91st out of 468 books
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1,440 voters
Ape and Essence
In this savage novel Huxley transports us to Los Angeles in the year 2018, where we learn to our dismay about the 21st-century way of life.
Paperback, 213 pages
Published
August 1st 1992
by Ivan R. Dee Publisher
(first published 1948)
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Though I adored Brave New World, I had quite honestly never even heard of Ape and Essence. Never again will I make the mistake of relegating an author to the "one-book-wonder" list. This little 150 page book is so strange, eerie, beautiful and perfect it has gone straight into my all-time favourites list.
It is clear from Brave New World that Huxley had a huge problem with the egotistical nationalism of modern society. Ape and Essence takes this view to an extreme, and though I agreed with many...more
It is clear from Brave New World that Huxley had a huge problem with the egotistical nationalism of modern society. Ape and Essence takes this view to an extreme, and though I agreed with many...more
Re-reading my precious 1st edition
page 51 "Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth. What remains in the bum or studiedly jocular desperation of one who is aware of the obscene Presence in the corner of the room and knows that the door is locked, that there aren’t any windows. And now the thing bears down on him. He feels a hand on his sleeve, smells a stinking breath, as the executioner’s assistant leans almost amorously toward him. “Your...more
page 51 "Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth. What remains in the bum or studiedly jocular desperation of one who is aware of the obscene Presence in the corner of the room and knows that the door is locked, that there aren’t any windows. And now the thing bears down on him. He feels a hand on his sleeve, smells a stinking breath, as the executioner’s assistant leans almost amorously toward him. “Your...more
Jan 29, 2008
Andy
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
DEVO fans, 1930's musical fans, sci-fi Hollywood types
Shelves:
20th-century-blues
While I was reading this book I laughed and realized this is where DEVO got all their shit from. Huxley, back in the 1930's said (in this brilliant novel) that while we technologically advance we will behave more and more like crazed apes..."The Truth Behind De-Evolution". I'm sure the Mothersbaugh and Casale Brothers read this book more than a few times when they attended Kent State in Ohio.
Huxley switches time span gears like crazy, veering from a Darwinian 1930's Busby Berkeley musical to a...more
Huxley switches time span gears like crazy, veering from a Darwinian 1930's Busby Berkeley musical to a...more
Another great take on where's society is headed, Huxley presents this in two very lopsided chapters; the former dealing with the finding of a rejected screenplay and the quest to find the writer, and the actual screenplay itself. Another of his dystopian works, it takes place in a post-nuclear Los Angeles, where society has crumbled into a superstitious, misogynistic, and quite evil society after only 2 generations. Without going into the plot too deeply, the basic moral is that the razor-thin v...more
Aldous Huxley (1949). Ape and Essence. London: Vintage. 2005. ISBN 9781409079668. Pagine 176. 6,01 €
Aldous Huxley è un autore che mi piace molto: Brave New World è e resta la mia distopia preferita, ho molto amato Chrome Yellow (se non l’avete letto, attualmente è gratis su Kindle) ma soprattutto Point Counter Point è stato il libro per eccellenza di un periodo (burrascoso) della mia vita. Naturale, quindi, che potessi essere tentato da un libro di Huxley, pur sapendo che correvo qualche rischio...more
Aldous Huxley è un autore che mi piace molto: Brave New World è e resta la mia distopia preferita, ho molto amato Chrome Yellow (se non l’avete letto, attualmente è gratis su Kindle) ma soprattutto Point Counter Point è stato il libro per eccellenza di un periodo (burrascoso) della mia vita. Naturale, quindi, che potessi essere tentato da un libro di Huxley, pur sapendo che correvo qualche rischio...more
Well if Hux were around to day perhaps he'd be amazed how close we're coming to this (less well-known than BNW) negative Utopia. In a world where crotchless thongs are marketed to 9-year- olds, college coaches (as well as priests) sodomize boys-not-yet-men, women advertise themselves via the internet promising no more than a cooling effluvia of ejaculata, and countless millions of might-have-been love stories are food for salt, blood, and tears; it might not be such a far stretch to conclude hi...more
