Evening star., 1936-07-18
IN THE MAGAZINES
The Question of Diet for Summer Engages
Weeklies' Authors Find
Huxley a Puzzle.


tween his brittle intelligence and his
sense of experience, between his in
tellect and his sensibility, there has
always been in Huxley breach which
has prevented him from being q great
imaginative writer. Confronted in
mid-career with the reality of certain
values to which he had hitherto paid
little attention, his intelligence gives
the reins to his sensibility with an
abandonment that will shock some
very much less intelligent individuals.
For while a sense of the reality OF
human life does not make for any less
love, 1t does render impossible a bub-
bling romantic belief in the kind Of
disembodied human goodness and JUS
tice in which Huxley finally puts his
faith. 1t makes impossible any pro-
gram for men or societies that Is not
based on some objective system of
organization and control. But there is
sense in which Huxley, without ur-
dergoing a profound reorientatlon Of
mind and temperament could have ar
rived at no other solution to his prob
lem. From thinking too little of hu-
manity the romantic ironist has ended
by thinking too much; the wheel has
come full circle back to Rousseau"
ERETTY gocd-yes. And surpris-
ingly tolerant for leftist review,
too. For Huxley makes plain in his
book that he cares little for commu-
niSm, and while he expresses the view
point merely in passing, it might have
furnished some Of the more radical
critics full theme for the work. The
merit in Mr.. Troy's notice would seem
to lie in his observation that Huxley
could have arrived at no other solu-
tion''
For ali his past work has been,
essentially, question-what is the So
luton? And he has answered that
question consistently until now with
the word, Nothing" Sometimes it
was uttered in disgust, sometimes in
patience and sometimes, as in "Antic
Hay" in downright terror. But he
never failed to ask. And that, Of
course, was the clue 70 his mind and
soul.
Moreover, Aldous Huxley has written
with more courage than any other
person Of his day. He has laid bare
his own development in almost nvid
fashion, clearly impelled to do so by
his sense of truth, never with shadow
of exhibitionism. So much and 80
desperate a courage has been archaic
in our generation. Naturally, there
fore, when he has believed that he
has found his answer, he has had to
set it down. No critic can possibly be
as exquisitely aware of the implicit
comicality for it is funny-alas poor
Hamlet) as he himself. But there it
is. It will have to stand until he goes
beyond it.
And of course, it is inevitable, as Mr..
Troy observes. The fanatic deSpera-
ton Of Huxley's past quest would call
for fanatic solution. And that raises
the second question which seems to be
driving reviewers unhappily mad-just
how far can an author be diSasSociated
from his book? And that IS question
indeed
If, for example, "EyelesS in GAIA"
had come to hand anonymous, how
would critics have reacted to it? One
cannot say, for no review yet seen has
attempted to treat the book on its
merits as book. Every one of them
has been concerned with the state of
DEVELOPMENT which it demonstrated
in the author.
1t seems reasonable to guess, how
ever. that most of us would have writ
ten something like this:
"A new novel has just been issued
anonymously, and its ANONYMITY IS
beyond question the only interesting
thing about it. Its author does well
indeed to hide his identity. He Is,
all too evidently, an imitatcr OF the
Aldous Huxley school of writing, but
unfortunately, while he has partly
mastered the Superhcialities OF that
school, he has lacked the moral cour-
age of its founder. He has not been
brave enough to follow his argument
to its logical end. On the contrary
COR maybe au contraire) he has evaded
his obvious conclusion aud gone of
into an incomprehenSible kind OF
mysticism which has little place In q
modern work treating of modern men
and women. We suspect that our
writer is very young and that ne Is
either afraid of dark which he has so
rashly conjured up, or else is attempt
ing to please two partieS-the hectic
disillusionists on one hand and the
solid upholders of convention on the
other. Need we say that such in
sincerity can not possibly please any
one? We need not. We thunder 'no!'
Thumbs down with vengeance"
60 it is clear that the thing which
~ interest readers is Huxley and
not his novel, and so the reviewer re-
iteIateS that as a novelist he has writ
ten himself out AS philosopher, he
may Just be beginning. One cannot
say. But one cannot help wanting to
know. So vital a personality cannot
be ignored. This is his first real stop
ping place. 1t was inevitable" cer-
tainly. The momentum Of youth Is
ended. Where will he go from here?
An interesting statement Of the I'M
portance of localities in the coming
campaign is contained in an editorial
in the current Golfers. 1t is called
"Out Where the Vote Begins" It's
substance is that as the Middle West
goes, so will 60 the Nation.
Whatever the outcome Of the presi-
Dental campaign" says the writer,
"the Middle West will win" And it
goes on to say that Gov. Landon
is as typically Kansas as a sunfiower,"
while President Roosevelt's policies
are essentially Midwestern. Nebraska
and Wisconsin and the adjacent
States were the seedbeds Of the pro-
gram he has sponsored"
That this is far from being dis
advantageous to the rest Of the coun-
try is the conclusion Of the piece.
"In the long rum" it says. 1--WE