Brave New World

Mar 11, 2012 Stephen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, classics, world-in-the-shitter, science-fiction

I need to parse my rating of this book into the good (or great), the bad and the very fugly because I thought aspects of it were inspired genius and parts of it were dreggy, boring and living near the border of awful. In the end, the wowness and importance of the novel's ideas as well as the segments that I thoroughly enjoyed carried the book to a strong 3.5 star rating.

THE REALLY GOOD/EXCELLENT - I loved the first third of the book in which the basic outline of the "Brave New World" and its d...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, classic-lit, dystopia, future-is-now, playing-god, sci-fi

I have to apologize for this review. The concept of this book was so outlandish that I think it made my mind wander, and you may find some odd random thoughts scattered in it.

Anyhow, this book was so silly and unrealistic. Like any of this could happen. In the far future the babies are genetically engineered and designed for certain stations in life with a large workforce bred to be happy with menial jobs that don’t stress them physically or mentally. I really should look into getting that data...more I have to apologize for this review. The concept of this book was so outlandish that I think it made my mind wander, and you may find some odd random thoughts scattered in it.

Anyhow, this book was so silly and unrealistic. Like any of this could happen. In the far future the babies are genetically engineered and designed for certain stations in life with a large workforce bred to be happy with menial jobs that don’t stress them physically or mentally. I really should look into getting that data entry position I saw in the job postings. It’d be a lot less stressful than what I‘m doing now.

In addition to all the genetic modifications, the children are raised by the state, and words like ’father’ and ’mother’ are considered obscenities. Subliminal messaging through infancy and childhood also condition people to repeat idiotic platitudes as if they are genuine wisdom. I’ve been in a bad mood today. I need to turn that frown upside down. And since the world economy depends on constant consumption by the highest classes, they’re encouraged to be wasteful The collars on a couple of my shirts are a little frayed. I should go buy some new ones and throw the old ones out. and to engage in activities that demand spending and resource use. Should I get a new set of golf clubs? I lost my old ones when we moved, but I hadn’t played in a long time. But would I play more if I got new clubs? There‘s that really nice looking course right down the street. I don‘t know how they keep the grass that green in this heat. The population even gets to zip around in their own private helicopters rather than cars. Man, when are they going to come out with jet packs for everyone. It’s 2011 and I’m still driving around in a car like a chump. I want my jet pack!

Casual sex is actively encouraged. Wow. These condom commercials on TV have gotten really racy. The population is also programmed to be constantly partaking of some form of entertainment and to never just sit quietly and think I’m bored. Writing is boring. or to be alone Let’s check Facebook and see what all my friends are doing.

One of the sillier ideas is that the foundation of this society is Henry Ford’s assembly lines and that Ford has become the most revered figure in history. Like a businessman could ever become that popular. Is Steve Jobs making any announcements this week? I get itchy when there‘s no new Apple products.

While everyone seeks to be constantly entertained, all of the entertainment panders to the lowest common denominator. Hey, Jersey Shore is on! and the emphasis is on presenting it with gimmicks to engage the audience like ’the feelies’, movies that the audience can also smell and feel the sensation from. I wonder if they’ll re-release Avatar at the movies so I can see it in 3D again like James Cameron intended? At one point, a character complains about the feelies, “But they’re told by an idiot….works of art out of practically nothing but pure sensation.” I should go see that new Michael Bay Transformers movie.

Perhaps the most far fetched idea in this is that the population has been trained to sedate themselves with a drug called soma that relives any potential anxieties and keeps people from thinking about anything upsetting. I want a beer.

I guess this Huxley guy might have gotten lucky and predicted a few things, but he was way off base about where society was going.
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Feb 29, 2008 Erin added it

Shelves: ew-high-school-english

remember that last semester of english class, senior year, where every class seemed painfully long and excrutiatingly pointless? when everybody sat around secretly thinking of cute and witty things to put in other people's yearbooks? when the teachers realized we were already braindead from filling out three dozen student loan applications and college housing forms? that's when honors english started getting a little lazy.

not that i minded. everybody got a book list. then everybody got split up...more remember that last semester of english class, senior year, where every class seemed painfully long and excrutiatingly pointless? when everybody sat around secretly thinking of cute and witty things to put in other people's yearbooks? when the teachers realized we were already braindead from filling out three dozen student loan applications and college housing forms? that's when honors english started getting a little lazy.

not that i minded. everybody got a book list. then everybody got split up into groups. you were responsible for reading all the books on your own, but one in particular was chosen for your group to present at the end of the semester. you know--- as a refresher for the rest of the class. because of course EVERYONE was gonna read EVERY book.

i can't remember what i did instead of reading "brave new world", but it was probably fun and involved copious amounts of sweet tea and a gigantic paper mache cow. fortunately it didn't matter because the only group to take their presentation seriously was the "brave new world" group, and the way they presented stuck with me long enough to compel me to read the book later.

maybe it was the weird music they had playing during their presentation, maybe it was the fact that super hot chris mayns had to sit in my group (the alphas) but i was seriously attracted to the world this group created in our classroom. we drew cards randomly to determine our class, then sat accordingly and wore cute little colored wristbands. everybody got pez (soma!) and *gasp* a birth control belt. throughout the presentation people were moved next to someone and lost a packet on their belt (listen, this is scandalous for a bible belt high school, ok? by the way, i did NOT get to sit next to chris, which is probably good because i would have been mortified and choked on a pez)

anyway, the presentation was fun, but i didn't get around to reading my (now ex) boyfriends copy until a year ago. and i started getting a small, evil thought exactly the same as i had in class so many years ago... maybe some people would actually like this system. maybe some people would actually BENEFIT from this system. people don't have to think? they aren't expected to do much, go to college, become something bigger than what they actually are? they're rewarded with good feeling drugs? they are proud to have accomplished what they have? and they... DON'T HAVE TO THINK FOR THEMSELVES!?

