Aldous rawks. My parents got me to read Brave New World at an early age, and 1984 for comparison.

In college I discovered Aldous was one of the first freaks. His experiments with Mescaline (which begat "The Doors of Perception", which is where Jim Morrison got the name from) were legend, and it was he, Humphey Osmand and Abraham Hoffer (still alive and very much kicking at 92, see Margot Kidder miraculous cure from mania with the good doctors vitamin cure) who were shooting up DMT when the word "psychadelic" was invented.

Aldous died young but his brother Sir Julian is one of the most important evolutionary biologists. This is very fitting because it was their dad who defended Darwin; were it not for him, the church would have literally had Darwin killed.

To me the name Huxley is synonymous with enlightenment and courage.