Rating: 
Summary: Wow!
Review: I read this after reading amusing ourselves to death, and was totally shocked. It seems like our society may really be heading in the direction of living totally for pleasure. Uh oh.
Rating:
Summary: Brave New (and Old) Reader
Review: I had heard of this book all through high school. It had been constantly recommended to me by my English teachers because of my loyalty to language, writing, and being rather "left-wing" (or so I was called otherwise).In my senior year, a previous teacher gave me a copy out of the depths of the old book room. It wasn't in any of the class curriculums anymore, and they were old, beat up paperbacks waiting to be reopened. The book is beyond revolutionary. I gave it to a friend to read, and she loved it as well (and she is very critical when it comes to philosophy and the human existence in fiction...as am I). I encourage every person to read this book - whether you have been thinking to do so for quite some time now or you have never heard of it before!
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't fulfil even the lowest requirements for fiction
Review: I don't understand why Mr. Huxley is so famous. Okay, he has a very strong message, but then, his writing skills are non-existent. This book completely lacks fantasy and originality. As a result, the possible appeal of Mr. Huxley's ideas is overweighed in a hundredfold by the despise his "prose" (sorry for using this word here!) makes you feel. How is one supposed to enjoy the beauty of a wonderful landscape by a scribble of a three-year-old? Instead of this "novel", Mr. Huxley should have written a short newspaper article titled "Things I Don't Like". If Mr. Huxley is a writer, anybody who talks is a linguist. Reading this book leaves one perplexed - how could the author voluntarily expose himself to such ridicule?
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, funny, funny
Review: How does this sound to you? You live in a society where your every physical need is cared for, and all things sensual are avaliable whenever you like. The price? You don't get to think. What happens if you think? You get deported to a beautiful tropical island where everyone else thinks. So you're happy until you realize you're not, and once you do, you get sent somewhere you can become happy on your own, with others like you. Sounds good to me. That, in a nutshell is the society presented in this novel. Huxley tries his best (or does he?) to make is sound horrible, but I'd take it any old day. I like tropical islands. Enjoyable, but not ominous, and certainly not sucessful in its predictions.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect combination of Science fiction and Social satire
Review: When the reader realizes that this book was written in the early 1930's, he must be stunned by the insight Huxley had for the world that would unfold in the late 20th Century. While, for the most part, the ideals and events of his "Brave New World" have not come to fruition in our society, some of the undertones of our culture are certainly evident in this book. It is also a grave warning of the dangers of absolute Socialism, in other words equality without quality, life without challenge. This was so well written, with every character being worthy of sympathy. Even the most cruel of the Utopians is to be pitied, for we see how truly empty their lives are. This is a book that should be read by everyone. Boy, would this make a great film.
Rating: 
Summary: Reread--funny
Review: I first disliked it after first having read 1984 but who can hold a light to Orwell? That said, this text seems like a piece of dark humor after I reread it years after the initial reading. Sci-fi through and through, it ends on a rather depressing note, as does 1984. Film adaptation is the contraversIal DEVILS.
Rating:
Summary: Truth and beauty versus comfort and happiness
Review: Brave New World is a novel about one of the dimmer paths into the future that humanity may oneday embark upon. It is a novel that asks humanity which is more important: the search for truth and the attainment of knowledge or the pursuit of pleasure and happiness(whatever that is). It asks humanity if it is better to live in a world where the individual is just as important as the system, or whether the former is merely a trivial cell of the higher organism. A central criterion to this question is the role of science, which Huxley shows as being both good and evil: the enlightenment it provides also serve to cast shadows. While science is central to truth and beauty ( Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes), it does also work in malevolent ways to eliminate it. Science does offer humanity the path to self destruct and live in idle blissfullness (If you would like to live in such a manner, read this book and see the consequences...). Regarding the mechanics of the novel, it is weak in character development and the corresponding environment in which these characters dance. Rich settings and fully realized characters are not what the book is about, however. They are merely props for Huxley to project his message. Since the message is the primary focus of the book, this does not detract away from the novel in any grave manner. Furthermore, the presentation of the novel's content is very well constructed, wherein it scores most of its merit points. Witty, comical, and very satirical, Huxley masterfully presents his ideas. The chapters filled with the most meat (or tofu for the vegetarians) must be 16 and 17. Chapter three is perhaps the most intense and experimental section of the book, where a multitude of conversations are presented all at once, and it is up to the reader to decipher exactly who is saying what. A most definite read, however, not as shocking as perhaps it once might have been, for quite a few of the predictions seem just around the very near corner, and some have already been fulfilled! Enough staring at this monitor, I've a headache...where's that damn half gram of SOMA...after all, how does the rhyme go?...
