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Brave New World

Brave New World

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $9.71
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Multi-layered masterpiece
Review: This novel starts off dispassionately so that when topic of Alphas, Betas, breeding, and conditioning is brought up, it is as though they were speaking of the weather. Huxley is, in my opinion, a master of style and building up tension. This is no sci-fi book, and neither should it be clumped in the "dystopia" category; no, this book introduces all sorts of ideas and questions everyone's perception of the human condition. Anyone who is trying to grasp some comprehension of the human condition (and who isn't?) ought to read this book to gain a radically new perspective. Never forget, too, that it is considered a work of art: read it not only for its ideas but for its style, its layers, its imagery and symbolism. I envy all of you who get to read it for the first time. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: In short, a wonderful book.
Review: Instead of getting into the details of the book, which can be read in any other review, I think it is better not to even begin to speak about the plot and structure, and simply say the following words: THIS BOOK IS A WONDERFUL, THOUGHT-PROVOKING NOVEL. READ IT.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Brave New World has Brave Concepts.
Review: Brave New World, by Aldus Huxley, gives a startling perspective and vision of the dystopic future of our Earth. The story mainly centers around Bernard who is in some eyes, (being his mindless colleagues), a social mishap. Bernard is somewhat short for his caste, alpha-plus's are tall and in charge since they were bred and conditioned to be so. But Bernard looks past this, and his loneliness increases is ever wearying thought of the world around him. I enjoyed this book and I'm sure any young adult in search of "piece of mind" will enjoy it too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Relevant in ways people seem to not realize
Review: I got Brave New World off my moms bookshelf almost 9 months ago not knowing anything about it but having heard the name before and being intrigued by the title. Last week I finally got around to reading it during a very long car ride and I was transfixed by it. Having read other reviews by people on here the main trend seems to be along the predictions by Huxley about genetic engineering and other technological advances. While the book does have very accurate descriptions of genetic manipulation for being written during the Great Depression, my attention was on the replacement of religion with consumarism.

Being written just after the roaring 20s and the emergence of the consumption society, the world in Brave New World is the logical final step in the society Western Civilization has developed into. Not only are people programmed from conception to enjoy whatever job they've been pre-destined for, but they're also conditioned to perpetuate the machine they're being grown to keep up. The concept of fixing things is abhorrant and the entire culture is bulit on maintaining conformity and buying products.

What's shocking is that in my opinion this is going on now with media. Its no secret that commercials try to alter your subconcious in an effort to develop a need for a product, but advertising is everywhere, not in the direct selling manner of TV commercials, but in the slow altering of what you feel you need. Ask a teen why they need a shirt from Abercrombie that costs $50 when they could get something that looks the same without the free advertising, for $10. If you ask the right questions, it always coming back to conforming to their friends expectations. Even the goth culture is commercialized now.

My point is that in this day and age the media(owned by multi-armed corporations) are constantly berating every person in western society with "buy, buy, BUY" until they do. Compulsive shopping is a problem for more than a few people. Fight Club attacks the culture this phenomenon has produced and Brave New World shows what would be the ideal scenario for General Electric and Viacom and Disney and any other corporation that depends on people buying things they don't need.

The people of Brave New World are ingraned with the inate need for purchase like some psychologists claim people nowadays need religion to feel whole. Consumerism replacing religion creates a new alien society that John the Savage is incapable of dealing with just as his mom was never fully capable of adapting to life outside her civilization.

