110-531: Point Counter Point is a novel by Aldous Huxley , first published in 1928. It is Huxley's longest novel, and was notably more complex and serious than his earlier fiction. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Point Counter Point 44th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century . The novel entered the public domain in the United States in 2024. The novel's title
220-559: A Lord Peter Wimsey novel by Somerville alumna Dorothy L. Sayers , Lord Peter (a Balliol man) is asked whether he remembers a certain contemporary from Trinity. " 'I never knew any Trinity men,' said Wimsey. 'The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. ' " Sayers also alludes to the rivalry in Murder Must Advertise (1933): Mr Ingleby, a Trinity man, comments, "If there is one thing more repulsive than another it
330-423: A Summer (1939). The novel won Huxley a British literary award, the 1939 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Huxley also incorporated Bird into the novel. During this period, Huxley earned a substantial income as a Hollywood screenwriter; Christopher Isherwood, in his autobiography My Guru and His Disciple , states that Huxley earned more than $ 3,000 per week (approximately $ 50,000 in 2020 dollars) as
440-468: A Victorian structure. This completely hides a formal gateway similar to that at the Broad Street main entrance, this can be viewed outside from Little Magdalen Street, through the gap marked XIX one finds the small function room "Massey Room". At north side, of Stc XX is the "Back Gate" which is part of the 1906 Warren building, west and north side, Stc XXI. 1 St Giles' is its neighbour which is part of
550-674: A bad way." Huxley's engagement with Eastern wisdom traditions was entirely compatible with a strong appreciation of modern science . Biographer Milton Birnbaum wrote that Huxley "ended by embracing both science and Eastern religion". In his last book, Literature and Science , Huxley wrote that "The ethical and philosophical implications of modern science are more Buddhist than Christian...." In "A Philosopher's Visionary Prediction", published one month before he died, Huxley endorsed training in general semantics and "the nonverbal world of culturally uncontaminated consciousness", writing that "We must learn how to be mentally silent, we must cultivate
660-533: A dystopian London, Huxley portrays a society operating on the principles of mass production and Pavlovian conditioning . Huxley was strongly influenced by F. Matthias Alexander , on whom he based a character in Eyeless in Gaza . During this period, Huxley began to write and edit non-fiction works on pacifist issues, including Ends and Means (1937), An Encyclopedia of Pacifism , and Pacifism and Philosophy , and
770-577: A growing degree of popular controversy about Huxley's eyesight. Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College ( / ˈ b eɪ l i əl / ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford . Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol , it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and around 80 fellows,
880-476: A leading advocate of the Perennial Philosophy , which holds that the same metaphysical truths are found in all the major religions of the world. In the 1920s, Huxley was skeptical of religion, "Earlier in his career he had rejected mysticism, often poking fun at it in his novels [...]" Gerald Heard became an influential friend of Huxley, and since the mid-1920s had been exploring Vedanta, as
990-548: A lease dating to 1263 to them being the traditional "foundation" date. The oldest parts of the college are the north and west ranges of the front quadrangle, dated to 1431, respectively the medieval hall, west side, now the "new library" and the "old library" first floor north side. The ground floor is the Old Senior Common Room. Balliol's second library pre-dates the publication of printed books in Europe. There
1100-454: A man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty.” Aldous Huxley's agnosticism, together with his speculative propensity, made it difficult for him fully embrace any form of institutionalised religion. Over the last 30 years of his life, he accepted and wrote about concepts found in Vedanta and was
1210-499: A rendition of "The Gordouli" (see Balliol–Trinity rivalry below) on Broad Street, outside the gates of Trinity College , although in recent years the song has been sung from within the college walls. A college society which no longer survives is the Hysteron Proteron Club , which aimed to live one day of each term backwards. Balliol also takes pride in its college tortoises. The original tortoise, who lived at
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#17328011413611320-448: A screenwriter, and that he used much of it to transport Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. In March 1938, Huxley's friend Anita Loos , a novelist and screenwriter, put him in touch with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which hired him for Madame Curie which was originally to star Greta Garbo and be directed by George Cukor . (Eventually, the film
1430-565: A student every year. For many years, there has been a traditional and fierce rivalry shown between the students of Balliol and those of its immediate neighbour to the east, Trinity College . It has manifested itself on the sports field and the river; in the form of songs (of varying degrees of offensiveness) sung over the dividing walls; and in the form of "raids" on the other college. The rivalry reflects that which also exists between Trinity College, Cambridge and Balliol's sister college, St John's College, Cambridge . In college folklore ,
1540-454: A way of understanding individual human life and the individual's relationship to the universe. Heard and Huxley both saw the political implications of Vedanta, which could help bring about peace, specifically that there is an underlying reality that all humans and the universe are a part of. In the 1930s, Huxley and Gerald Heard both became active in the effort to avoid another world war, writing essays and eventually publicly speaking in support of
