
The Talented Mr. Huxley (2015) - pepys
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/feature/the-talented-mr-huxley
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crench
One of my favorite assignments in high school (2007) was after reading _1984_
and _Brave New World_. The teacher of our Dystopian Literature class prompted
us to elaborate on who we thought was right overall, Huxley or Orwell.

It was a sobering exercise realizing that there's a fair amount of Orwellian
and Huxleyan prophecies in our modern world, but we tend to focus more on the
'scarier' Orwellian ideas.

~~~
Apocryphon
Your high school had a specific class called Dystopian Literature? Now that's
an awesome elective to specialize in.

~~~
crench
Yeah, as an English elective. It was great; I loved it.

~~~
dilemma
Interesting use of semicolon.

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pmoriarty
I tried reading _Brave New World_. It was atrocious. It was such a heavy-
handed, corny, poorly written caricature of the left. I'm baffled by its
enduring popularity among intellectuals.

~~~
xiaoma
It's fascinating that you see it as a caricature of the left, given that
Huxley was a left-leaning pacifist who even today would be far to the left of
at least the last 4 Democratic presidential candidates on quite a few issues.

Sadly, the entire western world is just a lot more authoritarian than it was
during Huxley and Orwell's time.

~~~
pmoriarty
There's nothing about sympathizing with or even being on the left that
prevents criticism of the left. The left is infamous for the amount of
internal bickering, denunciations, and recriminations that go on.

That said, Huxley's critique of the left (if it can even be called that)
didn't seem like one based on any left-wing principles or ideas. I really
don't know where he was coming from on that. It really felt like it could have
been written by some cheap right-wing tabloid. Maybe that's why it was so
popular.

~~~
xiaoma
This is sadder still. You're saying you feel pacifism and anti-war sentiments
are no longer a part of the left?

Huxley was critiquing Hitler and especially Stalin. Is that your idea of "the
left"?

~~~
pmoriarty
No. Not in the least.

I wish I had I had a copy in front of me, so I could give you specific
examples. It's been a long time since I read it.

------
igravious
(2015)

