Paperback, 310 pages
English language
Published Nov. 7, 1956 by Modern Library.
Originally published in 1932, this outstanding work of literature is more crucial and relevant today than ever before. Cloning, feel-good drugs, antiaging programs, and total social control through politics, programming, and media -- has Aldous Huxley accurately predicted our future? With a storyteller's genius, he weaves these ethical controversies in a compelling narrative that dawns in the year 632 AF (After Ford, the deity). When Lenina and Bernard visit a savage reservation, we experience how Utopia can destroy humanity. A powerful work of speculative fiction that has enthralled and terrified readers for generations, Brave New World is both a warning to be heeded and thought-provoking yet satisfying entertainment.
It's a chilling story that highlights the dangers associated with a hedonistic society that pursues happiness above wisdom and understanding, and in a discomforting way, it brings to light the inseparable relationship between suffering and genuine freedom.
What we remember most is how disappointed we were that the story spun all the wonderful potential benefits of science into a dystopia where class and capitalism prevailed. The book disturbingly portrays how a society with admiral goals can go wrong with rigid and fanatical application. Society, it is to flourish, it needs to be open and alive.
Obra sobrevalorada donde las haya. Es cierto que Huxley es un adelantado a su tiempo ya que describe una sociedad que en algunos aspectos se va pareciendo peligrosamente a la nuestra, pero en mi opinión, sigue un planteamiento erróneo. Desde el aspecto político, describe una sociedad en la que el Estado cubre todas tus necesidades (comunismo) y al mismo tiempo somete a la población a continuos estímulos y drogas para que los ciudadanos crean que son felices (capitalismo), una contradicción como una casa. Entre eso y la burda selección de nombres de los personajes (Lenina, Marx, Trotsky…), es evidente que lo que ha escrito este señor británico de familia acomodada no es más que un panfleto con el que difundir la absurda idea de que “los extremos se tocan”.
I find the book fascinating in all the reality that the author created. I felt it as if I was in a nightmare. The pace of the book shifts a bit... I do like some of the moments. The audiobook version narrated by Michael York is very very good.
I couldn't help comparing it to 1984, maybe because my reading of that one is still fresh. In comparison I find this less beautiful and more frightening. The usage of England and the vocabulary of the era strikes as an odd thing. :) I guess this book feels closer to current western civilization than 1984 and I couldn't detach from that feeling. Kudos to Aldous
Brave New World paints a future that still hasn't found the secrets of automation through robotics and computing. This makes it especially interesting, as the world Aldous Huxley imagines is so much different from ours, but eerily similar as well.
However, I feel like this utopian satire falls short to scrutiny in the modern era with the advent of computers and robotics. Huxley's future society still relies on the inefficiencies of human labor, and as such, has become dystopian solely through it's need for human capital. This is not to say that aspects of Huxley's dystopia do not ring true today; psychological conditioning and manipulation in the pursuit of capitalistic interests are issues facing society today.
While I enjoyed the book, I found it to be more akin to philosophical allegory than a powerful piece of narrative fiction. I was constantly feeling as if the characters were dropping character so …
Brave New World paints a future that still hasn't found the secrets of automation through robotics and computing. This makes it especially interesting, as the world Aldous Huxley imagines is so much different from ours, but eerily similar as well.
However, I feel like this utopian satire falls short to scrutiny in the modern era with the advent of computers and robotics. Huxley's future society still relies on the inefficiencies of human labor, and as such, has become dystopian solely through it's need for human capital. This is not to say that aspects of Huxley's dystopia do not ring true today; psychological conditioning and manipulation in the pursuit of capitalistic interests are issues facing society today.
While I enjoyed the book, I found it to be more akin to philosophical allegory than a powerful piece of narrative fiction. I was constantly feeling as if the characters were dropping character so they could deliver a treatise on the nature of being, spirituality, or material goods. As the book went on, I found myself growing tired of Huxley's appeal to traditional values as they became more and more tangled with what I read was an appeal to individuality and freedom.
This felt dated.
The idea of a utopian dystopia of easy consumerism is one that is worth exploring, and Huxley certainly deserves credit for developing the concept. But in narrative terms, Brave New World really doesn't hold together particularly well. Part of this is an unavoidable case of 1930s attitudes being reflected in the novel, but at least as much - if not more - comes down to the characters, their motivations and the reactions to them, none of which rings true.
