Third International Aldous Huxley Symposium

63 Pages·2008·1.48 MB·English

by  Uwe Rasch

Contents

Organization 2

Poem in commemoration of
Aldous Huxley
by Carolyn Mary Kleefeld 4

Welcome 5

Symposium Programme
(Overview including By-Programme) 8

Detailed Symposium Programme 10

Notes on the Speakers
and Abstracts of their Papers 17
1
The Fourth International
Aldous Huxley Symposium

Organization

THEME Aldous Huxley in America
VENUE The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
CONFERENCE DATES 31 July – 2 August 2008
CONVENORS Aldous Huxley Society and California Lutheran
University
HOST The Director of the Huntington Library
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Prof Bernfried Nugel (University of Münster) and
Prof Peter E. Firchow (University of Minnesota) on behalf of the
Aldous Huxley Society;
Prof Joan Wines on behalf of California Lutheran University
CONTACT Prof Joan Wines, regional organizer
60 West Olsen Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
phone: [phone]
cell phone (in urgent cases): [phone]
fax: [phone]
Ms Randy Toland, Faculty Secretary for the
Humanities
phone: [phone]
SUPPORT The International Aldous Huxley Society
California Lutheran University

REGISTRATION FOR THE FULL PROGRAMME OR PER DAY
Wednesday, 30 July, 3:30-5:50 p.m., California Lutheran
University Library entrance
Thursday, 31 July, Friday, 1 August and Saturday, 2 August, 8:30-
10:00 a.m., Huntington Library, Lecture Hall

2
ACADEMIC PROGRAMME 28 lectures, 1 panel with 7
presentations, 3 workshops, from 31 July, 9:00 a.m.,
to 2 August, 6:15 p.m.
BY-PROGRAMME from 30 July to 3 August
POSTER DESIGN AND PRINTED PROGRAMME gÜ|v~ Éy à{x _|z{à ,
Uwe Rasch, Münster
DRAWING OF ALDOUS HUXLEY courtesy of Don Bachardy;
reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San
Marino, California
TYPOGRAPHY set in Californian FB and Britannic Bold
PRINTING California Lutheran University

3
Being Silence

In Commemoration of Aldous Huxley

Being silence
The lucid lake
An empyrean expanse
A highly organized weaving
Is silence
Woven intricately within

In being silence
Each transmitting thread
Virtuous unto itself
Is a vital stream
In tantric connection
Within the vast design

© 1985 Carolyn Mary Kleefeld
(<http://cmkblog.wordpress.com>)

4
Welcome
to the Participants of the
Fourth International Aldous Huxley Symposium

At long last, the international community of Huxley scholars has
decided to meet in the vicinity of a city (Los Angeles) that, when
Huxley first saw it, he referred to satirically as “the City of
Dreadful Joy” but which eventually and somewhat ironically
became the place where he spent much of the final three decades
of his life. Earlier symposia convened by the Aldous Huxley
Society have taken place in 1994 in Münster, Germany, on the
occasion of the 100th anniversary of Huxley’s birth; in Singapore
in 2000/01 on the subject of “Aldous Huxley and the Challenges
of the Third Millennium”; and in Riga, Latvia, in 2004, on the
subject of “Aldous Huxley, Man of Letters: Thinker, Critic and
Artist.” Lists of speakers and their topics at these meetings are
available on the Society’s website.
(See <http://www.anglistik.uni-
muenster.de/huxley/ahs_activities.html>)

The Aldous Huxley Society, founded in 1998, has two chief
purposes: to promote the academic study of the works of Aldous
Huxley, in particular critical editions, commentaries and
interpretations, and to make a wider public acquainted with the
thought and writings of the author. Furthermore, the Society
supports the Centre for Aldous Huxley Studies (CAHS) at the
Department of English at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universi-
tät Münster, and undertakes to organize symposia, further
academic work of its members within the scope of its authority
and possibility, cooperate with other societies devoted to the
academic study of the works of Aldous Huxley and send
delegates to international conferences. The Society possesses its
own research library, and sponsors a journal, Aldous Huxley
Annual, edited by Professors Jerome Meckier (University of
Kentucky) and Bernfried Nugel (University of Münster), as well
as a monograph series, “Human Potentialities,” edited by
5
Professors Lothar Fietz (University of Tübingen) and Bernfried
Nugel.

Those interested in joining the Society should first consult its
website and then apply to its Chairman, Professor Bernfried
Nugel (<[email protected]>).

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was one of the foremost English-
language writers of the last century. He is especially remembered
for his dystopian satire Brave New World (1932), but he also
wrote or compiled numerous other novels, essays, collections of
verse, plays, works of intellectual history, and anthologies. From
1937 until his death in 1963, he resided primarily in the Los
Angeles area. During the Second World War and the
immediately following years he worked occasionally as a script-
writer for various Hollywood studios; he also collaborated on
film scripts with the well-known British novelist, Christopher
Isherwood. Almost all of his books and manuscripts, along with
other valuable materials, such as the manuscript of D. H.
Lawrence’s novel St. Mawr, were destroyed in a brush fire in
1961. Some surviving materials are housed at the UCLA Library,
and more materials from Mrs Laura Huxley’s residence in the
Hollywood Hills may soon be added to the collection.

Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in the work of
Aldous Huxley, especially in California. With the death of
Huxley’s only son, Matthew, in 2005, and that of his wife, Laura,
in 2007, the long-standing copyright problems associated with
the filming of his best-known novel, Brave New World, have
finally been resolved. It now looks like the film version, directed
by Ridley Scott and produced by George DiCaprio, will appear in
the near future, starring George’s son, Leonardo DiCaprio, as the
protagonist, John Savage. In the meantime, audiences eager for
dramatic versions of Brave New World will have to be content
with the musical, Brave New World, as put on two years ago at
the Grips Theater in Berlin, with script and lyrics by Volker
Ludwig, music by Achim Gieseler, and direction by Matthias
Davids. This production (by all reports an effective one),
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however, does not follow the lead given by Huxley’s own
musical version of Brave New World (1956), as recently edited
by Bernfried Nugel and Jerome Meckier.

