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A review by steveatwaywords
Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Huxley's experimental form in Ape and Essence (a movie transcript partially framed inside a couple of Hollywood-types seeking its author) is an intriguing choice. I wondered frequently what it accomplished: What does the story frame (offered only in Chapter 1 and not again) and then the odd, surreal, hypnotic story (with apocalyptic fables, ape characters, and pseudo-Greek chorus beside a post-war irradiated survivor-society)--what does it add to Huxley's clearly satirical and heavy-handed lecturing on human morality? My answer is, largely nothing but a creative distraction, perhaps from the ranting politics of its author (only poorly disguised as the script-writer himself).
So distracting was this quaalude-induced storybuilding, that I had a difficult time enjoying Huxley's vision for what it was: a darkly accurate portrayal of how close to the cultural skin our biology sits, and how a literal flick-of-the-social-switch can turn human behavior upon itself, transform our sense of reason and submission, surrender our ambition to happiness to one of deserved misery. And it requires little more than a reinterpretation, a reinscribing, of our existing symbols to accomplish it. As intimate as culture and biology are, so too are Christianity and devilry, procreation and devastation, abeyance and detestation, peace and destruction.
Many are reading this now, in the 2020s, as prophetic of our current political malaise, globally and in the US. I agree that we can be much informed by books like this, our politician machinations and our own subservience might be made transparent. But nothing about Huxley is merely contemporary: this condition of fragility has always existed, and for this, missing Huxley for the over-obsessed Orwell misses something darker in our own hearts.
So reading Ape and Essence now--whenever your now is--makes a lot of sense. Just swallow hard at the opening weirdness, feel free to dig into the first chapter's historical references or not, but dwell on the story. And pray for detumescence.
So distracting was this quaalude-induced storybuilding, that I had a difficult time enjoying Huxley's vision for what it was: a darkly accurate portrayal of how close to the cultural skin our biology sits, and how a literal flick-of-the-social-switch can turn human behavior upon itself, transform our sense of reason and submission, surrender our ambition to happiness to one of deserved misery. And it requires little more than a reinterpretation, a reinscribing, of our existing symbols to accomplish it. As intimate as culture and biology are, so too are Christianity and devilry, procreation and devastation, abeyance and detestation, peace and destruction.
Many are reading this now, in the 2020s, as prophetic of our current political malaise, globally and in the US. I agree that we can be much informed by books like this, our politician machinations and our own subservience might be made transparent. But nothing about Huxley is merely contemporary: this condition of fragility has always existed, and for this, missing Huxley for the over-obsessed Orwell misses something darker in our own hearts.
So reading Ape and Essence now--whenever your now is--makes a lot of sense. Just swallow hard at the opening weirdness, feel free to dig into the first chapter's historical references or not, but dwell on the story. And pray for detumescence.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Child death
Moderate: War
This is a stark novel on the bestial nature of mankind, very explicit for Huxley's time (1948).