Brave New World

This one was bizarre. It was a three to begin with because of the jumps between locations and characters with no clear indication or really a pattern to the jumps and you just had to get used to the rhythm, and then he doesn't utilise that style again. Then the story actually got going and I thought I could forgive pass grievances and it became a four star book with the lovely dystopian fears we all have if we have a modicum of sense. But then it just ends. I don't like my conclusions spoon fed to me but I do like a book to have one. Hence the 3 star. Not as good as We and 1984 but ok. Almost like it needed 100 or so more pages.

This was required reading for my English class in high school. I enjoyed it the first time around, but I thought it was an even better read this second time around. Actually, it was a lot more depressing than I remember. Definitely recommend this novel, especially to those who like Shakespeare.

Un classique du roman d'anticipation. J'ai eu du mal à le lire : le style est assez lourd, les termes pseudo-scientifiques très nombreux et même si l'idée de départ est bonne, le récit lui-même ne m'a pas passionné. Je sais que ce roman est un classique, et j'ai peur d'être passé à côté de quelque chose de grand.

What is the price of stability? The loss of individuality? To sacrifice truth and beauty? To give up a family, God and even the possibility of romantic love?

Huxley paints a rather sinister dystopian future where rampant consumerism and the ‘good of the community' trumps passion, families, science and even reading good books. The civilised world is in a perpetual, drug induced state of ‘happiness'. Everyone is made to fit a particular mould; to know their place and to not deviate from their social conditioning. Into this world, Huxley introduces a Savage who has read Shakespeare, believes in God, loves his mother (scandalous!) and wishes be monogamous.

It is a thought provoking read. The arguments for this type of civilisation do actually make sense, but at what cost? No thank you. Send me to an island!

This is a fantastic book.

Sex, religion, money, family. How would the world be if none of those were an issue? Utopia.

In a world where everything in one's life is planned from birth, DNA optimized and behavior conditioned to achieve the individual full potential and to live in full compliance with the rest of the world. A world where everyone have their place, and they're completely happy about it!

The book tells the history of a misfit, or rather two of them, in this world. An excellent criticism to our society, that will forever stand the test of time.

Just finished this book for the second time this morning. I do think that it was better the second time around. Maybe it was my ability to understand it better thanks to several years of training, maybe I just paid more attention this time. While I found it striking that some of the things the Brave New Worlders got themselves into were similar to what we enjoy today, it does seem overtly science fiction.

My edition of the book contained Huxley's forward where he asserts that his major omission was nuclear fission. After WWII and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, one can see why Huxley would have made such a statement. Imagine, though, if he would have hinted at something like the Internet! Mustapha Mond often says that the residents of BNW are conditioned to the point that they cannot be alone...that their lives are ordered such that they don't have many chances to be alone. Are we really that different? Our closeness, though, is facilitated more by technology that Huxley imagined. Our cell phones - now smart phones - are attached to our hips unless we are asleep. Most of us have multiple media to access our social networking sites. Our connection is unending, but, as Huxley's tale warns, too much connection can have a numbing effect.

I found two things very interesting. First, Henry Ford's major “contribution” to society - the assembly line - is the starting point of the BNW. Everything is an assembly line, even pleasure. Secondly, the Savage's demise suggests that the future can survive in the past (as Linda did), but that something accustomed to the past (i.e., savagery) cannot survive unchanged in the future. Huxley takes the notion of “adapt or die” to the metaphorical extreme.

I like a good dystopian story, and this is one of the older ones which I had never read. I wouldn't say it's “fun” to read, but I'm glad to have read it, it's as relevant as ever.

Maybe a little pain and suffering is good after all. This book was so different from 1984, yet so similar. It's interesting how free love and the suppression of love can lead to basically the same end - when “everyone belongs to everyone else” nothing is sacred or worth fighting for, when nobody belongs to anybody, again, nothing is worth fighting for.

I couldn't help but notice the similarity between the axioms that came from speakers under the pillows of sleeping students in Brave New World and the giant Ministry of Public Thought at the disposal of the government today that we call the Public Education System. Both take advantage of the captive attention of students to deliver whatever messages that the state deems appropriate. This sounds like a conspiracy theory, but really, is it that far of a stretch? Public administrators working, not for their happiness, but for the happiness of everyone else. Of course there are exceptions and differences, but the parallels are there.

The book is completely relevant today. People are still willing to sacrifice liberty for the siren song of government-provided comfort and security, Brave New World is a great testament as to why that is such a bad, bad idea.