Evening star., 1948-08-22


BY Aldous Huxley. Harper,
$780,
Reviewed by
CARTER BROOKE JONES.
This is Mr.. Huxley's glimpse into
the potential future of our atomic
era. The resulting fantasy IS 6
devastating satire on what coulc
develop from our trend of scientific
destruction and clashing ideologies
( 1t is doubtful if more scathine
attack on the evils of any period
has been made. And yet Mr.. Hux-
ley's fable is too logical to be farce
too rooted in dreadful fact to be
laughed of, too literate and philo-
sophical not to be read thought
fully.
In Brave New World" which
came out 16 years ago, Mr.. Huxley
described society bent on self
destruction. Events of the inter-
vening years have made that tale
not nearly so improbable as it may
have seemed when it was published
But the Second World War and
atomic force have altered the imag-
ined future, and APE and Essence
is the shape of new shadows on the
horizon.
Los Angeles Explored.
Mr.. Huxley projects us into the
22d century America has been de-
stroyed in a third world war. The
whole civilized world has gone, ex-
cept New Zealand, which, because
of it's strategic unimportance, has
been forgotten and allowed to live
on in isolation. A scientific expe-
dition of New Zealanders is landing
in California to rediscover the
United States. to find out if there
still is life here and what sort.
The scientists find dirty, ill-olad
men and women living among the
ruins of Los Angeles. Their god is
Belial, the prototype of evil, and
they practice savage cruelties in an
effort to please and placate him.
AS one of their high priests explains
to DR.. Poole, the New Zealand bot
anist, whom they have captured.
they worship evil instead of good
because they are convinced that
back in the goth century his satanic
majesty conquered the hearts of
men. How else could you account
Tor their use of science to destroy
their own kind, for wars that OBJ
liberated whole populations, for a
concept of progress and national
ism that meant only killing and
terror?
Causes of the Great Collapse.
"They had to do what the Belial
in them dictated-and the Belial in
them wanted the Communist revo-
luton, wanted the Fascist reaction
to that revolution, wanted Musso-
lini and Hitler and the Politburo,
wanted famine, imitation and de-
preston; wanted ornaments as a
cure for unemployment: wanted the
persecution of the Jews and the
Kulaks; wanted the Nazis and the
Communists to divide Poland and
then go to war with one another.
Yes, and he wanted the wholesale
revival of slavery in its most brutal
form. He wanted forced migrations
and mass pauperization. He wanted
concentration camps and gas cham
bers and cremation ovens. He
wanted saturation bombing (what
a deliciously juicy phraseD; he
wanted the destruction overnight of
a centurys accumulation of wealth
and all the potentialities of future
prosperity, decency, freedom and
culture"
And DR.. Poole's adventures among
these strange neo-barbarians are
described in pungent Huxleyan.
Earlier in the book there is an in
terlude in which ape soldiers wage
the final war, with scientists led on
leashes and urged with whips. Per-
fected bacterial bombs pack up
atomic missiles.
The whole thing is told in the
form of a movie script which an
unknown writer submitted in 1948
and Hollywood, of course, rejected.
There is poetry in it, a grisly sort
of hWmor and savage disillusion,
Who can say that the picture Is
overdrawn?
THIS VERY EARTH
BY ErSkine Caldwell. (DueU,
Sloan e. Pearce: S2.75.J
Mr.. Calwell exposes another group
from his gallery of substandard
Southern characters. These are a
long way above the people who lived
in Tobacco Road and vet most
of them a fur piece" from the
bourgeois virtues of probity and
respectability.
This Very Earth is better nov
el than Mr. Caldwell has written
recently. 1t has wider scope, and
its characterizations are more than
outlined-they are developed. It is
notably better than his last novel,
The Sure Hand of God" trivial
story redeemed only by its earthly
humor.
The new book contains some of
some of the most plant. weak-willed
women, even Mr.. Caldwell, ever
fetched Maybe there are such
, people; he manages to make them
plausible. And he has a skill at
swift narrative that makes you for
give him lot. including the sort
of people he insists on bringing
around After his wife's death,
Chism Crockett left the farm, which
he hated, and moved into own, with
his octogenarian father, three grown
daughters and an 11-year- -old son
Dorisse married Nobby Hair, who
was utterly worthless and sponged
off the family. Vickie worked as a
night waitress at the Rainbow Cafe
and was always willing to compro-
mise between virtue and opportu.
nifty. Jane was in high school.
= The oldest son. Ross, loomed
above the others. He had become
l~x