About this title: This comic utopian novel is set in Pala, a tropical island in Southeast Asia inhabited by a group of Western exiles dedicated to the contemplative life. When Will Farnaby, an English journalist, comes to Pala, it is with the intention of securing oil leases for his publisher there. However, after trying some of the hallucinogenic mushrooms that grow wild on Pala, he becomes converted to its way of life and decides to stay there.
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Description: Good. 0060831014 A good copy that has a half inch tear on the bottom left edge flush with spine. Wear on cover and curling on corner tips. Back cover has some chipping and wear. The pages have yellowed. There are not marks or highlighting in text. No remainder mark from publisher. Accurate Descriptions with Fast Shipping and Robust Packaging. WHT117M. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1989-07
ISBN-13:9780060809850ISBN:006080985X
Description: Fair. Spine uncreased, binding tight. Cover corner creased. Staining on page edges. Text unmarked. Pages corners creased. *Ships Next Business day* read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1967
Description: Good with no dust jacket; Moderate wear, rubbing and soil to covers, age-toned, binding tight, text clean. 12475. 16mo 6"-7" tall; 295 pages; 8-21-08. read more
Description: Fine. 0060085495 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Flamingo
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780586044391ISBN:0586044396
Description: Good. PAPERBACK BOOK-GOOD OVERALL CONDITION-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Perennial
Date Published: 2002-08-01
ISBN-13:9780060085490ISBN:0060085495
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780060085490. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780060085490ISBN:0060085495
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1989-07
ISBN-13:9780060809850ISBN:006080985X
Description: Good. Used mass-market paperback in good reading-copy condition. Small amount of marking--a word circled here and there. Tight binding, no spine crease. This edition is 1989 reissue. read more
"As a novel of ideas, much of Island works perfectly fine. But as a novel, the book is flawed in that it has no plot, no real tension, nothing to keep a pace going. The main character, Will, arrives on the island of Pala--a utopia--and has a series of conversations along the way. He meets a number of people, and they all elucidate certain aspects of the island to him, enumerating, essentially its greatness. The problem is that these talks get increasingly artificial as the book goes on; they become forced and obvious. It also gets tiresome that this is all the book is--these talks that expound upon Pala's Buddhist philosophy, and how screwed up the West is (though it's hard to argue much with that).
Ideologically, I did find Huxley's take on human nature itself to take a lot for granted. I was behind him in his critiques of the West's consumerism, thirst for war, greed, and entertainment trances. But, to think that the destructive qualities of human nature can be weeded out through love, compassion, meditation, etc. is, in my opinion, to ignore the history of humanity. These qualities have always existed; they are ingrained in who we are.
Yet Huxley is still interesting and, if nothing else, he gives readers a lot to consider and be aware of in terms of what humanity, collectively, is as a society."
"The biggest problem I have with books centered on Utopian themes is that they are written more like a how-to guide than an actual novel. At least with dystopic literature things happen as well as playing as a mirror to the past society before it went "bad". With Utopian novels you have a character, usually a cynic (Will Farnaby here), who stumbles upon/is shipwrecked upon/falls asleep and wakes up in/etc. a brand new world. (Yes, that was an Aldous Huxley joke.) In Will's case, he was shipwrecked on the imaginary island, Pala. Upon wandering around the island Will comes across others, and throughout the course of the book is given lectures from different members of the island in how their life is significantly better than the one Will left behind. I'm sure the exotic location wasn't enough for Will to realize he was probably in a better place.
So the different members talk about all sorts of important and prevalent issues such as religion, industrialization, education, sex and birth control, and - oh yeah - drugs. They're shocked by Will's backwards ways and explain to him in nice ways just how much his lifestyle sucks and look, they're so much better. And it's not to say that they aren't better, but really, nothing happens but a lot of talking and I have enough talking in my day-to-day life and don't feel any better or smarter for it.
I was disappointed, not in so much that the story sucked, but because really Huxley covered the same themes that he did in Brave New World. Except in Brave New World there was a plot and a story and some interesting stuff going on. This felt like Huxley was sort of sick of having Brave New World compared to Nineteen Eighty-Four so much that he wanted to write something "new" and "improved"... and now it's only being compared to... Brave New World.
"I had a hard time getting into this book and I'll tell you why: it was heavy on philosophy and light on story. I think given the right frame of mind I probably would've enjoyed it more. It would make a fantastic project for a high school senior, to read this and Brave New World and compare the two utopian societies. A lot of the same themes were used only instead of an ugly, controlled society this was a free and "ideal" society. For instance the use of drugs in Island was geared toward attaining a sort of spiritual enlightenment, whereas in Brave New World the population was dosed with narcotics to keep them pliable and under control. There are many more of these parallels, and Huxley seems rather obsessed with child sex and Freud. If you can get through long, long, LONG passages about the philosophy of the fictional people of this fictional island it's really not awful, just dry. I appreciated the end in which Huxley admits that an ideal society such as this cannot last for some of the the same reasons it is ideal: they're pacifists and they have no army. Unfortunately for them their natural resources, oil, are plenty. And what happens to a peaceful anti-war society with no guns that happens to be living on black gold? Never good things.
All-in-all it was just okay, but I'm glad I read it."
"A British journalist winds up on an island called Pala that is basically a Buddhist utopia. Mild plot (involving the island's oil and the outside attempt to get that oil), but mostly a real mind-feast of Huxley's ideas of how the Eastern/Buddhist approach to life could make for an ideal civilization and by contrast, what is wrong with Anglo-American civilization (most of the book is the British journalist, Will Farnaby, conversing with natives and exploring the intricacies of Palanese society). Huxley does this book-of-ideas things so well. This was his final novel, the product of his extensive study of Eastern spirituality and the human soul. Definitely worth reading. Really makes you think about ways society could/should be changed to release the full potential of human kindness and spirit."
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