that the
 point was in the paradox, in the fact that unity was the beginning
 and unity was the end. . . . Unity with all being." Again Huxley states
 the same belief and the same idea in a novel and in an essay.

 We might also look to the essays for specific comments which will
 help us to better understand Huxley as a novelist. Two quotations
 from "Vulgarity in Literature" (in Music at Night, Doubleday, Doran,
 1931) are especially important. "Literature is also philosophy, is also
 science." A little further on he says, "I think it not only permissible,
 but necessary, that literature should take cognizance of physiology
 and should investigate the still obscure relations between the mind
 and its body."
 

 Huxley As A Novelist

 The four novels discussed at length in this study guide illustrate
 many of Huxley's strengths and weaknesses as a novelist. The
 exuberance of his ideas, his use of wit and satire, the acuteness of
 his observations of mankind and its foibles, his juxtaposition of fact
 and fiction - these are his strengths. The shallowness of his
 characters, his overriding concern with teaching a lesson or pointing
 up a moral, the imposition at times of an overelaborate framework for
 the novel, the use of characters and situations which preclude "the
 illusion of reality" - these are his weaknesses. We can see certain of
 these strengths and weaknesses in each of the four novels.

 Brave New World is Huxley's most popular novel, though not
 necessarily his most important novel. The reader is "swept along" by
 Huxley's vision of a Utopian future based on science and technology:
 he is dumbstruck by Huxley's clever juxtaposition of fact (scientific
 data) and fiction (future life on earth). The novel is logically
 developed - Huxley "begins at the beginning" with a detailed account
 of life in the new World State. But before long we realize that Huxley
 is not content simply to present a satire of present a future life and
 let the reader draw his own moral from the story. Instead Huxley
 allows his preaching to obtrude upon the fantasy he has created,
 and his characters soon become important only as spokesmen for
 particular ideas and beliefs.

 In Point Counter Point Huxley has created a fantastic array of
 characters, but none is fully developed; each represents a particular
 point of view the author wishes to satirize. But there is much wit
 and humor in the novel and a variety of plots and counterplots which
 maintain reader interest. The elaborate musical analogy which is
 woven through the novel is at times distracting but does illustrate
 Huxley's considerable talent as a storyteller. And the two-angled
 view of life - the juxtaposition of the physical and the emotional, the
 esthetic and the scientific, etc. - contributes to the interest and the
 importance of the novel.

 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan combines a highly sensational
 plot and outlandish characters in a wild and preposterous picture of
 the Hollywood scene. The caricatures of educators, starlets,
 doctors, and idealists provide some hilarious situations and some wry
 commentary on the temporary scene. But Huxley is not content to
 write a comedy - he creates Mr. Propter as a spokesman for his own
 ideas and beliefs. Unfortunately Propter is too good to be true, and
 his intrusions upon the scene tend to inhibit rather than enhance the
 value of the novel.

 Eyeless in Gaza has been hailed not only as Huxley's most significant
 novel but also as one of the most important novels of the 1930s. In
 this novel Huxley uses flashbacks to recount one man's search for a
 meaning in life. The lack of a logical time sequence - the novel shifts
 backwards and forwards in time - is often distracting but is an
 attempt to show the unity of life and the unity and diversity of
 being. Huxley wished to show that an individual - his beliefs, ideas,
 and ideals - are the result of many influences. In this novel he
 recounts many of the influences that have molded Anthony Beavis.
 Perhaps this novel is most successful because it is in many ways a
 chronicle of Huxley's own search for a meaning in life.

 Although Huxley wrote some ten novels, the four briefly discussed
 here are representative of the strengths and weaknesses of all of
 them. It is a pity that Huxley was not more concerned with the
 writing of fiction and less concerned with the expression of personal
 opinion. Huxley "rigged" his plots and "produced" his characters in
 order to convey some idea or express some concern - to him plot
 and characters were valuable only as "purveyors of truth."
 