I know i'm going to get slammed for saying this later, especially because i never do actual reviews or completely delve into what i'm thinking (so shoot me) but haven't you ever been roaming the world wide inter-web and found a little troller you thought "well, this person is a poor use of a human brain?" yes, you have. admit it.

just think, a little test tube tweaking and that person wouldn't mind manning the cash register at piggly wiggly for the rest of his life, saving the rest of humanity from noxious online rants about the hotness of avril lavinge and the brilliance of starcraft (apparently its a video game thats KOOLER THAN U!!!!1#)

you're tempted, i can tell...

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Jul 04, 2007 Clare rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As a teenager I went through a period of reading a vast number of distopian novels - probably all the teenage angst. This is the one that has continued to haunt me however, long after the my youthful cynicism has died it's death. It's basically a book about the utopian ideal - everyone's happy, everyone has what they want and EVERYTHING is based on logical principles. However, there is something very rotten at the heart. It's about how what we want isn't always what we should get. It looks at ho...more

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Oct 05, 2012 B0nnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks

Brave New World is a vision of the future where science will (at last) be put full time into the service of our needs. Some of the ideas might seem a little controversial (because of our preconceived ideas) but we must be open minded...!

SEX. Biology teaches that sex is meant to be had. To put restrictions on sex is as silly as putting restrictions on which chair to sit. And like chairs, women are meant to be pneumatic. "Oh, she’s a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic. I’m surprised you have...more

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Mar 08, 2014 sckenda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, modern-library-100, dystopia, freedom, meaning, happiness, revolution, civilization

The world is safe from books. The problem of happiness has been solved. Citizens of the future World State are free from war, poverty, hunger, disease, and pain. People enjoy vast amounts of leisure as they narcotize themselves with pleasures--entertainment, spectator sports, promiscuous sex, and the tranquilizer, “SOMA.” The challenge of totalitarian governance is “making people love their servitude,” but a little bit of SOMA helps the medicine go down.

The Brave New World decrees: “COMMUNITY,...more The world is safe from books. The problem of happiness has been solved. Citizens of the future World State are free from war, poverty, hunger, disease, and pain. People enjoy vast amounts of leisure as they narcotize themselves with pleasures--entertainment, spectator sports, promiscuous sex, and the tranquilizer, “SOMA.” The challenge of totalitarian governance is “making people love their servitude,” but a little bit of SOMA helps the medicine go down.

The Brave New World decrees: “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.” To mass produce bliss, they eliminate messy ideas like—free will; love; art; truth; beauty; religion; and literature. Synthetic music and movies celebrate "consumer" values and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Because family life is so messy, they mass produce babies in hatcheries and outsource the raising of children. Deep relationships provoke unhappiness, so "consumers" seek shallow relationships without intimacy or commitment even as they suppress the "antisocial" desire for solitude.

John Savage challenges the Brave New World and demands the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of UNHAPPINESS. Savage renounces comfort and will risk danger and inconvenience.

But I don't want comfort. I want God. I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin. I'm claiming the right to be unhappy. Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind. I claim them all.

Savage wants Shakespeare! Having learned to read using Shakespeare's Complete Works,” Savage understands what it means to be human. As Harold Bloom would say, “Shakespeare invented the Human.” The title is from "The Tempest:" "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people in't!"

I like this book as a novel of ideas, though I was not mesmerized by the plot or the characters like I was with Orwell’s “1984.” The two works invite comparison. Aldous Huxley published “Brave New World” in 1931, immediately before the rise of the dictators, and George Orwell published "1984" in 1949—after the fall of the fascist dictators. Both authors present competing visions of totalitarian dystopias. In Orwell, Big Brother compels submission, whereas, in Huxley, the Controller seduces people into submission.

Pain or Pleasure? Feel free to choose your own dystopia. Both writers were prophetic (but only to a degree); thankfully, most readers are still free to debate which prophet was more prophetic and most of us are at liberty either to pop a SOMA or to stay awake.

September 27, 2013(less)

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Jun 17, 2012 Emily May rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, classics, sci-fi, boring

Mr Foster duly told them.
Told them of the growing embryo on its bed of peritoneum. Made them taste the rich blood-surrogate on which it fed. Explained why it had to be stimulated with placentin and thyroxin. Told them of the corpus luteum extract. Showed them the jets through which at every twelfth metre from zero to 2040 it was automatically injected. Spoke of those gradually increasing doses of pituitary administered during the final ninety-six metres of their course. Described the artificial

...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Nataliya rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: dystopia-postapocalyptic, 2012-reads

Brave New World is a classic written to make its readers uncomfortable. It accomplishes its point well. Still, it is only getting 3 stars from me, as I rate books based on my personal level of enjoyment rather than literary value.

