Brave New World is a 1931 classic dystopian novel by British author Aldous Huxely. It is a world where people are grown in bottles and their caste — Alpha to Gamma is predetermined in vitro. Parent, mother, father, and pregnant are offensive words that are repulsive.. Promiscuous sex, feelies, the drug soma to level you out or take you on a holliday, and socially mandated activities that make sure no one is alone, keep everyone “happy”, content, and unquestioning.
The first part of the book reads like a catalog of how this world differs from our own.Things get more interesting when the Alpha Barnard visits a reservation of savages and finds John, a young man whose parents are from the outside. Seeing this as a way to increase his social status, he takes John back to the world. John is dubbed John Savage and is an immediate sensation with Bernard as his manager. John isn’t dumb, he’s a keen observer who quotes Shakespeare in response to this “brave new world” with its artificial and superficial happiness. He finds that the solitude he craves is forever out of reach.
Brave New World is a dystopia masquerading as a utopia and a warning how technology and complaisance could lead to a totalitarian dystopia. Huxley explores this in Brave New World Revisited.
Brave New World Revisited is a series of essays published in 1958. Here Huxley contrasts the totalitarianism of Orwell’s 1984 with that of Brave New World. Huxley is pessimistic that overpopulation and over organization inevitability is going to lead to totalitarianism. He also skirts alarmingly close to espousing eugenics. The chapters on propaganda and manipulation apply as much today as when Huxley wrote them. Perhaps more so given the way broadcast media can disseminate propaganda and manipulate people’s thinking. See the 2024 election.
Brave New World is an extreme look at a possible future for society given advances in technology and other stressors but I found Brave New World Revisited much more relevant and thought provoking. The reader sees just how easy it is to manipulate people.
Read Brave New World, Brave New World Revisited, Orwell's 1984, and Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for a good look at possible paths toward totalitarianism. All three books are still relevant today.
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