A
Title: A Brave New World
Author: Aldous Huxley
Publication Info: Harper Perennial Modern Classics 1998
ISBN: 0060929871
Genre: Top 100 Banned Books
Reviewed by Erastes
“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in’t!”
Miranda. The Tempest Act V, Scene I:
I first read this book at least 35 years ago and at the time it was very much “science fiction” but Huxley was well ahead of his time; He took the hints of his own world (this was written in 1932) such as recreational drugs, sexual freedoms and mass manufacturing and did what good spec-fic writers do – pushed them into the future and imagined what the consequences of them would be.
Huxley’s Brave New World is a faux-Utopia (The World State) where the populace is controlled. They are grown in vitro, raised in specialist nurseries and they are both “natured and nurtured” to fit into their place in society and the work they do. Humans are graded from Alpha to Epsilon, and everyone’s happy to be the grade they are, due to successful brain washing.
I’m so glad I’m a Beta…..Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able …”
Happiness is given out in the form of Soma, a recreational drug. Sex is freely available. No-one marries, no-one gives birth.
But there IS an outside to this world, reservations where people live “natural” lives, giving birth and living off the land and are treated like a tourist attraction. While on a date there, Mustapha Mond, (who is an Alpha, but seems to be imperfect – doesn’t really fit in) – discovers Linda – an “insider” who was left outside 20 years ago and now she has a son. In a King Kong manner the boy, John “Savage” is brought into the perfect world that he’s heard so much about from his mother. As you can imagine this does not go well, as he’s as about as well equipped for living in such a world as Kong was for living in captivity. John’s reactions to the World State are gradually more and more violent as he attempts to get the people there what shallow empty lives they lead.
An amazing book, terrifying and, in these days of recreational drugs, mass manufacturing, and dependence on large cities, it still remains a great and unsettling mirror of society. It makes you truly wonder what Miranda would have made of the real world, once she had stepped off Prospero’s Island. Huxley obviously didn’t think she would last long.
Oh, c’mon Erastes! I subbed a review of BNW too! I am Teh Lateness. Drat. Oh well… you can read it here.
I subbed a review of BNW too! I am Teh Lateness.
Me too, and my review has a similar starting point to yours… though quite different in where it goes from there 🙂
If the Bitches don’t post it, I’ll put it on my site. It’s fun reading different takes on the book.
I went through an anti-utopian stage in high school and devoured books by Huxley, Orwell, Dick, and so many other SF authors. Strangely enough, I don’t ever recall reading an anti-utopian novel in any other genre.
Every time I hear about invitro procedures and biogeneration, I think of this book. It rather sucks because as a biologist, I hear about these things a lot. What I didn’t like about this book is that Huxley paints a horror story and then brings it to the point where the only answer is to kill oneself or bliss out on Soma. There were only two options, the savagry of the “natural” life or the non-life of the perfect world.
Aldous Huxley’s grandfather, Thomas Huxley, was a friend and huge supporter of Charles Darwin. It makes you wonder what his childhood must have been like.
Don’t worry – I’m posting all reviews, even if they’re for books already submitted for Banned Book Week. Everyone’s take on the “classic banned book” is slightly different and totally worth reading.
the only answer is to kill oneself or bliss out on Soma. There were only two options, the savagry of the “natural†life or the non-life of the perfect world.
Actually, I was intrigued by the islands where the questioning people were sent. The Controller (a questioner who’d chosen conformity) said that was really a reward, not a punishment. As I recall, a couple of the rebellious types accepted the offer to choose an island, but the Savage chose to live in self-flagellating isolation. (The poor Savage was pretty f’ed up even before that—I’m not sure if he’d have survived, regardless.)
When I first read Brave New World, I didn’t realize how old it was. I hoped there would be a sequel about those islands full of non-soma’ed people.
well, it wasn’t exactly a sequel, but Huxley did write Island. It’s another book along similar themes. It was written much laster and takes a different stance on some of the main themes. But it’s there, if you want to read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_(novel)
Oh, I hearted this book so much! Still one of my favorites, and every time I hear the word ‘soma’ (like nerve cell bodies), I think “a gram is better than a damn”.
I’m a fan of dystopian lit myself, and even though I liked 1984, I liked this one so much more even though I thought 1984 got more props for being the “definitive” future-warning book.
Anthem was definitely the least fav though…
oooohhh! I love this book. As they say “A Soma a day”. 🙂
But I think the best line of the whole book is when John is asked why he looks ill he says “I ate civilisation”.
Love it!
There’s a new post on Alien Romances about obscenities. It reminded me:
Oh, for the love of Ford!
Thanks for all these great reviews.
The title does not have “A” in it, FYI.