The characters of this book were not meant to be likeable - I am fine with that concept. The first few chapters made me want to curl up in the corner and cry - that's how repulsive the design of this universe was (mission accomplished, Mr. Huxley). But as we plunge int...more

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May 24, 2008 Johannes rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

This book presents a futuristic dystopia of an unusual kind. Unlike in Orwell's 1984, Huxley's dystopia is one in which everyone is happy. However, they are happy in only the most trivial sense: they lead lives of simple pleasures, but lives without science, art, philosophy or religion. In short, lives without deeper meaning. Although people are expected to work hard and efficiently during working hours, during off hours people live in an infantile way, never engaging their minds, and satisfying...more This book presents a futuristic dystopia of an unusual kind. Unlike in Orwell's 1984, Huxley's dystopia is one in which everyone is happy. However, they are happy in only the most trivial sense: they lead lives of simple pleasures, but lives without science, art, philosophy or religion. In short, lives without deeper meaning. Although people are expected to work hard and efficiently during working hours, during off hours people live in an infantile way, never engaging their minds, and satisfying themselves with sex and drugs.

The premise of the book I find quite interesting. However, the execution is lacking. The characters are not particularly endearing, and indeed they are quite flat. Worse, Huxley fails to explain why this future of controlled contentment is wrong. The reader will intuit that the this indeed a dystopia posing as a utopia, but Huxley's reliance on this feeling is a philosophical failure. It is the burden of the author to present us not with an account of something we know is bad, but to explain the source of the knowledge.

Huxley attempts something akin to an explanation in the second-to-last chapter, a discussion between "the Savage" who grew up outside civilization and Mustalpha Mond, a World Controller. However, the attempt falls short, as Mond has concise answers to all of the Savage's questions, and the Savage lacks the education and/or intellectual power to find reason behind his feelings.

During the conversation, Mond refers to philosopher Francis Bradley and credits him with the idea that philosophy is "the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct." Perhaps this inclusion is intended to convey that Huxley agrees and will make no attempt to manufacture a "bad reason" why the world he created is evil. However, I find this deeply unsatisfying. Why write a book to tell people what they already know? Moreover, a single reference to Bradley is not sufficient to convince me that this definition of philosophy is correct. If Huxley's novel relies heavily on this idea, he should have supported it with more than a solitary statement of Mond. Indeed, Mond promptly refutes the statement by denying instinct as separate from conditioning, and as the civilized population of the world seems to be controlled largely by conditioning, it would seem that in Huxley's world, Mond is correct!

In summary, Huxley crafts an interesting future world where people are blithely content without knowing passion or pain. Unfortunately, he fails both to craft an interesting story to set in this world and to write a strong philosophical argument why such a world would be harmful for mankind. He relies on the obvious faults of the world and the intuitive reaction of the reader, and thus provides no deeper insights.

As a social message, as a novel, and as a statement on the way in which mankind should behave, I find Brave New World inferior in almost every way to 1984. The one word of praise I will give to Huxley's novel is that his dystopia is more unusual and more intriguing than Orwell's. If only he had dome something more with it.(less)

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Aug 25, 2013 Dale Pearl rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: terrible, bbc-top-100-all-time-read

This book is on many a top 100 reading list. Aldous Huxley has the reputation of being an intellectual giant. His heritage places him in the land of England, the place where all of the great literary giants come. A Brave New World unfortunately does not live up to the credits,pedigree or even the cult following that chases after it.

Summary: In a nutshell this book is a mess. I am assuming that the majority of individuals that rate this book high on a novel list or 5 star it on here on amazon do...more

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Feb 07, 2010 Madeline rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, the-list

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932. That's almost eighty years ago, but the book reads like it could have been written yesterday. (especially interesting to me was how Huxley was able to predict the future of both genetic engineering and the action blockbuster. Damn.)

I think I liked this one better than 1984, the book traditionally considered to be this one's counterpart. Not really sure why this is, but it's probably because this one has a clearer outsider character (the Savage) who ca...more

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Nov 01, 2013 Lit Bug rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sf

There are two standard ways of reading ideological science-fiction – to go looking for subtle nuances that characterize standard literary fiction, stressing upon characterization and plot as an integral part of writing; and to seek ideas that interrogate our narrow notions and overlook standard literary conventions in case the work is wanting in literary finesse. Often, the one with the best ideas is not blessed with the best writing, and the ideas, rather than the execution is what is appealing...more

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Sep 17, 2008 Valerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Valerie by: Dad

Shelves: cypresslibrary

This book is frightening. I'll take it to my classroom and subject the innocents to it.

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Oct 25, 2012 Jonathan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, classic-literature, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, personal-favourites, want, 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, dystopian, classic-challenge

I have now concluded another of the grand pantheon of the classics of the dystopian genre. It is no mere clone of the other works, although incidentally it does feature cloning within its story. I would place this on the same level as 1984 in terms of the ideas conveyed within. However I would also say that it completely stands alone as its own creation. It perhaps has less solidity and depth and the words are less lyrical and poetic than Orwell's. That said I was blown away at several key momen...more

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Aug 07, 2009 Mike Philbin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: consumerists - wake up from your comfortable slumber

Recommended to Mike by: Kailleaugh Andersson

the first five chapters of this book (seventy years after its publication) are like looking at today, Sunday the 11th of May 2008. Much more an accurate rendition of soft-Fascist consumerism (Sony, Nike, Mortagage hysteria) and mind control (9/11, the war on terror) than anything Philip K Dick tried to cook up on his bent drug spoon.

and the book continues to be 'amazing' right through Mustapha Mond's sympathetic climactic expose and slightly beyond infamy into the wicked ending.

despair, horror,...more

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Apr 23, 2010 Dee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, 1001-books-list, sci-fi-and-dystopia

Is this book really all that?

