BootsnAll Travel Community

Aldous Huxley may be most famous for his Brave New World book, but in my opinion he also wrote one of the best personal development books of all time as a work of fiction.

Read about his remarkable Island work at the new article on the Travel Warrior

http://www.simplyjond.com/PDJ.htm

This is another part of my personal development journey that I wish to share with you, like Think and Grow Rich or Mindstore.

Travel well and return home safely,


simplyjond
www.simplyjond.com - Tales & Things for Frequent Travelers

Huxley's work had often been interpreted as parables for heaven, hell and purgatory. I can't remember which novel represents purgatory, but Brave New World is supposed to be Hell while Island is supposed to represent Heaven.

I found them to be reversed. The scenario in Brave New World is that humans have no choice in their life. They are born and bred to their station, and since they are raise thus then they've never known anything better and can remain blissfully ignorant.

In Island, Huxley presents another society where it seems that everyone has freedom of choice and expression but there are problems beneath the surface. There is the evil side of human nature encroaching on their small haven, there are internal struggles amongst the 'angels' of the Island and moral dilemna abounds.

Think about the Matrix. Which is heaven and which is hell? Being in the Matrix or waking to the reality of an earth shattered by war? As cypher chose ignorance, I believe that the masses would as well.

Great book though... I'm gonna be late for work now

_____________________
[Still Wandering] [Halcyon Climbing]

The mescalin was certainly kicking in by the time he wrote ‘Island’.

Aldous came a long way from being one of the 'bright young things' cleverly satirizing society, to sticking his neck out and actually trying to help it. His vision of a society transformed by each individuals enlightenment led him to become outcast in a lot of intellectual and literary circles. He endured a form of suffering for his transformed beliefs. Looking back, he is some one who paved the way, and as Nietzsche observed of himself, paid a personal price for being ahead of his time.

The link to the above article is now dead – but the genius of Huxley is still alive! ‘Island’ is great book, likely to be appreciated by a spiritually inclined traveller, and well worth a read.



Check out my novel, The Highway, which was published in India in Jun 2004.
www.willmarks.com
Available now at www.vedamsbooks.com

[This message was edited by Will Marks on 23 July 2004 at 6:44.]