Ep111: Exploring Utopian Visions with Aldous Huxley's 'Island'

Ready to step away from the dystopian narrative and into the realm of utopian visions? Aldous Huxley's less known but profoundly philosophical novel, Island, is a beautiful exploration of a utopian society and the ideals of humanity. This episode of Truth and Transcendence delves into the philosophical notions embedded in Island, inviting listeners to contemplate the best version of themselves and society at large.

Through the skeptical eyes of a journalist, we examine the intricate dance of disbelief and acceptance of utopian ideologies. We'll also navigate the value of dystopia in illuminating our shadow selves, with a nod to Ursula Le Guin's Left Hand of Darkness, emphasising the importance of acknowledging both light and darkness in our lives. The episode concludes with a poignant extract from Island, shedding light on Huxley's deep-seated belief in the inherent compassion in us all.  I hope you enjoy this exploration of Huxley's enlightening work, where we ponder over humanity, culture, society, and our ultimate potential.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Truth and Transcendence brought to you by being Space with Katherine Llewellyn. Truth and Transcendence, episode 111. You've probably heard of a book called Brave New World. It's been talked about a lot in the last few years and they've actually made a TV show about it. Written by Aldous Huxley, it's one of his more famous books and in Brave New World he talks about how things could get really, really bad if we keep following progress. He wrote it in the 1930s, at which point in time there was a lot of excitement about progress, technology, improvements in humanity having control over nature. So Brave New World is very well known. A lot of us read it at school fantastic book. You may not have heard of another book he wrote called Island, which he wrote 30 years later and where Brave New World was dystopian. Island is utopian and according to the Times it's one of the great philosophical novels and I actually tend to agree this whole notion of utopianism, thinking about what could be an ideal situation, what is the ideal for humanity, what's the ideal culture, the ideal society, what's the ideal way for us to be as humans.

Speaker 1: 1:43

Now some people say that utopianism is just magical thinking, is just wishful thinking, pie in the sky, and yes, there is of course that danger. But I think utopianism has its place in the sense that it invites us to connect with that which we can imagine, that which we yearn for, that which the soul wants and hopes and wishes could occur. And I think it's really important for us to allow ourselves to connect with that hopeful, innocent, yearning, visionary aspect of ourselves. And I'm talking about something that goes way beyond coming up with a goal, coming up with a mission for our lives. All of these things which could be relatively pragmatic, relatively practical. Utopianism goes way beyond that, into what's an almost magical, almost mythical, wonderful, brilliant, inspiring, exquisite vision that we might have for the ideal. And he actually has a quote at the beginning of the book from Aristotle which says in framing an ideal, we may assume what we wish, but should avoid impossibilities. Now I suspect Aristotle had quite a sense of humour, because how on earth do we know what is or isn't an impossibility and how do we know whether what we're assuming is possible or not possible? So I think that's one of those quotes that one could meditate on and write a PhD about over quite a period of time.

Speaker 1: 3:31

So I'm suggesting it is valuable to tune into utopianism. I think it can be valuable as well to tune into dystopianism, because that helps us to recognise the shadow Again. Some of us bowl through life and potter along only looking at the bright side, only looking at the silver lining, and discounting all of the stuff that's not so great or that's pretty awful, appalling. I think it's important for us to look at the light and look at the dark, look at the dark and look at the light. I'm also reading Ursula Le Guin's the Left Hand of Darkness at the moment and in there there's a beautiful quote which is that light is the left hand of darkness and dark is the right hand of light, and both hands have to exist together Very powerful.

Speaker 1: 4:31

So in Ireland I'm not going to give away the plot, but I will say that there's this island where there's been a social experiment going on for about 100 years and in that social experiment most of the core and significant aspects of being human have been explored and played with and inquired into and investigated, and there is a very beautiful situation existing on this particular island and the story is told through the eyes of a cynical journalist, a jaded, world-weary journalist, who finds himself on the island unexpectedly. So it tells the story through the eyes of how any one of us might regard a utopian vision, beginning with cynicism, doubt, confusion, and then gradually, tentatively, beginning to explore and learn and dip in one's toe, as it were, and start to find out about what's going on, initially mentally and rationally, and then, as time goes on, he allows his emotionality to come into his connection and receptivity of this experience and then, finally, his imagination and, ultimately, his spirituality. And it's an extremely beautiful book. I highly recommend it. I'm going to put a link in the show notes and I'm just going to read you a short extract from near the end of the book, which is at a moment where he finds a beautiful connection with something in terms of his experience of reality and meaning. And I'm also leaving out a sentence, also in the middle of this extract, which makes no sense if you haven't read the book. So here we go.

Speaker 1: 6:28

The chap's name is Will, and Will saw the suchness of the world and his own being blazing away with the clear light that was also compassion, the clear light that, like everyone else, he had always chosen to be blind to, the compassion to which he had always preferred his tortures, endured or inflicted his squalid solitudes. And, in the remote background, the great world of impersonal forces and proliferating numbers of collective paranoias and organised diabolism. And always, everywhere, there would be the yelling or quietly authoritative hymn, and in the train of the ruling suggestion givers, always and everywhere, the tribes of buffoons and hucksters, the professional liars, the purveyors of entertaining irrelevances. Conditioned from the cradle, unceasingly distracted, mesmerised systematically, their uniformed victims would go on obediently marching and counter marching, go on, always and everywhere, killing and dying with the perfect docility of trained poodles. And yet, in spite of the entirely justified refusal to take yes for an answer, the fact remained and would remain always remain everywhere the fact that there was this capacity, even in a paranoiac for intelligence, even in a devil worshipper for love, the fact that the ground of all being could be totally manifest in a flowering shrub, a human face, the fact that there was a light and that this light was also compassion. So I find that such an utterly beautiful piece and I feel deeply moved by it and touched by it. And you can hear in there that Huxley is referring to the shadow and referring to the light.

Speaker 1: 8:47

So I highly recommend Island. I also, of course, recommend Brave New World, and some of Huxley's other books are just astonishing. But this particular one it was his last book. He died not long after. I think it was the pinnacle of his contribution to humanity. So thank you for listening, have a wonderful week and I will see you next time. Thank you for listening to Truth and Transcendence and thank you for supporting the show by rating, reviewing, subscribing, buying me a coffee and telling a friend. If you'd like to know more about my work, you can find out about mentoring, workshops and energy treatments on beingspaceworld. Have a wonderful week and I'll see you next time.