1650-539: A wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity." In 1944, Huxley wrote the introduction to the Bhagavad Gita – The Song of God , translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood, which was published by the Vedanta Society of Southern California. As an advocate of the perennial philosophy, Huxley
1760-403: A woman in hall since that of the co-founder, Dervorguilla of Galloway , was unveiled in 2012, depicting benefactor and Oxford Internet Institute founder Dame Stephanie Shirley . This portrait has since been joined by portraits of Carol Clark and the mathematician Dame Frances Kirwan . In 2018, Dame Helen Ghosh succeeded Sir Drummond Bone to become the college's first female master. In
1870-471: A writer and broadcaster, philosopher and interpreter of contemporary science. Heard was nearly five years older than Huxley, and introduced him to a variety of profound ideas, subtle interconnections, and various emerging spiritual and psychotherapy methods. Works of this period included novels about the dehumanising aspects of scientific progress , (his magnum opus Brave New World ), and on pacifist themes ( Eyeless in Gaza ). In Brave New World , set in
1980-453: Is a Grade I listed building . This is the third time an Oxford college has incorporated a redundant church as a Library (see Lincoln College and St. Edmund Hall ). In 2017, the college entered into a specialised financial arrangement which enabled it to project a new 200 plus 'study-bedsits' accommodation range at the Master's Field/ Jowett Walk/ St Cross Road site which would also replace
2090-486: Is a possibility that the original Master's Chamber, south west side, adorned with a fine oriel window, is earlier than these; it is now the Master's Dining Room. William Grey , Bishop of Ely, was a benefactor of the college in the 15th century. Grey devoted much care to the collection of manuscripts, and wherever he lived constantly employed scribes to make copies of books he could not otherwise obtain. Many of these he had adorned with costly miniatures and initial letters by
2200-448: Is a reference to the flow of arguments in a debate, and a series of these exchanges tell the story. Instead of a single central plot, there are a number of interlinked story lines and recurring themes (as in musical " counterpoint "). As a roman à clef , many of the characters are based on real people, most of whom Huxley knew personally, such as D. H. Lawrence , Katherine Mansfield , Nancy Cunard , and John Middleton Murry , and Huxley
2310-436: Is depicted as the novel's novelist, Philip Quarles. Huxley described the structure of Point Counter Point within the novel itself, in a stream of consciousness musing of Quarles: The musicalization of fiction. Not in the symbolist way, by subordinating sense to sound. . . . But on a large scale, in the construction. Meditate on Beethoven. The changes of moods, the abrupt transitions . . . More interesting still,
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#17328011413612420-749: Is displayed on two windows of the Old Library, and in the panels below the window of the Master 's dining room. The chapel is the third (perhaps fourth) on the site and was designed by William Butterfield in 1857. Alfred Waterhouse designed the main Broad Street frontage of the college (1867–68), along with gateway and tower, known as the Brackenbury Buildings after philanthropist and donor Hannah Brackenbury , replacing earlier structures (Staircases I–VII). The first staircase next to
2530-517: Is doubly valuable; it is valuable because it gives the experiencer a better understanding of himself and the world and because it may help him to lead a less self-centered and more creative life." Having tried LSD in the 1950s, he became an advisor to Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert in their early-1960s research work with psychedelic drugs at Harvard. Personality differences led Huxley to distance himself from Leary, when Huxley grew concerned that Leary had become too keen on indiscriminately promoting
2640-468: Is from the three-year period 2021-2023. The same source gives the socio-demographic profile of the students is as follows: male 54.5%; state educated 69.6%; white 73.4%. The proportion of male students decreased from 60.6% between the years of 2015 and 2017. The college provides its students with facilities including accommodation, the Hall (refectory), a library , two bars, and separate common rooms for
2750-437: Is held in memory of John Snell , whose benefaction established exhibitions for students from the University of Glasgow to study at Balliol (the first exhibitioners were matriculated in 1699) one of whom was Adam Smith . The feast is attended by fellows of Balliol College, the current Snell Exhibitioners, and representatives from Glasgow University and St John's College, Cambridge . The MCR has one black-tie dinner each term:
2860-599: Is run by the master and fellows of the college. The master of the college must be "the person who is, in their [the Fellows] judgement, most fit for the government of the College as a place of religion, learning, and education". The current master is Dame Helen Ghosh , former Director-General of the National Trust and Home Office Permanent Secretary , and an alumna of St Hugh's and Hertford colleges. Although
2970-583: Is the front part of the Master's Lodgings on Broad Street from the Waterhouse improvements of the 1860s of the front quad. The neighbour to this is the Fisher Building of 1759 (Stc X) The undistinguished looking Stc XI, south west side, is in fact the oldest structure in this quadrangle, 1720, originally intended as accommodation for scholars from Bristol, hence its name. Continuing the west-side Stc XII–XIV dates from 1826, by George Basevi , and marks
3080-600: Is the unmanifested principle of all manifestations. That the Ground is at once transcendent and immanent. That it is possible for human beings to love, know and, from virtually, to become actually identical with the divine Ground. That to achieve this unitive knowledge of the Godhead is the final end and purpose of human existence. That there is a Law or Dharma which must be obeyed, a Tao or Way which must be followed, if men are to achieve their final end. For Huxley, one of