 The Novels As Autobiography

 Because the novelist in some ways has to write about what he
 thinks, what he believes, and what he knows, every novel in some
 way may be considered autobiographical. Huxley is no exception.
 The people he knew, the places he visited, the books he read, the
 ideas he considered - all contributed to his development as a
 novelist, a skeptic, and a moralist, and often influenced what he
 wrote. Considering them in chronological order - Point Counter Point
 (1928), Brave New World (1932), Eyeless in Gaza (1936), After Many
 a Summer Dies the Swan (1939) - we can see some of the ways
 these novels reflect Huxley's own life and beliefs.

 Huxley was disillusioned by the decadence of society and disgusted
 by the behavior of his class. Point Counter Point is a sardonic
 portrayal of the futility of life - each of the characters (with one
 exception) fails to be a harmonious adult. The one exception is Mark
 Rampion, who is an idealized version of D. H. Lawrence. (Huxley was
 much impressed by Lawrence and his beliefs, and they were close
 friends.) Huxley admitted that in some ways he was Philip Quarles
 and that the Notebook entries expressed many of his own ideas.
 Most critics consider that in the novel Denis Burlap is an unflattering
 caricature of Huxley's former editor, John Middleton Murry. Thus we
 see how circumstances, friends, and beliefs affected this work.

 When he wrote Brave New World Huxley showed the extent to which
 his disillusionment with society and its values had influenced him. As
 noted in his preface to the New Harper edition, at the time the book
 was written he "toyed" with the idea that "human beings are given
 free will in order to choose between insanity on the one hand and
 lunacy on the other." And we might well consider that John the
 Savage's rejection of civilization in the World State paralleled D. H.
 Lawrence's rejection of the civilization he knew. Also, many of the
 ideas presented during the discussion in the last chapter of this
 novel echo many of Huxley's own views and concerns about the
 effect scientific advancement and technology would have on the
 individual.

 Eyeless in Gaza is the picture of a man groping for a way of life that
 will bring meaning and purpose to his existence - in many ways it is a
 picture of Huxley and his change of attitude. In the novel Anthony
 Beavis changes from a self-indulgent, detached philosopher who
 sneers at life, to a humanistic pacifist who views life through the
 eyes of a lover. Huxley's own change of attitude was as remarkable
 - from a pessimist and portrayer of futility to a prophet and
 philosopher preaching mysticism. Both Anthony Beavis and Aldous
 Huxley find peace in Eastern mysticism.

 After Many a Summer Dies the Swan is an exaggerated picture of
 the Hollywood Huxley knew when he lived and worked in California. In
 the person of Mr. Propter, Huxley has created a spokesman for his
 own ideas about the need for "liberation from personality, liberation
 from time and craving, liberation into union with God. . . ." At the
 time he was writing this novel he was much affected by the views of
 Gerald Heard, a former science commentator for the British
 Broadcasting Corporation and an advocate of scientific humanism.
 Many of Mr. Propter's remarks seem to be taken directly from Heard's
 writings.

 Huxley produced an amazing number of novels, essays, poems, short
 stories, articles, and reviews, as well as forewords, introductions,
 and prefaces for a variety of works ranging from a translation of the
 Hindu sacred book Bhagavadgita, the Story of God (Harper, 1951) to
 Birth Control and Catholic Doctrine (Beacon Press, 1959) and from
 Studies in Hand-Reading (Knopf, 1937) to The Complete Etchings of
 Goya (Crown Publishers, 1943). These titles indicate not only the
 wide range of Huxley's interests and abilities but also specific
 concerns he felt compelled to comment on. A study of all of Huxley's
 writings during a specific time period would indicate exactly what
 those particular interests, influences, and concerns were.
 

 The Conflict In Huxley And His Writing

 In Texts and Pretexts Aldous Huxley wrote, "The universe is vast,
 beautiful, and appalling." If any single sentence could be used to
 summarize Huxley's attitude, philosophy, and point of view, this
 might well be it. Huxley is aware of the conflicts within society, and
 within the individual, and he wants to make the reader aware of
 these conflicts. In his novels he often stresses the contrast and
 conflict by giving a two-angled vision of his characters and by
 considering an event in several aspects - emotional, religious,
 metaphysical, scientific. This multifaceted view of man, this concern
 with "unity in diversity," can be both a curse and a blessing for the
 reader.

