Brave New World/Brave New World Revisited

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Brave New World/Brave New World Revisited

by Aldous Huxley, Christopher Hitchens (Foreword)

3.95 · rating details · 6,242 ratings · 330 reviews

The astonishing novel Brave New World, originally published in 1932, presents Aldous Huxley's vision of the future -- of a world utterly transformed. Through the most efficient scientific and psychological engineering, people are genetically designed to be passive and therefore consistently useful to the ruling class. This powerful work of speculative fiction sheds a blazi

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Paperback, 340 pages

Published July 5th 2005 by Harper Perennial (first published 1958)

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Apr 20, 2011

K.D. rated it

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, 501, sci-fi

Prophetic.

Well, Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) tried to predict what would happen probably during our time now up to the 26th century or 632 A.F. (Anno Ford with Year 0 being 1908 when Model T was introduced). He wrote this novel, Brave New World in 1931 and first published in 1932. Fifteen years after, in 1949 George Orwell did a similar thing when he published his social science fiction, 1984. Both Huxley and Orwell were like Nostradamus but without the dreams or visions. Huxley came f...more

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Jul 03, 2011

Lana rated it

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: favorite-books, fiction

OMG What a book! It is so true and prophetic it's kind of scary!! It's a great book, though, and really makes you think. It blows my mind!

"Because our world is not the same as Othello's world. You can't make flivvers without steel -- and you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they...moreOMG What a book! It is so true and prophetic it's kind of scary!! It's a great book, though, and really makes you think. It blows my mind!

"Because our world is not the same as Othello's world. You can't make flivvers without steel -- and you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want, and they never want what they can't get. They're well off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strongly about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma. Which you go and chuck out of the window in the name of liberty, Mr. Savage. Liberty!" He laughed. "Expecting Deltas to know what liberty is!" p. 199

"Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, for the good reason that for him they aren't sacrifices; they're the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down rails along which he's got to run. He can't help himself. He's foredoomed." p. 200

"That was when science first began to be controlled--after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for." p. 205

Brave New World Pictures, Images and Photos

"That we are being propelled in the direction of Brave New World is obvious. But no less obvious is the fact that we can, if we so desire, refuse to co-operate with the blind forces that are propelling us. For the moment, however, the wish to resist does not seem to be very strong or very widespread." p. 257

"A society, most of whose members spend a great part of their time, not on the spot, not here and now and in the calculable future, but somewhere else, in the irrelevant other worlds of sport and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it...As the art and science of manipulation come to be closer understood, the dictators of the future will doubtless learn to combine these techniques with the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening to drown in a sea of irrelevance the rational propaganda essential to the maintenance of individual liberty and the survival of democratic institutions." p. 268

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May 26, 2011

Jay rated it

This was an OK book. First off I enjoyed the futuristic feel of the book even though it was written back in the Thirties. The idea of humans being mass produced is pretty wild. The thing that I didn't like about it was the dryness of the book. I did not see a plot buildup nor a very "high" climax in the plot. In some sections the book is really dense and I would have to use Sparknotes on it to try and decipher its meaning. In some other cases it was a good read that I could follow. I a...more

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Apr 27, 2011

Tancredi rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: inglesi, sci-fi

"Avete mangiato qualcosa che v'ha fatto male?" indagò Bernardo.
Il Selvaggio fece cenno di sì. "Ho mangiato la civiltà."

Non so perché abbia aspettato così tanto a leggere questo testo. E dire che è praticamente universalmente considerato il terzo legittimo membro di quel trittico distopico che include 1984 e Fahrenheit 451.
Il mondo nuovo è esattamente il rovescio del capolavoro orwelliano, come rivendicato dallo stesso autore: lì il controllo forzato ...more"Avete mangiato qualcosa che v'ha fatto male?" indagò Bernardo.
Il Selvaggio fece cenno di sì. "Ho mangiato la civiltà."

