Aldous Huxley – Page 4

BBC Radio 3 talks Utopias

SFFaudio Online Audio

The latest issue of the Radio Times offers a peek at next week – On BBC Radio 3 in The Essay timeslot will be a “3 part examination of utopian visions of the future……” entitled The Future’s Not What It Used To Be… quite a number of SF classics are quoted in the Radio Times article, so this should be a worthy listen. Here’s the official description:

“As a child of the 1950s, Richard Foster thought that by now he would be wearing a silver jumpsuit and spending endless hours of leisure zooming around on a personal jet-propelled backpack – all in a world where poverty, sickness and religion had been banished by technology. So what went wrong?”

Part 1 – Broken Dreams
Broadcast: Mon. 4th August 23:00-23:15
Richard investigates two contrasting utopian worlds in novels from the 1880s: caring capitalism in Looking Backward by American author Edward Bellamy and communitarian socialism in William Morris’ News from Nowhere.

Part 2 – Trust Me, I’m A Scientist
Broadcast: Wed. 6th August 23:00-23:15
Richard looks at how, in the 1930s, when capitalism and communism appeared unable to deliver utopia, H.G. Wells in The Shape of Things to Come and Aldous Huxley in Brave New World asked the next big question: can science mend our broken dreams, or will they just become nightmares?

Part 3 – Be Afraid, be very Afraid
Broadcast: Thu. 7th August 23:00-23:15
Richard investigates the threat of nuclear and environmental holocaust, explored in novels such as Neville Shute’s On the Beach and John Christopher’s The Death of Grass. Is the appetite for apocalypse – religious or scientific – now fed by ecological concern and terrorism? Must we always live in fear, or is it a potent political tool?

[Thanks Roy!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 7 reruns Brave New World

Online Audio

Though BBC7 doesn’t offer a single podcast [GRRR!], the do have one endearment that we can appreciate… re-runs! BBC Radio 7’s the 7th Dimension is re-broadcasting the ten part abridgment of Brave New World. Aldous Huxley’s dystopian classic, first published in 1932, depicts an ominous,l but not wholly repulsive vision of future society. This abridged version has been previously broadcast on both BBC7 and BBC4.

Brave New World
By Aldous Huxley; Read by Anton Lesser
10 X 15 Minute Episodes – Approx. 2.5 Hours [ABRIDGED]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Monday to Friday at 6:45pm (repeats 12:45am) UK Time*
A nightmare vision of the future, where humans are battery farmed and cloning and consumerism is rife.

All ten parts will be made available via the Listen Again service shortly after they air.

posted by Jesse Willis

Science Fiction and Politics University Course continues

Online Audio

Professor Courtney Brown‘s course at Emory University is a Political Science course entitled Science Fiction and Politics (Political Science 190). We’ve talked about this course more than once. But, as the new lectures appear in the feed, this podcast gets renewed interest, and thus prompts new posts. So here’s another, this one lists all the currently available lectures (Spring 2007 is now completed at Emory). Brown’s lectures below are from two semesters and feature some incisive political insights found in more than a dozen SF novels.

Lectures available:

01: Introduction and Overview |MP3|
02: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (1 of 2) |MP3|
03: Foundation by Isaac Asimov (2 of 2) |MP3|
04: Foundation And Empire by Isaac Asimov |MP3|
05: Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov |MP3|
06: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (1 of 2) |MP3|
07: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (2 of 2) |MP3|
08: The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (1 of 2) |MP3|
09: The Left Hand Of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin (2 of 2) |MP3|
10: The Uplift War by David Brin (1 of 2) |MP3|
11: The Uplift War by David Brin (2 of 2) |MP3|
12: Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear (1 of 2) |MP3|
13: Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear (2 of 2) |MP3|
14: How to write your essays |MP3|
15: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1 of 2) |MP3|
16: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (1 of 2) |MP3|
17: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1 of 2)|MP3|
18: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (2 of 2)|MP3|
19: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1 of 2) |MP3|
20: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (2 of 2) |MP3|
21: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1 of 3) |MP3|
22: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (2 of 3) |MP3|
23: The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (3 of 3) |MP3|
24: Neuromancer by William Gibson (1 of 2) |MP3|
25: Neuromancer by William Gibson (2 of 2) |MP3|
26: On free will [based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy] (1 of 2) |MP3|
27: On free will [based on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World] (2 of 2) |MP3|
28: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (1 of 2) |MP3|
29: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (2 of 2) |MP3|
30: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (1 of 2) |MP3|
31: Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (2 of 2) |MP3|
32: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1 of 2) |MP3|
33: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1 of 2) |MP3|

