Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Read Aldous Huxley’s review of 1984 he sent to George Orwell
IO9 ^ | Tuesday, Mar 6, 2012 Latest Stories | Cyriaque Lamar

Posted on 03/06/2012 11:42:56 AM PST by DogByte6RER

Read Aldous Huxley’s review of 1984 he sent to George Orwell

Photobucket

Several months after George Orwell's dystopian classic 1984 was published in 1949, Aldous Huxley sent a letter to his former French pupil. The Brave New World author had received a copy of 1984 from the publisher at Orwell's behest, but his poor eyesight prevented him from finishing the book for several months.

In his letter to Orwell, the fifty-year-old author compared the two books' screwed-up futures and saw the Orwellian Oceanic dystopia as a predecessor to his own World State. Wrote Huxley in October 1949:

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals - the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution - the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual's psychology and physiology - are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesner, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud's inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war - in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Truly the cheerful correspondance. Who needs a game of Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy to raise their spirits?


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat; History; Miscellaneous; Reference; Society
KEYWORDS: 1984; aldoushuxley; ameritopia; books; bravenewworld; dystopia; georgeorwell; godless; greatbooks; huxley; nineteeneightyfour; orwell; pages; quotes; socialutopianism; totalitarianism; uptopia; utopia; yuri
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last
Wrightwood. Cal. 21 October, 1949

Dear Mr. Orwell,

It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims at total subversion of the individual's psychology and physiology — are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that the ruling oligarchy will find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history of animal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesner, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate the odder facts of psychology for practical men, such as politicians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud's inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But now psycho-analysis is being combined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through the use of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be a large scale biological and atomic war — in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Thank you once again for the book.

Yours sincerely,

Aldous Huxley

Ref. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/1984-v-brave-new-world.html

1 posted on 03/06/2012 11:43:02 AM PST by DogByte6RER
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Photobucket VS. Photobucket
2 posted on 03/06/2012 11:45:25 AM PST by DogByte6RER ("Loose lips sink ships")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

These blokes are advancing every more rapidly on all fronts in all respects and ways.

http://twoday.net/static/omega/files/quotes_from_people_who_consider_us_subjects.htm

I agree with some . . . ignorantly forbidden . . . commentators . . .

Iran will be struck

WW3 will ensue in short order . . .

whether in weeks or months . . . sooner than any want.


3 posted on 03/06/2012 11:52:37 AM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
LONG LIVE THE TRUTH.

Not only is evil advanced by failure for the good to speak up . . .

Evil is also advanced by those who hide, forbid, the truth . . . pretend that the truth is not true . . . pretend that the truth is merely kooky theory etc.

Some good, mostly loveable conservatives are going to have lots of blood on their hands before the dust settles because they censored the uncomfortable truth.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


4 posted on 03/06/2012 12:10:42 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
Within the next generation I believe that the world's rulers will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging and kicking them into obedience

Huxley was right on the money

5 posted on 03/06/2012 12:26:17 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER

http://orwell.ru/library/articles/totalitarianism/english/e_lat
“Whoever feels the value of literature, whoever sees the central part it plays in the development of human history, must also see the life and death necessity of resisting totalitarianism, whether it is imposed on us from without or from within.”


6 posted on 03/06/2012 12:39:07 PM PST by tumblindice (Baby made boom boom)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DogByte6RER
The Century of the Self. Long but well worth your time. Explains a lot, and expands on Huxley's comments about Freud and hypnotism.

Watch here.
7 posted on 03/06/2012 12:49:14 PM PST by tang-soo (Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tang-soo; Alamo-Girl; Amityschild; AngieGal; AnimalLover; Ann de IL; aposiopetic; aragorn; auggy; ..

END TIMES PING LIST PING

Sorry, A-G—just a video, I think. I didn’t check the comments section for transcript yet, though

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9167657690296627941#

A worthy video . . . some history of how we got where we are with our satanic hedonistic globalist culture


8 posted on 03/06/2012 1:11:48 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Quix
Huxley and Orwell weren't just mere scifi writers...

They were modern day prophets delivering their predictions in novel format!

The "Brave New World" of "1984" is here now in Amerika!

Welcome to the Obamanation!

