Turning Romanticism on its Head: The Peripheral Symbolic Geography of Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin

Within the present paper, I aim to discuss how Aldous Huxley and Ira Levin have employed the peripheral symbolic geography of their two works (Brave New World and This Perfect Day) to articulate their debate between different sets of social values. Unlike other authors of negative utopias such as George Orwell or Yevgeny Zamyatin, neither Huxley nor Levin idealized pre-modern values. In order to highlight how the two articulated their views with the help of symbolic geography, I will also make use of Michel Foucault’s theoretical concepts of heterotopias, heterochrony as well as the ideas developed by the critics Michael Lowy and Robert Sayre in their seminal work Romanticism against the Tide of Modernity. My purpose is thus firstly to point out how and why Huxley and Levin divided the symbolic geography of their works in two parts as well as how they employed the Romantic critique of modernity. Secondly, I aim to show how despite using this analytical tool, they also employed symbolic geography with the purpose of turning the critique on its head, thus unveiling both its strong points as well as its shortcomings.

Lecturas liberales desde Un mundo feliz: Huxley, Lippmann, Ortega y Dewey ante la homogeneización social.

El presente artículo analiza cómo una serie de autores autodenominados liberales perciben y critican la homogeneización social artificialmente producida. Para ello, se toma como referencia la obra Un mundo feliz, de Aldous Huxley, donde dicho procedimiento se vincula claramente con una sociedad totalitaria. A partir de ahí, se estudian las críticas que realizan a la homogeneización el propio Huxley, Walter Lippmann y Ortega y Gasset, recurriendo también a conceptos de William James. Se muestra la vinculación existente entre la homogeneización social y los movimientos totalitarios de comienzos del siglo XX, y se concluye con una propuesta inspirada por el pensamiento de John Dewey.

From Neuroethics to Neo-romanticism. Aldous Huxley in Response to Current Proposals for Ethical and Legal Regulation of Neuroscience

The neuroethics field emerged in the early 2000s in an effort to face important philosophical dilemmas and anticipate disruptive social changes linked to the use of neurotechnology (Safire, 2002). From very early on, this field grew out of two core issues, namely inquiries into the ethics of neuroscience –concerning the moral use of knowledge and technology– and inquiries into the neuroscience of ethics –on how new brain function evidence can change human self-understanding (Roskies 2002). Similarly, neurolaw is now on a parallel path with two main pillars as Chandler (2018) suggested, (1) “self-reflexive inquiry” (the neuroscience of law) and (2) “inquiry into the development and use of brain science and technologies” (the law of neuroscience). In this paper, I suggest that these two lines of research are still excessively disconnected from one another and, to support this claim, I analyze the three potential point-of-no-return risks that Aldous Huxley associated with technological challenges, namely centralization of power, bureaucratic alienation, and scientific idealism. In addition, I show how Huxley shifted analysis of technological problems from a focus on the rights of potential victims to the duties of potential aggressors. Finally, I argue that Aldous Huxley’s view on how to build a bridge that brings pillars 1) and 2) closer together also helps prevent the technological point-of-no-return. According to Huxley, the key is found in paying particular attention to understanding contemplative activity, reinforcing its role in the study of reality, and, eventually, returning the romantic gaze updated to academia.

"Shaping and Cutting and Improving and Adding": Acknowledged and Hidden Influences in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

<p>This thesis aims to identify and analyse the most prominent influences on Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It looks particularly at the difference between the authors' attitude towards influences they happily acknowledge and those influences which they attempt to conceal because they cause them anxiety (in the case of Westerfeld) or embarrassment (in the case of Pullman). This focus, combined with the speculative analysis of His Dark Materials' influence on Extras, the fourth book of the Uglies series, is intended to show the variability of literary influence. Comparative close readings throughout the thesis display the variety of ways influences are used within the texts, and illustrate the factors on which their use is dependent: the compatibility of the latecomer text with its precursor, the author's opinion of the earlier work, and the reading the author makes of the precursor text. Pullman's acknowledgement of influences is dependent on whether he considers them worthy precursors (in the case of Heinrich von Kleist, William Blake, and John Milton) or an embarrassing ancestor (in the case of C. S. Lewis). Westerfeld's is dependent on how similar his precursor works are to his own texts, as he does not acknowledge the obvious influence of Aldous Huxley, but happily names Ray Bradbury, John Christopher, Ted Chiang, and Charles Beaumont as influences. The thesis shows that the use of literary influences is not straightforward as one author may, as Westerfeld and Pullman do, display different attitudes to and appropriate precursor texts in differing ways within one work.</p>

"Shaping and Cutting and Improving and Adding": Acknowledged and Hidden Influences in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

<p>This thesis aims to identify and analyse the most prominent influences on Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series and Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It looks particularly at the difference between the authors' attitude towards influences they happily acknowledge and those influences which they attempt to conceal because they cause them anxiety (in the case of Westerfeld) or embarrassment (in the case of Pullman). This focus, combined with the speculative analysis of His Dark Materials' influence on Extras, the fourth book of the Uglies series, is intended to show the variability of literary influence. Comparative close readings throughout the thesis display the variety of ways influences are used within the texts, and illustrate the factors on which their use is dependent: the compatibility of the latecomer text with its precursor, the author's opinion of the earlier work, and the reading the author makes of the precursor text. Pullman's acknowledgement of influences is dependent on whether he considers them worthy precursors (in the case of Heinrich von Kleist, William Blake, and John Milton) or an embarrassing ancestor (in the case of C. S. Lewis). Westerfeld's is dependent on how similar his precursor works are to his own texts, as he does not acknowledge the obvious influence of Aldous Huxley, but happily names Ray Bradbury, John Christopher, Ted Chiang, and Charles Beaumont as influences. The thesis shows that the use of literary influences is not straightforward as one author may, as Westerfeld and Pullman do, display different attitudes to and appropriate precursor texts in differing ways within one work.</p>