Non so perché abbia aspettato così tanto a leggere questo testo. E dire che è praticamente universalmente considerato il terzo legittimo membro di quel trittico distopico che include 1984 e Fahrenheit 451.
Il mondo nuovo è esattamente il rovescio del capolavoro orwelliano, come rivendicato dallo stesso autore: lì il controllo forzato attraverso un sistema di punizioni, qui un controllo più morbido attraverso un sistema di premi. Alla gente viene dato esattamente ciò che vuole: e questo basta a mantenerla inerme e inerte, persino si riesce a disinnescare qualunque conflitto. Con l'aiuto di qualche trovata eugenetica (per niente buona, in realtà) e l'applicazione rigorosissima del condizionamento psicologico ed ipnagogico. In una società ormai mondiale, che ha annullato il gioco politico nell'apoteosi legittimata di una classe dirigente-casta; che è stata preventivamente indotta ad accettare una classificazione in caste di uomini superiori o inferiori, super intelligenti o malformati, ma tutti messi nelle condizioni di poter raggiungere la propria felicità (illusoria); che si riconosce unicamente nel rispetto dei suoi tre principi di Comunità, Identità, Stabilità; che ha sdoganato la libertà sessuale, rinunciando per sempre, tuttavia, alla genitorialità e all'istituzione familiare (al punto che il concetto stesso di genitore suscita orrore e ribrezzo!) - in questa società si consuma il dramma esistenziale di John, il Selvaggio, uno dei pochi esseri umani a vivere in una realtà ancestrale e ancora naturale, lasciata ai margini dalla totalizzante società di questo brave new world, che, una volta entrato in contatto con essa, rimane letteralmente intossicato dalla civiltà. Nello scontro tra il Selvaggio, figlio di genitori naturali, esponente di una umanità ancora naturale, e che ama declamare versi di Shakespeare, e la vasta gamma di personaggi che incontra, l'autore fa rivivere lo scontro tra la civiltà umana e la natura, tra l'era delle macchine e del progresso e l'età innocente, quella contrapposizione tra natura e società tanto cara a Rousseau. E se, da un lato, Huxley propende esplicitamente per l'esaltazione della sua utopia naturale (che, trent'anni più tardi, dipingerà nel suo ultimo romanzo, L'isola), d'altra parte la lotta non può che terminare a favore del più forte.
Se pure la storia è costituita da ingredienti semplici, un intreccio minimo ed uno stile piuttosto pallido e insapore, il romanzo è ben sorretto da una grandissima visionarietà, da un elevato spirito critico e da un ricchissimo complesso di conoscenze nei campi più disparati, dalla genetica alla psicologia, dalla clonazione al condizionamento. Ai giorni nostri ormai si perde, eppure va sentito l'ardore della sua immaginazione, che negli anni Trenta riusciva a parlare di clonazione, procreazione artificiale e condizionamento in un modo che ancora oggi risulterebbe abbastanza inquietante. Fondamentale, dunque, la seconda parte del libro, Ritorno al mondo nuovo, un'appendice scritta decenni dopo che raccoglie tutte le considerazioni di Huxley, dalla politica alla psicologia. Se anche risultano ormai accettate le visioni da incubo del progresso tecnologico di Huxley, nondimeno restano amaramente attuali i problemi sollevati, il conflitto tra società ed individuo, il problema sociale delle droghe, l'illusione della felicità, il compromesso, soprattutto, tra realizzazione personale e progresso della società. E resta ancora, pesante come un macigno, l'interrogativo senza risposta: fino a quanto siamo disposti a rinunciare alla nostra libertà per perseguire la realizzazione di una felicità illusoria?(less)

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Mar 25, 2011

Alfredo Urrea rated it

Brave new world by Aldous Huxley explores the possibilities of having a sociality that
dumbs down its people just so the “Alpha” can stay on top. This storyline depicts the
life of citizens that stay high on pill and drink to wash their problem away. “Bernard
swallowed four tablets of soma at a gulp..”(92) The story gives you an inside to an
utopia but as the story unfolds you discover that its far from that it’s what you call
a Dystopia. In a dystopian society, eve...more

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Mar 20, 2011

Benjamin B. rated it

· review of another edition

What would happen if you were designed in a lab? If things like hair color, height, and IQ, were determined by a Greek letter? Brave New World is a book where people are born in test tubes. They are then decided to be in the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, or Epsilon class. Then they decide all of your characteristics, based on what class you are in. As you group up, you are taught morals through the hypnopaedic process (sleep-teaching). One of these morals is to not like being alo...more

