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Aldous Huxley and the Mysticism of Science PDF

244 Pages·1996·13.24 MB·English
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Aldous Huxley and the Mysticism of Science June Deery ALDOUS HUXLEY AND THE MYSTICISM OF SCIENCE This page intentionally left blank Aldous Huxley and the Mysticisnl of Science June Deery Assistant ProfessorofLiterature Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY FirstpublishedinGreatBritain 1996by MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG21 6XS andLondon Conlpaniesandrepresentatives throughouttheworld Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailable fromtheBritishLibrary. ISBN0-333-63767-4 FirstpuhlishedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 1996by ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., ScholarlyandReferenceDivision, 175FifthAvenue, NewYork,N.Y. 10010 ISBN0-312-15983-8 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Deery,June. AldousHuxleyandthenlysticisnl()fscience IJuneDeery. p. em. Includesbihliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-]12-15983-8 I.Huxley,Aldous, 1894-1963-Knowledge-Science. 2.Literature andsciencc-·England-History-20thcentury. 3.Mysticismin literature. 4.Scienceinliterature. I.Title. PR6015.U9Z5967 1996 823'.9I2·--dc20 96-33918 CIP ©JuneDeery 1996 Allrightsreserved. Noreproduction,copyortransnlissionof thispublicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpennission. Noparagraphofthispublicationl11aybereproduced,copiedor transnlittcdsavewithwrittenpemlissionorinaccordancewith theprovisionsoftheCopyright,DesignsandPatentsAct 1988, orunderthetemlSofanylicencepcnnittingIinlitedcopying issuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency,90TottcnhanlCourt Road,LondonWIP9HE. Anypersonwhodocsanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothis publicationmaybeliabletocrirninalprosecutionandcivil claimsf()rdamages. Transferredtodigitalprinting1998 02/780 PrintedinGreatBritainby AntonyRoweLtd,Chippenham,Wiltshire For lny parents, John and Ellen Deery This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Chronology and Abbreviations x Introduction Part I 1 Literature and Science 13 2 Science in Literature 25 3 Fact and Fiction 48 4 Method 76 Part II 5 Mysticism 101 6 Science and Mysticism 128 7 Huxley and the New Age 146 8 Conclusion 170 Notes 173 Bibliography 207 Index 224 vii This page intentionally left blank Preface This book probably originated when, at the age of 15 or 16, I was told that I couldn't possibly be interested in both literature and physics and that it would be silly to take both in A' level exams. I I changed schools and went ahead anyway. In the years since I have many people to thank. For help in the early stages of this project, I would like to express my gratitude to Valentine Cunningham, Rom Harre, John Carey and Bimal Patel. I am also grateful to Paul Dear, David Bradshaw, Carol Colatrella, Kathy Ward, and 'the group' at Oxford, especially Louise Gordon, Charlotte Purkis and Peggy Rundle. My thanks to Kathy Coleman and Pat Marra for last-minute help with computing. For reading parts of the final manuscript, I would like to thank Ellen ESTock, TamarGordon,DavidHess,JeromeMeckier, AlanNadel,SalRestivo and, especially, David Porush and Doug Scott for reading almost all ofit. To the latter,mydeepestgratitude for beingthereand also, which was harder, for not being there when I needed to work on this book. J.E.D. Acknowledgement Selected quotes from Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley. Copy right 1928 by Aldous Huxley. Copyright renewed 1956 by Aldous Huxley. Reprinted by permission of Mrs Laura Huxley, Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., and Chatto and Windus. ix

Description:
Aldous Huxley believed that religious belief could survive in the scientific era. His early recognition of the significance of 20th-century science, and the need for moral and spiritual direction resulted in his espousal of mysticism. This examination of his fiction and non-fiction reveals Huxley's
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