3190-637: The British Union of Fascists . However, when Huxley wrote Point Counter Point , Mosley was still a prominent member of the Labour Party and would remain so until 1931. The BUF was not founded until 1932. A number of other fascist groups preceded Mosley, the most prominent being the British Fascists , and possibly one of those may have been Huxley's inspiration. In the 1996 reprint of Point Counter Point , Mosley's son Nicholas discusses
3300-552: The McCarran Act , the judge had to adjourn the proceedings. He withdrew his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S. In 1959, Huxley turned down an offer to be made a Knight Bachelor by the Macmillan government without giving a reason; his brother Julian had been knighted in 1958, while his brother Andrew would be knighted in 1974. In the fall semester of 1960 Huxley was invited by Professor Huston Smith to be
3410-636: The Oxford Internet Institute . This was the first multidisciplinary research and policy centre in a European university devoted to examining the impact of the Internet on society. It is a department within the Social Sciences Division of Oxford University , but is physically located within the grounds of Balliol, and its previous Director ( William H. Dutton ) was a Professorial Fellow of Balliol. Along with many of
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3520-663: The Peace Pledge Union . But, they remained frustrated by the conflicting goals of the political left – some favoring pacifism (as did Huxley and Heard), while other wanting to take up arms against fascism in the Spanish Civil War . After joining the PPU, Huxley expressed his frustration with politics in a letter from 1935, “…the thing finally resolves itself into a religious problem — an uncomfortable fact which one must be prepared to face and which I have come during
3630-672: 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. 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. In 1942 The Gospel of Ramakrishna
3740-403: The 1930s, connected with him again in the U.S. in the early 1960s and wrote that "the enormous intellect, the beautifully modulated voice, the gentle objectivity, all were unchanged. He was one of the most highly civilized human beings I had ever met." Biographer Harold H. Watts wrote that Huxley's writings in the "final and extended period of his life" are "the work of a man who is meditating on
3850-597: The Balliol–St Anne's Graduate Institution with St Anne's in 1967 led to the coeducation of men and women on the Holywell Manor site. Following the arrival of women at Balliol and men at St Anne's in 1979, the joint Graduate Institution was terminated in 1984 by the consent of both colleges. Holywell Manor is now solely a part of Balliol College. In 1979, along with many other previously all-male colleges, Balliol accepted its first cohort of female students. One of
3960-541: The Bates method and the extreme and pure natural lighting of the southwestern American desert. He reported that, for the first time in more than 25 years, he was able to read without glasses and without strain. He even tried driving a car along the dirt road beside the ranch. He wrote a book about his experiences with the Bates method, The Art of Seeing , which was published in 1942 (U.S.), 1943 (UK). The book contained some generally disputed theories, and its publication created
4070-726: The Carnegie Visiting professor of humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As part of the MIT centennial program of events organised by the Department of Humanities, Huxley presented a series of lectures titled, "What a Piece of Work is a Man" which concerned history, language, and art. Robert S. de Ropp (scientist, humanitarian, and author), who had spent time with Huxley in England in
4180-555: The Chapel contains the Organ Scholar's lodgings. Under a statute of 1881, New Inn Hall , one of the remaining medieval halls , was merged into Balliol College in 1887. Balliol acquired New Inn Hall's admissions and other records for 1831–1887 as well as the library of New Inn Hall, which largely contained 18th-century law books. The New Inn Hall site was later sold and is now part of St Peter's College, Oxford . South-side
4290-748: The Christmas Dinner in Michaelmas, Burns Night in Hilary, and the May Dinner in Trinity Term. By far the most eccentric event is The Nepotists carol-singing event organised by the college's Arnold and Brackenbury Society. This event happens on the last Friday of Michaelmas term each year. On this occasion, Balliol students congregate in the college hall to enjoy mulled wine and the singing of carols. The evening historically ended with
4400-536: The Dellal Building (1986) for graduates on Manor Road. Many undergraduates and some graduates live in buildings on Jowett Walk a phased development 1996–2004 (Phase 1 completed September 1996, Phase 2 completed July 2004), containing a small theatre facility, the Michael Pilch Studio , five minutes' walking distance from the main college site; these two developments are on the outskirts of
4510-485: The Eastman Professor's House, Martin and Dellal buildings there. This would mean a net increase of approximately 140 rooms fulfilling the college's long-term intention of providing accommodation to all its undergraduates for all their degree terms and also some rooms for dons. The project includes ten new buildings and a new sports pavilion, including a space for dining, events, spectators and squash courts in
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4620-915: The Garsington lifestyle. Jobs were very scarce, but in 1919, John Middleton Murry was reorganising the Athenaeum and invited Huxley to join the staff. He accepted immediately, and quickly married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys (1899–1955), also at Garsington. They lived with their young son in Italy part of the time during the 1920s, where Huxley would visit his friend D. H. Lawrence . Following Lawrence's death in 1930 (he and Maria were present at his death in Provence), Huxley edited Lawrence's letters (1932). Very early in 1929, in London, Huxley met Gerald Heard ,
