Island, by Aldous Huxley

Does anyone still believe in an utopia like this?
Where eastern and western knowledge are combined into something beautiful. Do you think a world like this is still possible with the size of this population?
I still dream about it...
N.

 

yes, it's always possible. Island was a good book, although I've only rad the first 100 pages or so, and its pretty much all just philosophy and conversation, but I understand why Huxley would write like that, to lay down his socio-political-spiritual beliefs. I've done the same thing, so I don't judge him. Huxley is a genius, pure and simple. a visionary

 

I'm actually reading this book right now. It's fucking definitely visionary.
I hope it's possible! If it weren't for ignorant, greedy, war-mongering pigs ruling the whole damn world, it'd have to be feasible.
I love this book. It's basically laying out my fantasy world word for word. And yeah, Huxley is a genius. I figured that out after reading The Doors of Perception/Heaven and Hell.
Most of the ideas seem to be the basis for just about every commune ever started. Peaceful coexistence, and other things I can't think of at the moment.
[edit]: One thing that seemed to preclude its being started on a grand scale is population control. At the rate we're going, it seems like it will only ever be possible on a small scale, like in communes.

Bill Hicks is God, by the way.

 

Yeah, well for starters, I think something must change in our schoolsystem. I live in western europe, but I think ours are much similar.
In our society status, ego, is (still) very important. A result of this is that it is very difficult for a teacher to give it's lesson in front of a growing group of wild children no one has any grip on. Parents leave a big part of the education to the schools, but schools are there primarily for intellectual education, parents should take care of the person. If parents want to leave the personal, social, education of values and ethics to the schools, the only way in which they will achieve this is by getting the classes more personal, that means bring 'm down to 6-10 children. This will cost a lot more in the beginning, but the job of being a teacher will become more fullfilling in stead of a day to day battle. Maybe it is even possible for teachers in highschool to give some subjects in stead of one (like on our schools for children between 6 and 12 years, I forgot the name). This makes it a lot easier to get a grip on them and earn (and give!) some respect. Now there are always a couple of jokers that fall through the system and on which noone has any grip.
Just a thought...
N.

 

Now I don't believe i any Utopia, we've been lied.
The world will never change, they are educating us as they want us to be educated, we try to get free-minders, we believe we are, but it's like if we were connected to Matrix, you know what i mean.
I'm getting disenchanted and I cannot avoid it.

Think for yourself, question authority... if you can

 

can i get a visa to pala?
~
~
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listen, there's a hell of a good universe next door
let's go
~
(eec)

 

Behind door 1, 2 or 3?

 

I think he's talking about the Interstellar Overspace

 

Hey God,

Your critique of Huxley is very much to the point. Your patience with Huxley's droning style is admirable.

But Huxley's style, like his philosophy, reveals an uptight anal preoccupation.

Huxley has a hard time allowing the story to live its own life. Like an uptight parent, Huxley forces his story to parrot his message.

A true control freak; where there is no trust in allowing things to unfold freely and spontaneously.

The philosophy of Pala is so intentionally hyper-structured and self-conscious as to remind me of spending a beautiful sunny day stuck in Sunday-School.
But, if you're a good boy in Pala School you get to screw the girl in the front row.

Even on Mescalin, Huxley seems so trapped in his head.

'Island' reminds me so much of B.F. Skinner's influencial work 'Walden II'. The same control freak uptightness for the good of the many.

'Island' would make an excellent audio-book if done by a good audio-theatre group.

'A Brave New World' was an excellent audio-book because it was interpreted by an excellent audio-theatre group.

And 'A Brave New World' suffered from many of the same ideosycracies as does 'Island'.

 

i adored Pala. but i thought the book was slow. Huxley is very didactic when he talks about things. he's an intriguing guy but as someone said earlier he needs to just let the book flow a bit more.

 

m6m, I agree with you that it is a bit like being stuck on sundayschool when the sun is shining but I see the book more as a critic to society then as a novel.
What he tries to do is giving solutions to problems we have. He could've just shown Pala without any explanation, but by telling it as if he is a teacher, by consantly explaning why things are done the way they are done, he provides more insight.
And by doing that he writes for a bigger audience, something you obviously didn't need, but it helped me by times I think. Sophies World is also in a way written like that, I think.
But still, both were very interesting and educational to me.
N.

 

Hi billhicksrulez,

Insight yes, but not the insight Huxley thinks he's revealing.

Instead, Huxley reveals the pathos of Pala: The severe hyper-coreography of life on this island.

Even the islands sexual life lacks spontaneity, but rather, is 'anally' contrived in a comical and futile attempt to heal the 'anal' preoccupations of Civilized Man.

In this sense, Huxley reminds me a great deal of Ayn Rand.

Both are important; in that what they truely reveal is quite different, yet more important, from what they think they are revealing.