Huxley

Aldous Huxley was born July 26, 1894-1963, he was an English novelist, poet and critic. Blind in one eye from the age of 17 he was unable to pursue his chosen career in science, so in turn pursued and received his B.A. in English from Balliol College, Oxford in 1915. He published his first poetic works in 1916 followed by a second volume in 1920. Aldous book “Brave New World” can be considered a reflection of Aldous Huxley’s opinions, fears and true life experiences. His Utopian society, set in London, reflects the rigidly structured London of his youth. He also felt different and separate from others because of his high intelligence level. Huxley lost his mother to cancer at the age of 14, much in the same way as his character John. Huxley completed “Brave New World” in just four months and it became a best seller almost immediately. Personally Huxley was concerned about, society’s possible overpopulation, too much government control and manipulations done by advertising, sales and even methods of sleep teaching and brainwashing. During the first world war, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor working as a farm labourer, where he met several Bloomsbury Set figures including Bertrand Russel , and even worked as a screen writer at times. On 24 December 1955, Huxley took his first dose of LSD. His psychedelic drug experiences are described in the essays The Doors of Perception (the title deriving from some lines in the book The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake), and Heaven and Hell. The “Doors of Perception” inspired the name of Jim Morrison’s band “The Doors” and many wrote songs and even some plays were inspired by this work . Not long after publication of “The Doors of Perception” Huxley began to experiment with LSD and became a friend of Timothy Leary. Aldous Huxley had a talent for seeing the possibilities of the future, analyzing the possible problems and benefits of certain societal beliefs and practices.