Scott Freeman

What I’ve Read: Ulysses Huxley

Several years ago I developed a policy when it came to reading books: if it didn’t grab my attention in the first 30 pages, I quit. If it was a book that was recommended by someone or highly regarded, I would give it 50 pages. Life is too short to waste on a bad book. I know that often means I give up too early on some titles but I can always go back to them at a later date. It has worked well for me and keeps me from getting bogged down.

Here’s what I’ve read this week:

Ulysses by James Joyce: I made it to page 29. What a colossal waste of time. I haven’t heard anybody tell me that it had much to offer other than book critics who are too scared to say the emperor has no clothes.

Brave New World by Alduous Huxley: This book was one that lived up to the billing. I regret that I have not read it prior to now as it is a sizzling satire of our penchant for happiness at all costs. It was obvious throughout the book that Huxley was taken aback by the implications of Americanization in general and the racial hatred of Henry Ford in particular.
As a result, this book transcends satire and becomes a chilling, and somewhat prescient, indictment of our need to “amuse ourselves to death.” A life without consequences and the use of pharmaceuticals to dump our senses and negate our pain is not a reality kept contained within the pages of fiction. The pursuit of happiness at all costs up to and including the desertion of truth is a temptation that continually plagues us as a collective.
Postman, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, gives a great compare and contrast between Huxley’s work and Orwell’s competing dystopian take, 1984:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

Who has read this? What do you think about the book?
Or what have you read this week that grabbed your attention?

One other thing: our library’s annual book sale starts tomorrow. Any recommendations for titles I should look for?