I was underwhelmed. But, strangely enough, that's why I'm giving it 3 stars. The ideas were all so familiar to me, like I've seen and read it all before, when actually this is one of a few early books that inspired all those other stories. Now Brave New World seems as unoriginal to me as Shakespeare feels cliche. So it really is a founding giant and a classic dystopia. That fact alone raises my rating from 2 to 3 stars.

There are a couple of reasons why I thought th...more Is this book really all that?

I was underwhelmed. But, strangely enough, that's why I'm giving it 3 stars. The ideas were all so familiar to me, like I've seen and read it all before, when actually this is one of a few early books that inspired all those other stories. Now Brave New World seems as unoriginal to me as Shakespeare feels cliche. So it really is a founding giant and a classic dystopia. That fact alone raises my rating from 2 to 3 stars.

There are a couple of reasons why I thought this book to be over rated. Ok, hold it there for a second. I already feel as though I need to put in a disclaimer for what I am about to say. So:

The following comments are merely written in response to the overwhelming number of reviews I have read about this book reflecting today's society and/or the need to use it as a warning for where we are inevitably headed. I am very aware that Huxley was writing a piece of fiction and thus the predictions about western society that he used this book to make were purposely exaggerated for dramatic effect :).

Ok, thanks, I feel better now. Where was I? Oh yes, so many reviews I've scanned over talk about Huxley's prophecies echoing (or even being fulfilled in) today's society and how we need to take more notice of his warnings. Usually they refer to the use of technology to control society and hedonism through drug use and sex. It makes me wonder if I'm missing something. The general consensus today, as far as I am aware, is that the use of mind altering drugs (something that is prevalent but has been going on for many hundreds of years) is actually rather unhealthy and a little bit illegal. The thought that the state would ever think of enforcing a drug to make us all 'happy with our servanthood' is laughable. I am in no way pretending that illegal drug use is not a serious problem today, rather I am suggesting that our view of drugs actually being a problem reflects that we are far from heading down the path that this book is supposedly prophesying. There's a difference between hedonism (which is also no new concept) and enforced 'happiness' by a totalitarian state.

Also sex. Yes, in the last century the western world has generally become much more openly promiscuous. However the descriptions in the book of enforced erotic play among children and group orgies as a standard religious practice? Stretching it a little. I would have thought that today's society actually supports the protection of children from violation more so than in the past. And yes, technological advancements have been huge, but they have generally served the public rather than controlled it, haven't they? Particularly in terms of scientific advancement.

Yes, I do see propaganda being used (through technology) to influence, but the odd Colgate add that makes me want to buy their latest toothbrush, or the add that warns of the ills of smoking or drink driving is sort of in a different league to years of state imposed sleep hypnosis. I'm just never really a fan of doomsday warnings. I don't think, as Huxley suggests in his foreword, that the state has no choice but to become intensely totalitarian within a few generations.

And the second thing that bugs me is that Huxley was actually in favor of a few of these ideas.The very same ideas that people use his book to warn against. Having thought up Brave New World in the midst of a depression and what he saw as chaos, he proposed that the only solution was to control the masses through 'propaganda as a legitimate tool of the state'. He believed society could be controlled in a 'humane' way by making people blissfully happy in the process (hence soma and the genetic engineering and sleep conditioning--all of which Huxley believed would in some way occur and actually supported the use of). Read the intro and foreword. It's in there. He held a 'contempt for democracy and a conviction that mass society must be reorganized as a hierarchy of mental quality controlled by an elite caste of experts'. I actually think I give us all more credit than that. Consequently there are no real protagonists in the story. The most sympathetic character is the world controller, Mustapha Mond, which I think is saying something. The only given alternative to this 'Utopia' is the bizarrely superstitious and primitive world of the 'Savage' which ends, in the case of the character John, in self-mutilation and suicide. Nice options.

But in saying all that I think it's a great book to provoke discussion. I just wouldn't go so far as to label it one of the 'most important books published post war' (as the Daily Telegraph titles it on the back of my copy). Nor would I say, considering the political opinions of the author, that it is a particularly urgent appeal for the freedom of humanity.

And thank you for listening.(less)

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May 04, 2013 Kyle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library-books, favorites

So that's what I've been missing out on this whole time; I almost wish a teacher did force me to read this book.

There is some clunkiness to Huxley's writing and sentence structure, but that's ultimately beside the point. There are, occasionally, some feelings of dated-ness even though the book has remained relevant remarkably well (or do I mean terrifyingly well?); yet, that too is also beside the point. The real point, is that it's a damn fine hunk of literature; very pneumatic indeed, and I ca...more

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Aug 04, 2014 Skylar Burris rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction

In Brave New World, first published in 1932, Huxley paints the picture of a world that is willing to surrender true joy for a bland happiness free of suffering, that is willing to abandon truth for comfort, that is willing to eschew heights in order to avoid depths, and that is quick to surrender human ambition and individual personality for the sake of societal harmony. It is a frightening presentation, precisely because it does not seem too improbable. Even in the United States, which is one o...more

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Oct 12, 2014 Samadrita rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, dystopian-fiction, 1001-and-more, disturbia, timeless-classics, britain, european-literature, cherished

To cut a long story short, the inescapable destiny of every society is to morph into a dystopia. Alternatively, a biting satire on capitalism and consumerism.