You can subscribe to the podcast via this feed:

http://www.courtneybrown.com/classes/scifi/mp3/cb_SciFiPoliticsClass1.xml

Also, Dr. Brown tells me that he’s been getting requests from some of his students for more female Science Fiction authors. He asks if we have any “top-of-the-list suggestions?” He’s been using Hugo and Nebula award winning novels, but we all know that there are plenty of novels out there that haven’t won a Hugo or a Nebula that are still worthy of examination. Can you think of any Dr. Brown should add to his class for next year?

posted by Jesse Willis

BBC7’s The 7th Dimension does the classics: 2001: A Space Odyssey and Brave New World

Online Audio

BBC7’s the 7th Dimension will be airing two Science Fiction classics back to back starting monday weekdays for two weeks. First, Arthur C. Clarke’s novel 2001: A Space Odyssey as produced by radio legend Dirk Maggs. Followed by a definitely abridged version of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Details follow…

2001: A Space Odyssey
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by William Roberts
10 X 15 Minute Episodes – Approx. 2.5 Hours [ABRIDGED?]
BROADCASTER: BBC7’s The 7th Dimension
BROADCAST: Monday to Friday at 6:30pm (repeats 12:30am) UK Time*
When an enigmatic monolith is found buried on the moon, scientists are amazed to discover that it’s at least 3 million years old; the spaceship Discovery, its highly trained crew and self-aware, ultra-capable computer, HAL are sent to investigate.

*This has been broadcast twice before: (in 2001 on BBC Radio 4 and on BBC7 in November 2005)

*This has been broadcast at least once before on BBC Radio 4

These will both be avilable via the Listen Again service shortly after they air.

posted byJesse Willis

More vintage vinyl: Arthur C. Clarke and Aldous Huxley performing their own WORK!

An SFFaudio contributor, code named “Esther,” has pointed out that Record Brother Blog also has a couple of other spoken word albums posted. One by Arthur C. Clarke and one by Aldous Huxley!

Transit Of Earth and The Nine Billion Names of God Read By The Author Arthur C. Clarke
By Arthur C. Clarke; Read by Arthur C. Clarke
3 Mp3 Files (from an original 33 1/3 LP Record) – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Caedmon
Published: 1975
Product #: TC-1566

Click HERE for the Record Brother post, the three files are at the bottom.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World
By Aldous Huxley; Performed by Aldous Huxley and a Full Cast
2 Mp3 File (from an original 33 1/3 LP Record) – [RADIO DRAMA]
Publisher: Pelican Records
Published: 1979
Product #: LP-2013

This is a CBS Radio Workshop Theatre of the Mind production, with Aldous Huxley performing as the narrator and with an original score is by Bernard Herrmann. It was originally broadcast in two parts on January 27th and February 3rd, 1956. The liner notes on the hard copy are by Ray Bradbury, and recall his interactions with Huxley.

Get both parts by following these links:

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World SIDE 1 & SIDE 2

Esther also recommends listening to Huxley speaking about modern (1962) techniques for controlling human behavior at the UC Berkeley’s MEDIA SITE.

There’s a Real Audio (streaming) link to his March 20, 1962 lecture,
“The Ultimate Revolution” and also separate links to the program and Q&A.

Thanks Esther!

posted by Jesse Willis