 A recurring theme in Huxley's novels is that of the young lover who is
 tortured by an irreconcilable conflict between romantic love and
 physical sexuality. We see this conflict in the love of the Savage for
 Lenina (Brave New World), Pete's feeling towards Virginia (After
 Many a Summer), Walter Bidlake and Marjorie Carling's relationship
 (Point Counter Point), and Brian Foxe's puritanical attitude regarding
 his fiancee (Eyeless in Gaza). Since love is both spiritual and
 physical, involving both the mind and body, a dualism exists and
 persists.

 Huxley has been subjected to much adverse criticism because of his
 fascination with the human body and its physical functions. His
 novels are filled with references to the bowels, the viscera, body
 odor, sickness, and disease at the same time that he is concerned
 with the mind and the spirit. Huxley wanted his reader to see that
 man is both body and spirit. He makes reference to the influence of
 the physical on the mental, the influence of the physiological
 condition of man on the psychological. As part of this "two-angled
 view" he often will consider both aspects of the same event. For
 instance, in Point Counter Point when Lord Edward hears the music
 of Bach, Huxley describes the process whereby the vibrations
 stimulate the auditory nerves, at the same time recounting the
 hearer's pleasure when he recognizes the melody.

 Huxley discussed his "two-angled vision" in an interview with Ross
 Parmenter (Saturday Review, March 19, 1938). He said, "I try to get
 a stereoscopic vision, to show my characters from two angles
 simultaneously. Either I try to show them both as they feel
 themselves to be; or else I try to give two rather similar characters
 who throw light on each other. . . ." Huxley was not especially
 successful in using this technique with two different characters
 because too often his characters can be labeled as "good guys" or
 "bad guys." Huxley's characters are too often "black" or "white" -
 only a few are "gray." Huxley is most successful when he uses the
 "two-angled" vision to show an individual in conflict with himself.
 Several good examples of the individual in conflict with himself occur
 in Brave New World.

 The incongruous quality of life - its oneness and simultaneous
 diversity - is the basic emotional conception of Huxley's philosophy.
 The following comment concerning Philip Quarles (Huxley's alter ego
 in Point Counter Point) might well summarize the dualism often
 alluded to in Huxley's novels: ". . . he felt convinced that the proudly
 conscious intellect ought to humble itself a little and admit the
 claims of the heart, aye and the bowels, the loins, the bones and
 skin and muscles, to a fair share of life."
 
 
 
 

 Comment On Brave New World

 Although Huxley published ten novels, four of them after the appearance
 of Brave New World, not one of them attained the popularity or provoked
 the commentary occasioned by this novel. Huxley's title continues to be
 a catchword-writers and speakers often employ it to express concern or
 disdain for the direction society has taken, or for its lack of direction. But
 many readers and critics still consider, as they have for some years, that
 this novel is simply an above-average example of science fiction or an
 entertaining fantasy. Too few were willing or able to see that Huxley
 meant Brave New World to be a warning - a warning that a World State
 is not only possible but probable if we do not protect the rights of the
 individual to be an individual: to be unique and free.
 

 In the New York Times (February 7, 1932) review of this novel, the
 reviewer said, "It is Mr. Huxley's habit to be deadly in earnest. One feels
 that he is pointing a high moral lesson in satirizing Utopia. Yet it is a little
 difficult to take alarm . . ." This comment might well be considered
 typical - it is difficult to take alarm when we think, believe, and feel that
 Progress Is Our Most Important Product. However, Huxley believed that
 the Individual, not Progress, was most important. For this reason he tried
 again and again in numerous ways to warn that progress should not and
 must not be made at the expense of the individual.
 

 As noted in the Introduction, Huxley wrote essays, poetry, short stories,
 and biography in addition to his novels. Following the publication of Brave
 New World, Huxley continued to expand his ideas and to caution his
 readers in numerous essays and in his novel Ape and Essence. This novel
 explores still other possibilities of the future, but it was not nearly as
 successful as a novel nor as an instrument of propaganda. It is in a
 collection of essays on freedom, Brave New World Revisited, that Huxley
 most succinctly and lucidly presents his concerns and beliefs.
 

