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Summary: Huxley is genius at work
Review: I have read this book many times and I still love reading it. I always get something new out of it. I had to read it the first time for my freshman english class, and I have read it every year since. I have found that the secret to understanding it is not to read it as a prediction of the future nor as the fictional novel, but somewhere in between. There are countless messages and warnings to society that Huxley conveys through the story. You just have to be open minded and ready for a different type of novel. For all of you who had to read it once and hated it, try reading it again sometime when you are ready to understand where the author is coming from, what he is trying to say, and where you can apply it to your own life.
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Summary: just a note about the "Brave New World"
Review: Thinking the world could ever be like the vision of Huxley makes me a bit nervous. People should always have the right to choose their own way of living - unless they do not get other people involved in things they don't want to be in. Etc....
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Summary: SAVAGE PERCEPTIONS
Review: To the twilight covered hillside, They came from every side, Those who knew not death, Had never wanted, never cried, To watch a madman dance.Society so sick, so shallow, Adults starved as children, Now watched in curiosity, With their questions of why and how, Their conditioning left to chance. Solitude unscrupulous, And socially a sin, Isolated everyone, In bottles from within, They die as they begin. Their factories turn out and out, The essentials of their lives, And as the worker bee survives, They swarm as one within the hive. And in synthetic placitude they grin. As a student in 1984 I read this book for the first time and as I finished was immediately inspired to write the poem above. I was moved by the Savage John's grief and passion for life as a free thinking and feeling individual who opted to take what everyone else felt was the hard way. To not mask pain, feelings of isolation etc. with an all encompassing "happy pill" called "soma". The future world that is a happy dream to its residents was, unmasked, a nightmare in disguise to an unwary outsider.
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Summary: Surprise!
Review: There is actually a summer reading book that I actually enjoy! I love the idea of that kind of Utopia. Very intriguing because we see it like hell but the people really think it is perfect. HMJ :)
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Summary: ahead of its time but not very subtle
Review: First I'd like to say is that this book is well ahead of its time in terms of ideas and messages. When I discovered it had been written in the late '30s (I was halfway through the book at that point) I couldn't believe it. It reads like it could've been written in this decade, and the technology described in the book is practically attainable already. Huxley's ideas are good: that if social and technological trends continue, we could end up in a world with no individualism and no love. However, I have problems with the book as a work of literature. The prose style isn't that good (although I've been reading a lot of Joyce lately... I wonder if that hurts?), the characters mostly just annoy me, and to top it off, the book's message is presented in a completely unsubtle fashion. When John finally kills himself, I wondered why? Was his death supposed to finally convince us, if the previous 260 pages hadn't already done so, that the future Huxley describes isn't worth living in? I was pretty well convinced after about 50 pages. Or was John supposed to be some kind of martyr? If so, he failed, since the people in the future are obviously happy and it had been established in his conversation with Mond that they couldn't be changed. Which brings me to the characters. In a work like this or 1984, I need to have someone who's outside "the system" (socially) that I can identify with. In 1984 I can identify with Winston for most of the story. In Brave New World, I couldn't identify with anyone. Just when I thought I could identify with Bernard (intellectual who gets no chicks :) he either turns into a sniveling whiny loser or rejects all his ideas so he can sleep with more girls. Helmholtz didn't appear enough to be able to identify with him, and his laughing at the mother and father concept bugged me. And John, who seems to be the one I was meant to identify with--how can I identify with a completely uneducated savage who alternately quotes Shakespeare and beats himself? Ultimately it just didn't work for me on the level of 1984, to which I (perhaps unfairly) compare it in my mind.
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Summary: Fantastic, thought provoking, A must!
Review: A future dependant on stability not individuality. Interesting and stimulating descriptions of a society that thrives on delegated tasks, genetically mastered class systems and the more than occasional soma induced holiday. "A gramme is better than a damn" The character development at some points lacks the needed punch; however, the involving plot and thought provoking scenarios more than make up for loosely developed players in the novel. Every read brings yet another point to ponder, and I have read it more than thrice - the topics cease to end! Enjoy
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Summary: The best book ever!
Review: It's very hard to say what I feel after reading this book. It really made me think (and feel) a lot. I think I'ts like a prediction about what can happen to us if we don't take care of ourselves, if we stop feeling or sharing. It helped me understand many things about life, love, family... and appreciate much more my life and everything around me but most of all, this book taught me how important is every "single" person in the world and that everyone is different and not best or worse for that... it's just the most wonderful taught about life!
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Summary: BRAVE OLD BOOK!!!! A brave analysis of all human kind
Review: Is hapiness more precious than truth or science? Will we need to choose between our identities or the perfect society's peace? In a futuristic sight of the world, Huxley writes about human's inner doubt: Is the ego's death the price of building a (functional) equilibrated organization? (Please, send-me e-mail response)
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Summary: This novel has one of the best poignant endings.
Review: The intolerence of a native for the hideous modern future condemns his life. Sterility is offered in place of passion. Control is preferred to freedom. Love is replaced with group sex. This account of a plausible future is extremely moving.
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Summary: a MUST for everyone
Review: I think this is one of my favorite books. To the person who "had to read it for a class" and thought it was "terrible" yet said "everybody has their own view on it" -- you just answered your own problem. You said it "was very different from anything I had read before" -- isn't that the point? Your class got you to read something different. Sorry, I'm lecturing. This book is wonderful -- a great comment on "civilized" culture and an ordered society. Everybody who thinks things are fine should read this book.
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