Customer Reviews

Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You *MUST* read this book!

Huxley wrote a masterpiece of a book in "Brave New World". "Brave New World Revisited" is a fantastic critical analysis of "BNW", how it differs with Orwell's "1984", and the world as Huxley saw it some 30 after the book debuted. His commentary and social criticism cut deep, and this cautionary tale is perhaps more applicable today than it has ever been (as evidenced in George W. Bush's reference to "BNW" in his speech concerning government funding of stem cell research).

This surely is an important book.

The amazing thing is, though, that even as such, it is a thrill to read. The dialogue is snappy, the narration rich, and the scenarios hilarious and frightening -- often at the same time. This is SF at its best. This is SF as literature.

I cannot sing the praises of "BNW" highly enough. I will waste no more of your time talking about it -- use it to read this book instead!

Recommended for: Everyone (even those who don't normally read SF)

I would like to keep this short. We all know what the book is about: the bankruptcy of the individual. It's just that most people seem to miss a point: the society depicted in this book is obsessed with being happy and banning every form of discomfort out of their lives. Now there are certain people in this novel who rise up against this society but, I think, their motives are misunderstood: most people seem to think these dissenters are fighting for the right to be free so they can be happy in their own individual way. Actually they are fighting for the right to be unhappy, to suffer. For the greatest freedom you can enjoy as an individual is the right to be your miserable self.

This book is a terrefic piece of work and it always amazes me when I think that this book was written nearly 70 years ago. If you do not fear Big Brother, Genetics, and other such things you will after you read this.

I was forced into reading this in High School...and thank God I was. This is an absolutely amazing piece of classic writing that seems frighteningly close to the not so distant furture.

And prophetic, are the words that best describe Huxley's work in "A Brave New World". When you read the explanation to all psychological, economical, philosophical and social factors that lead to the creation of this book, in "Brave New World Revisited" you'll not only learn about all those subjects in great extent, but you'll realize how close to truth his fiction is. I am amazed at the genius of such creation in the first half of the twentieth century. Huxley's scientifical background is perfectly well constructed and perfectly well explained, A must read for anyone who calls himself literate.

Welcome to a future where everybody's happy. Independent thought and feelings have been banished and genetic engineering, brain washing and drugs keep the population docile and comfortable. But several characters dare to ask the question, "Wouldn't you like to be free to be happy in your own way?"

Huxley has isolated the fundamental conflict in Human History--the conflicting impulses towards Security and Freedom. In the Brave New World, the impulse towards Security has won and there is no Freedom.

The problem for advocates of Freedom is that it includes the freedom to be unhappy. For this reason, many find it unattractive and the fight for Freedom is always an uphill struggle. At the time that Huxley and George Orwell were writing, it seemed entirely possible that Socialism, Communism & Fascism and all of the ism's that promise Security would vanquish Freedom. We are fortunate to live at a time when Freedom is resurgent, but Brave New World is a cautionary tale about what's at stake in the struggle.

GRADE: A

Deep thought and philosophy are the product of reflection upon the issues depicted in the novel. Great, highly moving materials that are worth the wade through the text in order to understand.

"'We also predestine and condition. We decant our babies as socialized human beings, as Alphas or Epsilons, as future sewage workers or future...' He was going to say 'future world controllers,' but correcting himself, said future directors of World Hatcheries.'" Brave New World is a book about the future of Earth. Although Aldous Huxley wrote it around 1932, it seems like a very realistic forecast for what the future will bring. Already society is becoming more and more like the one that Huxley created. Mindless forms of entertainment are everywhere, things like bad movies and games. The world is becoming more crowded than ever before; the population will double in not too long. Brave New World is very much like Fahrenheit 451. But instead of total chaos, there is over organization. The destination of a person is decided long before they are even born. Babies are conditionedto fit their social group, Alpha through Epsilon. People in higher social groups get more respect and have better jobs than those of the lower. Despite how exciting this book may seem, my interest level was taken on a roller coaster ride throughout the story because of the wavering quality in which it was written, and the ending was not so good as it could have been. However, I highly recommend it to anyone concerned about the future, and it is very important to society in order to prevent a world like the one in Brave New World from developing.

I would reccomend this book to a serious reader who is looking for intellectual stimulus. It is not a science fiction thriller, and if you are not prepared to consider challenging ideas, I would not. "Brave New World" discusses a negative utopia where humans are slaves to thier "conditioning" or a pavlovian effect used to control them. All their wants are fulfilled but in reality they are no more than biological inanamate objects. What makes this book so impressive is that was written in 1931, but predicts many modern human developments including mass media and "the invasion of privacy", biological engineering, and mood-altering drugs.

Be aware that this isn't a sequel to BNW but an explanation of the dangerous mentioned in it, dangers that grow more real with every passing year. Able commentary on issues of conformity, identity, and thought control.

In "Brave New World" (BNW) Aldous Huxley describes a controlled, class-structured society that uses eugenics, mental control by sleep conditioning, sexual freedom without attachment, and the euphoric drug "soma" to mold its members into bland compliance. Huxley writes with a fine dry humor, but BNW's overall tone is oppressive.

There are similarities between Huxley's BNW and today's society: eugenically-controlled population classes versus today's racial classes; mental control by sleep conditioning versus today's social conditioning by music, movies, and television; and soma versus today's drug Ecstasy. Yet Huxley's BNW description is incomplete. BNW lacks an economic basis. Huxley discusses no BNW societal goals beyond survival of *society*. Poverty exists in BNW but Huxley presents society from an affluent viewpoint -- the lives of BNW's poorer members are not chronicled. And although BNW was written before the existence of HIV/AIDS, Huxley does not discuss syphilis and gonorrhea (the sexually transmitted diseases in 1931) when he presents BNW's sexual freedom without attachment.

In "Brave New World Revisited" (BNWR) Huxley reexamines BNW in terms of society in 1958. Here Huxley examines the methods used by Hitler, Stalin and psychology to mold and control human minds and behavior. Huxley predicts that overpopulation will require excessive control of individuals in order to ensure society's existence. Huxley also predicts that excessive control will replace individual initiative and freedom with (universally medicated) compliant mentalities. Based upon 1958's society, Huxley states that society *is* unstoppably headed toward the excessively controlled Brave New World.

Huxley's tone within BNWR is pedantic. Yet given Huxley's post-World War II viewpoint plus his belief that society is unstoppably replacing individual freedom with societal control, writing with a fine dry wit would have been inappropriate.