Brave New World

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Summary: In Absurdity, Prophecy
Review: There is no doubt that Brave New World is one of the most illuminating books written in the 20th century and, perhaps, of all time. It is beyond a story of seemingly absurd individuals set in a seemingly absurd world. It is beyond a philosophical treatise masked by a cleverly conceived plot. It is beyond a showcase of wit and literary genius of the author. Brave New World is a masterpiece in which at once the foremost theories of sociology, of philosophy, of history, and of science are interwoven seamlessly into a make-believe dystopia of mindless people - and, at last, a cold and dark parallel between their world and our own is revealed. It will capture your undivided attention until the very last page, always the voice of Huxley echoing in the background: "How many more years?" In short, Brave New World is Prophecy in about 250 pages.

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Summary: One of the ten most important books of the 20th Century.
Review: The most thought-provoking utopian/dystopia I've ever read. Better than "1984" and "Erewhon" put together and served with soma.

Peter Kreeft, an amazing writer and literary scholar, listed Brave New World as one of the SIX books of the 20th Century that he would make everyone read if he were God. In my opinion, that's a bit extreme, but I can almost agree. BNW is the most sobering (and clearest) fictional picture we have of the possibilities inherent in viewing mankind in strictly utilitarian terms. In the nearly seventy years since BNW's first printing, our world has made great strides in the science of biological engineering, oftentimes very overall beneficial strides. It is just such "advancement" however, which makes Brave New World all the more poignant a read in the year 2000 and beyond. May we "use" it to dispel any cherished myths we may have about social salvation through technological expertise. It could just as easily have been called Grave New World!

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Summary: O Brave New World!
Review: I came upon this book for two reasons: I had heard about it quite often from various sources, and I have always been interested in books that dealt with how society could go wrong, namely dystopic novels. Huxley's masterpiece proved to be enjoyable and extrememly thought-provoking. His predictions about the prominence of science in society is eeirly similar to the present day.This novel contains many truths that were in Plato's Republic: eugenics, separate classes which performed certain tasks, children raised communally, the destruction of the family, etc. And, as in the Republic, this society appeared great in theory, but in reality it was vapid and lacked meaning. All the citizens are slaves to their conditioning, and only when an 'uncivilized' person enters their society can the reader truly comprehend the horrors of this Brave New World. For those who enjoy novels that make you think about society and the future, this novel is for you. Often compared to Orwell's 1984, it is actually quite different, yet has similar themes. Enjoyable and thought-provoking.

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Summary: Disturbingly approproate so many years later
Review: With the advent of cloning, the Human Genome Project, and people working at making "designer babies" this book is (unfortunately) very relavant today. And even if science does not allow us to do quite what Huxley suggests, there is more to what he is saying.

It is useful to consider the two types of dytopias that Huxley and George Orwell predicts. The latter is one of totalitarianism, like a Soviet state, or a dictatorship. Huxley predicts a society where everyone is lulled into believing they are ahppy, that they do not realize that they are being manipulated, directed, guided and herded like sheep. All the while they are happy, accepting it.

Many argue that technology like television, the Internet, and many others are doing this today. WE live under a subtle form of totalitarianism than Orwell predicted in 1984. This is worth thinking about, reflecting on as we read this timeless book.

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Summary: The most accurate Dystopia of them all ...
Review: Of all the great Dystopian novels of the 20th century (others being Orwell's 1984, Zamyatin's We, Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 for example), this may be the most accurate, if not the greatest. Huxley describes a world based totally on material values, shamelessly hedonistic but also totalitarian in demanding total submission to its ethic. Such a place brain-washes its children and gives its adults large doses of drugs to maintain stability. Into this world, there comes the Savage, who has lived on an Indian reservation all his life. We see the horror of this world through his eyes. Rather improbably (but Huxley makes it seem natural) the Savage knows all of Shakespeare by heart, but the rawness and lyricism of the poetry makes a wonderful counterpoint to the cosiness and mediocrity of the Brave New World, where all pain and ugliness have been banished. A typical episode in the Brave New World is a 'religious' service, with Henry Ford as 'God', which ends in an orgy of sexual release. The Savage falls in love (as opposed to lust, which is the only intimate emotion allowed between men and women), tries to escape, but is ultimately destroyed. Like 1984, Huxley may have made his Dystopia too bleak - apparently there are islands to which dissenters are exiled, and it may be that on these islands, people have managed to combine the materialism of the Brave New World and the primitive spititualism of the Savage. We never find out. However, no one can escape being struck by the similarity of the Brave New World to own - Prozac, daytime TV, dumbing down, test-tube babies all have parallels in Huxley's creation. Read one of the century's great classics.

