Throughout the 1920s Aldous Huxley was, recalling the edict to either be interesting or be entertaining (else why should people stick around you?) writing novels that were trying to be both. But, isn't there a feeling that, for Huxley anyway, the Interesting - the Ideas in these novels - was always the first concern?
Those Barren Leaves ends on a large one of these Ideas: Is it possible, through some form of contemplation techniques, through hard concentration on one thing and therefore an emptying of the mind of all distractions, is it possible to 'open the curtain' on an astonishing and wider 'reality' within which our own limited perceived reality dwells? Later on in his life, did Huxley in addition to his other hunting go off on a hunt in just this direction? Those Barren Leaves draws to a close on this idea, and it is here that Huxley reveals a little of his writing craft. It is here that he chooses to use a device - the hand.
A man and a young woman are in bed. The man is holding up his hand. The hand, for him, would be the introduction to something he has been considering but has not yet summoned up the courage to embark upon - a withdrawal from his pointless yet pleasantly distracting world, into a world of the isolated cottage and a freedom to force the mind on to these contemplation techniques. Why not start the process by contemplating just this very hand.
And the young woman contemplates the hand and thinks about what that hand could be doing on her body. And what does the young woman say?
'"Why don't you think about me?" (-) "I'm sorry I should have got in the way of your important occupations," she said in her most sarcastic voice. "Such as thinking about your hand." She laughed derisively. There was a long silence.'
That hand means one thing to the contemplative man: that hand means another thing to a certain sort of young woman. It is the juxtaposition of the two that is, within what this novel is trying to explore, a bit clever.
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