4730-498: The Master's Field or, in the summer term, in the garden quadrangle. The majority of undergraduates are housed within the main college or in the modern annexes (Jowett Walk buildings) around the sports ground. The graduates are housed mainly within Holywell Manor which has its own bar, gardens, common room, gym and computing facilities. For over 700 years, Balliol College admitted men only. New College had in 1964 resolved to admit women, but had been prevented from doing so without
4840-462: The Master's Field, the sports ground and pavilion facilities of the college. Jowett Walk has also provided accommodation for some non-Balliol undergraduates, as part of an arrangement with Wadham College, Oxford . From 2010, St Cross Church , next to the Manor, has been the college's Historic Collections Centre, an extension to the library's services. The church dates from the 11th or 12th century and
4950-628: The U.S., mainly southern California , until his death, and for a time in Taos, New Mexico , where he wrote Ends and Means (1937). The book contains tracts on war , inequality , religion and ethics . Heard introduced Huxley to Vedanta ( Upanishad-centered philosophy ), meditation , and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa . In 1938, Huxley befriended Jiddu Krishnamurti , whose teachings he greatly admired. Huxley and Krishnamurti entered into an enduring exchange (sometimes edging on debate) over many years, with Krishnamurti representing
5060-527: The ancient colleges, Balliol has evolved its own traditions and customs over the centuries, many of which occupy a regular calendar slot. The patron saint of the college is Saint Catherine of Alexandria . On her feast day (25 November), a formal dinner is held for all final year students within Balliol. This festival was well established by 1550. Another important feast is the Snell Dinner. This dinner
5170-491: The appointment of Carol Clark to a Tutorial Fellowship in Modern Languages in 1973, Balliol became the first ancient all-male college to appoint a female fellow. Before the full admission of women as undergraduates, the college had decided to establish a co-educational graduate institution. The decision was made on 16 March 1964, and the senior tutor approached St Anne's College shortly after this. The creation of
5280-479: The approval of the university, which argued that this would be detrimental to the existing women's colleges. On 2 June 1971, a consilium at Balliol voted 26–2 to admit women, and at the next college meeting on 6 December 1971 it was resolved 30–8 to admit women "as soon as the change in its Statutes permitting this was approved by the Privy Council". Permission was granted by the university on 8 March 1977. With
5390-409: The art of pure receptivity.... [T]he individual must learn to decondition himself, must be able to cut holes in the fence of verbalized symbols that hems him in." Huxley described himself as agnostic, a word coined by his grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley , a scientist who championed the scientific method and was a major supporter of Darwin's theories. This is the definition he gave, “…it is wrong for
5500-465: The article: For those of us who are not congenitally the members of an organized church, who have found that humanism and nature-worship are not enough, who are not content to remain in the darkness of ignorance, the squalor of vice or the other squalor of respectability, the minimum working hypothesis would seem to run to about this: That there is a Godhead, Ground, Brahman, Clear Light of the Void, which
5610-412: The aspects of your theme, you can write variations in any number of different moods. Another way: The novelist can assume the god-like creative privilege and simply elect to consider the events in the story in their various aspects -- emotional, scientific, religious, metaphysical, etc. He will modulate from one to the other -- as, from the aesthetic to the physico-chemical aspect of things, from
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#17328011413615720-419: The attractive features of Vedanta is that it provided a historic and established philosophy and practice that embraced the Perennial Philosophy ; that there is a commonality of experiences across all the mystical branches of the world's religions. Huxley wrote in the introduction of his book The Perennial Philosophy : The Perennial Philosophy is primarily concerned with the one, divine Reality substantial to
5830-405: The basement. The first building opened in spring 2019 and the completion and occupation of the rest is due by January 2021. In the first phase, work began on the south of the site, at the corner of Jowett Walk and St Cross Road, to provide the accommodation for undergraduates and the new pavilion. Balliol College, and its previous Master Andrew Graham , played a major role in 2000–01 in setting up
5940-460: The beginnings of the college's academic renaissance being required for the increasing number of Commoners applying for places. Stc XV by Warren of 1912 filled in the last gap of the quadrangle; the ground floor and basement is the principal Junior Common Room. This unfortunately obscures the lines of the Salvin designed Stc XVI–XIX with Tower of 1853. As does the 1968 building by Beard Stc XX, replacing
6050-430: The central problems of many modern men". Huxley had deeply felt apprehensions about the future the developed world might make for itself. From these, he made some warnings in his writings and talks. In a 1958 televised interview conducted by journalist Mike Wallace , Huxley outlined several major concerns: the difficulties and dangers of world overpopulation; the tendency towards distinctly hierarchical social organisation;
