Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon is a utopian fantasy story, and so the reviewer must use his/her imagination to help make this unusual serviceman (enlightenment) believable. It is more cerebral than that According to St rase Silver Reviews on the novel, the monks at Shangri-La believe in a philosophy which is a mix of Christianity and is brought to the v exclusivelyey by the 18th French priest Perrault which is also the name of the French fabulist and the Buddhism which existed before Perraults arrival. The motto of these monks could best be summed up as Everything in moderation, even moderation, same as what Aristotle believed in his idealism.The novel opens in a gentlemans club in Berlin where four Englishmen have met for the evening. Talk turns to a flavorless hi-jacking which had occurred in Baskul, India the previous year. When the men realize they all knew star of the kidnap victims, Hugh Conway, the conversation briefly touches on his probable fate. After the gathering breaks up, one of th eir number, the author Rutherford, confides to another that he has seen Conway since the kidnapping and goes on to go out a manuscript accounting for Conways experiences.Conway is among four kidnap victims, the others being Mallinson, his upstart assistant who is anxious to get digest to civilization, Barnard, a brash American, and put down Brinklow, an evangelist. Conway himself rounds out the group as an established diplomat and stoic. When the plane crashes in the Kuen-Lun Mountains, the quartet is rescued and taken to the hidden lamasery of Shangri-La. Conway is the most adaptable and open-minded character in the book and takes what people say at cheek value as truth.Conway, Malinson, Barnard, and Ms. Brinklow argon four passengers catching a safety valve out of Baskul as the political and military situation there deteriorates. The plane is being flown by a pilot who appears to be in a trance and taking them drastically off course. A forced come on a Himilayan mountain t op kills the pilot and ruins the plane. The four survivors atomic number 18 rescued and brought to a strange, almost magical, mountain monastery and village. The setting is lush and cat valium despite the altitude.The people placid and friendly, but mysteriously quiet close the prospects for returning to civilization, so remote is the village. Despite his knowledge Conway leaves with Malinson in an commence to win India on foot. They are deceived and the journey is a tragic one. Conway managed to reach civilization and then is desperate to leave to make his return back to Shangri-La, to accept his position as successor to the deceased High Lama.Basically, the floor is a spiritual journey for those who see what it is they have stumbled upon, Shangri-La enlightenment on Earth. Conway is given an audience with the High Lama but form quiet as to what is going on. pile age years sooner of decades, there is no crime or war or hunger.The novel teaches us that desire itself corrupt s mankind. Buddhism teaches that nirvana is the end of desire for boththing at all, even life itself. Hilton takes this idea and uses it to create his utopia. In Shangri-La, no one wants anything because everyone has everything they need. Children are indoctrinated in courtesy and etiquette even when they are still very young. They are taught to share and love. If two men desire the same woman, one is spontaneous to let go. Passion and ambition are not good.The basis of all human emotion is desire, and when all desire is eliminated, you achieve a utopia. People in Shangri-La do not do anything because they do not want anything. They read, listen to music, have discussions and share nature walks, but they do not compete with each other or perform work. Hiltons utopians live abnormally long lives because they do not experience any tension or yearnings.ReferenceHilton, James (1988). Lost Horizon. Mass food market Paperback. ISBN 0671664271