Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited

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Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited

by Aldous Huxley, Christopher Hitchens (Foreword)

4.1 of 5 stars 4.10 · rating details · 29,626 ratings · 456 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...more

Paperback, 340 pages

Published July 5th 2005 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics (first published 1932)

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Apr 20, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 from the famo...more

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May 02, 2012 Simona Bartolotta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classici, favorites, fantascienza-and-co

«How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in't!»
{W. Shakespeare, 'La tempesta'

Nel mondo nuovo ogni singola persona è felice. Ogni singola persona è bella, intelligente, benestante. Be', per essere sinceri circa una metà della popolazione è stata sottoposta ad un arresto della crescita quand'era ancora allo stato embrionale o giù di lì, e adesso è qualcosa come una razza subumana sottomessa agli individui normali. Però fa niente, sono felici anche loro, e sapete perché?
La...more

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May 26, 2011 Jay rated it 3 of 5 stars

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 am the type...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Tancredi rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 attraverso un sistema di punizioni, qui un con...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 4 of 5 stars

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, everything is bad, and it’s generally...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Benjamin B. rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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 alone. But, there is...more

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Jan 21, 2011 Agathangelos rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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...more 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 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 rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 really efficient tot...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars

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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Aug 25, 2010 JoAnn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

This was an upsetting and horrifying view of what society could be like if Society and social stability were to outweigh individuality and free will. Life is dehumanized from the point one is created through artificial and sterile means in test tubes, to the day one is cremated and the phosporous is recovered. Art, science and religion have been sacrificed and the reader is left to question if life is worth living without it. The dependence upon soma, a hallucinogenic drug, suggests that it is n...more This was an upsetting and horrifying view of what society could be like if Society and social stability were to outweigh individuality and free will. Life is dehumanized from the point one is created through artificial and sterile means in test tubes, to the day one is cremated and the phosporous is recovered. Art, science and religion have been sacrificed and the reader is left to question if life is worth living without it. The dependence upon soma, a hallucinogenic drug, suggests that it is not.

John, the Savage, whose parents ("gasp!") are part of this "Utpoia," was born on the Savage Reservation when his mother, Linda, was lost on a vacation there. He is the ultimate outsider as he does not belong to either the Civilized nor the Savage societies. His anticipation of finally seeing the brave new world, the world his mother has described for so long, is quickly crushed when he realizes individuality, truth, art and religion do not exist. He becomes physically ill when confronted with the sheer number of identicals he sees. He is angered his mother is on a permanent soma-holiday which quickly ends her life. In the end, he finds the individual has no place in this society and he attempts to isolate himself, unsuccessfully, then eventually commits suicide rather than be further contaminated by this society of excess.

The main themes are timely today as they were when the book was written in 1932.

Technology used to control society, from reproduction, infant through adult brainwashing, entertainment, consumption and drugs, every facet of the individual's life is controlled by technology.

Consumer Society: Individual happiness is equated with ability toi satisfy needs and wants immediately, while success is equal to economic growth and prosperity.

Happiness and truth are incompatible: includes the rampant use of drugs without "unpleasant" side effects to induce happiness and avoid the truth. The state places a priority on happiness, on keeping everyone in an artificial state of happiness saying people are better off being happy than having the truth, but truthfully because it is easier to maintain control and stability if people are too "happy" to care about anything else.

Truth and individuality are ultimately joined, therefore.

Dangers of the all powerful state, which ultimately causes the loss of the individual, dignity, morals values, emotions and everything else that make up our humanity.
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May 29, 2009 John Mlinar rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 undermined throu...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars

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 straightforward enough that you cou...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Julien Tunney rated it 5 of 5 stars 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 concept of mother and fath...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Al rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State.

