|
After finishing Brave New World, I can see why schools assign the book. Huxley shows that a perfect society is like communism, good in theory, but not applicable in today's society due to one main factor: individualism.
When I first started reading it, I could not understand why schools assign it to high students. As I got into the book, I realized it has several social lessons to be taught.
I had heard several rave reviews of this book, read it was on the banned list for a while and saw it listed on preparatory reading lists for college bound students. Conservatives will balk at the sexual openness, references to soma and the genetic manipulations discussed in the book, but the best lesson is shown through the character development of the main characters and the ultimate fate of John.
I think the most important is the idea of a perfect society. Greek philosophers started the idea and it remains somewhat popular today.
Humans thrive on their `uniqueness' and Huxley's new world eliminates it much the way Marx and Engles discarded it in the Communist Manifesto. It is well written and educational for students and adults alike.
I don't find Huxley's vision or social statement particularly compelling or insightful, but the writing, pace of the story, originality, etc. I read this book again recently and it still holds up as an excellent piece of fiction. The narrative is exciting and energetic and contains much originality. still makes this well worth reading. Paul Gehrman, Author, Kaleidoscope
leading the examined lifeIV. Painmedication for pain. (this is true.he predicted bell bottom pants)- LSD. But there is just enough juice in the plot (although riddled with coincidences) that propels you through his vision.True to form, several years later he wrote a sequel called 'Brave New World Revisited', where he dispenses with the fiction and just wrote it as a series of essays.Some themes from the book:I.
But I suppose I am saying that the sum total of all our consumption is tending towards an escape from living life.II. I was a bit scared that this book might end up like an Ayn Rand dissertation of objectivism. Our best efforts to 'control' nature is futile for two reasons. And on and on and on.This feels like we want to escape life rather than live it. We look for mitigating strategies for every problem we face. My chief complaint with Ayn Rand is that she created cardboard characters that mouth her philosophy.
There are tons more like that.I found that while the style of the book is fiction, the heart of the book is non-fiction. Here is a list of things he manages to predict will come true in the brave new world of ours:- Bell Bottoms. We are creatures of conditioning. Huxley wrote this vision of dystopia and was a few years ahead of the more famous George Orwell's 1984.It is amazing to me that Aldous Huxley wrote this in 1931. I am obviously not saying don't take Tylenol.
Aldous Huxley thankfully escapes that fate (but barely).His characters are still emotionally shallow and the interactions superficial. (It is happening today as we can see between religions and between societies). Video games or TV for boredom. It looks like Aldous Huxley wrote this book as a reaction to some of the Utopian books that authors like HG Wells wrote glorifying scientific progress. One nature will overwhelm us. And two, we are not separate from nature - we ARE nature.III. We should set aside hours in a day and days in a month to carefully consider our in-built assumptions about the world, about our society and fellow living beings and ourselves to figure out whether we are operating on platitudes or operating on what we arrive at for ourselves as the truth.
i.e. The clash is because of a radically different set of assumptions within each culture that views its own values as good and the other culture's values as not just different, but antithetical and inimcal.Overall, this is one of the most satifisfying books I have been through in a long time. He calls it Soma.- Cloning- Anti-depressant drugs- Helicopter Taxis (well, we dont have these yet - although there is a helicopter taxi from Wall Street to JFK airport)- Contraception- Test Tube babies- Sexual Revolution- Unlimited consumption- Planned obsolesence- Instant gratification- Atheistic societies (maybe this was already there in Leninist Russia - can't say)- Social Engineering (think Great Society or the Great Leap Forward)- Botox and cosmetic surgery- Vaccination (this I dont know if it already existed then)- Super bugs- Brain washingThese are some things I just happen to remember off the top of my head. Protienaceous and not bubble-gum. Anti-depressant medication for depression. Botox for skin sag. When cultures clash, it is of serious consequence.
Having said that the fiction layer was mediocre at best, and the non-fiction layer was a tour de force.
Bought for a school assignment. Read it; and was kinda grossed but laughed at most of the things supposebly scary. eh im just demented.
I think there are other reviews that articulate quite well what this book is about, I just wanted to add a tidbit that relates to this book about the author.After reading this book, which was excellent, I was surprised to find out that Huxley was indeed a supporter of eugenics and was an avid drug user.A BNW seemed to have a very pessimistic outlook on all forms of genetic engineering, eugenics and also on drugs to achieve an "ignorance is bliss" state of mind. Perhaps his intent was to show the dark side of what can arise, but I don't think, as apparently he didn't either, that GE or drug use is an inherently evil thing. I plan on reading The Island and Doors of Perception by him next, perhaps this will expose some more understanding of his views on this topic.
|
