Brave New World

Oh wow. Where do I begin with my review? I'm always amazed at how current a book written in 1931 can be so current and readable nearly a century later in 2018.

The Brave New World is set in a future some centuries away where happiness is society's key. Religion, art, science and truth have been sacrificed to archive global sustainable happiness.

People are engineered from embryo though constant tweaking at the fertilisation process and growth, then though as children conditioned using Pavlovian techniques: you read a book, you get zapped - aged 18 months. Aged 6 the children engage in “erotic play”. Sleep hypnosis with rhymes that the individuals will live inside society with. Each individual is predestined for a class in society: alphas, betas, down to the “epsilon semi-morons” - button pushers.

All seemingly pretty grotesque, but much later in the book, the benefits of this new world are argued, and it's a fairly convincing argument. Everything is for the sake of happiness.

Ignorance is bliss. The less truth there is to be sought, the more content you are with your reality. And thus, a stable, sustainable, healthy society.

—

It seems as through there's three protagonist with increasing complexity to break the orthodox rules of the New World.

Lenina allows herself to romanticise being with one person, and feeling love, but this is surface-deep and she's still very much a slave to her conditioning and unable to see beyond these walls.

Bernard Marx, an Alpha plus who appears visibly as a Delta, with nasty rumours that alcohol had been slipped into his fertilisation process. He is able to think and speak outside of his orthodox conditioning but when it comes to acting, he falls short, and in fact proves himself more of a coward (or in fact probably as most would act: though inaction).

John (the) Savage is different. He has a mother. He's learnt of God, learned to read and reads Shakespeare. He was born an outcast in The Old World (The Savage Reserve), and brought into the New World when Bernard and Lenina stumble upon him and his mother (originally from the new world but became injured and lost in the reservation some 20 years prior).

John is the only one who questions and tries to change the new world that he now lives, and, obviously fails. The new world is centuries in the making.

John is relatable because he comes from our time. And this is why he's a man out of time.

There's nothing he can do to change society in an impactful way, and even if he did, it would be at the sacrifice of happiness of others.

It's almost an inevitability that he goes mad. That he doesn't survive this brave new world. He can't. He can't escape it, and so, in the end, like any good Shakespeare tragedy, he tries and fails to extract himself from society, as it's impossible, in a rage of madness, goes on to kill the woman he loves, and then himself.

An amazing, and maddening tale. Wow.

When I started reading Brave New World, I couldn't figure out why we were made to read it in school; it seemed a middling sci-fi novel, at best. From a discussion standpoint, things really pick up when John is taken from the reservation and introduced to "civilisation." Now that I've finished re-reading it, I like it even less than I did last time—not at all, in fact—but at least I understand why we read it in school.

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.

Where to start... I liked this I did, I mean I gave it 4 stars so I must have really enjoyed it. I do typically love a good dystopian and this being a classic example I'm surprised it took me so long to get around to reading it!

I really did enjoy the world building on this and learning of this future society which is really most of the book. The plot is fairly simple and a little weird at the end for me. Some have said this book is boring and I can agree with that, but I personally often like books that are “boring”. It's a weird taste of mine.

All in all, I did enjoy this but couldn't give it a 5 stars because to me it's not nearly as good as 1984 by Orwell. Sorry Huxley.

So good!

This guy was ahead of his time. Finally I listened to this book. There's a guy on YouTube who does full audiobooks with great voice acting and atmospheric sounds. It was a great experience and the story in itself left me wanting to revisit it from time to time. I think this and 1984 combined are a great way to foresee the real life dystopia that humanity is heading towards.
I'm just glad I read this.

I did not like this book. It is, from my understanding of it, one of the most self-important and ideologically confused books I've ever encountered. It's funny at times, maybe thought-provoking, but ultimately doomsaying. Certainly, aspects of this book mimic aspects of our world (especially the near-worship of capitalism and the men who make it work (Ford bless us)), but overall much of it just feels silly. Maybe I'm not smart enough; or maybe I'm just too young and liberal. Here's hoping 1984 is better.