Brave New World is a dystopian novel similar in theme
to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. It revolves around the idea of totalitarianism and is set in a futuristic
world where a combination of science and pleasure form a rather
feudalistic society. This idea of totalitarianism is achieved through
test tube babies, and hypnotism, resulting in a pre-ordained caste
system consisting of intelligent humans sui

...more

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Jan 29, 2013 Britt Holewinski rated it 5 of 5 stars

So...the great debate: Which is better (or more 'impactful'), "Brave New World" or "1984"? Frankly, there are so many differences between the two novels that it's difficult for me to compare them. But to me, "Brave New World" is more frustrating than Orwell's masterpiece. Why? Because not only are the masses in "BNW" are completely aware of the genetic 'mutations' done to them at 'birth', but they are completely supportive of it. They firmly believe that the Alpha to Epsilon caste system is the...more

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Aug 19, 2012 Christian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"La libertà è il diritto di essere infelice"

Il libro pone un interessante confronto fra libertà e felicità. Il mondo utopico de "Il mondo nuovo" introduce un mondo felice, ma schiavo. Nel saggio che lo segue("Ritorno al mondo nuovo"), Huxley sostiene che l'uomo non solo preferisce essere felice ad essere libero, ma anzi è lui stesso a donare la propria libertà in cambio di un po' di appagamento. L'uomo, quando il suo benessere lo permette,rinuncia più che volentieri alla propria libertà, anzi me...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Bob Nichols rated it 2 of 5 stars · 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 dictatorship (to preser...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Jason Riemens rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that - finishing this a couple of days ago - I really enjoyed the book. At first I was nitpicking the lack of continuity in certain areas (like using the metric system and then using United States customary units), or being that it takes place 632 years in the future - the author refers to students scribbling notes (i.e., not foreseeing minor changes that would happen in the same century in terms of technological advances), or how a conditioned person would not see the need for c...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Haley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Eh, not the best dystopian novel that I've ever read. I honestly can't decide if this was a page turner or not. I feel like I had to make myself finish it, but at the same time, the world described is horrifically fascinating.

Like many older books, it is written in a very offhandish third-person manner, with no real narrative character. Even though it was written in the 20's, I never felt like it was a dated book at all, so it achieved a sense of timelessness, which is good for a story set so f...more

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Sep 16, 2011 Benjamin Davidson rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 protag...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Ginny rated it 3 of 5 stars

People told me this book was going to change the way I viewed the world. That didn't happen for me. It's a great novel and it definitely deserves all of the praise that it gets for a variety of other reasons. The fact that it was written in the early 1930s and is so prophetic is extraordinarily admirable. It challenges what society does and how people think. But for me, personally, it didn't move me to re-evaluate the world. Perhaps that's because I already have a pretty clear definition of how...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Jonathan Troutman rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. “The world was full of fathers - was therefore full of misery; full of mothers – therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; gull of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts – full of madness and suicide.” Now, we are in a world where everyone from the Alphas to even the Epsilons are happy and content. The decantation process may create a caste system but the designated oxygen deprivation can be countered through conditioning. Thus allowing us to create a vivacious world where everybo...more “The world was full of fathers - was therefore full of misery; full of mothers – therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; gull of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts – full of madness and suicide.” Now, we are in a world where everyone from the Alphas to even the Epsilons are happy and content. The decantation process may create a caste system but the designated oxygen deprivation can be countered through conditioning. Thus allowing us to create a vivacious world where everybody is for everyone else and melancholy thoughts are elutriated by some soma. This is a good place, an apotheosis that balks at individuality and creates the awkward laughter at the taboos such as the viviparous past. Yet thanks to ford, we also have no place as was realized by Bernard Marx, an alpha plus who does not adhere to that quality of human, thus he becomes an outlier who begins to become an individual. Our other friend, Lenina Crowne, a beta who is favored by many for her pneumatic pulchritude, tries to understand Bernard as his solecism bewilders her. She even goes to the Savage Reservation where ford has not come and God, as well as others, still reign over the ignoble denizens. These encounters further urge Bernard and cajole Lenina further toward resolving this conflict of nescience as they return from there venture to a world that has pressured Bernard. Is this world truly a utopia or is a dystopia warning of being inundated by the world and losing one’s own personality; one’s individuality.

