Going West

by James Bramwell

A baffled quest for transformation and transcendence: this was the theme of much British fiction in the 1930s. An ironic self-protective tone became widespread but it was betrayed by overtones of almost desperate yearning. This describes the present exercise, which mingles utopian fantasy with flippant pessimism. The story springs from the kind of neo-pagan, polytheistic metaphysical framework that had also become common in this period. Its inciting incident is the dissatisfaction of a minor deity ("the Benevolent Being"), who confesses his disappointment with the state of the great divine experiment, namely created humanity. This Being causes an island to rise up in the Mediterranean while simultaneously shipwrecking near it a yacht with its crew of eight. Thus can a miniature brave new world be established. Huxley's novel had been published three years earlier, though Bramwell's exercise owes more to the supernatural earnestness of the original ("The Tempest") than to the satirical scientific romance of Brave New World. This new world will be known as "the Place of Love." But things don't work out much better with the benefit of this fresh start than they do in the old world, and the Benevolent Being, evidently less potent than Prospero, causes the island to sink back into the sea.

263 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935