CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley

[Diable Rouge]

Twenty-four hours premature, I'll grant, but with JFK dominating all media tomorrow, these literary greats' 50th anniversaries need metaphorical room to breathe. Clive Staples Lewis may have been born in Belfast, but unlike his contemporary, Louis McNeice, his Ulster background had little noticeable impact on his writings. His re-born Christianity permeated his work however, in The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, and of course, his most famous series, the Chronicles of Narnia. His science-fiction writings were also critically acclaimed in his lifetime, and through his involvement in the Inklings, his critical input helped develop Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

Genetics may have assisted Aldous Huxley's career, his uncle T.H Huxley being the most prominent Victorian defender of Darwin and coining the neologism "agnostic". Aldous himself, however, took a more jaundiced view of science and technology, his capitalist dystopian masterpiece Brave New World depicting assisted reproduction through IVF in an era "After Ford", though Island offered a utopian contrast on similar themes. Huxley went on to have a posthumous cultural impact, his account of psychedelic experimentation, The Doors of Perception, influencing a young Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek when titling their Sixties rock band.

Tomorrow, they may be overshadowed, but their legacy has been considerable.

[Duncan Gardner]

CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley

Didn't discover Narnia* as a kid, but I once read his Problem with Pain. It was fairly depressing.

Huxley is also celebrated in song by Sheryl Crow.

* Lewis did attend his local school in Belfast, Campbell College. Notorious in my day, and probably his for forcing adolescents to wear short trousers...

[Disco Child Ballads]

CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a great book, but it does show what a complete snob Huxley was about popular culture.

[Edie St Pierre]

CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley

Really, I haven't read 'Brave New World' yet. I've always been led to believe it was the growth of advertising and the mass media he was afraid of.

I've only read 'Crome Yellow' by Huxley. I really enjoyed it though, and as my plan is to read all of his books in chronological order - so I can see the way his ideas develop, see - i've got 'Antic Hay' to read next.

I can't stop reading bloody ghost stories at the moment. I'm addicted to them. Marjorie Bowen. Oliver Onions. Edith Nesbitt. All that Edwardian stuff.

[ConcreteDaisy]

CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley

I haven't listened to it all myself, but if you're interested in Huxley then there is a CD (it's also on Spotify) called Speaking Personally that covers a range of subjects, and his thoughts on them. He was certainly a man with an interesting, or at least curious, mind.

Of his books, I loved Eyeless In Gaza, which is well worth reading - even more so than Brave New World, although that is probably more important with the ideas and thoughts expressed within.