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Jan 21, 2011

Agathangelos rated it

· review of another edition

Il romanzo, una fantasia avveniristica con un intreccio rudimentale, tenta di capire il trauma partendo dal principio del disincantamento del mondo, esasperandolo fino all'assurdo, ricavando l'idea della dignità umana dal riconoscimento della disumanità. Il motivo di partenza sembra essere la percezione della somiglianza di tutti i prodotti in serie, uomini o cose che siano. La metafora schopenahauriana dei prodotti di fabbrica della natura viene presa alla lettera. Greggi brulicanti di gemelli ...moreIl romanzo, una fantasia avveniristica con un intreccio rudimentale, tenta di capire il trauma partendo dal principio del disincantamento del mondo, esasperandolo fino all'assurdo, ricavando l'idea della dignità umana dal riconoscimento della disumanità. Il motivo di partenza sembra essere la percezione della somiglianza di tutti i prodotti in serie, uomini o cose che siano. La metafora schopenahauriana dei prodotti di fabbrica della natura viene presa alla lettera. Greggi brulicanti di gemelli vengono prepararati nella storta, un incubo di infiniti sosia come quello che invade la vita di veglia dell'ultima fase del capitalismo, dal sorriso standardizzato e dal garbo sfornato dello charme industry. L'esperienza della singolarità, dell'hic et nunc della esperienza spontanea, già insidiata da un pezzo, viene esautorata del tutto: gli uomini non sono più soltanto consumatori dei prodotti di serie sfornati dai trast, ma paiono essi stessi prodotti dalla strapotere di questi e privi di individuazione. Lo sguardo preso dal panico, di fronte al quale le osservazioni inassimilabili vengono a pietrificarsi in allegorie della catastrofe, spezza l'illusione dell'innocua quotidianeità. Di fronte ad esso il sorriso commerciale della modella diventa ciò che in effetti è: la smorfia della vittima. Il mondo nuovo è un campo di concentramento che si crede un paradiso non essendoci nulla da contrapporgli. Se, a seguire una teoria della psicologia delle masse di Freud, il panico è quella condizione nella quale crollano delle potenti identificazioni collettive e le energie instintuali liberate si convertono in subitanea angoscia, allora l'individuo colto dal panico sarà in grado di innervare ciò che di oscuro sta alla base dell'identificazione collettiva: la falsa coscienza dei singoli i quali, privi di una perspicua solidarietà, legati ciecamente a immagini del potere, si credono d'accordo con una Totalità che li soffoca con la sua ubiquità.
Come lo stato universale del mondo nuovo non conosce differenze che non siano artificiosamente preservate fra i campi di golf e i laboratori di ricerche biologiche di Mombasa, di Londra, così l'americanismo che viene parodiato è il mondo stesso. Questo dovrebbe, secondo il motto di Berdiaev, assomogliare all'utopia che è divenuto possibile intravedere a partire dalla stadio attuale della tecnica. Se si completano i suoi tratti, esso diventa un inferno: le osservazioni sullo stadio attuale della civiltà vengono spinte dalla teleologia ad essa immanente fino all'evidenza diretta della sua atrocità.
Invece delle tre parole d'ordine della rivoluzione francese si proclama: Community, Identity e Stability. Community definisce una condizione della società in cui ogni singolo è sottoposto incondizionatamente al funzionamento del tutto, sul senso del quale nel mondo nuovo non dovrebbe essere più lecito, e nemmeno possibile, porsi interrogativi. Identity significa la cancellazione delle differenze individuali, la standardizzazione spinta fino ai fondamenti biologici. Stability la fine di ogni dinamica sociale. La situazione astutamente equilibrata si ricava per estrapolazione da certi sintomi di un'eliminazione del gioco delle forze economiche nel tardo capitalismo: una perversione del Millennio. La panacea garantita della statistica sociale è il conditioning (dalla psicologia behavoristica: dove significa la provocazione di certi riflessi o comportamenti mediante modificazioni deliberate del mondo cirocstante, attraverso il controllo di condizioni), la quale è entrata nella lingua corrente americana per indicare ogni specie di controllo scientifico delle condizioni di vita: così air conditioning è il livellamento meccanico della temperatura in spazi chiusi. In Huxley conditioning significa la completa preformazione dell'uomo a opera dell'intervento sociale che va dalla riproduzione artificiale e dalla determinazione tecnica del conscio e dell'inconscio nello stadio infantile fino al death conditioning, un allenamento che scaccia dal fanciullo la paura della morte, mostrando al fanciullo dei morti e contemporaneamente nutrendolo di dolciumi sicché associ in avvenire le due cose. L'effetto finale del conditioning, cioè dell'integrazione e della pressione e della coercizione sociali in misura assai superiori a quella conosciuta con il protestantesimo: gli uomini si rassegnano ad amare ciò che debbono fare, senza neanche più sapere rassegnarsi. Così la loro felicità viene rafforzata soggettivamente e viene mantenuto l'ordine. Tutte le rappresentazioni di un'influenza puramente esteriore della società sul singolo, per il tramite di genti come la famiglia o la psicologia appaiono superate. Ciò che alla famiglia è accaduto già oggi, viene perpetrato ai suoi danni ancora una volta, dall'altro nel mondo nuovo. Come figli della società nel senso più letterale del termine gli uomini non si trovano in un rapporto dialettico ma coincidono con essa secondo sostanza. Esponenti volontari della Totalità collettiva nella quale è stata assorbita ogni antitesi, essi sono in senso non metaforico socialmente condizionati e non già adattati al sistema dominante solo in un secondo tempo, attraverso un loro sviluppo (continua)