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Feb 22, 2009 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts, science-fiction

There's some provocative discussion of this book in Houellebecq's Les Particules Elémentaires, which I just finished. One of the characters argues that Huxley originally intended his world as a utopia rather than a dystopia, and then changed his mind and tried to convince everyone it was meant ironically.

The proof? Apart from the caste system, which has been rendered unnecessary by computers, this is the world we're busily trying to create for ourselves, and which almost everyone would actually...more

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May 08, 2010 Cecily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-or-futuristic, classics

Wow, how does such a slim volume explore so many BIG issues, whilst also telling an interesting story?

Although published nearly 80 years ago (1932), it presciently exposes many issues that are problematic in our time: consumerism; the nature of happiness; what it means to be civilised; cloning and other reproductive technologies; parenting, families, loyalty, promiscuity; recreational drug use; social mobility and equality of opportunity; individualism versus group loyalty; pornography; benevole...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Steven rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001

Awesome book of the dystopia/utopia genre that l simply loved. I can fully understand why it is considered a masterpiece and I am surprised it is not referenced more in popular culture (seems like Orwell’s 1984 gets much more publicity today, whereas this one might be more on point in describing today’s new world order.) In looking up the listed themes on the cliff notes version of the novel, the following are referenced: the use of technology to control society; the consumer society; the incomp...more Awesome book of the dystopia/utopia genre that l simply loved. I can fully understand why it is considered a masterpiece and I am surprised it is not referenced more in popular culture (seems like Orwell’s 1984 gets much more publicity today, whereas this one might be more on point in describing today’s new world order.) In looking up the listed themes on the cliff notes version of the novel, the following are referenced: the use of technology to control society; the consumer society; the incompatibility of happiness and truth; the dangers of an all-powerful state; alienation; the absence of God in the modern world; promiscuity - do any of these sound like they might have some relevance in today’s society.

Novel is set in the future where the vast majority of the world is part of the World State. There is no social competition, no parenthood, no marriage, no history, no science, etc. Sex is encouraged and is practices during childhood. Society is divided into five castes and all members are trained to be good consumers in order to keep the economy strong. Isolation and being different are strongly discouraged. People are kept happy through the use of the drug soma. There is a group of people not from the World State who live as primitives in the Savage Reservation, reproducing normally, fearing death, etc. The plot of the novel essentially involves one of these savages who are brought to the World State and how he adjusts to these differences.

I especially loved some of the dialogue between the savage and the leader of the World State. For example,

. . .

“[t]he 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 . . .

Besides, we have our stability to think of. We don't want to change. Every change is a menace to stability. That's another reason why we're so chary of applying new inventions. Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy. Yes, even science

Call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness.”

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May 21, 2013 BirdBrian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: truth-wrapped-in-fiction

The background
It's hard to know where Aldous Huxley was coming from when he wrote Brave New World (BNW) in 1931. He was the brother of Julian Huxley, whose eugenicist ideas made him a darling of the Rockefellers and Fords. These old robber baron families' tax-free foundations have busied themselves for over one-hundred years researching both methods of social control, and schemes to centralize world political power into the hands of a few supranational organizations. Through Rockefeller inside...more

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Oct 07, 2014 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-read-more-than-once

I must have read this a dozen times before I fully grasped the central point. It was the foreword to another book, Neil Postman's AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH, that finally spelled it out for me.

Huxley's radical notion is difficult to grasp, but as simple as Postman's title: it's not war or foreign oppressors or Big Brother that will get us. It's our prosperity, technology, and insatiable appetite for distractions. In other words, if nothing else corrupts the West, we will very happily Amuse Ours...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Ensiform rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

In the 26th century, after a destructive war, the world lives in peace, managed by World Controllers who use the principles of assembly-line manufacture and psychology to enforce a ubiquitous, passivist, pansexual, consumerist culture. Raised from cells in a lab (the idea of mothers and fathers characterized as obscene) into castes (Alpha to Epsilon) through hypnopedia and Skinner-like conditioning through pain, people’s mental and physical growth is chosen and accordingly expanded or stunted. T...more In the 26th century, after a destructive war, the world lives in peace, managed by World Controllers who use the principles of assembly-line manufacture and psychology to enforce a ubiquitous, passivist, pansexual, consumerist culture. Raised from cells in a lab (the idea of mothers and fathers characterized as obscene) into castes (Alpha to Epsilon) through hypnopedia and Skinner-like conditioning through pain, people’s mental and physical growth is chosen and accordingly expanded or stunted. To this end, independent art is abolished and pure science is discouraged; all innovations serve only to increase consumerism and the instantaneous gratification of simple desires. Books are not banned per se; people are simply trained not to care for books, instead being satisfied with video “feelies,” somatic drugs, and sexual release. Unlike Orwell’s 1984, there is no evil hypocrisy behind these principles, but a real desire for peace, stability and order. As the World Controller Mustapha Mond remarks, "What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when anthrax bombs are popping all around you?” To this world comes the Savage, a man born on an Indian reservation where there is still alcohol, hunting, religious ritual, and live birth. Fluent in Shakespeare and drawn to natural beauty, he is repelled and baffled by this clinical world in which everything comes easily. His keeper, Bernard Marx, an unusually neurotic Alpha, enjoys the uproar the Savage causes, but does not understand the implications of the upheaval his presence causes.