9 posted on 03/06/2012 1:23:34 PM PST by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Quix; AuntB; B4Ranch; All

” new world order we now see, this long dreamed-of vision we’ve all worked toward for so long.” President George Bush (January 1991)

2. “The world can therefore seize the opportunity [Persian Gulf crisis] to fulfill the long-held promise of a New World Order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind.”

George Herbert Walker Bush

Global Socialism knows no political party.....and Jorge, there IS no “universal aspiration of mankind” you hopeless twit!!


10 posted on 03/06/2012 1:33:47 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: GeronL
... Huxley was right on the money

Huxley was describing The Frankfurt School and Gramsci's cultural marxism which has been extraordinarily successful.

Orwell's Brave New World treatment is reserved for those who resist. Huxley and Orwells visions are sort of a good cop / bad cop duo.

Both men were prescient.
11 posted on 03/06/2012 1:38:23 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker
... Global Socialism knows no political party.....and Jorge, there IS no “universal aspiration of mankind” you hopeless twit!!

Global Socialism has been very extremely clever in creating a story for the ‘left’ about economic, social, educational, sexual, and environmental ‘justice’, 'sustainability', 'concensus' and a story for the ‘right’ about ‘Free Trade’, the flawed theory of 'comparative advantage', free movement of goods and people, open borders, jobs Americans can't/won't do, compassionate amnesty, and short term profits with no reference to patriotism or morality.

Both stories lead to the same place - destruction of the American economy, national security, traditional culture, values and its pesky middle class under the tyranny of global communism.

The 'left' identify themselves progressives and put a D after their names; the 'right' identify themselves compassionate conservatives and put an R after their names.
12 posted on 03/06/2012 1:50:27 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: khelus

Huxley saw that they would encourage sexual immorality as a sort of bread and circuses distraction and they have.


13 posted on 03/06/2012 1:54:21 PM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: tang-soo
The Century of the Self. Long but well worth your time. Explains a lot, and expands on Huxley's comments about Freud and hypnotism. ...

Thanks. The Century of the Self looks very interesting.

Have you read about NLP [NeuroLinguisitcProgramming] a form of hypnosis used in speaking?

Obama's use of hidden hypnosis in his speech.
14 posted on 03/06/2012 2:00:56 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Mad Dawgg

I don’t think they were spiritually prophetic.

I think they just knew folks like these:

http://twoday.net/static/omega/files/quotes_from_people_who_consider_us_subjects.htm

Who even back then had long been working hard to bring about such social, political, economic, religious changes right in step with the Biblical predictions.

An interesting question. I just bet it was from their family relationships that they knew what was being planned and brought into being.


15 posted on 03/06/2012 2:04:05 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: khelus

I would like to frame your post. You nailed it in just a couple of paragraphs.


16 posted on 03/06/2012 2:04:28 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker

INDEED.


17 posted on 03/06/2012 2:04:28 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker; ex-Texan; Chode; Lazamataz; B4Ranch; Alamo-Girl; Amityschild; AngieGal; ...

INDEED.

What do y’all think are the main reasons that

CONSERVATIVES . . . mostly Christians . . .

usually skeptical of the MSM

Sooooo faithfully on FR, believe the MSM about key elements of such goings on?

Mystifies me.

___Is it pride?

___Locked to firmly into their biases?

___Gross entrenched cluelessness?

___Gross entrenched ignorance?

___Gross entrenched stubborn ‘know-it-all’ bullheadedness?

___Fantasies and wishful thinking?

___Gross denial?

What?

Hollywood Producer of the movie T... P.... (dare not even list the movie) knew the score from an elite friend. Yet, I dare not even post a link to his insider info here. Sad.

The Republic is being shredded in the wood chipper as quickly as OThuga and his elite bosses can crash it around all our ears . . . and Conservatives can’t even tell the truth to each other? Mystifying.


18 posted on 03/06/2012 2:11:31 PM PST by Quix (Times are a changin' INSURE you have believed in your heart & confessed Jesus as Lord Come NtheFlesh)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: stephenjohnbanker

Tnanks


19 posted on 03/06/2012 2:22:45 PM PST by khelus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: Quix

” The Republic is being shredded in the wood chipper as quickly as OThuga and his elite bosses can crash it around all our ears . . . and Conservatives can’t even tell the truth to each other? Mystifying.”

It is INDEED mystifying.


20 posted on 03/06/2012 2:26:15 PM PST by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson