Neil Downing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 Downing, July 1954 in Limerick, Ireland |
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| Born: | January 2, 1935 Skibbereen, Ireland |
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| Occupation: | Novelist, philosopher, musician |
| Nationality: | Irish |
| Genres: | Dystopian fiction |
| Influences: | Aldous Huxley, George Orwell, Andrew Spencer |
Neil Downing (b. January 2, 1935 in Skibbereen, Ireland) is an Irish writer and musician best known for reworking classic dystopian literature into the cultural context of the hippy culture, and anti-war protests in particular, of the late 1960s.
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[edit] Influences
[edit] Dystopian Literature
Downing was primarily influenced by two of the most famous British dystopian authors of the 20th century, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. His two best known novels are reworkings of those authors' most famous tomes, Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984, called Goodly Creatures and 1967, respectively.
[edit] Philosophy
His philosophies were probably framed by the American philosopher Andrew Spencer, with whom he lived in Limerick, Ireland for a brief period between 1956 and 1957. Like Spencer, Downing was concerned with the human condition and the changing nature of masculinity in the face of economic and social development.
[edit] Music
During his formative years, Downing was heavily influenced musically by the Delta blues movement, but it was the music of the late '60s hippy culture, such as Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix that would have the most profound effect on his musical work, which can be found packaged with his literature in the first pressing of each of his publications. He maintains that only 50 copies of each recording should be circulated, for reasons discussed in the essay "From Hand to Head", which deals with the organic nature of music and the power of "word of mouth".
[edit] Works
[edit] Novels
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1967 (1976), in which Downing reworks George Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984. Note that, as Orwell had switched the last two digits of the year in which he wrote the book, 1948, to get 1984, so Downing turned 1976 into 1967. The significant difference is that, while Orwell's novel was a foray into the possible future, Downing's was a look back at how he envisaged the social change of the late sixties, with particular reference to the Summer of Love.
"Goodly Creatures" cover art
- Goodly Creatures (1979) was Downing's take on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. The obsession with promiscuous sex and drug use in Brave New World allows for easy comparison with '60s hippy culture, but Downing focussed on the positive elements such as cultural diversity, art and literature, which are not present in Huxley's world.
- Peninsula (1982) is Downing's reworking of Aldous Huxley's Island.
[edit] Short Story Collections
[edit] Trivia
- Downing's educational background did little to set him up as a writer and musician: he studied mechanical engineering at the University of Limerick.
- While studying at the University of Limerick, he lived with the American philosopher Andrew Spencer.
- Goodly Creatures takes its title from the same speech by Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest from which Huxley's Brave New World is taken.
