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Summary: it truly is a Brave New World
Review: Aldous Huxley presents us with the ideal Utopia. All social concerns erased with the pop of a pill, political concerns usurped via caste system, and morality is no longer in existance! The barrage of vivid images and elaborate themes, in combination with Huxley's lyrical wit elevates Brave New World to a trancendent level of literary excellence.
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Summary: A Very skeptical look at what a "perfect living" is...
Review: The people of this Brave New World have solved many of the problems that bother some people today: everyone has all the food they could eat, they can buy all the stuff they want, and can just use it once and replace it with something else they like more (and are encouraged to do so...), they don't have to be bothered with the burden of parenthood and fidelity, no one gets old, wrinkled or fat... What can be better? I've read somewhere that without experiencing the negative side of life you lose the positive one too. This book just goes to prove this point: most of these people's lives are empty and meaningless, and nothing new is created or invented... The opposite of that appears in the Indian village - filth, insufficient food clothes or medical attention, and so on, but these people can still FEEL - the romance and tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet"... Which is better? The book lets you decide for yourself... It's only problem is its one dimensional and predictable characters, but even they don't manage to ruin a good book and a good message...
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Summary: Haunting
Review: This is a book I won't soon forget. It tells the story of a utopia in the future, manufactured children, reconditioning, and simply of human nature. Aldous Huxley does an amazing job at taking such an advanced topic and making it seem somewhat real. I was disturbed by Brave New World, but also fascinated. His characters are developed to the perfect degree, and while eloquent in his words, he is also readable.
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Summary: A classic that isn't any more
Review: In my experience, when people talk of dystopian novels, inevitably two titles are mentioned: 1984, and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. And then, almost as an afterthought, "Oh, yes, and BRAVE NEW WORLD". While the first two remain astonishing and relevant works of art in today's world, Aldous Huxley's contribution (which pre-dates the others) always remains a distant third. Why?BRAVE NEW WORLD, while incredibly sophisticated considering when it was first published (1932), does not hold up as well in the world of 2000. Its ideas are still potent, and it does remain a fascinating read. Nevertheless, as an enduring masterpiece, it is deeply flawed. BRAVE NEW WORLD centres, more or less, around Bernard Marx, a sub-average Alpha. Techniques in reproduction and eugenics have progressed to the point where 'mothers' (an incredibly filthy word) are no longer necessary; babies are born in jars, and carefully cultivated and conditioned to accept their predetermined roles in life. Alphas are the highest level; intelligent, arrogant, strong and beautiful. Lower down are Epsilons and Betas, lower caste persons who perform the more menial yet necessary functions of the society. Bernard is an abnormality; a rather weak and small Alpha speciman, who has deep yearnings to break free of the conformity of society. This is as close to heresy as it can get. Bernard gets permission to visit a Reservation, a place where progress has been disallowed. There he meets John the Savage, a white male who has been raised among the Indian culture. He decided to bring John back to civilization, where, predictably, culture shock sets in. BRAVE NEW WORLD has been hailed as a cautionary tale against rigid conformity and science, where the individual now exists to serve the advances of science, not the other way around. This is indeed so, and Huxley's take on the theme is years ahead of its time. His new world can be remarkably complex and exciting, and almost inviting in its ultimate ideals. But much of BRAVE NEW WORLD does not inspire the reader in the same manner of 1984 and CLOCKWORK ORANGE. In those novels, the worlds of tommorow, while equally vivid, also function as deep social satire. BRAVE NEW WORLD, by contrast, reads like parody. We do not enter the world of the novel, and see ourselves. Rather, we laugh at it, seeing the folly of others. BRAVE NEW WORLD also lacks convincing narrative and characterizations. Huxley's characters are mere props, used to fuel his ideas. Never once do we empathize with anyone. Characters come and go to illustrate points of view, but never to engage the reader. Contrast this with 1984, where the reader connects so completely to Winston Smith that his eventual downfall breaks the heart. Or CLORKWORK ORANGE, where Alex's murderous rampages are presented in such a form that the reader completely understands why he is the way he is. In BRAVE NEW WORLD, the reader dispassionately views the actions of the characters, never once gaining any understanding. Orwell and Burgess allow us to live in their worlds; Huxley presents the world, but doesn't let us enter it. BRAVE NEW WORLD is still a thought-provoking experience. It is fast-paced and thought-provoking. But Huxley's world only exists as an idea. It is smart, lucid, and entertaining. It is a classic, in the sense of its lasting appeal and relevant subject matter. It fails to be a literary classic, but not for lack of trying.
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Summary: Brave New World: The Truth Behind the Madness
Review: Brave New World is not a book that can simply be read once and forgotten. No. One must analyze the book, and always with an open mind. "Open mind" meaning that one may need to look beyond the literal meaning of the words, and one must not take offense to the context in which Huxley writes. It is not a pornographic book, and it is not a book promoting sacrilegious ideals. To fully understand the novel as a whole, one must look deep into the mind of Huxley to even attempt to figure out what he is trying to say. The entire novel must be looked at with the air of sarcasm. Huxley is not condoning evil and sin; rather, he is making a mockery of it! He is presenting the reader with an example of a society that has gone wrong, totally wrong, and he wants the world to be aware that the direction in which it is headed is not for the best, and in fact the world should stay as far away from extreme conformity as possible. The world of which Huxley writes is the antithesis of what the human race really needs.
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Summary: Disturbing
Review: This was a disturbing book written in the post WW2 era. This book is a projection of the future if communism comes into world wide power. This book because its on this kind of subject also has some contreversial content, it deals widley with the subjects of sex, drugs, entertainment, and the concievment of children. I thought this book was good but it was kind of diturbing the emphasis of sex and "soma" which is the perfect drug in the book.