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Dec 11, 2010

Larry Gordon rated it

I somehow managed to live to age 60 before reading a book most people read in high school. The title is so etched in our culture, I had little curiosity - and now I've discovered just how brilliant this 1932 novel is.

While the specifics of Huxley's Brave New World may not yet be here, or not in the form he envisioned, the picture he paints is frightening. As he says in the introduction: "There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old...A rea...moreI somehow managed to live to age 60 before reading a book most people read in high school. The title is so etched in our culture, I had little curiosity - and now I've discovered just how brilliant this 1932 novel is.

While the specifics of Huxley's Brave New World may not yet be here, or not in the form he envisioned, the picture he paints is frightening. As he says in the introduction: "There is, of course, no reason why the new totalitarianisms should resemble the old...A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude."

The first element of the brave new world is production-line bio-manufacturing of people - assembly line produced babies: "standard men and women in uniform batches", bio-engineered to fit a particular role in life. Henry Ford's production methods are so revered, the passage of time is measured by A.F. years, or years after the time of Ford.

Then there is the embryonic, childhood and early adult conditioning, explained by a manager: "All conditioning aims at that: making peole like their unescapable social destiny." My "favourite" conditioning scene had a nurse training infants to dislike books and nature, by terrifying them whenever they approached or even looked at a book or flower. "We condition to masses to hate the country [i.e., non-urban living]", says one manager.

The other means of control was mass addiction to the drug soma, readily distributed to all, more powerful than alcohol or heroin, and producing complete bliss. In one scene, a sub-species group was getting out of control, so police arrive and, rather than wielding batons, spray soma mist in the air. "Suddenly, from out of the Synthetic Music Box a Voice began to speak....The sound track roll was unwinding itself in Synthetic Anti-Riot Speech Number Two (Medium Strength). ..."My friends...what is the meaning of this? Why aren't you all being happy and good together?...at peace, at peace...Oh I do want you to be happy." Two minutes later, the riot was over.

Most of the book is chilling, but for a modern reader, one of the funniest scenes is how Huxley envisioned an on-the-scene live radio broadcast by a reporter in the future: "...rapidly, with a series of ritual gestures, he uncoiled two wires connected to the portable battery buckled round his waist; plugged them simultaneously into the sides of his aluminum hat; touched a spring on the crown - and antennae shot up into the air; touched another spring on the peak of the brim - and like a jack-in-the-box, out jumped a microphone and hung there, quivering, six inches in front of his nose...". Cool!

One of the managers summarized the brave new world this way: "The world's stable now. People are happy; they get what they want; and they never want what they can't get. They're well-off; they're safe; they're never ill; they're not afraid of death; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age; they're plagued with no mothers or fathers; they've got no wives, or children, or lovers to feel strong about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go warong, there's soma." It's a neo-fascist's wet dream.

In his follow-up booklet/essay Brave New World Revisited, written in 1958, Huxley compared Orwell's nightmare vision of 1984 with his vision of Brave New World, and describes the differences this way: "In 1984 the lust for power is satisfied by inflicting pain; in Brave New World, by inflicting a hardly less humiliating pleasure."

