Prelude to Fame: Huxley View of Prodigies


Figure 1.--Here we see Guido performing in his velvet concert outfit which upset him. His did not, however, seem to affect his performances. Huxley's view seems to be that children should be left alone, that ordinary circumstances, even poverty are preferable to developing talent. It seems to ignore the value of developing talent.

There certainly is an issue as to how prodigies should be raised and their talent develoed. I think the film , however, rather over simpliies the prodigy issue by introducing an unrealistic, simplistic plot line. We get the impression that Huxley believes that children should be left alone, that ordinary circumstances, even poverty are preferable to developing talent. It seems to ignore the value of developing talent. In reality it is a much more complicated issue. It is certainly important to protect an individual's childhood and the many delights of growing up normally with friends. But it is also important to develp an individual's god-given talent to the fullest extent possible. The same issue comes up with choir boys. Here Huxley rather setys up an elaborate, unlikely senario. I wonder if the book is better. The philosophical line here is that money and capitalist society takes advantage of children. Unlike the plot line Huxely gives us, however, in the West, this was basically up to the parents. Some parents made bad decisions, others did not. In reality it is the Socialist socities like the Soviet Union that tended to focus on talent and service to the state and dismiss the idea of a normal childhood and welfare of the child.

Prodigy Issue

The film deals with exploitation of gifted children. such children. Signora Bondini kept Guido almost a prisoner. He was not allowed to have friends, or contact with his parents. Letters to him were not given to him. His letters home were not posted. When his friend visited Rome and attended his concert he was not allowed to meet them. It was when he saw the concert schedule that he broke down and wanted to commit suicide. However he was saved by his friends and a plan was hatched to smuggle him out of Rome and take him back to his family. There is another film made about the same time of a gifted child violinist who is similary treated. He runs away to experience being a little boy. He even throws mud balls at his own poster advertising a firth coming concert. Unfortunately I do not know the films name. I last saw it in 1987! There certainly is an issue as to how prodigies should be raised and their talent developed. It is certainly important to protect an individual's childhood and the many delights of growing up normally with friends. But it is also important to develp an individual's god-given talent to the fullest extent possible. The same issue comes up with choir boys.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)

Huxley was a humanist and pacifist. He is generally seen as a preeminent intelectual of the 20th century. His works did not dwell on pacifism, perhaps because of World War II. The theme he is best known for is what he saw as the the demumanizing aspect of scientific progress. This came out in Breave New World. Despite his literary themes, he was drawn to the United States, in part hoping to make money in Hollywood. Here he did not achieve much success. What gets me Bill is how none of these great intelectuals fail to understand the value of free market capitalism. I know there is room for discussion, but if you make a list of rich countries, every last one of them (unless they are sitting on vast reservoirs of oil) have economies based on capitalism or at least a modicum of capitlism. It is interesting that when Huxley left Britain, he didn't go live in a Socialist state or an underdevloped state without industry and sciwnce, he came to America, the country most committed to free market capitalism (at least at the time) and scintific progress.

Huxley Story

The Huxley short story was not about a gifted musician at all. We suspect that the boy was changed into a musical prodigy because that was easier to defict in film and added to the sound track. Huxkley published it in 1924 befiore he was well known. It tells the story of a couple vacationing in Italy meet a peasant boy with strong mathematical abilities. The most mathematical portion of the text is a discussion of a proof of the Pythagorean theorem which the boy develops. (It is the one where you divide a square into two squares and a rectangle by drawing a pair of lines perpendicular to the edges that meet inside the square and divide it into two squares -- not necessarily the same size -- and two rectangles of the same dimensions.) Warning: This story has a very sad ending. Reprinted in Fantasia Mathematica. A film version was made in Italian: 'Il piccolo Archimede.' Sandro Caparrini says "It is very well done and quite faithful to Huxley’s story." Huxley was involved in the writing.

Treatment of the Prodigy Issue

'Prelude to Fame' rather over simpliies the prodigy issue by introducing an unrealistic, simplistic plot line. We get the impression that Huxley believes that children should be left alone, that ordinary circumstances, even poverty are preferable to developing talent. It seems to ignore the value of developing talent. In reality it is a much more complicated issue. Here Huxley rather setys up an elaborate, unlikely senario. I wonder if the book is better.

Ideology

The philosophical line by making Guido a poor boy is that money and capitalist society takes advantage of children. Unlike the plot line Huxely gives us, however, in the West, this was basically up to the parents. Some parents made bad decisions, others did not. In reality it is the Socialist socities like the Soviet Union that tended to focus on talent and service to the state and dismiss the idea of a normal childhood and welfare of the child. Interestingly, the Soviets did take this approach with child actors. The children used in Soviet films tended to appear just once and were not developed as stars in multiple movies. A Russian reader tells us, "Some child actors in soviet films have appeared in more than one film." Right, but I don't think they did many like American and British child stars. I don't know of any Soviet child stars at all.












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Created: 4:50 PM 5/19/2013
Last updated: 10:26 AM 5/20/2013