Reflecting on the Scientific and Literary Spheres in “The Genius and the Goddess”
Reflecting on the Scientific and Literary Spheres in “The Genius and the Goddess”

Summary/Abstract: The paper advances a debate upon some of Aldous Huxley’s thoughts regarding the relation between science and literature, as they appear in the novel The Genius and the Goddess. The discussion evolves around the judgments elicited by the characters’ perspective on human existence and its goals. Coming from different backgrounds (scientific, literary) the characters establish particular relations, contributing, in this way, to the shaping of an insightful human experience that highlights the vicinity between the scientific and literary domains. John Rivers is an old physicist who builds up a dialogue with his friend, a writer whose name is not mentioned in the novel, having as a starting point one significant experience in Rivers’s youth. In the beginning of the narrative the readers are acquainted with two characters (Rivers, the writer) belonging to two apparently unrelated fields of knowledge: science and literature. Rivers is the pragmatic protagonist of a manifold life experience, whereas the writer is the individual who attempts to go beyond the physicist’s narration through the constant challenges he poses during Rivers’s recollection of the past events. Huxley’s concern appears to be with the relations established between two approaches to human existence: one coming from a scientist, the other coming from a man of letters. Their approaches unfold in relation to one another and they also enrich the other’s perspective. Huxley succeeds in making his readers acknowledge the salience of combining the realistic view and the humanistic vision to which the religious prospects add some quite interesting and valuable insights. Huxley inclination towards the quest for a wider comprehension of human existence comes from his educational and family background. He was surrounded by scientists and men of letters, both groups raising questions regarding our existence according to the views shaped by their specific credo, scientific or literary. However, Huxley’s novel, The Genius and the Goddess, starts a journey to the past in an attempt to reveal the meanings of the precedent experience. On a Christmas Eve (the moment is not chosen by accident) the writer pays a visit to his friend, John Rivers, who decides to tell him the story of the youth experience, which he could not forget even in old age. Actually the entire novel is a mixture of scientific and literary perspectives through the means of the characters’ opinions regarding certain choices and certain attitudes related to the events debated upon. This paper is interested in highlighting the manner in which the two fields shaped the characters’ approaches to life and the way in which the readers relate to the combination of the two spheres as a means of obtaining a better understanding of the surroundings.

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