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In earlier posts, I mentioned how my 12th-grade English teacher gave me free rein in the library. That was a life-changing time, but here I want to talk about one of the novels I read. It is Huxley's longest one and not his best-known. There was a BBC adaptation, which I believe I saw on PBS.
What stood out to me was the interweaving of various storylines. That of course was not unique to Huxley or anything else that I had read previously. How the characters reacted to each other, and that most of them were based on people I had some idea about caught my attention.
The focus here is on Everard Webley, a British Fascist based on Oswald Mosley. Webley is wealthy, intelligent, pompous, and a bully. His movement has thousands of recruits who hang on his every word when he holds forth either in print or public speeches.
When I read this novel over 50 years ago, Fascism as a political movement was discredited. The term "fascist" was thrown around, I did so myself, rather loosely and without reason.
That has changed, sadly. Unsettled times cause people to seek comfort from an imagined past where things were better and to find companionship with those of their own kind. The term is used proudly by some, and more than one nation has officially succumbed to right-wing extremism (which is equally as bad as left-wing extremism).
Huxley does not offer a way out; he depicts a confused world. One of his characters, an artist based on D.H. Lawrence, comes the closest to suggesting something. For that, you will have to read the book.
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Links to my books! In time for holiday shopping!
