Aldous Huxley and the Mysticism of Science

244 Pages·1996·13.24 MB·English

by  June Deery

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