I don't think modern day totalitarians have set aside Orwell's approach, but I do fear the most serious danger in the future is closer to what Huxley envisioned. (less)

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Nov 22, 2010

Nancy rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For a child of the 80s and 90s, reading books like Brave New World requires constant slaps to the face to remind myself that Huxley was not, in spite of appearances, imitating that one episode of Dr. Who, or that one Kurt Vonnegut book. I brace myself to squint through the layers of cliche that might have formed over its message as a result of the book's influence on popular culture, especially the culture of the 1960s that celebrated liberties of all kinds. And yes, many elements from Brave New...more

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May 29, 2009

John Mlinar rated it

Shelves: crem-de-la-crem

What I like most about Brave New World is that it centers on the disease of human passivity as it's controlled by the higher-ups in society. With 1984 there is the possibility for consciousness of the inherent evil of the subversive intolerance of the government, and therefore the possibility for revolution. If only the people would realize their situation! If only the proles could unite against totalitarian tyranny!

With Huxley's fable, however, this consciousness is completely ...moreWhat I like most about Brave New World is that it centers on the disease of human passivity as it's controlled by the higher-ups in society. With 1984 there is the possibility for consciousness of the inherent evil of the subversive intolerance of the government, and therefore the possibility for revolution. If only the people would realize their situation! If only the proles could unite against totalitarian tyranny!

With Huxley's fable, however, this consciousness is completely undermined through the fulfillment of the base drives of the majority. There is no reason to rebel, and society can change only through an impossible systematic negation of all the techniques espoused that clamor to fulfill these drives. Anyone who comes to realize the true state of affairs isn't filled with a Herculean wish to revamp it, but can only sigh to himself while secretly saying, "ah, that's just society getting what it wants," and make plans for voluntary exile. This is the cynicism of Huxley given literary flesh. He echoes the Dostoevskian lament through the Grand Inquisitor (alluded to in Brave New World Revisited) that human beings want to be taken care of and provided for, not free. Freedom is too hard, it takes work, and to be human is to take the easy way out.

The grandeur of Huxley is that he wasn't just a novelist, as seems to be the case with creative writers for the last fifty years -- Walker Percy, Anthony Burgess, and a handful of others exempt. "Brave New World Revisited" attests to this fact, as well as other minor philosophical gems, like "The Perennial Philosophy", where he stretches to mysticism, and "The Doors of Perception", where he journals the psychedelic flavor of mescaline. His ruminations are perfectly commensurate with our state today -- where education is in decline, where neohedonism is the game, where it's all about money and fulfillment of drives over truth, etc. --, and the points that shine the most are on propaganda and, well, the distractability of human beings:

"In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies -- the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."

This is the basis of society in Brave New World, and scientific and technological advances (eugenics, hypnopaedia, classical conditioning) are a means to this end. Huxley saw, like Chomsky after him, that you don't need to bludgeon the population in order to coerce it to your preferences. Rather, you manipulate minds. Things are less messy this way.(less)

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Mar 17, 2009

Ashley rated it

Shelves: read-in-2009, literature

I ran across a website that had some free books hosted online (legally) when I was bored, and saw Brave New World, so I decided to give it a try.

I read about half of it on my computer and then decided that it was absolutely worth going out and buying it.

There were some times where I found myself mixing up some of the characters- but I think a lot of that comes from starting it at 3am. I didn't find that it detracted from the story though, because the plot was straightfor...more

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Jan 17, 2008

Julien Tunney rated it

Recommends it for: people who are into 1984 type books

Recommended to Julien by: my father

"For the love of Ford!"
Does something sound wrong in this quote? Not if you live in the world of "Brave New World". In this novel we find ourselves plunged into a society of extreme capitalism, where their God (Ford) is dominant. This society takes place in the year 256 A.F. meaning: 256 After Ford. In this world, the Ford Corporation owns everything as people are brainwashed into believing everything the company says or does. In this society family does not exist, the ...more

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Aug 19, 2011

Bob Nichols rated it

· review of another edition

Huxley's theme is that our freedom is increasingly compromised by dictatorial government control through various forms of mind control. Looking back now, fifty plus years, the book seems to be more a product of its time and a concern about the Soviet model and its application elsewhere, and it shows the inherent risk involved in making specific, futuristic predictions (regarding the more exotic forms of mind control).