6160-494: The circle. Not long afterwards, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, The Perennial Philosophy , which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world. Huxley became a close friend of Remsen Bird, president of Occidental College . He spent much time at the college in the Eagle Rock neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The college appears as "Tarzana College" in his satirical novel After Many
6270-630: The college and declared it "the People's Republic of Balliol". The contrast between the radical tendencies of many Balliol students and the traditional conservatism and social exclusivity of Trinity gave the rivalry an extra edge. The fact that Balliol (in contrast to Trinity) had admitted a number of Indian and Asiatic students also gave many of the taunts from the Trinity side a distinctly racist tone: Balliol students, for example, were sometime referred to as " Basutos ". In Five Red Herrings (1931),
6380-587: The college and houses the Oxford Internet Institute . Beard's Stc XXII replaces Victorian rooms, which were provided from the Vivian Bulkeley-Johnson benefaction. Beard's Stc XX and XXII are connected by the Snell Bridge accommodation at third-floor level, which was provided from Glasgow University's Snell Benefaction. The college's dining hall was built in 1877, replacing an older hall in the front quadrangle, which had become too small for
6490-534: The college for at least 43 years, was known as Rosa, named after the Marxist Rosa Luxemburg . Each June, pet tortoises from various Oxford colleges are brought to Corpus Christi College where they participate in a very slow race; Balliol's own Rosa competed and won many times. Rosa disappeared in the Spring of 2004, and while numerous conspiracy theories abounded, none is officially recognised by
6600-518: The college's founding, and hosts a biennial Holywell Manor Festival, Garden Party, and Garden Play. Balliol hosts more graduate students than any other ancient college, and the Manor forms the centre of this community, providing facilities such as the Middle Common Room (MCR) itself, an extensive garden, TV and computer rooms, music practice rooms, a 'Cockpit' leisure room, and the graduate-student-run 'Megaron' bar. The Manor from 1967 until
6710-576: The college's main buildings are located on Broad Street with additional buildings to the east in Jowett Walk and Holywell Manor. As one of the larger colleges of Oxford University, Balliol typically has around 400 of both undergraduates and graduates. The college pioneered the PPE degree in the 1920s. Balliol has notable alumni from a wide range of disciplines. These include 13 Nobel Prize winners and four British prime ministers . Balliol College
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#17328011413616820-628: The college's population. Designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the hall is built in geometric style, using Bath stone and Tisbury stone, with roof and woodwork made of oak. The hall features a Willis organ, again instituted by Benjamin Jowett. The old hall became part of the library. The ground floor contains the college bar and shop, known as "The Buttery" (west side) and the Senior Common Room lunch room (east side). The 1966 new Senior Common Room range (Stc XXIII) (northern and eastern sides)
6930-558: The college. However, on 29 April 2007, Chris Skidmore , a graduate of Christ Church working at the House of Commons, donated a pair of tortoises - one to his own college, and one to Balliol, where he had attended an open day in 1999. The new tortoise, Matilda, died in April 2009. Taking care of the resident tortoise is one of the many tasks assigned to Balliol students each year. This position, known as "Comrade Tortoise", has been filled by
7040-517: The college. There are also senior and junior research fellows. The college can also elect "distinguished persons" to honorary fellowships. The fellows are supplemented by academics on short-term contracts. In addition, there are visiting international academics who come to Oxford for periods of up to a year, an example of this is the George Eastman Visiting Professorial Fellowship. Balliol College
7150-541: The connection in a new introduction to the novel. David Bradshaw has argued that the most likely source for Webley is John Hargrave , the founder of The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift . Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( / ˈ ɔː l d ə s / AWL -dəs ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works , as well as essays, narratives , and poems. Born into
7260-414: The construction of the university Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory on South Parks Road . The majority of research and post-graduate students are housed in the Holywell Manor complex, a Grade II listed building acquired by Balliol in 1932 under the direction of Kenneth Norman Bell . It hosts a collection of artworks by alumni of the college, including a mural by Gilbert Spencer depicting
7370-631: The corner between the "Old Hall" and "Old Library" is also by Salvin, of 1853 and balances that at Stc XVI–XIX. Underneath part of the Garden Quad and extending into Trinity were the Balliol-Trinity Laboratories , the most prominent Oxford physical and chemical laboratories in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which physical chemist Henry Moseley (originator of the atomic number ) and Nobel Laureate Cyril Hinshelwood worked. These are now disused, following
7480-409: The criticism to Huxley's widow, Laura: [December 11, 1963, a few weeks after Aldous Huxley’s death] The publisher had suggested John Lehmann should write the biography. Laura [Huxley] asked me what I thought of the idea, so I had to tell her that John disbelieves in, and is aggressive toward, the metaphysical beliefs that Aldous held. All he would describe would be a clever young intellectual who later
7590-537: The crucial importance of evaluating the use of technology in mass societies susceptible to persuasion; the tendency to promote modern politicians to a naive public as well-marketed commodities. In a December 1962 letter to brother Julian, summarizing a paper he had presented in Santa Barbara , he wrote, "What I said was that if we didn't pretty quickly start thinking of human problems in ecological terms rather than in terms of power politics we should very soon be in
