Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley

Has anyone read this? I thought it was one wickedly fun read! As someone somewhere put it, it's somewhat like a B-Grade flick set in a horrific world but I thought it was a fun ride. Not as realistic as BNW definitely, but I thought the much lauded BNW seemed somewhat boring compared to this.

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Give me detumescence!
Concupiscence!
No, no, no, no, no!
"He makes the sign of the devil's horns"
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I will definitely be looking at some of his other works, other than BNW of course. Any recommendations? Island and Crome Yellow seem interesting to me at the moment. Did he have a short story collection?

Other than BNW, I'd recommend Ends and Means, if you're willing to check out some of his non-fiction stuff. It's a great and meaningful essay.

"Island" was pretty good, though it seemed like a sort of tropical island "Brave New World" at times. It wasn't, I guess, but anything else he writes in a dystopian fashion is going to seem somewhat redundant to me.
"Time Must Have a Stop" I found to be a bit boring. Definitely not as much humor in that as in "Island", and way too much poofy poetry in it for my taste.

thesettingsun:
Only just joined so I'm behind with this one aren’t I? Over two years in fact.
Anyway if you're still out there, and haven’t read it already, try 'After Many A Summer'

As usual with Huxley, it's not 'Terminator' style action but what I call 'rich and wry' food for thought. It describes a search by private individuals for the secret of human immortality and the ramifications on finding it.

Of all Huxley's novels I think this might have been most suitable for a film, for what that's worth.

I own "Ape and Essence" I just haven't gotten around to reading it.

I'm 30 pages away from completing Ape and Essence and it's amazing.
Next on the list...Antic Hay

Quote:

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Originally Posted by erikeliot

.... Next on the list...Antic Hay

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I'd well recommend it too, it's my all-time favourite fiction work of Huxley's :D :thumbs_up Pretty much every page is filled with scathing wit and his characters satirising stereotypes are hilarious.

The ending is ****. He could have not ended the friggin book at the climax. Thanks Aldous.

I'm halfway through brave new world, and so far its waaay better than ape and essence