This is, quite simply, a brilliant book. Quite prescient (the instantaneous nature of YouTube and how quickly a video can become “viral” is just one thing that is foreshadowed here) and based on real principles, this is a world perhaps less frightening, because less violent, than Orwell’s, but a good sight creepier, because everyone is complicit in constructing the culture that limits them. The denigration of individualism, the natural inclination to associate physical size with value and to associate the difficult to process with the uninteresting, the worship of instant gratification and consumerism – these are all human impulses, and it’s easy to see how these can be manipulated in the name of larger principles.

[Read twice: 10/20/07, 5/10/11](less)

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Jan 15, 2013 midnightfaerie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was both disturbing and creepy. I loved it. I was absolutely amazed at how many movies I could think of that seemed inspired by this book. And the fact it was written in 1932, well before its time! A book about cloning humans to work in different classes to create the perfect Utopia, it didn't seem that far in the future to some of the technology that is available today. Dividing the people into classes labeled Alphas, Betas, etc., the book talks about the mora...more A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley was both disturbing and creepy. I loved it. I was absolutely amazed at how many movies I could think of that seemed inspired by this book. And the fact it was written in 1932, well before its time! A book about cloning humans to work in different classes to create the perfect Utopia, it didn't seem that far in the future to some of the technology that is available today. Dividing the people into classes labeled Alphas, Betas, etc., the book talks about the moral conditioning that is constantly at work on these people. The voices they have to listen to at night that tell them they hate the other classes, or that we "All belong to each other", are just some of the things that they had to listen to. It conditioned them to want to be who they were, to do the work they were predestined to do, and to not want to better themselves. For example, when showing a group of Alpha-minuses the factory where they do the conditioning, they came to a room filled with 8 month old babies. They revealed colorful books and flowers at the end of the room and as the babies squealed with delight and crawled toward the display, they blared loud sirens that frightened them and made them scream. Then to just cement the idea that books were evil, they sent an electric shock through the floor that sent them crawling away with terror. Nice, eh? As a Mom, parts of this, to say the least, were a little hard for me to handle, however I can see how he explores this idea of a perfect society relatively well. Only through loss of freedom and personal responsibility can this Utopian society exist, and when a "Savage", (man from an area not yet converted) appears on the scene and criticizes this using Shakespeare, the head controller has many convincing an argument to condone the peaceful, happy society, and he also uses Shakespeare (a historical relic that is completely forbidden and banned) as examples to this Savage as to why this society is so much better, even having come from the primitive society that this Savage has come from. Through arguments about God and freewill, the climax of the book, in my opinion, comes when the Controller asks John the Savage what it is he is fighting for. He answers pain, love, heartache, passion, etc. And the Controller responds by saying "So you're fighting for the right to be unhappy?" John pauses, and says yes. This is not the end of the book, but this whole conversation was brilliant. The facts he uses to debate his Utopia are well thought out and grudgingly I had to admit, had some logic to them. But in the end, I don't think anyone would give up their right to feel, at least not coming from the world we live in now. But we have to remember these people, at least most of them, grew up not knowing pain, or loss, or passion. However, they grew up happy and peaceful and fulfilled that they were doing something to better their society. It's just an amazing concept, and beautifully written. Not a long book, so those that aren't big readers, should be able to get through this fairly quickly. Definitely a classic, even though it was given bad reviews when it first came out, a book written way before its time.

I also want to point out that it was often banned due to uninhibited and unlimited carnal pleasure, (everyone belongs to everyone else after all), and the use of "Soma", a hangover free drug, to lull the people into coercion when necessary, and to rid them of any bad feelings, in case any should arise. So, basically, it was banned because of sex and drugs and the idea of immersing oneself in pleasure. It's an interesting idea to have a society where you don't have to deny yourself anything or anyone.

Another note is needed as to why I put the movie "The Island" up next to the book on this page. There is no indication by the director or writers of the movie that it was based on Brave New World, however, I have seen it, and there are way too many similarities for it to be considered coincidence. I loved the movie and highly recommend it, which is why I put it here. Also, for those interested, they plan on making the movie "A Brave New World" coming out soon, starring Leonardo Dicaprio. And no, I have not seen the movie A Brave New World from the 90's starring Peter Gallagher, because as of right now, it's only on VHS. I did find it on youtube and will watch it eventually I think.

One other thing I'd like to note, is that this book, after some research on my part, is often compared to George Orwell's 1984, which I read in high school and disliked. Apparently even Orwell, thought there was something to discuss with Huxley, because he sent him a copy of his book. And in the back of my copy of Brave New World, there is a letter to Orwell from Huxley about the ideas found in the book. So even though I read it years ago, I fear I'm missing something and will add it to my "To Read" list again. Would love to hear thoughts of anyone who has read this book. I will say I didn't like the man John the "Savage" turned into, and I didn't like the end of the book, although there was probably no where else for it to go. Again thoughts on this would be appreciated. I will add this book to my banned section and denote it as a classic.

Another note: I just added Demolition Man because I was reminded it was a movie also based off the book. Although far removed and very cheesy from the original, nonetheless, an awesome movie and one of my favorites! Highly recommended!