 Brave New World Revisited

 Lest we should dismiss Brave New World as a fantasy, a Utopian novel,
 or a pessimistic view of the modern world, Huxley entitles his collection
 of essays on freedom, Brave New World Revisited. Huxley was concerned
 that readers, critics, and commentators could not or would not accept
 his novel not only as a satire on the life and values of the time (1931)
 but also as a warning of what the future could hold for mankind.
 Consequently these comments on the contemporary scene (1958) were
 dubbed a "revisit" to emphasize that in some ways, in too many ways,
 the Brave New World is already upon us.
 

 In his introduction to these essays Huxley says, "The subject of freedom
 and its enemies is enormous, and what I have written is certainly too
 short to do it full justice, but at least I have touched on many aspects
 of the problem." In his novel he employs satire to warn mankind; in his
 essays he employs reason - having used fiction, he turns now to facts
 and opinions. Huxley includes comments on overpopulation,
 overorganization, propaganda, and persuasion, and discusses what can
 and should be done since "without freedom, human beings cannot
 become fully human."
 

 In Brave New World Huxley opens his novel with a discussion of biology;
 he begins at the beginning. Consequently, or at least subsequently, his
 collection of essays begins with a discussion of overpopulation and its
 consequences. In the World State population was controlled as an aid to
 social stability; in his first essay Huxley warns that overpopulation can
 lead to economic insecurity and social unrest which, in turn, foster
 greater government control. The population explosion poses many
 problems for mankind - of late, economists, politicians, and social
 scientists have issued warnings and dire predictions. If this growth
 remains unchecked, individual freedom may be impossible, for as the
 population increases, so does the need for organization. The greater the
 population, the greater the work force, and so also the greater the
 concentration of political and economic power. Today in the United
 States one out of ten people work for the government in some capacity,
 and a comparatively few industries control the country's economy.
 Huxley warns us that the concentration of power in the hands of the few
 may lead eventually to the regimentation and exploitation of the many.
 "Too much organization transforms men and women into automata,
 suffocates the creative spirit and abolishes the very possibility of
 freedom." This emphasis on the importance of the group rather than the
 individual is discussed at length in William Whyte's The Organization Man.
 

 believed we could save ourselves if we wanted to. That is the key. If we
 are complacent, indifferent, uninterested in our future - he believes the
 future is not worthwhile. But if we are willing to search for answers and
 to work out solutions - then the individual and individuality can be saved.
 
 

 Today newspapers, magazines, radio, and television make possible a wide
 dissemination of propaganda in an effort to persuade people to support
 or adopt a particular opinion, attitude, or course of action. This
 propaganda may be consonant with enlightened self-interest or an
 appeal to passion; in every case it is an attempt to mold or move the
 individual in some way. Those who control mass media, who control
 propaganda, exercise tremendous control over the individual. Today the
 advertiser and the politician use the mass media to influence opinion,
 attitude, or course of action; in the future the mass media might be used
 to control opinion, attitude, or course of action as in Brave New World.
 

 In his discussion of the various forms of persuasion, Huxley includes
 chemical persuasion, subconscious persuasion, and sleep-teaching. The
 World State provided Soma to insure happiness; today tranquilizers offer
 release form tension and emotional stress. Today "subliminal projection" is
 a subtle from of conditioning since people are subconsciously influenced
 to act in a predetermined manner. Since an individual is susceptible to
 suggestion, sleep-teaching was used in the World State to condition an
 individual according to government specifications. Huxley warns that all
 three forms of persuasion are effective and have the potential for good
 or evil.

 Huxley does not end his essays on a pessimistic note - at that time he
 believed we could save ourselves if we wanted to. That is the key. If we
 are complacent, indifferent, uninterested in our future - he believes the
 future is not worthwhile. But if we are willing to search for answers and
 to work out solutions - then the individual and individuality can be saved.