“ENVISAGING THE FUTURE”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19511, 9 June 1933, Page 10

“ENVISAGING THE FUTURE”

W.E.A. LITERATURE AND DRAMA CLASS For his third lecture, Mr W. J. Scott, M.A., dealt with two plays which attempted to envisage the future —“Wings over Europe” and “Brain.” The development of ideas has always been a gradual process from the known to the unknown, yet there have always been some men who, by their peculiar temperament, have been in advance of their times and have seen truths unrecognised by others of their generation. Among these may be classed such idealists as Plato and Sir Thomas More, or social satirists like Swift or Aldous Huxley. Their Utopias are often far removed from the viewpoint of the average man who looks in vain for familiar associations. For this reason, then, plays attempting to foreshadow coming events mu ' limit to a minimum, if all interest is not to be lost, the new ideas the dramatist wishes to incorporate in his work. Even G. B. Shaw merely popularises ideas that have been known to the intelligentsia for many years, as in the “Apple Cart” where the new idea is the conception of a great industrial concern which retards co-operation in the world • in order to safeguard its profits. From this aspect, then, “Wings over Europe” is a more interesting play than “Brain,” because the dramatist in the former is working on more familiar ground, basing his plot on the attempt to harness the atom, while “Brain” is built on the conception of the fantastic. Both plays probe into the future and both show that man may secure complete control over his environment if he chooses to take it. “Brain” shows that man learns to cooperate too late; “Wings” teaches that man is not competent to control nis destiny. “Wings over Europe” a play by Robert Nichols and Maurice Browne was the first play Mr Scott first considered. The story concerns a young scientist named Lightfoot. nephew of the Prime Minister of England, who discovers means of controlling atomic energy. He desires Cabinet to make full use of his discovery but to his annoyance, he meets with an apathetic reception. His explanations convey nothing to the sceptics but finally a demonstration proves the power he controls Cabinet, appalled by this, demands that Lightfoot destroy his secret, for one Minister at least believes that “there is a residuum of the savage in all mankind,” and that such knowledge could not be used rightly. Lightfoot decides to wipe out the entire globe and its human race, but is shot down by the Minister of War, who kills him in order that the human race might live “Brain” by Lionel Britton. has aroused considerable controversy. So notable a critic as St. John Ervine holds it to be the work of a madmah. Bertram Russell and Bernard Shaw have however championed it. The thesis of “Brain” is of great interest. Ideas are plastic images of light rays which strike on the brain from without and form upon it a molecular pattern. Hence consciousness being a material thing can be distributed by these molecular patterns to the individual. To do this a great “Brain” was constructed in the Sahara Desert by the “Brain Brotherhood” which secures so much power that it finally dominates the earth, .nd life itself But the Brotherhood, knowing that man was still a slave to the changes that govern the world, endeavoured to find a way of escaping the inevitable destruction by a space-time control Yet the effort is made too late. Fifty million years have elapsed and “Brain” sees the destruction of the earth by a rushing star. “There is always night. W' have betrayed life . . The human idea was born too late.” and everything disappears into the night of time. Summing up these plays, Mr Scott stated that these ideas were not so fantastic as appeared at first sight. “The Mysterious Universe” has shown that the mechanistic interpretation ~f life has been abandoned b.v the scientist. There must be a mathematical conception of things. Th“ Universe appears more as a great thought than as a great machine. After thp lecturer concluded by reading several extracts from Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.” a good discussion followed, many of the points raised in the plays oroving highly controversial. It was announced that the next lecture would be given on “The Poetry of T.S. Eliot.” by Mr A. H. McLintock