The Bestial Side of Modern Love

The Bestial Side of Modern Love

When Aldous Huxley refers to the Hyperion Activated Sludge Plant in his essay Hyperion to a Satyr, he ties together the main theme of his article and its title. But underlying the main theme is a small message that should strike a nerve in everyone. This message is shown through the relation of the title to the metaphor of stink and nastiness as "the most important sources of feminine modesty" (Huxley p 141). Huxley uses this metaphor, along with others, to show how Modern Love is "dirtier" although sex has become cleaner.

Hyperion to a Satyr is a short article written by Aldous Huxley, and published in The Dolphin Reader in 1986. Huxley was born into a distinguished family that was "part of the English ruling class made up of the intellectual elite" (Matthew). "Gerald Heard, a longtime friend, said that Huxley's ancestry ‘brought down on him a weight of intellectual authority and a momentum of moral obligations’" (Matthew). Huxley is most famous for a novel entitled Brave New World "an ironic version of a future utopia" (Encarta), throughout which "you can see evidence of an ambivalent attitude toward such authority assumed by a ruling class" (Matthew). Huxley also wrote on science, philosophy, social criticism, and his experiences with hallucinogenic drugs (Encarta).

In this metaphorical analysis, I will examine Huxley’s Hyperion to a Satyr as a whole using metaphors and then in relation to the comparison of stink and nastiness as the most important sources of feminine modesty. I will locate and sort the specific metaphors that I wish to discuss to reduce the amount of text. Finally I will analyze the metaphors in light of my research question and the rhetor’s call to motivate an audience.

Huxley’s Hyperion to a Satyr is full of metaphors. The title is the first and most obvious metaphor. But other metaphors are condoms as dead caterpillars (Huxley p. 138), the Hyperion Activated Sludge Plant as a marvel of modern technology (Huxley p. 139), soap as a remedy to stink and nastiness (Huxley p. 140), men as poorly trained monkeys (Huxley p. 144), "The Poor" as the Great Unwashed (Huxley p. 145), sanitation reform as "the greatest achievement of our age" (Huxley p. 146), dirt as a symbol for low IQ (Huxley p. 149), and clothing as a symbol for social rank (Huxley p. 150). Huxley uses the essay as a social criticism. Through these metaphors it seems as though Huxley’s main goal is to show the association of social class and knowledge to personal hygiene.

At first glance, there seems to be no relation between the title and feminine modesty. The title/metaphor Hyperion to a Satyr compares good to evil, perfection to mistakes. This easily ties into the main metaphor of dirtiness as a symbol of social class but has a less obvious correlation to my chosen metaphor.

Only a small section of Hyperion to a Satyr actually contains metaphors which relate stink and nastiness to feminine modesty. Scattered throughout the first three or so pages are small metaphors that I will use in my discussion. Condoms are equated to dead caterpillars and then called emblems of Modern Love (Huxley p. 138). Dirt becomes an "unalterable element in the divinely established order of things" (Huxley p. 139). Soap and water are called a remedy for stink and nastiness, an "entirely illegitimate solution to a problem in ontology and morals", and a "vulgarly materialistic trick" (Huxley p. 140). Close by in the text, sex is referred to through metaphor as being "metaphysically tainted" (Huxley p. 141), "physically unclean" (Huxley p. 141), and "a situation that God Himself intended, from all eternity, to be as squalid as it is sinful" (Huxley p. 140). Huxley defines modesty through metaphors by comparing it to virtue (Huxley p. 140), "no washing below the belt" (Huxley p. 140), and the "fear of being disgusting" (Huxley p. 140).

The most logical process to use when sorting these metaphors appears to be to classify them according to the tenor in each metaphor. For ease of writing, the metaphors have already been classified in this way to some extent in the previous paragraph. The metaphors deal with modesty, soap, sex, dirt, and contraceptives.

The discussion and analysis must begin with the basic metaphor of stink and nastiness as the most important sources of feminine modesty. This metaphor shows that Huxley feels that something is wrong with the morals of society today. If stink and nastiness are the most important sources of feminine modesty, then eliminating them eliminates (to some extent) feminine modesty. Huxley maintains that as women started to become cleaner, they also started to lose the modesty that was based on a fear of being disgusting. Previously modesty meant that washing below the belt was not allowed, as it was inappropriate and un-lady like to do so (Huxley p. 140). But as it become fashionable and more affordable to be clean, this form of modesty disappeared. So in this way, soap actually triggered the decline in morals that Huxley is worried about.

Huxley then uses the metaphors dealing with soap to show the main problem in morals that he is concerned with, illicit sex stemming from humans feeling overly equal to God. Soap is equated to a remedy for the illness of dirtiness, to an entirely illegitimate physical solution to a problem in ontology and morals, and to a vulgarly materialistic trick. Humans were created by God to be dirty, and if He meant it to be so, then there must be a good reason for it. In this case, the reason was that dirt was meant to make having sex "physically unclean" and "metaphysically tainted"; "a situation that God Himself had intended, from all eternity, to be as squalid as it was sinful" (Huxley p 141). Dirt was meant to discourage people from having illicit sex. It was meant to make them feel guilty when they did. In this way dirt was meant to remind people they were not on the same level as God.

Combined with these ideas, the beginning scene of the story begins to make more sense. The astronomical figures of condoms spread in orgiastic profusion along a noble beach (Huxley p. 138) have a direct relation to the title. These ten million emblems and mementos of Modern Love have contaminated the beautiful beach just as the bestial side of man often contaminates the better side. The condoms on the beach symbolize the way that sex without consequences has allowed people to forget the true beauty of sex therefore contaminating it with lust.

Huxley is asking the audience to evaluate Modern Love. He wants to bring out the idea that Modern Love is different from real love. True love is to Modern Love as Hyperion is to satyr. Previously in order to have sex, people had to get past the disgustingness of it. He/she truly had to love their mate to see the beauty of having sex through the dirtiness. Now the discouragement that dirt provided is no longer a factor. True love has been replaced by Modern Love, which in Huxley’s mind is nothing more than cheap lust.

Works Cited

Huxley, Aldous. “Hyperion to a Satyr.” The Dolphin Reader. Houghton Mifflin

Company. 1986.

Matthew, A. “Aldous Huxley.” Soma Web. 1 October, 2000.

http://www.primenet.com/~matthew/huxley/huxbio.html

"Huxley, Aldous Leonard," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2000.

1997-2000. http://encarta.msn.com <https://webmail.iastate.edu/mailman/i_clear.gif>

Theresa Campbell - 5 -