The Primal Urge

by Brian W. Aldiss

In the long tide of history, the world-famous reticence of the British is a very recent development. Less than a hundred years old in fact. The rakish ways of the regency, the roistering Restoration and the downright rowdyism of the Tudor era are older and more firmly rooted traditions among these tough island people that Victorian middle-class morality or latter day neo-Freudianism.

It needed only a gadget – a mechanical marvel – to make the British dispense with polite fol-de-rol and come right out with the view that sex does exist. Once having admitted this, the English Government, always fiercely partisan in their gloriously muddle-headed fashion, refused to permit anybody to be without sex.

Anyone could have told them this would make trouble.

For if the British have a proud (if somewhat obscure) history of joyous licentiousness, they have an equally proud history of stubborn refusal to permit any invasion of their private lives. Thus the struggle began. Although not titanic in proportions (it is, after all, a quite smal island) its results were hilarious and its effects far-reaching, indeed, world-wide - and that too was part of a proud British tradition.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Pseudonyms: Jael Cracken, Peter Pica, John Runciman, C.C. Shackleton, Arch Mendicant, & "Doc" Peristyle.

Brian Wilson Aldiss was one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He wrote his first novel while working as a bookseller in Oxford. Shortly afterwards he wrote his first work of science fiction and soon gained international recognition. Adored for his innovative literary techniques, evocative plots and irresistible characters, he became a Grand Master of Science Fiction in 1999.
Brian Aldiss died on August 19, 2017, just after celebrating his 92nd birthday with his family and closest friends.

Brian W. Aldiss Group on Good Reads

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novel that explores the thorny moral question: what would happen if people were forced to wear a device on their head that signalled their sexual arousal? Aldiss takes this conceit into breezier territory than one might expect—up until the civil war and potential downfall of the British state, obvs—with the protagonist wafting between objects of ardour in a cozy bourgeois social clique. A mix of light comedy and social commentary, the novel’s tittery tone keeps it from truly plunging into the horror of its conceit.

[Manny · Rating 2 out of 5]

An Aldiss novel with a very 60s idea. Suppose that everyone were equipped with a clearly visible indicator, placed on their forehead, which showed when they were sexually aroused? Well, I suppose that that's what the 60s were all about. The book is a kind of shaggy dog story, but I won't give away the punchline - it's reasonably funny.

As is often the case, the real world has now caught up - when I was in Japan earlier this month, I heard that there had been a craze for a closely related idea a few years ago. You registered your personal data and preferences on a website and downloaded the app on to your GPS-equipped mobile phone. When you were feeling horny, you just discretely pushed a button, and it would alert you to other users in the vicinity who might be interested in hooking up with you. I was curious to know more - in particular, why the scheme had initially been popular and then more or less disappeared - but the person who told me the story had never tried it and didn't know.

Is anyone here better informed? My guess is that people were too dishonest about registering their personal data, but I could be wrong...

[Thomas Stroemquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd idea (the ER that is), an OK book. This one echoes at least a bit of the great dystopian ones (This Perfect Day, 1984, Brave New World...), but, strangely enough, feels much more dated than any of those. It's definitely interesting as a time document though.

[Chris Rigby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brian Aldiss became a very good science fiction writer. This novel, however, barely qualifies either as a good book or as science fiction, despite its central motif of the Emotional Register which the population of Britain in 1961 is required to have implanted into their foreheads.

Actually, this novel is less about the futuristic ER, and more a sideswipe at British culture just before the Swinging Sixties threw all such prognostications out the window and made them irrelevant overnight. The main problem with it though, is not its now horribly dated milieu (which actually fascinates - a window into an era that time has largely forgotten), but by the young Aldiss's attempts to be unendingly clever. Clearly, in his youth, he was aiming to be "the new CP Snow" or "the new Kingsley Amis", and in this he fails. Every character on every page is positively dripping with oh-so-clever or oh-so-weary insights into the Future Of Culture, or The State Of The Nation, either in narrative (oh really? People actually talked that way?) or in thought.