Says the Arch-Vicar in Huxley's post-apocalyptic America: "I tell you, my dear sir, an undevout historian is mad. The longer you study modern history, the more evidence you find of Belial's Guiding Hand. . . . And then there was Nationalism - the theory that the state you happen to be subject to is the only true god, and that all other states are false gods; that all these gods, true as well as false, have the mentality of juvenile delinquents; and that every conflict over prestige, power or mon...more
Aldous Huxley is somewhat of an acquired literary taste-- I never cared for "Brave new World" as much as many of my compatriots. But I felt I finally owed myself to read this after promising to do so for decades. "Ape and Essence" has been called Huxley's re-thinking of "Brave New World" in the light of Hiroshima. It's a dystopian fantasy of America post-nuclear holocaust, presented in the charming form of a screenplay. The prelude to the actual story is a sardonic scene involving two Hollywood...more
Excellent! The premise is that two film makers in a futuristic L.A. find a film manuscript titled Ape and Essence and go to the address listed looking for the author. Alas, the author has passed away so we move on to reading the manuscript. It is LA in 2108 in a post nuclear holocaust world. A group of scientist from New Zeleand land on the shores of southern California and encounter a fallout society that is cruel and violently patriarchical. This society follows a demonic cult and has yearly c...more
Ape and Essence (Harper and Row, NYC, 1948)
I didn't even know that Aldous Huxley had written this. Found it on a 25 cent cart at the hospital while at work. As per Huxley it deals with utopian or not, approaches to futuristic concepts. Not really Sci-Fi but take a Brave New World, for instance. I personally have always loved Doors of Perception, however this book is short, inspiring and challenging in its picture of human (de)volution. One idea that I had never thought of, within a survivalist c...more
I didn't even know that Aldous Huxley had written this. Found it on a 25 cent cart at the hospital while at work. As per Huxley it deals with utopian or not, approaches to futuristic concepts. Not really Sci-Fi but take a Brave New World, for instance. I personally have always loved Doors of Perception, however this book is short, inspiring and challenging in its picture of human (de)volution. One idea that I had never thought of, within a survivalist c...more
I didn't always appreciate (have enough knowledge to understand) Aldous's vague learned references like, "A modern day Lord Chesire would have defined this absurdist pre-modern zietgeist as crudely as true Aristotelian Ethics demanded. One proverbial foot would be dangling into the pseudo-Homerian Garden of Lost Souls while another floated through Brunsweiller's third symphonic gesture, allegory and all, with Lord Byronesque apathetic aspiration. As I looked upon the Arigulan Romantic with the c...more
Originally published on my blog here.
When I came across Ape and Essence in the local library, I was surprised. I like Huxley, and I have read a lot of science fiction, but here was a science fiction novel by Huxley I'd never heard of before, let alone read.
On reading it, the reason that Ape and Essence is comparatively obscure is pretty clear. It is, firstly, not a conventional novel. It purports to be a short description of the discovery of a film script in a Hollywood studio's reject file, fol...more
When I came across Ape and Essence in the local library, I was surprised. I like Huxley, and I have read a lot of science fiction, but here was a science fiction novel by Huxley I'd never heard of before, let alone read.
On reading it, the reason that Ape and Essence is comparatively obscure is pretty clear. It is, firstly, not a conventional novel. It purports to be a short description of the discovery of a film script in a Hollywood studio's reject file, fol...more
Huxley is sadly only regularly associated with two works. Either the disutopic Brave New World or the psychedelic cult classic, Doors of Perception. In my opinion, his abilities as a writer cannot be realized with only those two titles.
Ape and Essence is a dis-utopia that is seemingly a direct response to the use of atomic weapons by the United States. The book is short and concise but creates vivid imagery as it is written as a screen play that had been discarded by some Hollywood executive.
