Lewis, Huxley were giants in intellectual world

HeraldNet ^ | 11/22/13 | Julie Muhlstein

[Ge0ffrey]

Today, 50 years after a notable death, a memorial stone will be placed in an edifice steeped in history.The building is not in our country, and the man being honored is not President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963.Two intellectual giants, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley, also died that day. Their passings were overshadowed by the shocking news from Dallas -- just as Kennedy tributes are filling news pages and TV schedules all this month.At London's Westminster Abbey today, a memorial stone in Lewis' honor will be placed in the Poet's Corner of the Gothic church. Lewis wrote "The Chronicles of Narnia" series, "The Screwtape Letters," "Mere Christianity," "Surprised by Joy" and other fiction and nonfiction works, all with underpinnings of Christian thought.The C.S. Lewis memorial stone will take its place near those honoring William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen."I think his lasting contribution, first of all, he gave a human face to Christian theology," said the Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, the priest at St. Augustine's-in-the-Woods Episcopal Church in Freeland, on Whidbey Island. Lewis "helped give meaning to suffering," said Taber-Hamilton, who grew up in England.

[cdcdawg]

If you are going on a trip, and need to kill some time, the John Cleese performance of The Screwtape Letters is a real treat. You might actually find yourself enjoying an airport!

While many laud George Orwell for his gripping portrayals of totalitarianism in 1984 and Animal Farm, Huxley’s Brave New World might actually have more perfectly captured the direction of civilization.

One probable atheist, one convert. I don’t know how smart JFK actually was, but he was certainly not in the top two intellects that died 50 years ago.

[SuziQ]

I remembered about C.S. Lewis, but I’d forgotten about Huxley also dying that same day.

[dr_lew]

While many laud George Orwell for his gripping portrayals of totalitarianism in 1984 and Animal Farm, Huxley’s Brave New World might actually have more perfectly captured the direction of civilization.

Yes, I think it runs much deeper. 1984 is more situational, it doesn't really take you out of your contemporary mindset.

BNW, OTOH, is way out there. The whole "mother" thing is amazing, and like you say, prescient.

[RobbyS]

I got to hear Huxley when he made a visit to the University of Texas in 1961-62, He was, of course, by that time very feeble and blind. Whatever his views, he was a truth seeker, and by no means as dogmatic as Julian Huxley. There was talk about a boycott of his appearance but it came to nought. I was a graduate student and showed up in the small auditorium, in support. Who knew that some of his young supporters would, in future, embrace that world he denounced in “Brave New World.

[RobbyS]

I think we have forgotten how shattered western civilization had been by the events of the Great War. Yeats and T.S. Elliot, and of course, Lewis and Huxley give different responses, but all with a clarity of vision I don’t see in the present liberati.