7700-504: The drugs. Differing accounts exist about the details of the quality of Huxley's eyesight at specific points in his life. Circa 1939, Huxley encountered the Bates method , in which he was instructed by Margaret Darst Corbett . In 1940, Huxley relocated from Hollywood to a 40-acre (16 ha) ranchito in the high desert hamlet of Llano, California , in northern Los Angeles County . Huxley then said that his sight improved dramatically with
7810-980: The end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962. Huxley was a pacifist . He grew interested in philosophical mysticism , as well as universalism , addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline . In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia , respectively. Huxley
7920-497: The experience he had there of "an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence" was an important source for the novel. Huxley completed his first (unpublished) novel at the age of 17 and began writing seriously in his early twenties, establishing himself as a successful writer and social satirist. His first published novels were social satires, Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925), and Point Counter Point (1928). Brave New World (1932)
8030-592: The fellows, the graduates and undergraduates . The JCR provides many services from laundry facilities, one of the few entirely student-run bars left in Oxford (the Manager, Lord/Lady Lindsay, is elected each year by students in the JCR) to a student-run cafeteria known as Pantry. There is a garden quadrangle and a nearby sports ground (the Master's Field) and boathouse . The sports ground is mainly used for cricket , tennis , hockey and football . Croquet may be played in
8140-630: The first college to be granted an official statute in 1274, and University College, which, while provisionally founded by will in 1249, was only officially established around 1280. However, Balliol also acknowledges that the other two have legitimate claims on their respective bases, depending on what criteria are used to define the oldest. As with all colleges, Balliol has a more or less permanent teaching staff, known as fellows. The college statutes provide for various categories of fellows and these include both tutorial fellows and professorial fellows. Professorial fellows are those professors and readers of
8250-414: The first woman undergraduates to live at Balliol was Elena Ceva-Valla, who arrived on 16 September 1979. Other female undergraduates who arrived that term were Cressida Dick , Katy Koralek and Penny Phillips. In 2010, the college unveiled a sundial in the Garden Quad commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the admission of women to the college, inscribed with the phrase "About Time". The first portrait of
8360-539: The full admission of women at Balliol in 1979 was host to the Balliol-St Anne's Graduate Institution, including students from St Anne's College, Oxford . Former residents include Bill Clinton and Masako, Empress of Japan . The 20th century saw several further additions to the college's accommodation, the Martin Building of 1966 ('Holywell Minor , a reference to Holywell Manor, across the road) and
8470-594: The last year to find it easier to face.” Huxley and Heard turned their attention to addressing the big problems of the world through transforming the individual, "[...] a forest is only as green as the individual trees of the forest is green [...]" This was the genesis of the Human Potential Movement , that gained traction in the 1960s. In the late 1930s, Huxley and Heard immigrated to the United States, and beginning in 1939 and continuing until his death in 1963, Huxley had an extensive association with
8580-415: The lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship and presented themselves for examination. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state that his objections were based on religious ideals, the only excuse allowed under
8690-678: The manifold world of things and lives and minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that it cannot be directly and immediately apprehended except by those who have chosen to fulfill certain conditions, making themselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit. 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. Many of Huxley's contemporaries and critics were disappointed by Huxley's turn to mysticism; Isherwood describes in his diary how he had to explain
8800-432: The modulations, not merely from one key to another, but from mood to mood. A theme is stated, then developed, pushed out of shape, imperceptibly deformed, until, though still recognizably the same, it has become quite different. . . . Get this into a novel. How? The abrupt transitions are easy enough. All you need is a sufficiency of characters and parallel, contrapuntal plots. . . . You alternate
8910-405: The more rarefied, detached, ivory-tower perspective and Huxley, with his pragmatic concerns, the more socially and historically informed position. Huxley wrote a foreword to Krishnamurti's quintessential statement, The First and Last Freedom (1954). Huxley and Heard became Vedantists in the group formed around Hindu Swami Prabhavananda , and subsequently introduced Christopher Isherwood to
9020-491: The only road of escape from the self–imposed necessity of self–destruction. As a means of personally realizing the "divine Reality", he described a "Minimum Working Hypothesis" in the Introduction to Swami Prabhavananda's and Christopher Isherwood's translation of the Bhagavad Gita and in a free-standing essay in Vedanta and the West , a publication of Vedanta Press . This is the outline, that Huxley elaborates on in
