Originally published in 1932, this outstanding work of literature is more crucial and relevant today than ever before. Cloning, feel-good drugs, antiaging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media -- has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 AF (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, Brave New World is both a warning to be heeded and thought-provoking yet satisfying entertainment.
Brave New World is a classic novel. I got vibes from 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, regarding the censorship of literature and other elements. Yet due to the occasional use of Shakespearean English, it was difficult to read for me. Additionally, the plot was difficult for me to follow. However, this dystopian society is very intriguing and scary at the same time. The poisonous effect of soma, the brainwashing using hypnopaedia, and censorship of literature, is brilliantly written and contrived. Therefore 3/5
This book hasn't aged well. It may be one of the first cases of a dystopian novel, but the author's imagination doesn't stretch much further than that. A lot of his points are very on the nose, and the final chapters repeat them, just in case the reader has made it this far without figuring out the message. Would not recommend, but for some reason it still gets assigned in school.
Somehow this one slipped through the cracks so this was my first read. There are moments in the novel that deeply impressed me. In particular, I liked the way Huxley's writing style rushed the reader through this vast world through multiple points of view. Unfortunately, the pace couldn't sustain because he boxed himself into a sort of Hercule Poirot moment of exposition near the end in order to tidy up the narrative.
I also didn't get very much out of this story in 2019. None of the novel's perilous visions felt very relevant except, perhaps, the urge to give into the cult of the new. What I've observed in our moment, however, is an equally powerful urge to reclaim, resell, or regard the old (and price it higher than a new item).
I was curious about this one after finishing The Wall by John …
Oh what a brave new world.
Somehow this one slipped through the cracks so this was my first read. There are moments in the novel that deeply impressed me. In particular, I liked the way Huxley's writing style rushed the reader through this vast world through multiple points of view. Unfortunately, the pace couldn't sustain because he boxed himself into a sort of Hercule Poirot moment of exposition near the end in order to tidy up the narrative.
I also didn't get very much out of this story in 2019. None of the novel's perilous visions felt very relevant except, perhaps, the urge to give into the cult of the new. What I've observed in our moment, however, is an equally powerful urge to reclaim, resell, or regard the old (and price it higher than a new item).
I was curious about this one after finishing The Wall by John Lanchester (it was just an intuition they'd be connected somehow) and what I found is an interesting prose style and a narrative composition worthy of having read but nothing substantial enough for me to hang onto this time around.
I'm glad I read this book, eventually, as an adult. Having a different outlook on life and happiness, as compared to most high schoolers who are forced to read this classic, gave a different feel. The books seemed a little too basics, but then I have to put myself in the 1930s mindset of when this book was written. Now that would have been a curious time during which to read this book.
Dull in the beginning, but it picked up the pace around halfway through the book. Many people had recommended this to me claiming it was a more accurate representation of our current world than Orwell's "1984". I agree with them to an extent, however it did not leave quite the impression that Orwell's masterpiece had on my mind.
Just re-read this for the first time since high school, and while I appreciate the fitting extrapolation of a stable, placid, rigid society focused on sex, social role and status, I really couldn't care about the story or the raving this time around.
I love rereading these classics again as an adult. There is so much depth and nuance to the critique of society that was lost on my high school brain.
Can you exist as an individual entity in any form of civilization? Is there any freedom in the presence of social conditioning (secular or religious)? Can you strike a balance between the cost of social stability and individual freedom?
I'm sure there are many more questions to mull over, but the above is sufficient for now.
The ur-dystopia and soves the issue of presenting while also critiquing the future society most elegantly. Also avoids the easy clichés of bad futures.
There is much to be learned from reading this book and it is easy to forget that it was written early in the last century, not this one. Sadly, the warnings Huxley offers about what society was becoming were largely ignored and we've come to a society that so closely mirrors his "civilization" that it could have been a metaphor about our current state of affairs written by a contemporary author.
It is a very short novel but full of warnings and lessons that are as applicable, or even more so, today as they were in 1930. It is a lesson in mass manipulation by the media and big pharma. It is a lesson in treating people ultimately as mere resource rather than persons. And it is a lesson in extremes, extreme pain v. extreme pleasure and the wrongheadedness in submitting to either.
