Aldous Huxley’s Trolley Car into the Abyss
What follows is an excerpt from Aldous Huxley’s novel, Those Barren Leaves. It’s a scripted Q & A framed by introductory and conclusory paragraphs. I bought the book for $1 before work, opened to a page at random, and landed upon this ‘recipe’, as Huxley calls it, for shaking up the banality of office life.
As with any Huxley device, it runs deeper. It’s an invitation to contemplate our lives from their broadest vantage point. It’s an antidote for the unquestioned habitual patterns of drudgery modern work culture normalizes.
“Those who chafe at the tameness an sameness of office life, who pine for a little excitement to diversify the quotidian routine, should experiment with this little recipe of mine…All you have got to do is to pause for a moment in your work and ask yourself: Why am I doing this? What is it all for? Did I come into the world, supplied with a soul which may very likely be immortal, for the sole purpose of sitting every day at this desk?…
Q: Why am I working here?
A: In order that Jewish stockbrokers may exchange their Rovers for Armstrong-Siddeleys, buy the latest jazz records and spend the week-end at Brighton.
Q: Why do I go on working here?
A: In the hope that I too may some day be able to spend the week-end at Brighton.