9130-401: The permanence of the college in that she provided capital and in 1282 formulated the college statutes, documents that survive to the present. Balliol lays claim to being the oldest Oxford college, though this is disputed by both University College and Merton . Balliol's claim is that a house of scholars was established by the founder in Oxford in around 1263, in contrast to Merton, which was
9240-525: The posthumous publication of J. D. Unwin 's 1940 book Hopousia or The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society . On 21 October 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of Nineteen Eighty-Four , congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is". In his letter, he predicted: "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narcohypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that
9350-522: The prominent Huxley family , he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford , with a degree in English literature . Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry , before going on to publish travel writing , satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By
9460-592: The publication of The Doors of Perception , in which he recounted this experience, Huxley and Swami Prabhavananda disagreed about the meaning and importance of the psychedelic 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. Huxley later had an experience on mescaline that he considered more profound than those detailed in The Doors of Perception . Huxley wrote that "The mystical experience
9570-417: The reign of Edward VI and during the great rebellion, and by Wood's time few of the miniatures in the remaining volumes had escaped mutilation. But by 1890, no less than 152 of Grey's codices were still in the possession of the college, and form a large part of Roger Mynors 's 1963 catalogue of the college's manuscripts. The bishop's coat of arms ( gules , a lion rampant , within a bordure engrailed argent)
9680-467: The religious to the physiological or financial. . . . Put a novelist in the novel. He justifies aesthetic generalizations, which may be interesting -- at least to me. He also justifies experiment. Specimens of his work may illustrate other possible or impossible ways of telling a story." Some of the main characters are: Comparisons have been made between the character Everard Webley with his Brotherhood of British Freemen and Oswald Mosley with
9790-457: The rivalry goes back to the late 17th century, when Ralph Bathurst , President of Trinity, was supposedly observed throwing stones at Balliol's windows. In fact, in its modern form, the rivalry appears to date from the late 1890s, when the chant or song known as a "Gordouli" began to be sung from the Balliol side. The traditional words run: Gordouli Face like a ham, Bobby Johnson says so And he should know. The shouting of chants over
9900-447: The rules in no way suggest there is a preference for an alumnus or fellow of the college to be chosen, there have been few who were not. Only one in the twentieth century had no previous connection. A former student of the college, Baruch Blumberg , was the first American master and the first Nobel Laureate , receiving his prize in medicine for the identification of the hepatitis B virus. The former Master of Balliol, Sir Drummond Bone ,
10010-453: The same year, Dame Frances Kirwan became the twentieth Savilian Professor of Geometry and the first woman to hold that post. In 2021, students sent an open letter to the college and protested regarding their welfare following an alleged incident of sexual assault on a female graduate student that was covered by Al Jazeera English . The college has been on its present site since its inception by Balliol's scholars as their residence with
10120-447: The skill of an artist who worked for him at Florence. It was his desire to make his collection the nucleus of a library for Balliol College, to the building of which, as well as to that of the master's lodgings and of the old buttery and hall, he contributed largely. The work was finished about 1477 by Robert Abdy , then master of the college, and enriched with some two hundred manuscripts, the bishop's gift. Of these, many were destroyed in
10230-403: The theme. More interesting, the modulations and variations are also more difficult. A novelist modulates by reduplicating situations and characters. He shows several people falling in love, or dying, or praying in different ways -- dissimilars solving the same problem. Or, vice versa, similar people confronted with dissimilar problems. In this way you can modulate through all
10340-696: The university who are allocated to the college by the university. One of these professorships is the Beit Professor of Commonwealth History , which is currently held by James Belich . The Professorship of Internet Studies is currently held by political scientist Philip N. Howard . Other professorships include the Boden Professor of Sanskrit and the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations . Official fellows are those who hold tutorial or administrative appointments in
10450-499: The wall is still known as "a Gordouli", and the tradition continues as the students gather to sing following boat club dinners and other events. The traditional Gordouli is said to have been sung by Balliol and Trinity men in the trenches of Mesopotamia in the First World War . Balliol became known for its radicalism and political activism in the 20th century, and saw an abortive coup in the 1960s in which students took over
10560-873: Was 14 (his father later remarried). He contracted the eye disease keratitis punctata in 1911; this "left [him] practically blind for two to three years" and "ended his early dreams of becoming a doctor". In October 1913, Huxley entered Balliol College, Oxford , where he studied English literature. He volunteered for the British Army in January 1916, for the Great War ; however, he was rejected on health grounds, being half-blind in one eye. His eyesight later partly recovered. He edited Oxford Poetry in 1916, and in June of that year graduated BA with first class honours . His brother Julian wrote: I believe his blindness