ClassicsDefined.com (less)

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Apr 10, 2013 Jr Bacdayan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a didactic dystopian novel published during the year 1932. This boldly prophetic novel sets out to predict the future of humanity. Now, more than 80 years later, it has proven itself as a masterpiece and will continue to through the years. This novel is a criticism to "consumerism" which Huxley rightly predicts as the motor of the future. The dystopia he created is a mirror of our own. Only that he exaggerates man's greatest need, the need to consume, which pr...more Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a didactic dystopian novel published during the year 1932. This boldly prophetic novel sets out to predict the future of humanity. Now, more than 80 years later, it has proven itself as a masterpiece and will continue to through the years. This novel is a criticism to "consumerism" which Huxley rightly predicts as the motor of the future. The dystopia he created is a mirror of our own. Only that he exaggerates man's greatest need, the need to consume, which produces a very dreadful result. "It appears that the point of Brave New World is that modernity is developing in a direction that will ultimately change human nature itself. A world in which consumerism is developed to the extent it is in the World State, where desires are immediately gratified, in which “external secretion” is carried to the baby before it has barely begun to cry, would eradicate the most fundamental fact of human existence: its inconvenience." The main problem with most people who criticize this book is that they focus on the empirical differences of Huxley's dystopia and our reality. What an absurd thing to do! The focus should be on the trend of our society and its similarities to the idea of Huxley's dystopia. That the ultimate goal towards producing consumable things set to eliminate inconvenience will result to unending happiness and shallow contentment. It is not a bad thing in itself. But, if it is achieved in the near future, Truth (Science), Beauty (Art), and Religion would have no place in society. That there is no need for them in people who feel no inconvenience at all. That in a happily contented place, the only thing to be maintained is stability. That Science would be limited, Art unappreciated, and God unnoticed. This may seem far-fetched now, but it is not impossible. “Man is an intelligence, not served by, but in servitude to his organs.” The chapters 16 and 17 which reflect all these things I've said, are to me, the intellectual heart of the novel and thus the most important. In the end, the Savage's self conflagration (has Shakespeare written all over it) reflects that a sane man cannot live in a world crazed by the trend of a perfect consumer society. “The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. "Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does." They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”

“I want God, I want poetry, I want danger, I want freedom, I want sin.”
"In fact,' said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
“All right then," said the savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.”

“Did you eat something that didn't agree with you?" asked Bernard. The Savage nodded "I ate civilization.

The perfect consumer society will cause us to lose our humanity. Perfection is not meant for the human. It is the imperfections that give meaning to our lives and it is the very thing that defines us.

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in't!"

O brave new world! O brave new world! I wish I could say the same. (less)

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Oct 08, 2013 Jan-Maat added it

Shelves: 20th-century, novel, british-isles, utopias-and-dystopias

In the beginning there is Henry Ford.

The Ford factory system designed vehicles that were fit for specific purposes and this starts off as a satire on applying that model to humanity. The problem then with traditional socialisation through the family and traditional education through schools is that it is haphazard. Hit and miss. As such it produces an unstable society with irregular, inconvenient needs, booms and busts, Wall Street Crashes and unemployment.

The initially unserious answer to all t...more In the beginning there is Henry Ford.

The Ford factory system designed vehicles that were fit for specific purposes and this starts off as a satire on applying that model to humanity. The problem then with traditional socialisation through the family and traditional education through schools is that it is haphazard. Hit and miss. As such it produces an unstable society with irregular, inconvenient needs, booms and busts, Wall Street Crashes and unemployment.

The initially unserious answer to all these problems that Huxley proposes is that you can have any colour you want so long as its black. Human society can, with a bit of chemistry, some growing of babies in jars and some judicious applications of electric shocks, be made into an ant colony. Each person fit for a purpose. The whole of society a factory designed to produce stability.

I think the Italian Futurists had similar ideas, it would have a fascist flavour but for the absence of nationalism, although in passing racism seems to exist - the hatchery produces colonial administrators - and the existence of the savage reservation is reminiscent of some later Nazi fantasies. Actually, are there any Alpha female characters? I only recall some who were Betas, so potentially equality of any kind has no place in Huxley's well ordered society of the future.

To start Huxley introduces some malcontented characters. Bernard Marx - who is inherently malcontented due to being shorter than he should be for his status and John Savage who is the child of Brave New World citizens, brought up on the Savage Reservation and not part of either society. Both of these characters have their limitations and significantly Huxley chooses to have the Savage commit suicide rather than go off and found a new society. He is the archetypal traveller who insists on being unhappy in a foreign land because they don't make tea the same way they do at home. He is not like Lemuel Gulliver (or Marco Polo perhaps) and does not have the capacity to grow and learn from the places he visits.

Maybe Huxley's problem is that by the end of the book he finds his own model of stability too attractive. Certainly it is Mustapha Mond who emerges as the voice of wisdom in the final section of the book. He may not represent a perfect social system, but he is confident that the Brave New World delivers the Utilitarian ideal of the most pleasure to the greatest number of people and for those who are unhappy he is prepared to offer tailor made solutions. By this stage it is clear that what had originally been offered up as a satire - how absurd a society run on the principles of Henry Ford - has for Huxley become something reasonable, sensible and deeply seductive. Look, he says, it could work.

That sense that it could work is the root of Brave New World's power as a book. 1984 is horrific, the image of a boot stamping on a human face for eternity striking but the practical part of the head tells us that war is deeply stressful. Those three super states are going to be friable, run down, likely to struggle to feed and maintain a war effort (although I suppose the entire set up could be pure propaganda, we never see any fighting). In We, although I think better of it than Huxley's or Orwells dystopias) there is the problem of the outside world. Brave New World on the other hand, once you allow the science fantasy of the hatcheries, feels as though it could work. It feeds into a limited view of humans that we can be permanently satisfied through the appropriate mix of drugs, sex and crazy golf. Then again, there is Mustapha Mond able to provide an alternative for the seeker after self-actualisation, someone just like the reader.