Rating:
Summary: Captain Beefheart sold him a vacuum cleaner
Review: Mr Huxley's vision of a strange futuristic world where people are cast into different orders: Alpha being the highest & Epsilon the lowest, & utopian life is like the company that is publishing it now, a perennial classic. I read it for high school & was impressed & enjoyed it. I was reminded of it when a ferryman enthused about it which I found surprising & maybe I was being as judgemental as the people who set up the system described in the book. Apparently in the early 60s a young Don Van Vliet was selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door [he is seen holding one on the covers of Hot Rats & Grow Fins] & knocked on the door of Aldous Huxley & proceeded to tell him "I assure you sir, these things really do suck" [although that may seem a bit too Wayne's World-y to be true] & they went for a walk in the park. Digressions aside Brave New World is a very important book, intelligent & thought-provoking. I am yet to read other Huxley material, maybe I should trek off to the library & see what they have.
Rating:
Summary: An Ominous Vision of the Dystopia to Come
Review: Set in a dystopian futuristic society, this novel warns about the dangers of technology, standardization, and excessive government control. Huxley wrote during the Great Depression, when many people around the world worried about having basic necessities, yet he looked beyond the immediate problems and saw a hyper Fordist world, in which mass production and wealth eventually lead to a rigid and boring society--a society where no one has the right to be unhappy. Huxley's weakness as a writes is character development. His characters usually do not evoke much sympathy or interest. But this book paints such a vivid and unique picture of a dystopian life that may come that it easily deserves five stars. Also, Huxley anticipates the use of genetic engineering to shape the character of human beings. In its portrayal of a possible ominous tomorrow, the book is in the same league with Orwell's "1984" and Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange." If you never read this book, you owe it to yourself to read it as soon as you have free time.
Rating:
Summary: Oh brave new world that has such people in it...
Review: If you've seen "The Matrix," you know how after seeing it for the first time, your mind reels, thinking about reality, perception and the true meaning of life and freedom. You will have the same haunting introspective thoughts after reading "Brave New World." The novel is incredibly visionary, especially in light of the fact that it was written in 1932. Huxley foresaw not only a television in every home, but one in every room, communication and entertainment devices everywhere. Movies called "Feelies" in which the viewer sees, hears, smells and feels the action (can you say "virtual reality?"). A society in which everything is turned upside down... the important things in life; loyalty, family, faith, monogamy, individuality are thought to be "anti-social" and perverse and even obscene... while promiscuity, drug use and wanton spending are considered virtues. A society bent on economic stabilty so much, that it sacrifices the very need for economics - citizenry. Children are not born, they are "decanted" in hatcheries and conditioned like Pavlov's dogs to like or dislike the things that will make them "content" in their pre-destined station in life. I saw the made for TV movie based on this book a couple of years ago and wanted to read this book ever since. This book will make you think. It will make you look around and see how the media and government continues to spin around us as we're usually oblivious to the things that matter. As a society, we are so consumed with "self" and temporary pleasures, that we don't treasure the things that really matter until they are taken away from us. The society and government in this story take advantage of this societal weakness and feed it and nurture it until people willingly give up their freedoms because they're getting everything they think they want, when they want it. When things temporarily seem bleak, they just take Soma, the perfect drug that has no side-effects and just makes you "take a Soma holiday." Each person silently ignores the void that their life has begun and they drown their lonliness and emptiness with drugs. Huxley's writing style is very interesting, sometimes a narrative, then suddenly text that reads like a screenplay - yet sometimes you're not sure who's say what and when, yet it is still an easy read... scenes are constantly changing and you get so caught up in the story, you often don't realize you're turning pages. Previous to reading this novel, my favorite piece of fiction was "1984" by George Orwell, but I think this book has just bumped it to the #2 slot. This is an intriguing, and thought-provoking story that you will never forget.
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