Scott’s Reviews > Brave New World > Status Update

This is no exaggeration: I have never encountered such an enigmatic character as Bernard Marx. He's been faced with an impossible world, and this has made him an impossible character, but the man infuriates me. This rage is tempered by the same feelings Mustafa M feels towards him: mirth. Rather, void of the Controller's ego, pity. I've run myself ragged trying to verbalize this...This was the best I could do.

The material is art, and such artfully worded prose, too! (...Recalling the Seinfeld episode regarding exclamation points......) Bernard, John, Lelinda, fat half-savage lady...They each represent a person without both feet healthily rooted in either side of the train tracks. I'm thinking that the missing SOMA is no mistake, on the part of Bernard.

All parts are working towards the same end. However, Bernard Marx is the "ker-plunk" in an otherwise well-oiled machine. Some parts don't last as long as others by design. Some carry the burden of other working parts, that they may live on. Marx is the latter. I don't like him, but I also pity him. Just take some SOMA, bro.

I LOVE the way the author has chosen to open the novel with a tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning center. Where better to begin, than at the beginning?