This was probably the most disappointing book on this list.  I loved Brave New World, but it seems that I misunderstood one of it's main points.  Huxley apparently opposed science and meant the book to be as much a warning about a science dominated future, as a warning about authoritarian government in general.  From this perspective, Brave New World is nearly a crypto-Luddite tract.

Huxley was generally something of a sensualist and an anti-rationalist.  Like most men before him, he was troubled by the body/mind dichotomy that uniquely confronts humankind.  But unlike the great thinkers who have been responsible for nearly all human progress, he (along with his friend DH Lawrence) came down on the side of the body and sensory experience, rejecting reason, science, religion, etc..  It seems to me that to choose the body over the mind is to reject the divine spark in man in favor of the animal instinct.

Point Counter Point, a voluminous, wildly overpopulated, completely outdated roman a clef is meant to vindicate his viewpoint, but is so sarcastic as to undermine even his own arguments.  Despite some funny set pieces and some interesting ideas, I'd not recommend this book and may have to revisit Brave New World.

(Reviewed:)

Grade: (D) Orrin C. Judd

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