Wh...more
Ape and Essence is a dis-utopia that is seemingly a direct response to the use of atomic weapons by the United States. The book is short and concise but creates vivid imagery as it is written as a screen play that had been discarded by some Hollywood executive.
Wh...more
Two motion picture executives stumble across a screenplay in the lot. The majority of the book is the text of that document. It is about a future era, post World War III, when the residents of Southern California worship the devil and sex is outlawed except for two weeks once per year. The resulting infants are increasingly more deformed due to radiation fallout. The action of the 'film' seems to be mostly an excuse to espouse the philosophy that human kind, following the Second World War were i...more
Huxley starts this novel with two Hollywood types discovering a screenplay by William Tallis. They track him down only to find out that he has passed on, and the rest of the novel is his screenplay. Taking place in the year 2108 we come to find that there has been a Third World War and North America and other parts of the world have been nuked. The danger of the radiation has subsided and people are beginning to explore these parts of the world. The main character Dr. Alfred Poole happens to be...more
I can't really determined what to think about this book.
What I love about Huxley is the fact that he can think about the future, the human society in ways nobody else can. But this book was...almost predictable. I couldn't find any reason why women were considered evil incarnate in this book. In a way, it really seemed like Huxley decided to revisit the times of geographical discovery- the first time white men discovered America or even Africa.
Maybe this is how he saw it. It is a big deal that...more
What I love about Huxley is the fact that he can think about the future, the human society in ways nobody else can. But this book was...almost predictable. I couldn't find any reason why women were considered evil incarnate in this book. In a way, it really seemed like Huxley decided to revisit the times of geographical discovery- the first time white men discovered America or even Africa.
Maybe this is how he saw it. It is a big deal that...more
Apr 26, 2009
Christina
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Fans of 1984, Faranheit 451, rabblerousers...
I loved this book! So many reasons why, but the most obvious reason being the fact that it took place in a post-apocalyptic world where people were supressed and controlled by those in charge. I cannot even tell you how many times I have read books with the same theme and I am still enthralled every single time. Huxely puts a good small irony at the ending which makes it worth the quick read. And the having the story within the story is an excellent difference too. I can see the similarities bet...more
Not sure what to say about this one. A weird little post-apocalyptic romance of sorts. A sci-fi reaction to Hiroshima. Dark, surreal, and at times funny, though I'm not entirely sure elements of the structure--particularly the screenplay's bizarre narrator, the Camera pans--always work. There's something about it where the characters feel flat in relation to Huxley's ideas or message, but at the same time I appreciate the absurdity of it all. Slightly reminiscent of early Vonnegut, which obvious...more
Sep 09, 2010
Frank Jude
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Frank Jude by:
Jeff Sewall
Shelves:
fiction-novels
Another dystopian tale from Aldous Huxley, Ape And Essence offers a terrifying vision of humanity's possible future. While the vision may seem a bit over-the-top in some particulars, the explanation of just how 'mankind' could end up in such a debased state sounds all too possible! There are folk 'out there' that had they their druthers, their actions would get us to such a state!
That said, as a novel, the screenplay technique doesn't really cut it, so I took off one star for failed form!
That said, as a novel, the screenplay technique doesn't really cut it, so I took off one star for failed form!
After witnessing the horrors of World War II, Huxley adapted his fears and predictions about the future of humanity. Instead of the advanced technology and drugged ignorance of Brave New World (pub 1932), the fictitious movie script that takes up most of Ape and Essence (pub 1948) focuses on a small tribe of deformed nuclear war survivors who, after watching society destroy itself and its environment, have given into their bestial and Belial natures.
As expected, Huxley delivers insightful and t...more
As expected, Huxley delivers insightful and t...more
Ape and Essence is a brief, bizarre, and ludicrously overwritten work of dystopian fiction. The book follows the discovery and full recital of a mysterious play; a play which was almost certainly written by Huxley while under the influence of a particularly foul hallucinogenic substance. Serious fans of Huxley and the dystopian sub-genre of science fiction may find the book worth pursuing, but I cannot honestly say that I would recommend it to any man, woman or child...
