Customer Reviews

Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Huxley's classic tale of future dystopia seems to become more relevant with the passing of time. At its' original time of publication, some of the novel's social commentary was safety masked inside science fiction.

Today's readers may relate more to Huxley's vision of over medicated, over-sexed consumerism. With topics like genetics, DNA testing and stem-cell research constantly in the news... perhaps the yuppies of today aren't so far off from the Alpha's of the future.

The edition includes the novel, Brave New World, with the non-fiction work, Brave New World Revisted. This content is prefaced by a truly interesting foreword that offers some insights into Huxley's life and experiences. This edition also benefits from a psotscript section which includes interviews, commentary and a letter Huxley wrote to George Orwell (author of 1984).

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 am a high school student who studied this book for an English independent study. It is one of the most intriguing books I have ever read. It is written as a futuristic prediction of what the world might be like if the progess of science and governmental control are not checked. The theory of the government in Brave New World is that in order to ensure a stable society (Utopia) the individual must not exist. I strongly recommend this book as it provokes serious critical thought on the part of the reader.

This was a novel that I had wanted to read for years and years, but could never seem to get around to it. I was not disappointed. This is a brilliant satire of a world where population control and social programming are taken to the extreme. All of the citizens are happy. The pursuit of pleasure and conformity are the goals in life. Mindless consumption is encouraged and people never age. If you have any troubles, don't worry, just take some soma. How could there be anything wrong with a society where happiness, sex and drugs are in overwhelming abundance? There is a loss of individualism, caring, passion, creativity and history among other things. George Orwell's 1984 was a great dystopian novel, but this novel written more than 70 years ago is, in my opinion, a greater warning. I am sure that Huxley would look at society today with complete disgust as we move closer and closer to his nightmare.

It's not as pessimistic as "1984" nor as cleverly metaphorical as "Animal Farm", but I hold both "Brave New World" and its cousin, the non-fiction analysis of Huxley's text ("Brave New World Revisited") higher in my esteem than either.

Huxley himself was a brilliant man (what else can u expect, descending from Darwin's Bulldog himself?), and BNW is a brilliant novel. It's my favourite kind of book, just bursting at the seams with ideas and thoughts and theories, and told craftily through the eyes of a cast of intriguing characters.

Because, aside from being a brilliant novel, such fantastic three-dimensional creations as Bernard Marx, Helmholtz Watson, Lenina Crowne and John the Savage will win you over forever. That's what makes this prophetic combination of BNW and BNWR so effective; the first shows you a startling vision of the future, and how it affects a wonderful cast you'll come to love; the second is a thought-provoking analysis written some years later, considering just how far the world has progressed towards achieving that 'utopia'. All kids should read this book at some stage. After all, we're the future (apparently), and this is a memorable example of what we do NOT want it to become.

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

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.

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.

Dystopias are one of those things that speculative fiction does best, taking an idea and extrapolating it and then seeing how human beings act within the new parameters. Like Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley's Brave New World raises basic questions about how absolute political power can be attained and held. In many ways Huxley's vision has proved more accurate than Orwell's, since the experience of the late 20th and early 21st centuries has shown that authoritarian governments based on violence tend to burn themselves out, but authoritarian governments that use more subtle forms of manipulation tend to survive.

And this is the genius of Brave New World: Huxley's terrifying vision of the future is not based on violence but on the abuse of pleasure. Make people happy, and they will gladly and forever surrender their freedom, their dignity, their humanity. Give them shallow sex games, free drugs, and condition them properly, and they will do whatever you tell them to do.

Into this mix comes the Savage, a man from outside, who provides some perspective of Huxley's dystopia. The Savage sees what we would see, through our own eyes; to him the eternal, artificial happiness becomes oppressive, and in the end destroys him.

What makes the story chilling is how so much of it has come true. Consumerism, shallow sex, and drug use have all been encouraged by one segment of our culture or another in order to ensure compliance. The breakdown in education has had a similar effect, resulting in a loss of freedom that has eerie parallels to Brave New World. So read this book with one eye on the page and another firmly fixed on the world around you -- you may not like what you see.

We are treated to a glimpse of a possible future world where friendship can still exist. This is a story of a hand full of individuals in a world that emphasizes "Community, Identity, Stability" that find each other and discus subjects that most of the people of that time could not understand. However we do. Naturally the author Aldous Huxley builds his own scenarios and draws his own conclusions through the characters speeches and description of experimental history.

Bernard Marx who is about to lose his job because he is different (vary different) form those around him, decides to take a vacation to visit the Zuni's. There he meets a misplaced person named John. Together with the help of Bernard's friend Henry they intend to change the world. So they find out the world is incapable of changing.

We get an Ayn Rand type speech from Mustapha Mond one of the world controllers' that helps you realize that in this brave new world the three friends are the anomaly. How can this enigma be solved?

Do not forget to watch the 1998 movie version with Leonard Nimoy as Mustapha Mond.

Brave New World Starring: Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy