SOLVED. Dystopian book where people hear recordings as they sleep. [s]

[NancyJ]

I thought this memory was from 1984, but now I'm not sure.

I recall that children and/or adults had jobs chosen for them by the leaders. They hear recordings in their sleep (or maybe all the time) telling them how wonderful and important their job is to the world. (No matter how bad the jobs is in reality.) Is this 1984 or something else?

[Andy]

This is more like Brave New World Brave New World

Here's a quote of the recordings that Betas hear in Brave New World:

"Alpha children wear grey They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever. I'm really awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able…"

[NancyJ]

Thanks Andy. Yes, that's definitely it. It's not as specific as I remembered but I'm sure that's the book. Thanks!

I was thinking of reading 1984 next month with a book club (the 'Everyone has read this but me' group). At least now I won't be waiting for the recordings to begin.

[Andy]

Excellent!