10670-550: Was a benefaction of the Bernard Sunley Foundation and contains some smaller rooms and the principal SCR lounge, replacing Victorian facilities. Below this is a Lecture Room ("LR XXIII"). The east side of the quad is a neighbouring wall with Trinity College, at the southern end is the Master's Garden, in front of the chapel, and the Fellows' Garden in front of the "Old" (Senior) Common Room. The Tower forming
10780-474: Was a blessing in disguise. For one thing, it put paid to his idea of taking up medicine as a career ... His uniqueness lay in his universalism. He was able to take all knowledge for his province. Following his years at Balliol, Huxley, being financially indebted to his father, decided to find employment. He taught French for a year at Eton College , where Eric Blair (who was to take the pen name George Orwell ) and Steven Runciman were among his pupils. He
10890-458: Was a post-graduate student there (Snell Exhibitioner from Glasgow University) and a scholar of the Romantic poet Lord Byron , and held the post from October 2011 to April 2018, following his retirement as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool in 2008. Each year the college matriculates approximately 260 undergraduates and postgraduates combined according to the most recent data which
11000-410: Was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) . In 1937, Huxley moved to Hollywood with his wife Maria, son Matthew Huxley , and friend Gerald Heard. Cyril Connolly wrote, of the two intellectuals (Huxley and Heard) in the late 1930s, "all European avenues had been exhausted in the search for a way forward – politics, art, science – pitching them both toward the US in 1937." Huxley lived in
11110-472: Was born in Godalming , Surrey, England, on 26 July 1894. He was the third son of the writer and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley , who edited The Cornhill Magazine , and his first wife, Julia Arnold , who founded Prior's Field School . Julia was the niece of poet and critic Matthew Arnold and the sister of Mrs. Humphry Ward . Julia named him Aldous after a character in one of her sister's novels. Aldous
11220-511: Was completed by MGM in 1943 with a different director and cast.) Huxley received screen credit for Pride and Prejudice (1940) and was paid for his work on a number of other films, including Jane Eyre (1944). He was commissioned by Walt Disney in 1945 to write a script based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the biography of the story's author, Lewis Carroll . The script was not used, however. Huxley wrote an introduction to
11330-409: Was corrupted by Hollywood and went astray after spooks. In early 1953, Huxley had his first experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline . Huxley had initiated a correspondence with Doctor Humphry Osmond , a British psychiatrist then employed in a Canadian institution, and eventually asked him to supply a dose of mescaline; Osmond obliged and supervised Huxley's session in southern California. After
11440-509: Was described by his brother, Julian, as someone who frequently contemplated "the strangeness of things". According to his cousin and contemporary Gervas Huxley, he had an early interest in drawing . Huxley's education began in his father's well-equipped botanical laboratory, after which he enrolled at Hillside School near Godalming. He was taught there by his own mother for several years until she became terminally ill. After Hillside he went on to Eton College . His mother died in 1908, when he
11550-565: Was drawn to the Gita , as he explained in the Introduction, written during WWII, when it was still not clear who would win: The Bhagavad Gita is perhaps the most systematic scriptural statement of the Perennial Philosophy. To a world at war, a world that, because it lacks the intellectual and spiritual prerequisites to peace, can only hope to patch up some kind of precarious armed truce, it stands pointing, clearly and unmistakably, to
11660-514: Was founded in about 1263 by John I de Balliol under the guidance of Walter of Kirkham , the Bishop of Durham . According to legend, the founder had abducted the bishop as part of a land dispute and as a penance he was publicly beaten by the bishop and had to support a group of scholars at Oxford. After de Balliol's death in 1268, his widow, Dervorguilla of Galloway (their son and grandson each became Kings of Scotland ), made arrangements to ensure
11770-542: Was his fifth novel and first dystopian work. In the 1920s, he was also a contributor to Vanity Fair and British Vogue magazines. During the First World War , Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor near Oxford, home of Lady Ottoline Morrell , working as a farm labourer. While at the Manor, he met several Bloomsbury Group figures, including Bertrand Russell , Alfred North Whitehead , and Clive Bell . Later, in Crome Yellow (1921), he caricatured
11880-531: Was mainly remembered as being an incompetent schoolmaster unable to keep order in class. Nevertheless, Blair and others spoke highly of his excellent command of language. Huxley also worked for a time during the 1920s at Brunner and Mond , an advanced chemical plant in Billingham in County Durham, northeast England. According to an introduction to his science fiction novel Brave New World (1932),
11990-564: Was published by the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center in New York. The book was translated by Swami Nikhilananda , with help from Joseph Campbell and Margaret Woodrow Wilson , daughter of US president Woodrow Wilson. Aldous Huxley wrote in the foreword, "...a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such
12100-429: Was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley , the zoologist , agnostic , and controversialist who had often been called "Darwin's Bulldog". His brother Julian Huxley and half-brother Andrew Huxley also became outstanding biologists. Aldous had another brother, Noel Trevenen Huxley (1889–1914), who took his own life after a period of clinical depression . As a child, Huxley's nickname was "Ogie", short for "Ogre". He
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