Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell

Hi everyone

This is my review for the book containing both ‘The Doors of Perception’ and ‘Heaven and Hell’ by Aldous Huxley.
My copy has 123 pages story, a 2-page forward by J. G. Ballard and 10 pages about Aldous Huxley. I got it at the Standaard Boekhandel.

“In 1953, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gram of the drug Mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes everything was transformed. He describes his experience in The Doors of Perception and its sequel Heaven and Hell.”

I did not enjoy this at all.
It wasn’t even interesting to read it as a disconnected essay about his experiences.
It’s an utterly boring and pretentious, stream of consciousness promoting drug use.

1 STAR

Happy reading
Helena

Aldous Huxley: Brave New World

Hi

This is my fourth time reading Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The first time I must have been around 14.
It has 50 pages of introduction and foreword and 229 pages novel.

The question I still ask myself, even after reading it so many times is this; is Brave New World a utopian novel or a dystopian novel?

Everything is set around pleasure and consumerism. This society is stable and successful and its inhabitants have lots of free time they can fill with a score of hobbies and their multitude of friends. Everyone is satisfied.
This sounds great.
Until you get a better look at the way it works.

There is sexual freedom but an obligation to have promiscuous sex; people have lots of friends but die alone in the end and there’s no motherhood but a medical substitute for women who feel down.
And that’s not the most mind-boggling difference. The lower castes are stupid on purpose. That terrifies me. Changing the genes to get a ‘perfect’ society is an utterly horrifying and chilling. The conditioning gets to me every time.

The central idea is how far science can go without being immoral. But it’s about much more than that. To me, that’s not the most important message.

By shaping and creating a world without real danger, without hunger or boredom and with instant gratification; they created a world without love, passion, anticipation and pride at one’s work. They created humans less than human.

The first half of the novel remains the best in my opinion. Discovering this world was jaw-dropping the first time. And it is still chilling even after four times.
But I feel too much for/like Bernard to really appreciate the parts about him becoming popular and going back to the old Bernard again.
It is such a fast read. Not a boring moment in this too short novel.

We have ‘the right to be unhappy’. Something few people understand, even today, in our world.

Happy reading!
Helena

One of my favorite fruits and one of my favorite books!

Aldous Huxley: Island

Hi again

I couldn’t resist and started reading this the moment I got it.
Island by Aldous Huxley has 286 pages and I bought it at De Slegte.

“In Island, his last novel, Huxley transports us to a Pacific island where, for 120 years, an ideal society has flourished. Inevitably, this island of bliss attracts the envy and enmity of the surrounding world. A conspiracy is underway to take over Pala and events begin to move when an agent of the conspirators, a newspaperman named Faranby, is shipwrecked there. What Faranby doesn't expect is how his time with the people of Pala will revolutionize all his values and -- to his amazement -- give him hope.”

The ideas Huxley puts forth as the basis of his Utopian Island of Pala are profound and based on thorough thinking and a great knowledge.
Even though we all know it’s not possible, it is a pleasure to read about this possibility and to embark on a daydream/deep thinking about it. How would I organize it? What is important in my opinion? What part has science in it? What roles should work and industry play in daily life?
There isn’t much of a plot however, so don’t read it expecting that. A fault I made at the beginning of the novel. It took me some time to get into the novel because of these wrong expectations.
What you can expect is a novel that will make you think about our society, the way people behave and the way we treat our world.
This novel is almost an essay or a frame for Huxley’s ideas about his ideal society. It is a succession of discussions or descriptions about this society and how it works.
The great thing is; Huxley makes it seem possible. So why doesn’t it exist? According to Huxley it’s because we don’t want to make it work.

A very thought-provoking novel for everyone who’s in the mood for something like this.
Definitely recommended.

Happy reading!
Helena