Cheers, there's a lot of my faves there and a few new ones that I haven't tried. And a couple of those are now on the way to me!
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : Try this site: http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/top-25-best-science-fiction-books.php http://bestsciencefictionbooks.com/top-25-best-science-fiction-books.php From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> wrote : There are actually groups of people who believe he was advocating a plan and refer to a section of video taken out of context that makes it sound like he was advocating it when he wasn't at all. Nowt so queer as folk. I haven't read a decent sci-fi book in decades. Can anyone recommend a recent classic with the sort of vision of a Huxley or Heinlein? I've tried a lot of stuff from the library but rarely get past the first chapter. There's a "masterworks" series of the greats on sale and I'e got loads of them but there isn't much that's new. Some of Iain Banks's "Culture" novels, which were OK but it was his unfeasable plot developments that spoiled them. "Excession" was good though, proper scary meeting with a genuine alien - or was it God? On 11/08/2014 10:16 AM, salyavin808 wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> mailto:noozguru@... wrote : Also anyone who believes that Huxley was advocating the world depicted in Brave New world should read his prologue to Brave New World Revisited. BNW was a warning not a plan. Eh? Did anyone think that really? His choice of hero being a human with normal emotions who was so appalled by the BNW gave it away a bit for me. Maybe other people identify with different characters in the book? I never even considered that. He didn't have to top himself though as he did have another option, he could have gone back to living in the wild where he came from. That's what I would have done but it was a more poetic protest to hang himself I suppose... On 11/07/2014 11:02 PM, TurquoiseBee turquoiseb@... mailto:turquoiseb@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: Anyone ignorant enough to post that Huxley was unfamiliar with meditation (see jr post below) has clearly never read his best novel, "Island." Huxley was practicing real meditation decades before Maharishi invented his faux version and called it TM. From: "jr_esq@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Saturday, November 8, 2014 6:34 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: The Birth of the Hippies Bhairitu, Good point. According to Wikipedia, Huxley had association with the Vendanta society: Association with Vedanta[edit http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Aldous_Huxley&action=edit§ion=6] Beginning in 1939 and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had an extensive association with the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda. Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood, and other followers he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-FOOTNOTERoy2003-3 In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the "Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God",[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#cite_note-IsherwoodSwami_Prabhavananda1987-22 translated by Swami Prabhavanada and Christopher Isherwood, which was published by The Vedanta Society of Southern California. From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to Vedanta and the West, published by the Society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John van Druten from 1951 through 1962. Huxley also occasionally lectured at the Hollywood and Santa Barbara Vedanta temples. Two of those lectures have been released on CD: Knowledge and Understanding and Who Are We from 1955. After the publication of The Doors of Perception, Huxley and the Swami disagreed about the meaning and importance of the LSD drug experience, which may have caused the relationship to cool, but Huxley continued to write articles for the Society's journal, lecture at the temple, and attend social functions. His agnosticism, together with his speculative propensity, made it difficult for him to fully embrace any form of institutionalized religion.Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia AldousLeonard Huxley /ˈhʌksli/ (26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer, philosopher and a prominent member of the Huxley family... View on en.wikipedia.org Preview by Yahoo ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <noozguru@...> mailto:noozguru@... wrote : What about the Vedanta Society? What about Paramahansa Yogananda? Arthur Avalon? Not to mention relatively unknowns who probably migrated to the UK and taught yoga. On 11/07/2014 05:49 PM, jr_esq@... mailto:jr_esq@... [FairfieldLife] wrote: S3, Huxley didn't appear to know about the advantages of meditation. Obviously, during his lifetime, TM was not around then. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> mailto:s3raphita@... wrote : Aldous Huxley quote (1931): "So far as I can see, the only possible new pleasure would be one derived from the invention of a new drug — of a more efficient and less harmful substitute for alcohol and cocaine. If I were a millionaire, I should endow a band of research workers to look for the ideal intoxicant. If we could sniff or swallow something that would, for five or six hours each day, abolish our solitude as individuals, atone us with our fellows in a glowing exaltation of affection and make life in all its aspects seem not only worth living, but divinely beautiful and significant, and if this heavenly, world-transfiguring drug were of such a kind that we could wake up next morning with a clear head and an undamaged constitution — then, it seems to me, all our problems (and not merely the one small problem of discovering a novel pleasure) would be wholly solved and earth would become paradise." Sounds great - but I suspect that humans are so constituted that changing our brains with chemicals is always going to have unwanted side-effects. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fleetwood_macncheese@...> mailto:fleetwood_macncheese@... wrote : I used to buy Ritalin over the counter, in Macau, and did a fair amount - Yuck. Couldn't get weed, but any big pharma drug was there for the taking. Bad situation. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <s3raphita@...> mailto:s3raphita@... wrote : Re "Cocaine DEFINITELY sucks": Amen to that. Like you I only tried it a few times and the after-effects were a warning I heeded. Ditto speed. God knows what I'd have felt like after a methamphetamine binge (the drug of choice today) - pretty sure I'd be suicidal.