While it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book much, I just couldn't bring myself to believe in such a reality. Maybe I wasn't completely sold on the hypnopaedic idea of teaching people to like what they do. And the idea of idealized Alfa++ humanity being possible is even more ridiculous. The story about cyprus experiment reminded me of an older idea - all jobs, no matter how physical, dirty or menial are needed for society to work. It would be great if we could replace them with robots or other form of automation (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU for a nice overview). In the meantime I would like people to appreciate their waiters, cleaning ladies and other people "serving" them.
There were a lot of passages I marked in the book since it had a certain philosophical edge to it and I liked it very much (especially last two chapters). Topics of …
While it didn't affect my enjoyment of the book much, I just couldn't bring myself to believe in such a reality. Maybe I wasn't completely sold on the hypnopaedic idea of teaching people to like what they do. And the idea of idealized Alfa++ humanity being possible is even more ridiculous. The story about cyprus experiment reminded me of an older idea - all jobs, no matter how physical, dirty or menial are needed for society to work. It would be great if we could replace them with robots or other form of automation (see www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU for a nice overview). In the meantime I would like people to appreciate their waiters, cleaning ladies and other people "serving" them.
There were a lot of passages I marked in the book since it had a certain philosophical edge to it and I liked it very much (especially last two chapters). Topics of happiness, science and knowledge amd are the most important on my list to remember and ponder on after reading this book. I expect a later update of this text :-)
Really enjoyed this prediction of the future. You can't help but compare this to [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313] but they are very different. 1984 was a dark vision of the future, full of violence and down trodden people, Brave new world is pretty much the complete opposite no violence, everybody is happy and all things are great... in the words of the Lego Movie..." Everything is Awesome!"
That being so, this future is really sinister, in 1984 I felt I would have a chance to rebel, there were others who felt the same as you, but in brave new world you have no chance from when your first cell divides your future is being controlled and your future set. Ghastly stuff.
As for the writing itself, the book starts off with a tour of a facility and you are brought straight up-to-date with how the world is and how things are for …
Really enjoyed this prediction of the future. You can't help but compare this to [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313] but they are very different. 1984 was a dark vision of the future, full of violence and down trodden people, Brave new world is pretty much the complete opposite no violence, everybody is happy and all things are great... in the words of the Lego Movie..." Everything is Awesome!"
That being so, this future is really sinister, in 1984 I felt I would have a chance to rebel, there were others who felt the same as you, but in brave new world you have no chance from when your first cell divides your future is being controlled and your future set. Ghastly stuff.
As for the writing itself, the book starts off with a tour of a facility and you are brought straight up-to-date with how the world is and how things are for everybody. After that the story kicks off and you follow the life of Bernard, somebody who is not normal... somebody like you and me... who doesn't want to fit in.
A brilliant novel that I really enjoyed to read, looking forward to reading more by Aldous Huxley.
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is often contrasted with "1984" by George Orwell as two types of twentieth-century dystopias. On the surface, they have many common themes: the complete control of society by those in power, the control of history and information, the destruction of the individual.
They are both horrifying but for radically different reasons. What makes "Brave New World" horrifying is that its shows a benevolent dystopia that, to use Huxley's introduction, makes men "love their servitude." The universe of "Brave New World" is one in which people have become infantile and made comfortable and contented through consumption, drugs, and genetic engineering. In my mind, "Brave New World" is more prescient about the trends we can see contemporary society than "1984" and makes the novel ultimately more troubling.
Reading the novel, I am struck by the intellectual rigor and depth with which Huxley approached his subject. I …
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley is often contrasted with "1984" by George Orwell as two types of twentieth-century dystopias. On the surface, they have many common themes: the complete control of society by those in power, the control of history and information, the destruction of the individual.
They are both horrifying but for radically different reasons. What makes "Brave New World" horrifying is that its shows a benevolent dystopia that, to use Huxley's introduction, makes men "love their servitude." The universe of "Brave New World" is one in which people have become infantile and made comfortable and contented through consumption, drugs, and genetic engineering. In my mind, "Brave New World" is more prescient about the trends we can see contemporary society than "1984" and makes the novel ultimately more troubling.
Reading the novel, I am struck by the intellectual rigor and depth with which Huxley approached his subject. I don't think the novel is particularly well-written but its ideas are so finely drawn that they come to the forefront. It is at once a parody of Utopian novels, a philosophical treatise on modernity, an exploration of religion and spirituality, and a damning critique of mass-consumerism.