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Summary: Brave New World
Review: This is a very different book about the future but also a little realistic. If people aren't careful our lives could end up like this. People become more of like a science project than humans living theough there daily lives without much thought or emmotion except how they can make more money and do things quicker. This was an excellent book overall.

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Summary: Incredibly insightful
Review: How insightful into the world we have largely become - a society reliant on pharmaceuticals to survive and a society who flippantly treats human intimacy. Excellent book.

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Summary: Huxley, a modern-day Nostradumbass
Review: This book contains so much of what I dislike in would-be literature. It's awash in generalities, blatantly didactic, guided by facile thought, caked with corny wordplay, and it displays no serious appreciation for language. It's not even an entertaining read.

When it comes to characterization, Huxley is like a cataractous portrait artist who paints with a mop and roller. The inhabitants of the "Brave New World" are daubed with such broad, dull strokes that they are essentially mannequins modeling ideas rather than clothes. No character exhibits more than a single character trait, and that trait is always a contrivance. "But this goes hand-in-hand with Huxley's message," you say. "He's trying to make a point." Ugh! Perhaps, but...

Like all dime-store artists and intellectuals, Huxley goes for the generic and general over the specific and particular. Huxley's sweeping generalizations capture none of the magic that makes each individual's experience so unique, complex, and interesting; rather, they reduce human experiences to miniscule variations on simplistic, generic, and monotonous themes. As William Blake emphatically declared, "To Generalize is to be an Idiot" --- this epithet fits Huxley to a "T".

But, of course, Huxley's muse traffics in pedantry, not poetry. And, without belaboring the point, Huxley's socio-political broodings are uniformly and embarrassingly obtuse; and, his prognostications are no more prophetic than those contained in any horoscope. Regardless, I don't care for socio-political theorizing in storybook form --- it is both intellectually and artistically lame.

Another warning: Huxley's penchant for linguistic costume jewelry will cause ardent lovers of language to wince repeatedly. Here is just one of Huxley's extended witlesscisms: "while our Ford was still on earth", "cleanliness is next to fordliness", "Oh, for Ford's sake". God, Lord, Ford (as in Henry) --- Get it! Get it! God help you if you're amused.

"Brave New World" is so asinine and inartistic that it almost works as a parody of didactic literature. "Brave New World Revisited" shows that Huxley was not kidding, though. That Huxley was serious about his sophomoric ideas and silly writing provides some unintended and tangential humor, but only very little. Somewhat funnier is the fact that this book winds up in many literary "lists" and "canons", which are themselves ridiculous, middlebrow gewgaws with slight and unintentional comic value. Final word: "Brave New World" is intellectually dull, artistically worthless, and more than a little kooky.

Highly recommended to those who vehemently disagree with me. Everyone else can safely skip it.

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Summary: Good as a book or as a psychoanalysis of unconcious desires?
Review: Brave New World has to be one of the greatest books I have ever fell across. However, this is not because it is action packed or any other such nonsense that make up modern best sellers. The book does have it's own unique suspense, but it really shines in it's analysis of human desires. Imagine a world that's perfect. People who perform grunt labor are happy with their jobs, and everybody loves everybody. Childhood education consists of something right out of Rousseau's Emile, and subconcious repitition is used to smooth out any uncertanties. But, as this book points out, what if these uncertanties aren't always smoothed out, and classic literature is destroyed because it is "old and has no modern use." This book shows us how gratification of our desires is only a temporary opiate, and that it is not worth giving up our sacrifices.

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Summary: This is Now
Review: Whenever you see some promotion on tv in in print touting a "Brave New World" and talk about all the great things we have comming for us in the future, it will make you ill.

Ever since reading the book, it makes me sick every time I see it. Either they have never read the book or they are delibertly giving you the finger and you dont even know it. Unless ofcourse you have read the book.

Upon reading it and you then must read Huxley's Brave New World Revisited(a must). You like Huxley will come to realise that we are living this nightmare wich is his book.

This book along side 1984 will give you an excellent look into what the power brokers of the world have waiting for you. A definent must read for anyone interested in the dark side of our future and perhaps our present.