Typically of Hollywood’s rather myopic disregard of the
activities of other and earlier critics of Huxley’s work (e.g.,
notably of the Aldous Huxley Society), the Los Angeles Times
quotes one of the executors of Laura Huxley’s estate as
foretelling that “a major revival of interest in his ideas is coming,
at a moment in history when it is critical for the world to hear
his warning voice, his insights into and remedies for the human
situation.” This “major revival of interest” has actually been
going on since the mid-1960s – following Huxley’s death – and
gathering strength since the 1990s, with the foundation of the
Aldous Huxley Society and its associated symposia throughout
the world, culminating in this summer’s symposium at the
Huntington Library in San Marino, from 31 July to 2 August
2008.

The Fourth International Aldous Huxley Symposium,
focusing on the topic “Aldous Huxley in America,” has been
convened by the Aldous Huxley Society and California Lutheran
University (http://www.callutheran.edu/newsevents.php), re-
presented by Professor Joan Wines (<[email protected]>).
Professor Wines will also be chairing a special session in memory
of Huxley’s second wife, Laura Archera Huxley, who died in
Hollywood on 13 December 2007 at the age of 96.

With all good wishes,
on behalf of the organizing committee,

Joan Wines Peter E. Firchow Bernfried Nugel
Regional organizer American advisor AHS Chairman
(California (University of (University of
Lutheran Minnesota) Münster)
University)

7
Symposium Programme (Overview including By-Programme)
Wednesday Thursday
30 July 2008 31 July 2008

Huxley in California

9:00-9:15 a.m. The Huntington
Library, Lecture Hall

Opening addresses

9:15-10:30 a.m.

Hollywood and Environs

10:30-11:00 a.m. Coffee break

11:00-12:00 a.m.

Physical Co-ordinates
2:30 p.m. Symposium Shuttle

leaves Sheraton Pasadena Hotel
12:00-1:00 p.m.
for CLU
Laura Huxley Memorial

Conference Warming 1:00-2:30 p.m. Lunch break

3:30-5:50 p.m. Registration: 2:30-3:15 p.m. Workshop I:
California Lutheran University A Practical Approach to
Library entrance The Perennial Philosophy

4:30-5:45 p.m. Film show: 3:15-5:00 p.m.
California Lutheran University, Spiritual Co-ordinates
Preus-Brandt Forum
5:00-7:00 p.m.
6:00-7:15 p.m. Opening Dinner in The Huntington Library
CLU Lundring Events Center Reception
Welcome: Dr Chris Kimball,
President of California Lutheran
University

7:30 p.m. Symposium Shuttle
leaves for Sheraton Pasadena Hotel
8
Symposium Programme (Overview including By-Programme)
Friday Saturday
1 August 2008 2 August 2008

Huxley’s American and Huxley’s American Legacy
Global Travels

9:00-10:45 a.m. 9:00-10:30 a.m.
Between East and West Endings and Beginnings

10:45-11:15 a.m. Coffee break 10:30-11:00 a.m. Coffee break

11:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m. Panel for 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m.
Young Huxley Scholars Brave New World or Island ?

1:00-2:30 p.m. Lunch break 1:00-2:30 p.m. Lunch break

2:30-3:15 p.m. Workshop II: 2:30-3:15 p.m. Workshop III:
A Practical Approach to A Practical Approach to
The Perennial Philosophy The Perennial Philosophy

3:15-4:15 p.m. 3:15-4:15 p.m. Time Must Have a
Touristic Travels Stop and The Perennial Philosophy

4:15-4:45 p.m. Coffee break 4:15-4:45 p.m. Coffee break

4:45-6:15 p.m. 4:45-6:15 p.m.
Travels, Fictional and Spiritual Huxley’s Key Values

6:20 p.m. Shuttle leaves for CLU 8:00 p.m. Farewell Dinner

8:00 p.m. Henry IV : Kingsmen
Shakespeare Festival at CLU

Sunday, 3 August 2008

10:00-11:30 a.m.: AHS Board of Curators (Pasadena Sheraton Hotel)
11:00 a.m. (CLU), 12:30 p.m. (Sheraton) to 6 p.m.:
round trip to Trabuco and the Vedanta Center, Hollywood
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Symposium Programme (Overview including By-Programme)
DETAILED PROGRAMME
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL ALD OUS HUXLEY SYMPOSIUM

31 July 2008:
Huxley in California

9:00–9:15 a.m.
Opening Addresses:
The Director of the Huntington Library
The President of California Lutheran University
The Chairman of the Aldous Huxley Society

9:15 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Chair: Prof Jerome Meckier
(University of Kentucky)

9:15–10:00 a.m. Keynote Lecture: Prof David King Dunaway
(University of New Mexico): “Huxley in Hollywood:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”

10:00–10:30 a.m. Prof James Sexton
(University of Victoria, B.C.): “Fictional and Historical
Sources for Aldous Huxley’s After Many a Summer”

10:30–11:00 a.m. Coffee break

11:00–11:30 a.m. Prof Sanford E. Marovitz
(Kent State University): “A New Look at The Art of
Seeing”

11:30–12:00 a.m. Dr Gerhard Wagner (University of Münster):
“Aldous Huxley and the Desert”

12:00–1:00 p.m. Prof Joan Wines
(California Lutheran University): “‘This Timeless
Moment’: Memories of Laura Huxley”

1:00–2:30 p.m. Lunch break
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