Huxley sees a straight line between overpopulation and dictatorshi...more

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Sep 16, 2011

Benjamin Davidson rated it

This book is frequently compared to 1984, presumably because they both paint a worrying picture about the future of mankind, and in my experience usually with 1984 being declared the better of the two. Although my ability to judge literary art is lackluster, I favour Brave New World enormously over 1984 for more practical reasons. To its credit, 1984 climaxed for me when we are told, point blank, that power is an ends, not a means. It is a moment of epiphany. However, partially due to the pr...more

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Nov 07, 2011

Tiffany rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, wtfiswrongwithus, classics

Wowser. Wow. zer.

On the one hand, Brave New World is a really great story, a little bit shocking, and a whole lot of "Could that really happen?" (both in a scared tone and a hopeful tone). On the other hand, it's amazing to see how close the early 21st century is to Huxley's vision. I won't say that he got it totally right, or that he was prophetic, but there are definitely parallels. I think if I'd read this when I was younger (like most people did in high school), and whi...more

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Dec 26, 2011

Heather rated it

Shelves: classics

I had read Brave New World a few times before, in middle school and high school. I liked the book, but in hindsight, I don't think I understood much of it back then. I still like it, and I have a better appreciation for it now as an adult. However, the book is not good from the perspective of telling a story, per se, but rather to communicate the author's views of what he predicts for the future. Ironically, he predicted it for six hundred years into the future when he'd published it in 1932...more

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Aug 09, 2011

Valerie rated it

I really liked it, not because it makes the future look bright and positive (hint: it doesn't), but because I am fascinated by predictions of the future, and perspectives on how people will interact and feel in a world more technologically advanced (and we always assume the future will hold far more technology than now). But this doesn't mean that I agree with Huxley's ideas of what the future will look like. I think humans would rebel against mass test tube production and will find solutions to...more

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Dec 18, 2011

Julie rated it

· review of another edition

I had heard of this book a lot since college, so I figured I should read it at some point. However, as I started to read it I realized I hadn't heard any specifics about it (memorable characters, plot, etc.). It was interesting, and I'm glad I read it, but I can't say it was life-changing or even particularly memorable. Just as I reached the end of Brave New World (which really ended the only way it could), another book that I had put on hold at the library became available, so I figured I'd ...more

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Jan 26, 2012

Tzippy rated it

Shelves: dystopia, reviewed

Kind of the polar opposite of 1984. The society in Brave New World was much more intriguing than the society in 1984, and the fact that (view spoiler) made the idea of this type of society being sustainable seem a lot more realistic.

As opposed to 1984, I found the book's treatment of women to be very problematic. (view spoiler)...more

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May 25, 2011

Tyler Hill rated it

Shelves: read-in-2011

Last year, there was some local scandal involving parents trying to get this book removed from High School libraries in Seattle, because of its usage of the term "Savage." So, of course I felt compelled to read it and, having done so, I'm amazed that that was the reason people were trying to get this book pulled from the shelves. Amazed because to be complain about the words usage is to miss the point of the words usage. Amazed because book is filled with references to casual sex and d...moreLast year, there was some local scandal involving parents trying to get this book removed from High School libraries in Seattle, because of its usage of the term "Savage." So, of course I felt compelled to read it and, having done so, I'm amazed that that was the reason people were trying to get this book pulled from the shelves. Amazed because to be complain about the words usage is to miss the point of the words usage. Amazed because book is filled with references to casual sex and drug use, people are instead getting worked up -this time- about ignorant city-dwelling characters referring to people on a reservation as "savages." The usage of the word is suppose to reinforce the city dwellers' ignorance, not the reservation dwellers' primitivism. Besides, if people want to get upset about the book being culturally insensitive, you could easily point to the fact that Huxley periodically usages outdated racial terms, like "octoroon."

But, all this is besides the point, since this is absolutely a book that teens should be exposed to. The entire point of the book is to take strength in and pride in your individuality, as opposed to mindlessly conforming. Its also encourages the reader to question social norms rather than blindly accepting them too. And, its also eerily prophetic in many ways when compared to our actual, modern-day brave new world.

