Thursday 16 January 2014

Island by Aldous Huxley



"Here was Pala, the forbidden island, the place no journalist had ever visited."

Imagine an island paradise, where all the inhabitants are completely happy, untroubled by frustration, greed, politics, guilt. They spend their time shagging and tripping on mushrooms - yep everyone is happy.

Perhaps it is a testament to good writing, the fact that this novel reads as crisp and immediate as perhaps it did 50+ years go when it was published. Was AI and genetics developed enough at that stage to be contemplated in the fashion that it is discussed in the novel? I'm not sure, perhaps, Huxley had a crystal ball.

Journalist, Willl, has found a way on to the forbidden island with its incredibly sated inhabitants, but can he convince them to enter the western world of oil trade and the like? 
One thing is for certain, there will be lots of talkative mynah birds sprouting "attention".

4 out of 5 islands sound like paradise to me.

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