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Brave New World: a Review

 


The two dystopian novels of the early 20th Century that set the standard for dystopian novels, were Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It is interesting that neither author was primarily known science fiction writer.

I read Brave New World when I was in High school. It was not required reading. I just read it on my own to check a famous science fiction book off my list. I don’t think I got much out of it. I know I didn’t get much out of it, just the basic plot: A society where happiness is the only good. Everyone has sex with everyone else. A “savage” makes an appearance and it upsets the applecart. I doubt if I got much of the nuance or the humor. I definitely would not have gotten the Shakespeare references. In fact, there are a lot of references my 17-year-old self would not have gotten. I just finished reading it again. With age comes more understanding.

The compelling insight into this “Utopian” society comes from the outsider, in this case, the savage. John (the savage) was an accident. His mother had found herself stranded in the wilderness and pregnant, and was forced to give birth. Real birth. In a society where sex is as free and common as blades of grass in a field, the thought of an actual mother giving actual birth is considered pornographic. In fact, the word “mother” is not used in polite society. John is introduced to this civilized society, and at first, he is a novelty to the society as the society is a novelty to him. He becomes something of a celebrity. But soon, he rebels against it. He complains that all good literature has been banned. People are entertained by “feelies” (first there were movies, then there were talkies, I guess the next great step in Huxley’s mind was that there would be feelies). John says to The Controller. “Othello’s good. Othello’s better than those feelies.”

“Of course, it is,” the Controller agreed. “But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art.” Stability is the goal of this society. The Controller tells him, “The world’s stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and never want what they can’t get.”

To us, the civilized society of Brave New World is a nightmare. Genetics are controlled. People are pigeonholed into predetermined classes that determine what kinds of jobs they are allowed to do. They are taught to distrust anyone from another class, and revere those of their own class. They are conditioned what to think and punished for thinking or acting outside the norm. There is no creativity, and no freedom of speech. Yet, they are by outward appearances, happy.

This book had to be shocking for the time it was written (1932). It was a world whose morals were turned upside down. Works of early science fiction often suffer to a modern reader; the ideas and even the writing styles are often dated. But this one holds up remarkably well. And of the two big Dystopian novels of that time, this one and Nineteen-Eighty-Four, Brave New World is much more fun to read.

Star Liner

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