Also included in this volume is Huxley's "Brave New World Revisited," a series of non-fiction essays' he wrote some 25-odd years later. Like the original book, these essays are sometimes eerily prophetic, addressing issues ranging from overpopulation and food/resource shortages, to benevolent dictatorships and even in many ways projecting the framework for the current apparent political stalemate between the Right and Left. He's off on occasion (for example, he predicted that by now pretty much everything but Europe and North America would be a Communist country), but where he's right it's incredible. And, also a little depressing to know that there were people that acknowledged our modern day problems 60 years ago, and we are still struggling to acknowledge them today.

Anyhow, essential reading, and a good counter-point to Orwell's 1984. Or, vice-versa. (less)

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Jan 11, 2012

Brandon rated it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic-dystopian

Fun read, what's not like? It has highly encouraged promiscuousness, drugs of all kinds, and ambient new age music. Eugenics and dysgenics equally deployed "designing" life, sex and purpose. The only taboo was spending too much time alone, thinking about banned books or ideas of anything against "the social normalcy". Not that I support any of these ideas, it fascinating nonetheless. This is fiction but many of Huxley's fears were poured into it and leak out which he explains...more

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Jun 17, 2011

Maud rated it

· review of another edition

I greatly enjoyed this book. I found that as the story progressed, Huxley's writing got better and better. Not that it wasn't good to start with, but I felt swept away by it at a certain point and that was a nice moment.

Dystopian stories intrigue me and so I read this book with great enthusiasm and interest. I think Huxley created a terrifying and thought-provoking vision of the future in Brave New World. It's a very good book, but because I did not feel very emotionally involved (ra...more

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Jun 09, 2010

Gwen Burrow rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I might be able to forgive Huxley his wandering character development if he managed to hit the social issues right on the head, but he doesn't. So I don't.

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Oct 13, 2011

Tanabrus rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: distopico, read_2011

La storia in sé e per sé non è niente di che. Anzi, come scrittura sopratutto nei primi capitoli non mi è piaciuta per niente.
Troppo caotica e confusionaria.
Quando poi, finalmente, comincia a comparire un minimo di trama le cose migliorano, ma mai oltre un certo livello.

No, a livello di storia non mi è piaciuto.

In compenso ci sono le idee che stanno dietro al libro. Idee partorite negli anni trenta, e sulle quali Huxley ha tirato un bel fermino una ventina di anni d...more

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Nov 18, 2011

Madigan rated it

Never required to read this whilst in school, I found it incredibly timely and was surprised that Huxley envisioned such a fictional landscape in the 1920s. The foreword by Christopher Hitchens really shaped my reading of the story, and provided awesome context. Often we do not consider the author when reading the text, but Hitchens reminds us of who Huxley was and what he stood for. Regardless of how one might feel about Huxley (I don't know that I would have enjoyed sharing a beer with him), I...more

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Feb 11, 2012

Roberta rated it

Shelves: reread, 1001-libri

Commento all'edizione italiana (1961 - tradotto da Lorenzo Gigli e Luciano Bianciardi).

Era d'obbligo la rilettura di questo classico della distopia (normalmente associato a 1984 di Orwell e anche a Fahrenheit 451 di Bradbury - spero infatti di riuscire a rileggere entrambi quest'anno). Il mondo nuovo parla di una società del futuro (ma immaginata negli anni Trenta da Aldous Huxley) in cui un governo totalitario tiene sotto controllo le popolazione attraverso l'eugenetica, il condiziona...moreCommento all'edizione italiana (1961 - tradotto da Lorenzo Gigli e Luciano Bianciardi).

Era d'obbligo la rilettura di questo classico della distopia (normalmente associato a 1984 di Orwell e anche a Fahrenheit 451 di Bradbury - spero infatti di riuscire a rileggere entrambi quest'anno). Il mondo nuovo parla di una società del futuro (ma immaginata negli anni Trenta da Aldous Huxley) in cui un governo totalitario tiene sotto controllo le popolazione attraverso l'eugenetica, il condizionamento mentale, il benessere materiale, il soddisfacimento di ogni desiderio e il soma, una droga estremamente piacevole e priva di sgradevoli conseguenze. Il tutto a favore dell'equilibrio sociale. Un uomo insoddisfatto della sua esistenza, Bernardo Marx porta la 'pneumatica' Lenina in una riserva di 'selvaggi' nel Messico. Qui i due incontrano una donna, Linda, proveniente dal mondo civilizzato. Dopo essersi persa nella riserva durante una tempesta, Linda aveva scoperto di essere incinta, e quindi non aveva osato rientrare nel suo mondo. Nel brave new world di Huxley, infatti, i rapporti personali e familiari sono demonizzati, e in particolar modo il rapporto madre/figlio, che a tutti gli effetti non esiste più. Bernardo decide di portare con loro Linda e il figlio John, ormai adulto, a Londra.