Those who like dystopian style books would enjoy this novel because as the books travel one begins to see how once infallible place is erroneous. I also think that those who enjoy science fiction would also enjoy it as the first few chapters show the core of the society. Through the rooms the young students travelled, one is revealed the process that creates each caste through all the processes of the decantation and even continues through the conditioning of the castes themselves. This introduction of the book with revealing the origins and the idiosyncratic qualities of the society provide a cultural anthropological component that is very interesting. There is an unbiased perspective of the world as one truly becomes one of the students who take that tour of the facility and learn about the society that is created from the consequences of Henry Ford.

I give this book a rating of five stars as I believe it is very, very well. I personally enjoyed the anthological aspect that is presented due to the absences of a very conspicuous plot, one could begin to attempt to understand the world that one is plunged into and begins to contradict itself as the utopia that is presented is torn asunder by the reservation and Bernard Marx. Also the multiple historical references throughout the book provide and forge an authentic feeling to the book as it seems to be based realistically on the events that unfolded during the early twentieth century. I also enjoyed the transformation that the tone conducted as it transformed this utopia into a dystopia. This metamorphosis provides multiple views of different and controversial topics and ideologies that are still constantly transforming and warping as the past and reality of the situation is unearthed. This book also intrigued me as it allowed me to partially understand the world that existed as I understand the significance of technology.(less)

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Nov 07, 2011 Tiffany rated it 4 of 5 stars · 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 while trying to answer th...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Claire rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: someone interested in what came before Hunger Games and who loves satire/drama

Recommended to Claire by: my AP English Lit teacher

Shelves: classics

Now I understand why this book has been revered as a classic - it's incredibly deep. Everything from Huxley's writing to his characterization to his dystopia os creatively and convincingly rendered. And despite having been written in the 1930's, it remains remarkably modern-feeling and undated (notable exceptions include the bizarre cellphone-esque contraption that Huxley invents). Of course I love the Savage's dynamic manifesto (it's in my quotes if your interested), but I thought the last page...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Sandra Strange rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, classics

I wish those who want to interdict this book because it portrays a dystopic world in which casual and meaningless promiscuity is the only morality and in which loving someone is threatening would read the book thoughtfully and analytically. The book actually makes points about sex that most moral people would like to see communicated to their thinking teenagers! There's nothing explicit in it, but it is designed to prick people into examining our society's attitudes, showing a society in which e...more

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Dec 26, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

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, bu...more

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Feb 27, 2013 David Whatson rated it 3 of 5 stars

The last time I read this book I did so for high school. Reading it again, I began to wonder if Huxley hadn't inadvertently written one of the great prophetic satires. I think when people hear the phrase "brave new world" they immediately think about the technology and not the social changes brought about by the technology.

There are a number of interesting social parallels between this book and our modern world. The language and style is definitely early twentieth century and the characters are...more

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Apr 19, 2012 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

As this book contains both Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited I’m breaking up the reviews. Also, Spoiler Alert!

Brave New World:

I’ve just finished the Brave New World portion of the book, and I have lots of thoughts. The concept is very interesting – imagine a coddled and carefully constructed society long in the future. It’s not hard – just imagine our current technology gets better, and our societies priorities remain looking young and alienating individuality over education and fre...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

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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Aug 19, 2012 Alexa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

I have always admired dystopian writers in the sense that their imagination has managed to create an entire new world of rules, characters, and settings. An environment reborn. But one thing I very much like and admire about Aldous Huxley is that he took his observations of social trends, human nature, and politics in order to form his brave new world. I fear I cannot determine which is more frightening: a world like that described in George Orwell's 1984 where fear is a constant emotion or the...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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