Brave
New World
by Aldous Huxley
Huxley was a member of the intelligensia who
believed the application of modern "science" could understand and resolve
the problems of Man and society. Too many people read this book as a criticism
against the notion of ultra-controlled societies, which is a good thing,
never realizing that Huxley was an advocate of such control. Read it as
a criticism of the notion of the psychological control of Man, but also
as an example of the deluded possibilities many modern social planners
would love to see come about.
Reviews
Amazon.com
"Community, Identity, Stability" is the
motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily
grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and
the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates
the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and
everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses
his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than
the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the
practices and gadgets we take for granted today - et's hope the sterility
and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to come.
Audiofile
Huxley's visionary novel of social engineering
postulates a future world in which for the sake of social stability drugs
and sex and mindlessness replace truth and beauty. It became a classic
almost from its publication.
Customer Comments
A reader from Maryland,
US, September 9, 1999
Is such a world possible?
Brave New World describes a utopian society
with total conformity, where Ford is exalted to prophetic proportions,
and the motto of Community, Identity, Stability reigns supreme. Is such
a world possible?
The proposition of total conformity is one
of few impossibilities. The idea that a world could exist solely upon procreation
and driven by primal urges and electromagnetic golf is simply unattainable,
as this novel points out.
Utopian society in itself contains inept
thinking that it in the most simple of terms will never come into being.
Improbability is the word of the century, as more things fall out of the
perspective of impossibility, they too will fall victim to being shoved
aside into the pile of discord.
Although I find such a novel impossible of
becoming a reality, it is written masterfully and should be recognized
as a novel of worth. Huxley's dream of utopia (or does the word nightmare
apply?) may never come into being, thoughts such as these have paved the
road to infinity, which man has traversed time and time again.
A reader from Maryland,
September 9, 1999
A good book that makes you think...
Brave New World was assigned to my 10th
grade English for summer reading. At first I was reluctant to read the
book, because it looked really boring. But when I started to read it I
really started to like it. I thought it was a scary thought to think of
this as "the future", and it made me think. Also I thought it was really
weird that Huxley wrote this story in the thirties. Sometimes this made
the book of the 'future' humorous, but sometimes it was scary, because
some things are even starting to come true. Overall I thought it was a
good book and I would recommend it to others.
A reader from forest hill,
md, August 28, 1999
huxley succeeds where orwell and rand
fail
Brave New World is a fantastic book.
it succeeds as a negative-utopian, pro-individualist book where 1984
and Anthem fail. This is because it cries out in favor of emotion
and reason at the same time. Huxley puts on a pedestal not the solitary
human, but humanity as a virtue, with all its weaknesses and inconsistencies
making it truly perfect.
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