Il libro di Huxley ha sicuramente un grande valore, dovuto soprattutto alle sue idee, alla sua descrizione di una distopia che per alcuni aspetti è davvero terrificante e fa riflettere (anche se poi devo ammettere che il fatto che la maggior parte degli abitanti del mondo nuovo sia felice, per quanto artificialmente, e che coloro che prendono le distanze da questo mondo sembrano bambini viziati, non depone a favore). Se lo giudico dal punto di vista letterario, però, ed è questo che ho intenzione di fare, è chiaro che devo abbassare di una stellina il mio precedente giudizio (derivato da una lettura delle superiori, e viziato - chissà - dalla soggezione di fronte alla nomea letteraria di Huxley). La storia in sé e per sé non è per nulla affascinante: noiosa, seppur angosciante, la prima parte in cui l'espediente di un giro di visite di nuovi assunti permette di spiegarci per filo e per segno il funzionamento del nuovo mondo. Quando entra in scena Bernardo, è difficile credere che sia lui il nostro eroe: perennemente imbronciato, arrabbiato, piagnucoloso, bugiardo e desideroso di attenzione, pare che i suoi problemi con il mondo nuovo siano dovuti più al fatto che egli non è fisicamente all'altezza del suo ruolo, che ad una obiezione di natura morale.
Il suo amico è leggermente meglio, ma quando conosciamo John il selvaggio, è chiaro che sarà lui il fulcro della storia. Purtroppo a mio avviso anche affezionarsi a John, così moralista, è alquanto difficile. In quest'ottica, è difficile anche apprezzare o sentirsi emozionati dal finale.

Nel complesso, decisamente troppo didascalico ed ideologico, Huxley non mostra, ma pontifica. La storia non regge bene, non ha pathos, e i personaggi non muovono il lettore. Ho trovato anche lo stile parecchio arido ma non saprei dire se il difetto è della - datatissima - traduzione.

La recensione si riferisce solo a Il mondo nuovo. Rimando la lettura dei saggi, forse più interessanti, ad altro momento.

http://robertabookshelf.blogspot.com/201...(less)

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Jan 14, 2012

Jilian rated it

My first Aldous Huxley book was so brilliant that I am now on the hunt for more. Brave new world is a wonderfully imaginative haunting tale of the future, written in 1932. It is both beautiful and a nightmare, the contrast between both aspects are melded together so amazingly that it is impossible to stop reading once you have begun. There are shocking predictions and hilarious links to the past all within the story of savage vs civilization. Which would you choose, if you were a character in th...more

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Oct 28, 2011

Mark rated it

Ok, it's just as amazing (especially for its time) as I'd heard. So interesting to compare it to 1984 (which I hope I also gave 5 stars). The standardized options for mass production of human beings was an amazing dystopian vision, and the satirical references to Ford, Lenin, Malthus, Marx, etc. were brilliant. It's true that I was a little less enthused during the middle of this short (yea!) book, but the book's opening and--especially--the final dialog between "The Savage" and Mustap...more

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Jul 30, 2011

Robert rated it

Shelves: classics

After nearly 60 years, I just re-read BNW. A wonderful social satire. For millennium men have dreamed of utopias and have tried to establish them here on earth: Quakers, Amish, the USSR, hippy communes. All flawed in different ways but all flawed in one common way, they require the adherents to give up their liberty. Huxley's world thinks it has achieved the best possible of all worlds, but we become appalled at how he has done it. Written in 1932, his utopia, or better, dystopia, has many of...more

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May 08, 2011

Susanna rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Written in 1931 and published in 1932, this novel is clearly ahead of this time. In this prescient vision of utopia England, human are genetically created and daily lives are pharmaceutically enhanced by the frequent use of “soma” – the anesthetize hallucinating compound that induces happiness.

With the abolition of free will by methodical conditioning and the inauguration of the everyone-belongs-to-everyone caste system, this totalitarian rule was flawless until John “The Salvage” wa...more

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About Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death in 1963. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Through his novels and es...more

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