I'm honestly not sure what to feel about this book. The first thing to note is that it's not nearly as accessible as Brave New World. It's much less straight forward, more surreal, and sometimes I felt that a thesaurus vomited on a few pages of it. It's not an easy book to follow, and there were some parts I really didn't understand until I started reading about it online.
However, once you get into the swing, and you figure out who's doing what (I had to go back and reread a few times to sort s...more
However, once you get into the swing, and you figure out who's doing what (I had to go back and reread a few times to sort s...more
a great surrealist, satirical mini-dystopia.
Huxley's time as a screen writer in Hollywood was clearly influential, with the majority of the text taking the form of a script from a fictional character.
the script itself is similar to BNW insofar as it envisions a much changed earth; this time because of nuclear war. This time, the ideologies of religion are more the focus, as well as mankind's self-destructive nature
Huxley's time as a screen writer in Hollywood was clearly influential, with the majority of the text taking the form of a script from a fictional character.
the script itself is similar to BNW insofar as it envisions a much changed earth; this time because of nuclear war. This time, the ideologies of religion are more the focus, as well as mankind's self-destructive nature
I bought this after reading and enjoying the better known Brave New World. It's presented in an unusual way, based on someone finding a script which then forms the basis of the book. As with BNW, it has a futuristic setting, about some scientists travelling to a post nuclear city and what they find. For me, it didn't have the charm of BNW. It's quite short, and I think I may have enjoyed more had AH fleshed it out a bit more.
Story wise this book was pretty interesting, but that's pretty much all it had. It just wasn't par with other Huxley novels I've read (Brave New World, The Devil's of Loudun). I loved the setting (I'm a huge fan of anything dystopian/post-apocalyptic) but I felt short changed; that deep intellectual element that I find in most Huxley novels just wasn't there.
A small group of scientists from New Zealand re-explore the coasts of California after the WW3. One of them is captured by the savage descendants of the survivors. He gets to learn their barbaric society, Satanist religion, and eugenic way of reproduction. Although Huxley didn't really utilize the potential of the story, it's still worth reading.
Having never read anything by Huxley besides "Brave New World," I was not sure what to expect. I'm pleasantly surprised. Huxley manages to build a whole different type future with this book and tells its story in an interesting way. While it can get a little heavy-handed at times, the bulk of this reads like watching a movie and still manages to integrate poetry, dialogue, and straight narration into the flow of things. I need to dig more into some Huxley deep cuts if the rest of his work is any...more
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Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through his novels and es...more
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“Love casts out fear; but conversely fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth. What remains in the bum or studiedly jocular desperation of one who is aware of the obscene Presence in the corner of the room and knows that the door is locked, that there aren’t any windows. And now the thing bears down on him. He feels a hand on his sleeve, smells a stinking breath, as the executioner’s assistant leans almost amorously toward him. “Your turn next, brother. Kindly step this way.” And in an instant his quiet terror is transmuted into a frenzy as violent as it is futile. There is no longer a man among his fellow men, no longer a rational being speaking articulately to other rational beings; there is only a lacerated animal, screaming and struggling in the trap. For in the end fear casts out even a man’s humanity. And fear, my good friends, fear is the very basis and foundation of modern life. Fear of the much touted technology which, while it raises out standard of living, increases the probability of our violently dying. Fear of the science which takes away the one hand even more than what it so profusely gives with the other. Fear of the demonstrably fatal institutions for while, in our suicidal loyalty, we are ready to kill and die. Fear of the Great Men whom we have raised, and by popular acclaim, to a power which they use, inevitably, to murder and enslave us. Fear of the war we don’t want yet do everything we can to bring about.”
—
60 people liked it
“The leech's kiss, the squid's embrace,
The prurient ape's defiling touch:
And do you like the human race?
No, not much.”
—
26 people liked it
More quotes…
The prurient ape's defiling touch:
And do you like the human race?
No, not much.”

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Aug 04, 2008 08:36am