What Not

Introduction by Matthew de Abaitua
Look inside
An early novel by Rose Macaulay about a government program of compulsory selective breeding in a dystopian future England.

In 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 author Rose Macaulay’s own ambivalent attitude, gets involved in the Ministry’s propaganda efforts, which the novel details with an entertaining thoroughness. (The alphabetical caste system dreamed up by Macaulay for her nightmare world would directly influence Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopia Brave New World.) But 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 was delayed until after the end of World War I.
Series Foreword xi
Introduction: Sordid Novels and Preposterous Masculine Fictions xvii
Matthew De Abaitua
Note xxix
Apology xxxi
I. The Ministry 1
II. Little Chantreys 23
III. Brains Sunday 45
IV. Our Week 59
V. The Explanation Campaign 77
VI. The Simple Human Emotions 99
VII. The Breaking Point 119
VIII. On Fixed Hearts and Changing Scenes 139
IX. The Common Herd 157
X. A Ministry at Bay 175
XI. The Storming of the Hotel 193
XII. Debris 201
Rose 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 Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), and Told by an Idiot (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, The Towers of Trebizond (1956).
 
Matthew De Abaitua is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His debut science-fiction novel The Red Men was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and adapted into a short film, Dr. Easy. His science fiction novels IF THEN and The Destructives complete the loose trilogy. His book Self & I: A Memoir of Literary Ambition was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature.

About

An early novel by Rose Macaulay about a government program of compulsory selective breeding in a dystopian future England.

In 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 author Rose Macaulay’s own ambivalent attitude, gets involved in the Ministry’s propaganda efforts, which the novel details with an entertaining thoroughness. (The alphabetical caste system dreamed up by Macaulay for her nightmare world would directly influence Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopia Brave New World.) But 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 was delayed until after the end of World War I.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword xi
Introduction: Sordid Novels and Preposterous Masculine Fictions xvii
Matthew De Abaitua
Note xxix
Apology xxxi
I. The Ministry 1
II. Little Chantreys 23
III. Brains Sunday 45
IV. Our Week 59
V. The Explanation Campaign 77
VI. The Simple Human Emotions 99
VII. The Breaking Point 119
VIII. On Fixed Hearts and Changing Scenes 139
IX. The Common Herd 157
X. A Ministry at Bay 175
XI. The Storming of the Hotel 193
XII. Debris 201

Author

Rose 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 Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), and Told by an Idiot (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, The Towers of Trebizond (1956).
 
Matthew De Abaitua is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Essex. His debut science-fiction novel The Red Men was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and adapted into a short film, Dr. Easy. His science fiction novels IF THEN and The Destructives complete the loose trilogy. His book Self & I: A Memoir of Literary Ambition was shortlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature.

Books for Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Every May we celebrate the rich history and culture of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Browse a curated selection of fiction and nonfiction books by AANHPI creators that we think your students will love. Find our full collection of titles for Higher Education here.

Read more

The MIT Press Radium Age Series: A Science Fiction Primer for Students

In these forgotten classics in MIT Press’ Radium Age series, students will discover the origins of enduring tropes like tyrannical supermen, dystopian wastelands, sinister telepaths, and eco-catastrophes. According to the Los Angeles Review of Books, the series “challenges readers to reconsider the science fiction of the early 20th century… By returning to an international tradition of

Read more