Aldous Huxley, English writer, was born on July 25, 1894. At age 16, he acquired keratitis and nearly went blind. He published his first novel — Holidays in Crome — in 1921. His success as a writer, however, came in 1928. With the book publication Admirable new world, in 1932, became known worldwide.
In 1937, the writer modernist moved to the U.S, where he had mystical experiences in contact with the drugs. He died in this country, in November 22, 1963, after writing short stories and novels marked by individualism, stream of consciousness, satire and pessimism.
Read too: José J. Veiga – author whose works mixed the everyday and the unusual
Aldous Huxley Biography
Aldous Huxley was born on July 25, 1894, in Godalming, England.. He lived in this city until 1908, when his mother died. So, at the age of 14, the writer won a scholarship to study in eton, a boarding school, while her father lived in London. However, in 1910, Huxley had an eye infection, keratitis, which compromised her vision.
Therefore, in 1911, he abandoned his studies in eton. Only two years later, in 1913, Huxley was able to go back to school, now at the Balliol College, in Oxford, where studiedEnglish literature for two years. He then worked at the War Department and was a professor in eton and Repton School. In 1919, he married MariaNys (1899-1955), with whom he had a child.
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Between 1919 and 1921, the novelist worked at the literary magazine athenaeum. In 1921 he published his first novel — Holidays in Crome. Years later, in 1928, his book Counterpoint became a best seller, and Aldous Huxley then bought a house near Paris. However, in 1937, he moved to Los Angeles, California, in U.S.
In this country, the writer contacted Vedanta, a mystical tradition, and worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. He signed movies like Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Madame Curie (1943). In the 1950s, he tried mescaline, a hallucinogen, in addition to LSD. this of yours mystical involvement with drugs led the writer to write essays on the subject.
In 1955 his wife died and in 1956 he married Italian violinist Laura Archera (1911-2007). In 1960, he found out he had laryngeal cancer. and, to complete his misfortune, in 1961, his home in Los Angeles caught fire. So, unable to beat the disease, Huxley died on November 22, 1963, In Los Angeles.
Read too: Julio Cortázar – author of works considered of high intellectual level
Literary Characteristics of Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley is an author of modernism British. His works, therefore, may have the following characteristics:
individualistic perspective;
experimental language;
stream of consciousness;
nonsense or absurd reality;
allegories or impressionism;
anti-academic character;
fragmentation;
satire;
pessimism;
dystopian plot.
Works by Aldous Huxley
→ Tales
Limbo (1920)
two or three thanks (1926)
→ Affairs
Holidays in Crome (1921)
grotesque round (1923)
useless sheets (1925)
Counterpoint (1928)
Admirable new world (1932)
no eyes in Gaza (1936)
also the swan dies (1939)
Brown Eminence (1941)
time must stop (1945)
the monkey and the essence (1949)
The island (1962)
→ Essay
Satanic and Visionaries (1929)
awakening from the new world (1937)
the art of seeing (1943)
the perennial philosophy (1946)
the demons of Loudun (1952)
the doors of perception (1954)
Heaven and hell (1956)
Return to Brave New World (1959)
the human situation (1978)
Also access: Lima Barreto – pre-modernist who took social denunciation to a literary focus
Admirable new world
![Cover of the book Brave new world, by Aldous Huxley, published under the Blue Library seal by Globo Livros. [1]](/f/583964f65385ad7190aeb9c93a55ba4e.jpg)
Admirable new world, Aldous Huxley's most famous book, was published in 1932. THE narrative takes place in a dystopian (anti-utopian) future, in which people are socially controlled, through advanced technology, and alienated from the reality in which they are inserted. The alienation process relies on the help of a drug called "soma":
"Currently, such is the progress, the old people work, the old people copulate, the old people don't have a moment, a moment of leisure to steal from pleasure, not a minute to sit and think; or if ever, by an unfortunate chance, an abyss of time opens up in the solid substance of your distractions, there will always be the sum, the delicious sum, half a gram for a half-day rest, a gram for a weekend, two grams for an excursion to the splendid Orient, three for a somber eternity on the Moon; whence, when they return, they will find themselves on the other side of the abyss unsafe on the solid ground of the distractions of everyday work, [...].”