In Orwell's 1984, it is sadness and hate that are the themes of the book - what with never-ending wars, children ratting out their parents for perceived treason, and nothing being sacred. Sprinkled with a plot which is amazing on its own merit, the result is a spectacular novel which is spellbinding.
In extreme contrast comes Huxley with his magnum opus ‘Brave New World' - where happiness and satisfaction form the lingering themes of the book - the result is surprisingly still a dystopia.
The goal of pursuing happiness and satisfaction with Huxley's work, to the neglect of everything else, leads to a dystopia that functions on hypnopaedia (sleep conditioning so that no ‘impure thoughts' develop), meaningless entertainment (responding to conditioned stimuli rather than your own subjective tastes), meaningless promiscuity (in fact, people trying to practice monogamy are outcasts), and a meaningless existence (supply and demand are both manufactured, and solitude is actively discouraged). The addition of a good plot would have made it a deserving classic - right now, it looks like I just read a postgraduate dissertation of an aspiring anthropologist.
TL;DR - no less horrifying than Orwell's masterpiece, this is an extremely important read. For all the media screaming that our world is 1984, our world is much closer to Huxley's vision than we dare to think of.

I liked this book! I am a big fan of science fiction and this one is a classic. It has an amazing world development however the story isn't really long nor special.

In this world, the industrial revolution took a big step into human evolution, also technology is more important than emotions and reproduction. Humans are all made artificially and society gives them a classification accordingly to their job status.

This book has a lot of interesting ethical questions and shows a world really similar to ours with some twists.

En mi opinión "Un Mundo Feliz" es un libro excepcional y totalmente adelantado a su época. Si bien tiene muchas similitudes con 1984 de Orwell, y es claro el porqué, ambos se sitúan en distopías en las que la especie humana pierde gran parte de sus libertades. Difieren en algo muy importante, que es el cómo se llega a esto:

En 1984 nos situamos en un totalitarismo dirigido por el "Gran Hermano". Y la forma en la que este gobernador controla a los ciudadanos es mediante la represión. En 1984 se limita el lenguaje y se espía a todos los ciudadanos para encontrar desertores y desaparecerlos, la Policía del Pensamiento. Este es un sistema no muy alejado de nosotros en Latinoamérica ya que suena similar a lo que se vivió en las dictaduras o golpes de estado militares, que operaban de una manera similar.

En cambio, en "Un Mundo Feliz" los ciudadanos son adoctrinados desde el nacimiento, primero que nada se elimina la esencia del ser humano, el amor. Nadie tiene padres, hermanos o pareja. Esto se logra mediante el control del sueño y el suministro de una droga tranquilizadora y liberadora de estrés llamada "Soma", la felicidad en pastilla. Además se eliminan las artes y se limita la cantidad de información escrita de acceso público.

Esto consigue algo mucho más grave que lo que pasa en 1984, en Un Mundo Feliz la gente no es reprimida, si no que son condicionados para ni siquiera tener la necesidad, ni la información necesaria, ni la capacidad de pensamiento crítico para revelarse. No les interesa, no lo necesitan, viven en la felicidad de la ignorancia. Por eso cuando nuestro protagonista muestra un poco de interés en cuestionar el sistema nadie está preparado para casos así, es un caso muy aislado. Ya no es necesaria una fuerza que reprima a los desertores, porque no existen.

Mientras leía "Un Mundo Feliz" no podía evitar hacer una relación entre el Soma y los Celulares y las redes sociales. Cada vez me parece más acertada y me da miedo la cantidad de similitudes que terminé encontrando entre nuestro mundo, nuestro día a día, y lo que pasa en el libro. Tenemos toda la información recabada por la especie humana en nuestros bolsillos pero, no nos interesa investigar. Y capaz el hecho de que esté disponible tan fácilmente es lo que genera esto, al tenerlo siempre a la mano se elimina nuestra curiosidad, las ganas de investigar por el simple hecho de hacerlo. Preferimos ver TikTok o Instagram, perdernos en ese caudal infinito de videos digeribles en 30 segundos que a la mínima que nos aburran pasamos al siguiente. Perdemos la noción del tiempo, pero no sólo eso, perdemos la capacidad de leer un libro, incluso de ver una película sin estar con el celular en la mano. Es incluso peor que el Soma, porque conscientemente lo consumimos, conscientemente dejamos que nuestra vida se someta al scroll infinito.

¿Porqué lo hacemos?

Porque nos da una instantánea ilusión de felicidad.

No es loco pensar que nos dirigimos a una variante de lo que escrito por Huxley, a nuestro propio Mundo Feliz.

A re-read of this very prescient genre classic. I don't think there's much to be said about Brave New World that hasn't been said already, apart from that I enjoyed it a lot less this time around, though Huxley's ideas on death conditioning are bang on, and something that western society has still not done enough to deal with.

