Brave New World | ⭐⭐ | Review

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⭐⭐

Brave New World

Written by Aldous Huxley

Published January 1932 by Harper Perrenial

#Literary, #LitFic, #PoliticalCriticism, #Modern, #Classic, #Dystopian, #ScienceFiction

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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a distopia novel for sure. If you are unsure of what a distopia novel is, it is a society where all of the citizens are in a world that is severely screwed up, unannounced to them. In this specific novel, families have been abolished, all children are created in a factory and raised in school. The children are genetically specified to fit into one of five classes. The first chapter of the book explains that the lower three castes (Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons) are purposely engineered stupid and are replicated into dozens of identical siblings.

The rest of the book follows several members of the upper two sections (Alphas and Betas). Some are trying to fit into society while others are trying to be their own person. Honestly the characters invoke very little passion in the reader. Few of them have any qualities that can be esteemed as respectable and they really are not the most endearing part of the novel. Their attitudes may be a result of their raising which furthers the distopia idea but their story lines and importance pale in comparison to the concept behind the novel. It has elements of humor and satire throughout which adds an almost sarcastic tone to the plot.

Many of the ideas surrounding the citizens of this society are absurd by our standards. The workers are all payed in a substance called soma, which is a hallucinogenic drug. that is government created and distributed. It comes in numerous forms; the most social and pleasing form found at “ice-cream soma bars” where one can get a sundae laced with the drug. The children are conditioned to be what we would consider wanton. In this society it is expected of everyone to have a different lover every week and even that could seem strange. On certain occasions they participate in what they call an “orgy-porgy” which involves more soma, promiscuous activities, and slight pseudo-religious enlightenment’s. The idea of this being openly accepted in society is intriguing as it is often a suppressed concept in our own society.

The world that Huxley created is intriguing and imaginative even if his characters were not very likable. I enjoyed the story line despite my affliction to whinny characters with weak constitutions and no independent thought. It offers a new idea as to what would happen in society if it were based more on freedom which contrasts to 1984 by George Orwell, another dystopia novel, where the society is completely oppressed. When read together they make a reader very glad they live in our society and not either of the two extremes.