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Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

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Jul 04, 2007 Clare rated it it was amazing · 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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Aug 31, 2009 Sara ♥ rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, audiobook, challenge-fall-2009, science-fiction, book-group, dystopian

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I don't really know what to say about this book... it was different than books I usually read. (I feel like I say that about all books that don't have "happy" endings...)

It was a dystopian novel... about a future in which basically all morals have been done away with and everyone is programmed, starting before "birth" (or rather, when they're let out of our test tubes) and extending through adolescence, to act and be exactly like the governing powers want you to be. It's... pretty insane. In th

I don't really know what to say about this book... it was different than books I usually read. (I feel like I say that about all books that don't have "happy" endings...)

It was a dystopian novel... about a future in which basically all morals have been done away with and everyone is programmed, starting before "birth" (or rather, when they're let out of our test tubes) and extending through adolescence, to act and be exactly like the governing powers want you to be. It's... pretty insane. In their society, there's no religion... no striving to be more than you are... It's like the ultimate hedonistic society (they work, but they have lots of free time to play games and have lots of sex with everyone else), except that if you don't have pain, aging, sickness, etc. (thanks to a drug called soma!), can you really have pleasure or happiness? (No.) It's more of a general contentment.

So the book... it's about 2 guys, really... One who is different than the others around him... He feels lonely, and knows something is wrong with their society where they take a drug to ease any negative feelings, no matter how minor. So he goes to visit a "savage" tribe that still exists in the world and meets and guy named John... who I think turned out to be the real "hero" of the story. He has grown up on a reservation,outside the "civilized" world, then goes to live in London (civilized) later. I think the most interesting part of the book was in his dealings in this new world that is supposed to be better.... but he finds it to be SORELY lacking.

Overall, I think the book really makes a good point about what it really means to be civilized... Just because a group of people SEEMS to be "savage"... that doesn't mean their society is completely devoid of all good, you know? Just because people choose to live differently than I do doesn't mean their way of life isn't as valid as mine.

This is one of those books people have to read in school... and I think that's good, because I could use some classroom-type discussion after reading it.... Good thing book group meets in 3 days! ...more

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Jul 05, 2007 Maria Elmvang rated it it was ok

Shelves: not-owned, 2-stars, 2005, dystopian

The description of a society where science has won the battle over individuality. It was interesting, but not much more. As a book about the 'dangers of the future' I by far prefer "1984". ...more

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