Brave New World is certainly worth reading, but I can't help but feel that Ray Bradbury covered the same ground much more effectively with Fahrenheit 451.
Hoo boy, how prescient was Huxley, eh?
In some ways a rather predictable read (at this point) for anyone who reads dystopian literature; people equal sheep and all that. There were some key differences however between this book and say 1984, V for Vendetta etc that make it extremely intriguing.
Sexuality was perhaps the most obvious. In most dystopian novels the authoritative government has mostly forced people into nuclear family groups that lack any sort of emotional connection and generally squelching that part of human nature. At this point I have no idea what Huxley’s actual views were, but if I had to guess I would say they probably run more conservative then Orwell’s. Of course, as illustrated by this and other books, both extremes are dangerous.
The Utopian element of it all was another strange aspect. In most dystopian novels the society is failing and/or people are miserable to one degree or another. In Brave New …
In some ways a rather predictable read (at this point) for anyone who reads dystopian literature; people equal sheep and all that. There were some key differences however between this book and say 1984, V for Vendetta etc that make it extremely intriguing.
Sexuality was perhaps the most obvious. In most dystopian novels the authoritative government has mostly forced people into nuclear family groups that lack any sort of emotional connection and generally squelching that part of human nature. At this point I have no idea what Huxley’s actual views were, but if I had to guess I would say they probably run more conservative then Orwell’s. Of course, as illustrated by this and other books, both extremes are dangerous.
The Utopian element of it all was another strange aspect. In most dystopian novels the society is failing and/or people are miserable to one degree or another. In Brave New World however, for the most part people are actually happy. Apparently the Matrix got it wrong?
I was actually so surprised by this book that it begs to be reread so I can fully unpack all of the ideas and form opinions about them. Ah well, someday!
a still powerful and thought-provoking novel about a quite possible future...
short plot description: in the year AD 2540 humanity has developed a stable world society with a rigid social system. War, poverty and disease are almost unknown as are families, relationships, religions, natural reproduction and arts. Children are not born but cloned and conditioned from an early age to fit into their alloted place in society. Almost everyone is almost always happy and if not there is always Soma to take your worries away. Only in places called reservations people are living a low-tech natural live. After an introduction to the current status quo we follow the events as John Savage (whose mother was originally from the civilised society) gets taken out of a reservation and introduced to this Brave New World.....
my thoughts: feels in places more like an essay than a novel and its age is showing …
a still powerful and thought-provoking novel about a quite possible future...
short plot description: in the year AD 2540 humanity has developed a stable world society with a rigid social system. War, poverty and disease are almost unknown as are families, relationships, religions, natural reproduction and arts. Children are not born but cloned and conditioned from an early age to fit into their alloted place in society. Almost everyone is almost always happy and if not there is always Soma to take your worries away. Only in places called reservations people are living a low-tech natural live. After an introduction to the current status quo we follow the events as John Savage (whose mother was originally from the civilised society) gets taken out of a reservation and introduced to this Brave New World.....
my thoughts: feels in places more like an essay than a novel and its age is showing here and there. I found the few characters who aren't intentional two-dimensional not very convincing and the plot turn at the end of the book somewhat strange.
But the world Huxley builds is fascinating and actually believable. The solution how to keep society stable is implemented in a frighteningly consequent manner: happy people don't make trouble. Keep people happy by conditioning them from the earliest age and tell them that they are happy. If you are not happy something is wrong with you but here are some drugs to help you with your problem. Still not happy? You just won a one-way trip to a very remote part of the world. And so you don't get any wrong ideas into your conditioned head we remove everything from society which might give you any ideas.
Well executed and actually quite seductive since everyone wants a safe existence free from hardship and Huxley shows you us a word where this is possible (there seems to be no money, everyone can have everything they want anytime but since everyone is conditioned to want only specific things this poses no real problem).
Question is how much has to be sacrificed for this (eternal)? happiness and is it worth the sacrifice?
my advice: read purely as a novel for entertainment this might disappoint since it shows its age in places but as food-for-thought this is very good.