І. Stravinsky’s orchestral writing of Neo-Classical and serial (late) periods: comparative analysis

Statement of the problem. Neo-Classical and serial (late) periods of I. Stravinsky’s creativity are marked by the shifts in his musical language, which found their reflection in his orchestral writing. “Universals” of style and genre (term of Savenko (2001: 105–163) retain their relevancy. Constant principles of orchestral writing (multi-figure composition, combinatorics and plastique) are used in different combinations. Analysis of recent research and publications. While there are numerous studies devoted to I. Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical and serial (late) periods, no works have composer’s orchestral thinking and orchestral writing as an object of special examination. Thus, scarce studies regarding aspects of composer’s orchestration become even more valuable: about orchestral texture (Schnittke, 1967; Schnittke, 1973, Savenko, 2001; Kashyrtsev, 2020), or interpretation of timbres (Savenko, 2001; Savenko, 2011, Kashyrtsev, 2020), or interconnection of orchestral and harmonically-modal thinking (Gurkov, 1987), or editions (Timofeev, 2014; Timofeev, 2019). The purpose of this article is an examination of specifics of I. Stravinsky’s orchestral writing from the standpoint of peculiarity of application of constant principles of orchestral writing (multi-figure composition, combinatorics and plastique) in the ballet “Jeu de cartes” and the Variations (Aldous Huxley in Memoriam). The novelty of the article is caused by: 1)reveal of beforementioned principles; 2) examination of their existence in evolutionary perspective; 3) bringing attention to relevant problems of orchestration in I. Stravinsky’s works of Neo-Classical and late periods of creativity; 4) formulation of original scholarly definition of the term “orchestral writing”. Methods. In this article stylistic method is used – to study evolutionary processes of composer’s style in dialectic unity of constant and innovative; functional – to examine specifics of functional organisation of orchestral texture; comparative – to reveal different ways in which constant principles of orchestral writing are used on different stages of composer’s evolution. Results and Conclusions. Constant principles of orchestral writing (multifigure composition, combinatorics and plastique), which have already emerged in the primary period, are present in the works of Neo-Classical and late periods in different configurations of their relations. In the ballet “Jeu de cartes” multi-figure composition loses its role in comparison to the early works and is applied hidden due to: 1) motive variants (with the motives being stressed by timbre, texture or register); 2) textural complementarity (which means that multiple figures are used in timbrally-textural algorithm); 3) creation of “protracted” melody, in which the role of motivic “formula” is reduced (which is typical for I. Stravinsky’s Neo-Classical period). At the same time, continuity emerging in Neo-Classical works meets the tendency towards discretion due to influence of such principles as combinatorics and plastique, which retain their relevancy, being realised in different variants in the conditions of functional “clarity” of a texture, as it is a trait of composer’s Neo-Classical musical idiom. The orchestral writing of the Variations (Aldous Huxley in Memoriam) is defined by the principle of combinatorics with the usage of plastique. Serial technique contributed to its reveal. At the same time, the role of multi-figure composition is reduced to a bare minimum, which was caused by rejection of melodic “formularity”.

Essays

This article examines the phenomenon of the “decadent essay” through discussion of works by significant practitioners of the form, such as Oscar Wilde and Max Beerbohm. It argues that decadent writers played a sophisticated game whereby they adapted the discussion of their interests to the needs of the marketplace without appearing to make commercially-driven compromises. Using Virginia Woolf’s views of the essay as a defining reference point, the chapter looks at the ways in which Arthur Symons and Hubert Crackanthorpe articulated what decadence might be in both mainstream (Harper’s New Monthly Magazine) and more avant-garde periodicals (The Yellow Book and The Savoy). Finally, it considers some of the ways in which the associations and attitudes of decadence crossed over from essays into fiction by novelists such as Robert Hichens, Ada Leverson, and Aldous Huxley.

Death Existentiality in Philosophical Novels of Aldous Huxley: Culturological Approach

Cultural studies cover the genesis and development of culture as a specific human lifestyle. Its universals are representations of human cultural experience, including humans, their life and death. The meaning of human life, death, and immortality became the main objects for consideration and research at all stages of Aldous Huxley’s literary activity.The analysis of his early philosophical novels and novels that offer an anti-utopian model of culture shows his tendency to destroy his characters in order to defend their personalities, a refusal to accept the patterns of ordinary being, when the man’s will is aimed only at self-preservation and reproduction. To identify this tendency, we studied the novels Crome Yellow, Antic Hay, Point Counter Point, Eyeless in Gaza, After Many a Summer, Time Must Have a Stop, Brave New World, Ape and Essence. At this stage of spiritual search, A. Huxley justifies suicide as a way of self-realization.Having reached the level of the philosophical outlook, A. Huxley proposes and promotes the spiritual ideals of self-improvement, love for neighbour as for ‘another one’, the attitude to death as an existential, which is a certain stage of human existence, not tragic but natural. It is reflected in the novel Island. Thanatology is one of the main subjects at school. The yoga of death is promoted: it treats life and death as a single entity, as a kind of art, which should result in Paranirvana.The article proves that A. Huxley’s stance on the problems of purpose of life, death, and immortality had been changing along with the evolution of his outlook. It is shown how this genesis is reflected in A. Huxley’s literary works. Death in A. Huxley’s works is interpreted via meta-anthropological approach as the existential transcendent being of man.