“Death conditioning begins at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a Hospital for the Dying. All the best toys are kept there, and they get chocolate cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course.”

Let's do it.

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.

???One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.???
~The whole book can be summed up in this one line.

Checkout this brilliant comic strip explaining this very phenomenon :
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe

Have started and put down this book two times. Paired it up with the audio book recorded by Steve Parker. Third time's the charm eh?
Here's the link to the first chapter, complete with sound effects :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc2wHvdW4QA

Reading/ listening to dystopia during a pandemic just hits different.
Huxley brilliantly weaves a Utopian world during the first few chapters of the book.
A world without conflict. A world where everyone's happy, and everyone belongs to everyone else.

Solves all the problems, right?



As the chapters unfold however, we see the grave injustices being carried out against those who are none the wiser. Slowly and steadily the author takes us through the murky past, mixing Shakespeare in between. (I know, that was a nice surprise)
Absolutely loved reading the chapters where the “civilized” citizens visited the “savage” citizens and the conversations with the controller.

A must read, for every dystopia lover or otherwise.

The dangers of an all powerful state: Community, Identity, Stability

Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. The title derives from Miranda's speech in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:[4]

O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,That has such people in't.— William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, ll. 203–206

Set in London in the year AD 2540 (632 A.F.—”After Ford”—in the book), the novel anticipates future developments. It considers productive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning. These all combine to change society.

This dystopia sees a World Government which controls people's lives. This starts from the moment of conception to the moment of death. The authorities create fetuses artificial fertilization in test tubes. “Parents”are unknown and there are rigid divisions and castes in society. Each caste performs different functions. Whispered messages teach sleeping babies to be content, telling them to comply. This conditions people to accept their place in society. The Government distributes a ‘happiness' drug, soma. This gives the population an artificial sense of freedom . Only a few individuals dare to question society. Into this society comes a ‘Savage'. Rescued from one of the few places in the world which allows people to live under natural conditions. What will be the fate of the Savage and the two brilliant young men who dare to befriend him? Will the Savage succeed in retaining the ideal of freedom that his childhood taught him? And if he does, what price will he pay?

The World Controller for Europe, Mustapha Mond, explains that these control methods benefit society. He explains that they ensure happiness and stability. And it is true that society in this ‘brave new world' is both happy and stable. The lower castes' restricted abilities, ambitions and desires make them contented with their lot. There is no dissatisfaction. This is because all caste members receives the same workload, food, housing, and soma ration. Nor is there any desire to change caste. The conditioning reinforces the individual's place in the caste system. The upper castes (with a few exceptions) revel in the hedonistic and materialistic lifestyle provided for them.

People enjoy perfect health and youthfulness until death at age 60. Death is not feared. The population is confident that everyone is happy, and since there are no families, there are no strong ties to mourn.

Huxley does not make the naive mistake of idealizing a life that is not controlled by science. John, the Savage, who brought up on an American Indian reservation, lived a life that was in many ways uncomfortable and unpleasant. But Huxley makes the point that he had free will. In this fictional future free will and individuality are sacrificed in deference to social stability. So, free will is something which the inhabitants of the brave new world don't have. Huxley thus poses the reader with a question. Is free will and the freedom to choose, worth the suffering that goes with it? And it is this question that this book explores. John has extensive knowledge of Shakespeare's works. This serves him in several ways:

- he can verbalise his own complex emotions and reactions
- it provides him with a framework from which to critise the World State values, and
- it gives him language that allows him to hold his own against the rhetorical skills of Mustapha Mond.

I also noticed that blindness and vision are motifs that Huxley uses a lot in this book. For example, the creation of complex entertainment machines. These generate meaningless leisure and high amounts of consumption. In this way the Consumer Society is used to define individual happiness. A society where immediate gratification equates happiness to economic growth and prosperity. Thus it becomes clear that there is an inequality between truth and authentic, genuine happiness.

In closing, the book questions just how much we are all seduced into unthinking obedience. How our infantile behaviours are encouraged. How conditioning, social reinforcement, and soma (Christianity without tears) supports capitalist economics.

O brave new world that has such people in it.

I listened to the BBC Radio 4 version. Available here.

Episode 1 explores the dystopian world which enforces eugenics, promiscuity and happiness. Episode 2 asks can John the Savage remain true to the values he learnt on the primitive reservation?