The year is 632 d. F. (after Ford). At that time, Henry Ford (1863-1947) is mystically adored by all. O World State is dominated by science and it is characterized by a society in which there is no nuclear family, but a kind of great world family. The inhabitants of this new world are raised in incubators in the Incubation and Conditioning Center.
In the process of generating an individual, its social class is determined. Thus, each one is conditioned to belong and act according to his caste. In the upper classes are the embryos with great intellectual capacity. Embryos destined for the lower classes, on the other hand, are created with an inferior intelligence. The caste system is divided as follows: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. While the alphas lead, the Ipsilons are relegated to manual labor, as explained by Mr. Foster:
“—We also predestined and we condition. We decant our babies in the form of socialized living beings, in the form of Alphas or Epsilons, of futures chargers or of futures... - was going to say "future World Administrators", but, correcting himself, added: "future Incubation Directors."
The plot involves the psychologist Bernard Marx, an Alpha-More, who has a bad reputation because he likes to be alone in a society that abhors individuality. Lenina Crowne is sexually interested in Bernard. He invites her for a ride in a “wild reserve”. There, the inhabitants do not go through the conditioning process. They are born, live and die naturally. In this primitive society, two important characters of the story live — Linda and her son John.
Linda was not originally from malcountry (the wild reserve). Before John was born, she visited the place when he fell “from a steep place” and injured his head. Some hunters found her. John's father was gone. She had to stay there, where she gave birth to her son. Bernard then takes them both into “the brave new world”, as John says, Tomakin's son, director of the Incubation and Conditioning Center, who, ashamed of being a father, resigns:
“[...] (because “father” was not such an obscene expression; furthest removed from the disgusting and immoral aspects of pregnancy, she was simply rude, it was an eschatological rather than a pornographic inconvenience) [...]. They roared with laughter, huge, almost hysterical, in successive bursts, as if it were never going to end. [...].
Livid, with wild eyes, the Director circled his gaze in an agony of humiliation perplexed.
"My father!" The laughter, which seemed to want to subside, intensified again, stronger than ever. He put his hands over his ears and dashed out of the room.”|1|
John becomes a kind of attraction and is called Wild. He then becomes the central character of the work, as it is up to him question and criticize that society. Tired of being fun, he goes to live isolated in a lighthouse, but soon reporters find him. Thus, without being able to adapt to the “brave new world”, all that remains is death.
This tragic and satirical work by Aldous Huxley goes into against the grainof your time, because, at the beginning of the 20th century, science and technology were being revered by artists. However, Huxley points out the technoscientific advances as a potential danger, as they could be used politically to oppress and control people.
Read too: books that became movies
Aldous Huxley Awards
Award James Tait Black Memorial (1939)
award from American Academy of Arts and Letters (1959)
Title "Companion of Literature" gives Royal Society of Literature (1962)
Aldous Huxley's Phrases
Next, let's read some sentences by Aldous Huxley, taken from his book the human situation, translated by Lya Luft:
"Learning a little is something dangerous."
"The function of the literate is to build bridges between art and science."
"The problem with all specialized knowledge is that it is an organized series of celibates."
"The scientific process is intrinsically an ethical process."
"Man has lived too much on the planet in the fashion of a parasite that sustains itself on the one he infests."
"If we want to be treated well by nature, we have to treat nature well."
"Man broke into places where angels feared to walk."
"Only when a man has bread, only when his belly is full, will there be any hope."
"There are only two creatures that make war: one is the leaf-cutting ant, the other is man."
"Nationalism uses all the resources of education to create artificial loyalty."
Note
|1| Translated by Lino Vallandro and Vidal Serrano.
Image credit
[1] Globe Books (reproduction)
by Warley Souza
Literature teacher