By the end of the novel, you're as tired and cynical as the main protagonist Jimmy Solent, and no closer to understanding the main theme, except that the "British are repressed about sex". It's not a boring novel, but it is unconvincing and in love with its own 'bon mots'.

[Fred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting novel I doubt anyone will ever read, but if you do, the most fascinating thing was a little passage about the angles of a rooms' architecture mirroring the sexuality of the female lead. It was very Ballard-esque, but written five years before Ballard's more well-known Atrocity Exhibitions and Crash. Stuff like that, British new wave work. Good book, but three months later I barely remember it, which could equally be the fault of the book or my aging brain. Good read especially if you like literary fiction more than SF, in which case you probably aren't reading this. Enjoy!

[latner3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

"a romantic satirical comedy." Bit daft but still thought provoking.Previously banned in Ireland.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3762027.html

The Primal Urge is both more approachable that Cryptozoic! and has aged much less well. The story is about the revolution in 1961 Britain caused when everyone of adult age installs lights in their forehead which glow if they are sexually attracted to the person they are speaking to. (The book was banned in Ireland.) A few foolish people resist the compulsory modification to their bodies, but the population as a whole embraces it, and soon, each other. The humour is not exactly subtle - one of the protagonist's love interests is called Rose English, and there is a psychiatrist called Dr Croolter B. Kind. It's a long way down the list of Aldiss's novels, perhaps an attempt to break into the mainstream by writing a contemporary comic novel with an sfnal twist, and for that reason has dated very badly; but it's clearly written and you know where you are.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having heard this author billed as one of the "Sci Fi Classics" I was very disappointed. This book was first published in 1961 an has not aged well - from their odd attitudes to television, archaic words for items of furniture and very tiresome attitudes to women to sexuality. The concept was interesting but, given that my immersion in the story was hampered by the aforementioned cultural offset, the plot wildly diverged from interesting exploration of the impact of technology on society to wild adventure where brave hero is strong and moral, saves the day and gets the girl. I lost interest in all the characters by the end.

[Dougie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Old school Sci Fi. Odd concept and a bit hard to get through

[Andy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really good. Aldiss is best when in comic vein and this is a creative satire of the sexually repressed Brits.

[Ade Couper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm.... interesting...

Brian Aldiss is one of the greatest living writers- & he has been going a long time. This was 1st published in 1961- & I really am not sure what to make of it....

On the one hand, it is a brilliant social satire, easily on a par with Huxley's "Brave New World": "Emotion registers" or ER's have been invented, which, when implanted on people, give off a glow when the person wearing it is attracted to the person they're currently near to. Aldiss takes this concept & runs with it, & is obviously having a lot of fun.

And yet....it doesn't quite work for me. It's taken me some time to figure out why, but I think it's the protagonists of the tale, all off whom could have come straight from playing upper-class twits in Ealing comedies. I couldn't find a character to empathise with, which is why it didn't work for me.

Aldiss writes very well, with an easy style: the piece is well-plotted, & coheres. It is just the characters that let it down for me.

Flawed but interesting.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

In risking demonstration that comparing a novel to others only implies a narrow reading career, 'The Primal Urge' is one part Kingsley Amis's 'Lucky Jim' (name sharing with our protagonist Jimmy Solent) and one part 'Brave New World' (with a direct tip of the hat to Mr. Huxley). The idea of mankind wearing an 'Emotional Register' on the forehead to exhibit desirous thoughts is amusing and thoughtful. The fact that a real life news story broke during the week I was reading it, regarding colour-changing lipstick to exhibit desirous thoughts, demonstrated that old saying about truth being stranger than fiction.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from a friend. I have to say that the plot was good and quite unique with the concept such as ER (Emotional Registers)which the government implemants and forces each its citizens to wear in their foreheads. The effect being that it glows when the wearer experiences sexual attraction.
It's a quick read and an funny one too.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had hoped for great things as the premise is fascinating. Sadly it didn't live up to my expectations although as an early 60s period piece it's interesting enough.