{"product_id":"what-not-isbn-9780262544306","title":"What Not","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn early novel by Rose Macaulay about a government program of compulsory selective breeding in a dystopian future England.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn a near-future England, a new government entity—the Ministry of Brains—attempts to stave off idiocracy through a program of compulsory selective breeding. Kitty Grammont, who shares the author's own ambivalent attitude to life, gets involved in the Ministry's propaganda efforts, which are detailed with an entertaining thoroughness. However, when Kitty falls in love with the Minister for Brains, a man whose genetic shortcomings make a union with her impossible, their illicit affair threatens to topple the government. Because it ridiculed wartime bureaucracy, the planned 1918 publication of What Not, whose alphabetical caste system would directly influence Aldous Huxley's 1932 dystopia Brave New World, was delayed until after the end of World War I.Series Foreword xi\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Sordid Novels and Preposterous Masculine Fictions xvii\u003cbr\u003eMatthew De Abaitua\u003cbr\u003eNote xxix\u003cbr\u003eApology xxxi\u003cbr\u003eI. The Ministry 1\u003cbr\u003eII. Little Chantreys 23\u003cbr\u003eIII. Brains Sunday 45\u003cbr\u003eIV. Our Week 59\u003cbr\u003eV. The Explanation Campaign 77\u003cbr\u003eVI. The Simple Human Emotions 99\u003cbr\u003eVII. The Breaking Point 119\u003cbr\u003eVIII. On Fixed Hearts and Changing Scenes 139\u003cbr\u003eIX. The Common Herd 157\u003cbr\u003eX. A Ministry at Bay 175\u003cbr\u003eXI. The Storming of the Hotel 193\u003cbr\u003eXII. Debris 201\"A satire of Britain after World War One, where mental improvement has its own powerful government department. A cross between Brave New World and Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’—all delivered with a sly wit and arch tongue.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Philippa Levine, William Prescott Webb Chair in History and Ideas, University of Texas at Austin\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the wittiest, most ironical, and altogether funniest books that have appeared these many years.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Daily Telegraph (1919)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Miss Macaulay’s ‘prophetic comedy’ is a joyous rag of Government office routine, flappery, Pelmania, Tribunals, State advertising, the Lower Journalism and ‘What Not.’ ….  A very shrewd piece of observation, whimsicality and tempered malice.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Punch (1919)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“As a frankly frivolous, always humorous and often witty caricature of modern tendencies, the thing is a brilllant success.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Observer (1919)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“An entertaining satire upon the current tendency to put us under Government regulations in everything, even getting married.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Globe (1919)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Her serious story is impressive and affecting. But the chief delight of the book is in its gay and ridiculous wit.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—New Statesman (1919)\u003c\/b\u003eRose Macaulay (1881–1958) was an English writer who worked in the British Propaganda Department during the First World War; later, she became a civil servant in the War Office. Several of her satirical novels, including \u003ci\u003ePotterism\u003c\/i\u003e (1920), \u003ci\u003eDangerous Ages\u003c\/i\u003e (1921), and \u003ci\u003eTold by an Idiot\u003c\/i\u003e (1923) were bestsellers. A journalist, poet, and essayist, and the author of biographies and travelogues, Macaulay is best remembered today for her autobiographical final novel, \u003ci\u003eThe Towers of Trebizond\u003c\/i\u003e (1956).\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMatthew De Abaitua is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His debut science-fiction novel \u003ci\u003eThe Red Men\u003c\/i\u003e was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and adapted into a short film, \u003ci\u003eDr. Easy\u003c\/i\u003e. His science fiction novels \u003ci\u003eIF THEN\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Destructives\u003c\/i\u003e complete the loose trilogy. His book \u003ci\u003eSelf \u0026amp; I: A Memoir of Literary Ambition\u003c\/i\u003e was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301271261413,"sku":"NP9780262544306","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262544306.jpg?v=1767743878","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/what-not-isbn-9780262544306","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}