Brave New World

Rating:
Summary: this is of course a masterpiece!!
Review: really no need to write sth about this "cult" novel... in a couple of years everything written by this genius man will come true..i should say this book was the reason why i studied molecular biology and genetics for four years..and it turned out to be the only thing i can work on...to clone myself...(maybe FBI will read this and i will be dismissed from the scientific community hehe:)) i wouldnt care the least...i ordered this by amazon.com coz i couldnt find the complete original text in Turkey unfortunately..this invaluable work of art will stay next to another breakthrough work of art by Orwell, of course 1984, in my library...where would i be now if i hadnt met these i dont know...(the explicit lyrics by PULP!! those of you will remember:))

Rating:
Summary: Utopia?
Review: A fictional but eye opening look at the dangers of capitalism and where we may be headed.

Rating:
Summary: What Chilling Foresight
Review: Huxley was a genius. I find it hard to believe that this Brave New World he invented was created in the 1930's and not the 1990's. This book ranks up there with Fahrenheit 451 and Lord of the Flies. It really will make you appreciate all of the freedom and liberty that we take for granted. The characters were very colorful, I found myself pulling hard for Bernard Marx. Some of the characters were static, but that was clearly by design. The plot moved well and Huxley did a wonderful job of staying consistent, always a difficult task when writing a Futuristic Novel. His understanding of Shakespeare was also outstanding and shined through the memorable dialouge given to The Savage character. You'll read this over one weekend easily, but if you are anything like me, this one will stick with you for a lifetime.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Book with meaning
Review: Brave New World is a very confusing book. That would be the first sentence that most people would use to describe it. Biological jargon at the beginning is enough to put anyone below a certain understanding away. However, if you do understand the book, it is absolutely brilliant.

Brave New World is a book which centers around a society in which all needs are catered to, all people are conditioned into liking what they do, and engaging in activities which biologically give pleasures to the body such as drugs and sex; Brave New World is a book about a society where happiness is the key goal, however the goal doesn't come without a price. Huxley takes us into a world where people are born into a caste system which they are conditionally brought into liking their way of life, and accepting other people's ways. Learning isn't encouraged; people are no longer born, they are cloned or raised from DNA. Identity is lost in this society, no one is anyone special, except a select few world controllers, who are merely the clockwork of the society.

Aldous Huxley is brilliant in this book. He raises astonishing questions on the importance of love, of individuality, of age, of freedom, and of pain. He also asks whether those should be sacrificed so that everybody would be happy. I myself can't make the decision at the moment either, although if you have thought of what is really important to you in your life, I would encourage you to read this book. Brave New World isn't too close to 1984, which is a common misconception, as the themes of the two books are wholesomely different. I'd advise you to pick up this book if you don't know what your philosophy is yet, because this book will make you think. And that's why they would have banned it in the new world.

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Summary: Through the Looking Glass from "1984"
Review: An excellent book which describes a tyranny exactly opposite from that in the (excellent) book "1984." Written in the early 1930s, it predicted the rise of biotech and some of the moral/ethical problems we need to consider in today's world. The really amazing thing is that Huxley describes this "Brave New World" so well that I can understand and even approve much of his new society's methods and results. Of course, if *I* were in charge, I'd make a few minor changes.... [g]. Required reading.

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Summary: The origin of 'cloning' concept
Review: The novel's opening scene introduces the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where the World State director explains how babies are being "decanted" instead of born. Here, human beings are mass-produced through the "Bokanovsky Process," which "in exceptional cases, can make one ovary yield over fifteen thousand adult individuals."

Huxley's "squib about the future is a thin little joke," wrote a British reviewer, who scoffed at the author's prophecy in Brave New World when it was first published in 1932.
Sixty-nine years since the publication of this chilling little masterpiece, Brave New World has been reread and reinterpreted by generations of readers (and made into a movie starring John Malkovich.)

Events in the recent years have proven Huxley's prescience. The artificial civilization, which he had projected 600 years into the future seems to be actually approaching far sooner.

In Brave New World, farmed embryos produce an emotionless civilization, a future Utopia, where human beings are socially engineered for the sake of social stability. To imagine that the idea of social predestination will actually take place eventually may sound too far-fetched to be taken seriously. But come to think of it, the idea of human cloning was considered unthinkable during Huxley's time. Now it's at the doorstep of this century.

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Summary: Best Negative Utopia I've read (And Yes I read 1984)
Review: I have to say right off the bat that this is one of the greatest books I ever read. Everyone already commented on the glimpse of the future...chilling totalitarianism, yada yada yada...I'd love to give you a complete analysis of the book, but it's 10:30 and I'm tired. THe story is thourougly engaging, kept me enticed until the end...kind of expected it, but in another sense it cought me completely off guard...it was a masterpiece...better than 1984, which, while quite cool, struck the reviewer(I have to refer to myself in the third person once per review...it's policy :)) as a bit dry and tedious.

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Summary: Just wanted to get your attention:)
Review: I've read this book about ten times in my life since my dad gave it to me in Junior High-it is a fantastic book, and the ideas expressed in the book are timely even today. If you ever read one book in your life, this should be the book.

Rating:
Summary: Either out of my class, or outclassed by 1984
Review: Maybe I was not in right frame of mind when I read the novel, or I should not have read Orwell's 1984 so soon before, but I found Huxley's novel too tedious, complex, subtle and unengaging. By itself, BNW would be a 5 star novel, however compared to 1984, it just does not match up. Its character development, character relationships... are too odd, weak and unbelievable. Its technological jargon is perplexing, and so on. It was not a completely horrific novel, but not the best.

Perhaps one day, when I am in my 20's... 30's or 40's, I shall pick up another copy and just adore it. Perhaps.

Rating:
Summary: I have seen the future
Review: I have seen the future and it is nice, quiet, calm, agreeable, and one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Read this book to see for yourself.