As a whole, Brave New World is as thought provoking of a novel as I've ever read. I will admit I havent worked on 1984 yet even though I've had it for years but I do plan on getting to it soon. There are many facets in the novel like the island for free thinkers, the fact that Huxley uses the last names of prominant Socialist thinkers for many of his main characters, the stigmas on sexual modesty, ect., ect., there are too many to mention and it was only a 220 page book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How Close was He?
Review: Could the world that Aldous Huxley invisioned in his novel "Brave New World" come true? The book was ment as a warning to the people of the world not to become to rapped up in creating the perfect world. Many predictions for the future that Huxley had came true. We can now clone animals, and it is only a matter of time before a human is cloned. We have holograms and interactive 3-D suits that can put a person vertualy inside of a computer program. Some of the predictions in this book have become reality, but others I hope never do. The enginering of Human beings to do certin tasks and mind control are two areas I hope Technology will stay away from. This is an excellent book, and I think it would be a good book for anyone who wonders what the future may hold.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A Brave Book
Review: The book, Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley, was not one of the most impressive books I have ever read. It did have thoroughly extensive descriptions, and the characters seemed consistent. Unfortunately, the plot had a dark mood, and the seemingly pointless ending was disappointing.
The novel takes place in the world far into the future, after a devastating war, when a world-wide utopian society has been established. People are grown from cloned eggs, put into a social class before they have reached infanthood. All of the set morals and opinions they are supposed to have are engrained in them as children through association experiences (ex: electrocuting them when they see flowers, so they associate flowers with pain) and a recorded vocal repetition played as they sleep.
The main problem occurs when 2 of the main characters, Bernard and Lenina, vacation at a Reservation, a place that has been left "uncivilized." From there, they bring back 2 "savages," John and his mother, who had been left there years ago on the assumption that she had been lost in the woods. When John sees the way "civilization" functions, he is both appalled and horrified. He becomes increasingly frustrated after falling in love with Lenina, who treats her affection towards him with an overly-casual manner.
The "Brave new world" expression is a quote from Shakespeare, which John developed an interest in while in the Reservation, though the books are banned in the rest of the world. The mood is set from the start. Thousands of look-alikes are raised to think alike, act alike, and respond alike. People have all that they want and want nothing that they don't or cannot have. Family figures are considered a gross joke and are unheard of (you can just imagine how this makes John feel when people react to his mother!). Marriage is nonexistent, and commitment to a single person is highly discouraged. Everyone is supposed to belong to everyone else.
All things are black or white and nobody even thinks about the possibility that there could be more, that something grey might exist in the world. Overall, I might recommend this book to anyone who is really into utopian societies where not everyone is happy, but there is no real escape from any part of it. It might be good for someone who enjoyed reading the book, The Giver, except for the fact that in, Brave New World, the storyline turns away, at random, from the path it seemed to have set up for itself. It would probably not be appropriate, fully comprehended, or interesting for anyone under the age of about 13 or 14 years old.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A book of control, freedom and rebellion.
Review: If you like science fiction books then you have to read this. Brave new world is about what would happen if our world got too controlling. It takes place on earth but a different earth that we can't really comprehend. Imagine that you have been "conditioned" from birth to like or dislike a certain thing to fit you social station. Imagine all of the people who have been born in the way that we know today are sent to a reservation, and that your only source of happiness was a drug called soma. Imagine that erotic play was normal for children as young as five and that those who do not participate in it are considered abnormal. All of those things are defiantly hard to imagine but Aldous Huxley brings them to life in this book of control, freedom and rebellion. I would give this book five stars but there is one reason why it does not quite disserve it and that is the ending. It seems like Huxley had a dead line to meet so he just ended the book with the simplest way he knew how. Although I suggest you read it for your self, who knows, maybe you'll like the end.....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: very thoughtful
Review: i was told to read this book this one day when conversing over the book "1984." so as i read this book, i had 1984 in mind and may have influenced my perception of Huxley's book.

it is a tremendous book about what life could be like in the future. in one way, our society is already heading in that direction with how free we are with our sexuality. i was in romania on a visit two months ago and saw a program from England on TV about sexuality. the program was amazingly blatant in its advice to people. it said things like "yeah if your husband isnt pleasing you enough, then a secret lover will work." and other things similar.

it was also very interesting how Socialist the society seemed in Huxley's book. i dont know if he was criticizing Socialism (or at the time Communism) or saying that it was inevitable that society would lead to that.

in the end though, it is a worth while read for anyone who wants to think. ...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Sex, Soma, and Surrogates: Our Philosophical Future
Review: Have you ever wondered what the future might be like? How far science will progress? These
questions are all answered in the book Brave New World, and the outcome of society may
surprise you. In this novel, the setting is London, England, several hundred years into the future.
Humans are no longer born, but grown in test tubes (a la The Matrix), and children are all raised
by groups of workers. The term "parent" is unknown to them. In this story, you will meet
Bernard, a member of the Alpha caste (people are bred to be either intelligent or stupid) who is
very unsatisfied with his life. When he brings his lover with him on a trip to the "savage
Reservation," where people have families, practice religion, and other things considered taboo by
society, they meet John, a savage who's birth parents were from London. John leaves the
reservation with Bernard and returns home to a civilization he has never before seen. The average
civilian views him as a curiosity, however his beliefs about society begin to raise questions about
the way of life these people have all grown to know, creating a bit of chaos.

If you are very science-literate or thoroughly enjoy science fiction, then I might
recommend this book to you. However, I would certainly not recommend it to most, as it lacks
an interesting plot, and tends to get awfully confusing at times. Nothing in this novel compels the
reader to finish the book. The language used is very awkward, and often requires the reader to
re-read passages in order to understand the slang that Huxley has created for this novel of his. A
good addition to a philosophy class, this novel brings up many moral issues and questions about
our society in general. Because of the unusual language used by the author, however, I would
recommend it for college-age students.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Brave New World analysis
Review: In the novel Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, creates the scene to take place in futuristic England. People of this day and age have changed completly. Instead of being born and rais for a mothe, they are by a muchine. They are thought how to live they life by teachers. To their bodies and personalities they are artifically made. From birth they are choosen if they will live a upper class life or lower class life. Their are five diferent levels in the caste system. You are catigorized by the amount of air given to you at birth. In the society of the book stability is everything. You really have no control over the way your life is going to go. With this in a enviornment it raises change, conflict and problems.
In the novel Brave New World, it insights you on how the future mighyt be. It gives you a totally different look on things. The main thing is that the kids are raised be machins. Like in our society, people take drugs to escape reality. In this book it is called Soma. I think this is preaty much all they would take throughtout the novel. Instead of going to school in the day throughtout their life they get tought in their sleep. They get thought the goods and the bads. They would shock the things they didn't want them to like. Another thing is there are no book allowed anywhere at anytime. I think they would learn what the government is pulling on them.
The meaning behind the book is for little kids it would be harder to understand. It has many perplexing questions. I recommed this book for adults and college people, because they could get the questions Huxley is asking.


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