As time went on, life mirroring art here, Huxley took to medicating himself against the human condition. What he started off as portraying in Brave New World as something comic became something meaningful and significant for him. It seems as though the man was swallowed by his own vision of a dystopian future. Seeing as he had poor eye sight I don't imagine that he enjoyed crazy golf much though.(less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lit-outside-of-school, science-fiction, dystopia

3.5 stars.

I like books that make me feel. I felt pretty anguished and surprised when I read about babies being electrocuted on page 20. Why would anyone electrocute innocent babies, you ask?

'They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives.'

No! Not books! Condition them to detest Doritos or cottage cheese - anything but books!

I also like books that make me...more 3.5 stars.

I like books that make me feel. I felt pretty anguished and surprised when I read about babies being electrocuted on page 20. Why would anyone electrocute innocent babies, you ask?

'They'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an 'instinctive' hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They'll be safe from books and botany all their lives.'

No! Not books! Condition them to detest Doritos or cottage cheese - anything but books!

I also like books that make me think. Here is a quote that made me think (I sent it to a friend via text, too):

"The sexophones wailed like melodious cats under the moon, moaned in the alto and tenor registers as though the little death were upon them. Rich with a wealth of harmonics, their tremulous chorus mounted towards a climax. louder and ever louder..."

"Sexophones". Indeed, Aldous Huxley created a society in which consumerism and sex run rampant. It's difficult to briefly delineate the place the characters inhabit, but it's basically a world in which one is biologically engineered and born into a specific caste. There is no passion, and people go through their days fulfilling their duties and taking mind-relaxing/numbing drugs. Sex is spoken about casually, monogamy and motherhood are absurd concepts, and everyone lives to ensure everyone's happiness.

Huxley held my attention throughout the story, and I appreciated his utilization of ostracization, oppression, conformity, psychology, etc. to finely flesh out his anti-utopia. Each character contributed meaning to the book overall, and I enjoyed how John and Linda were introduced in the middle of the story but served as main characters by the end.

Perhaps it is because I read 1984 beforehand, but Brave New World did not grip me enough to make me absolutely adore it. However, I would still recommend it to anyone looking for a great dystopic read that raises some thought-provoking questions. The fact that this book maintains its relevancy in 2012 after several years have passed since its publication shows its strength.

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice.(less)

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Dec 23, 2009 Russell Hayes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favorites

Generally I'm skeptical of modern novels written by drug-using spiritualists that critique American capitalism, but this book turned out to be surprisingly good. It was both enjoyable and thought-provoking, as any piece of literature should be.

In this brave new world, the government controls its citizens by providing them with seemingly endless pleasure. The citizens are not encouraged to think for themselves, but rather are engineered believing that they are just another (replaceable) cog in t...more Generally I'm skeptical of modern novels written by drug-using spiritualists that critique American capitalism, but this book turned out to be surprisingly good. It was both enjoyable and thought-provoking, as any piece of literature should be.

In this brave new world, the government controls its citizens by providing them with seemingly endless pleasure. The citizens are not encouraged to think for themselves, but rather are engineered believing that they are just another (replaceable) cog in the system. In addition, they are forbidden to know about history (the ordinary citizens have never heard of Jesus or Shakespeare.)

To me, this all sounds like modern secular education. Indeed, "secularism" literally means living within the bounds of this age. The characters in the brave new world have totally forgotten the past, and do not even consider the future (they view death with apathy as long as their bodies help fuel the incinerator.) For them, there is no transcendent reality or truth; there is only the physical world. In such a world, there can be no human dignity or individualism. If we all emerged from slime, how can we have any dignity? How can it matter whether we are free or enslaved? How can a creature who evolved from nothing, which has its ultimate end as nothing, assume any sort of dignity? How can there be any intrinsic beauty in the universe? (the characters do not "love" but rather the men can at just about any time "have" a woman if they feel like it.)

This all culminates in the conversation between the Mustapha Mond, the dictator of Western Europe, and Savage, who is brought to London from an Indian reservation. (Ironically, the Savage is more civilized than the Londoners--he at least has read Shakespeare.) Mond tells him that old plays like Othello, while intrinsically beautiful and objectively better than the sensual plays of the civilized world, are banned because he wants the people to like the new things, not the old things. Thus, everything in the past is necessarily more barbaric and less evolved, while the here-and-now is by definition more advanced and thus preferred (a bit odd, if in the future everything ultimately will become nothing!)

The scenario envisioned in this book is the logical end of naturalism and evolutionism, and is rapidly becoming reality in Europe, and to a lesser extent, America. As the "Controller" explained in the book, whenever the masses, who are uneducated in the classics and the "great ideas," seize political power, only physical pleasure and "happiness" matter; transcendent concepts like truth and beauty are relegated to the sidelines. "Happiness is a hard master... A much harder master... than truth." Perhaps unless impossibly "conditioned" as they were in this book, people cannot find true happiness in pleasure--if they seek it incessantly it will only lead to misery. Only by thoughtfully pursuing truth and beauty can anyone obtain lasting happiness. (less)

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