Sep

8

Book ‘Em: Paradise Found.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

September 8, 2008 |

Aldous Huxley published his novel Brave New World in 1931. In a forward to an edition published fifteen years later, he admitted to being unhappy with the book, saying,

In the meantime, however, it seems worth while at least to mention the most serious defect in the story, which is this. The Savage is offered only two alternatives, an insane life in Utopia, or the life of a primitive in an Indian village, a life more human in some respects, but in others hardly less queer and abnormal… Today I feel no wish to demonstrate that sanity is impossible. On the contrary, though I remain no less sadly certain than in the past that sanity is a rather rare phenomenon, I am convinced that it can be achieved and would like to see more of it.

Fast-forward thirty-one years after that first publication of Brave New World and you’ll find Huxley’s last novel, Island, which is about sanity, about a literal island of sanity in an insane world. In the end he did finally find a third alternative, although this final novel is even more cautionary than Brave New World was. Its main character, Will Farnaby, is a newspaper writer running away from himself, his past, the wife who was killed in an accident the night he told her he was leaving her for another woman, and the other woman who left him for another man. Thanks to a lucky accident he ends up on the “forbidden island” of Pala, which isn’t so much paradise as it is a utopian work in progress, a place where the community goal is to work as a community. Everyone lifts everyone else up, from the children, who belong to “Mutual Adoption Clubs” of as many as twenty parents, to the scientists who split their time between their research and manual labor. It’s an appealing adaptation of tantric philosophy, which seeks to embrace the world and use it positively rather than shutting it out.

Although he starts out as a double-agent, Will is quickly and not very subtly converted to the Palanese way of life, finding, at the very least, hope that he’ll be able to make peace with his past and move forward as a better person. In the beginning he’s got only one goal: to make enough money to give himself a year of freedom. Even as the dream of Pala slips away, though, threatened by a militaristic neighboring island and industrial Western powers, a woman reminds Will that freedom isn’t something that can ever be fully taken away: “Even in the worst society an individual retains a little freedom. One perceives in private, one remembers and imagines in private, one loves in private, and one dies in private…” This is the poignant beauty of the island. Each of us is an island, but peace lies in finding balance between our private selves and our connections with others.

Island is one of those novels I read over and over again, even though it’s not a particularly compelling story and, as a philosophical novel, its plot is pretty thin. And yet it is compelling because it’s a hopeful vision, one that really seems within reach. In spite of looming threats, it’s a book about hope.


Comments

1 Comment so far

  1. Baino on September 8, 2008 3:08 pm

    Hi Christopher, thought I’d pop over and return the favour. Nice blog and lots of reading inspiration to feed my new addiction! Well my new intention at the least! Cheers :)

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