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Summary: Brave New World
Review: A very fascinating book about the future! Passion, pain, discomfort, and bliss have been wiped off the face of civilization. The Savage is a white man who was born in an indian reserve and has the choice between both worlds. He inevitably chooses suicide when his guilt won't be absolved. Brilliant and impressive.
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Summary: A nightmarish utopia
Review: In "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley illustrates his vision of the future in which rapid advances in science and technology lead to increasing public confusion, which causes governments to impose more and more control until they become entirely totalitarian. As society becomes more industrialized, products become more homogeneous and standardized, art and expression become less important, and personal individuality is gradually lost. In such a world, a government would attempt to keep its population as happy and content as possible by "conditioning" the people from birth to accept and love their assigned work and their respective places in society. Such people would need to be deprived of emotional stimulation so as not to get any subversive ideas, so artistic expression would have to be curtailed. (There is no need for art in a society of people who are always happy and content.) The perpetuation of civilization and society would have to be more important than the value of the individual. The novel's main action is in London in the year A.F. 632 (it doesn't take long to figure out what A.F. stands for). Human reproduction and gestation is handled in laboratories where bottled embryos are separated into caste systems, from Alpha (the highest) to Epsilon (the lowest). All embryos are conditioned for certain jobs; Alphas are conditioned to be the most intelligent and receive the most education, while Epsilons are reserved for the most menial jobs. The different castes are segregated and identified by the color of the clothes they wear. To keep everybody happy and ensure civil obedience, a depression-fighting drug called "soma" is officially distributed. There is no art for art's sake; the only music that exists is always synthetic and is purely functional, as are the "feelies," movies with tactile and aromatic as well as visual and aural signals. A keen point of interest is the book's reference to Henry Ford. Ford, one of the great industrialists, is a symbol of the semination of the industrialized society of the Brave New World, a sort of patron saint of the assembly line and mass production. The fact that "Ford" rhymes with "Lord" provides the novel with its prevalent running joke. Huxley seems to have had the same kind of sarcastic or facetious respect for Ford that many people today have for Bill Gates. While the beginning of the novel serves to describe the Society and introduce a few main characters, the novel's conflict arises when a "Savage" named John, who was born and raised outside of the industrialized world in a New Mexico Indian reservation, is brought to London as a subject for study. From reading Shakespeare as a youth, John has acquired compassion, sensitivity, and artistic and religious aesthetic (Huxley almost seems to imply that Shakespeare is a sort of gateway to a higher consciousness), and is horrified by the lack of emotion and morality of the inhabitants of the Brave New World. John makes a conscious decision to foresake the synthetic happiness of the Brave New World and return to living freely and naturally, but he finds that he cannot escape public scrutiny so easily. Huxley's writing has an almost cinematic quality; he is like a cutting-edge film director who edits scenes and shifts focus between various characters quickly for maximum dramatic effect. Even his images of large mechanical systems are poetic and, from an engineering standpoint, accurately detailed. To me, that's the icing on the cake for this richly conceived treatise on a nightmarish utopia.
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Summary: brave new world review
Review: Brave New World, was a book about a perfect utopian society world. Where everyone is related to everyone else and there is no violence, hatred, lethal diseases except a few which haven't been able to be destroyed yet. Everyone in society is organized into a caste system, Alphas, Betas, Deltas, Gammas and Epislons. Alphas are the higer class working at the best and highest paying jobs. While, the Epislons are the lowest class and they work jobs like janitors, garbage men etc. Each caste also wears a specific color that is associated with them. I believe Alphas and Betas wore gray and Deltas and Epislons wore khaki colored clothes. The book focuses on the combined stories of four characters. Bernard Shaw, the hero of the story who does not belive what this world is doing and he demands to change it. Henry Foster, the sterotypical corporate worker who does everything he is told no matter what. Lenina Crowe who is the whore of the work place she has slept with about every guy and she one day takes an interest in Bernard. John, the outcast, the savage who is brought into their world by Bernard and Lenina when they visit his reservation. Huxley parallels the savages to our own society and he shows how greatly science can affect things. In one part, Lenina sees old people and she blushes at the sight because its not a part of their world. Because everybody is engineered and the nutrients in their body are replaced every few months and their metabolism is stimulated so they are always in good health and will never grow old. Or when Lenina sees trash laying about, dead bodys etc. In her world everyhing is kept sparkling clean not a trace of liter anywhere. Everything is kept in perfect order so the people in her world will never have to worry about anything. IF they want something all they have to do is push a button and it will be give to them. The American Dream! This book is chock full of information and satire of our society. In one chapter of the book, the whole chapter consists of snippets of dialogue and its very hard to follow whats going and who is saying what. Also, in the beginning of the book when the director is describing how decanting works, and how the embryos are cared for. It gets very overwhelming and you will find yourself lost if you dont take it slow and easy. In order to understand it you must focus on what you read at all times otherwise you will find yourself lost. Do not read it in public places if you do you will be totally lost! I would recommend this book for anyone who like science or books that poke fun at our society. I personally love these kinds of books but if you don't like lots of science information tossed at you at once then this book is not for you.
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Summary: Is This The Future?
Review: In a soulless future world, genetic engineering programmes people from birth for their status in society, and removes all aggressive or unproductive instincts. Individuality, creativity and personality are sacrificed in the causes of material prosperity, good health and freedom from anxiety. Only a small group of "savages" - people like us - survives, in a community in New Mexico, and one of them escapes and is brought into the "real world", with tragic results. As in all his novels, Huxley tells his tale soberly and without comment: the flatness of his prose brilliantly intensifies the horror of what he is saying. Nothing truly terrible happens - and that is the most terrifying thing of all.
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