Rating: 
Summary: brave new world
Review: This novel is set in A.F. 632 Approximately seven centuries after the twentieth century. A.F. stands for the year of Ford, named for the great industrialist Henry Ford who refined mass production techniques for automobiles. I liked the time period this took place and that it was names after henry ford. The world is ruled by World controllers who ensure the stability of society. To ensure social stability, a five-tiered caste system ruled by Alphas and Betas has been created. The labor force comes from the lower three castes, known as Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. I liked how the labor force came from the lower castes of society. A drug called soma ensures that no one ever feels pain or remains unhappy, and it is rationed out to and used by every member of the caste. Social stability is further ensured through the use of pre- and postnatal conditoning.
I didn't like how the book opens with the director of the central london hatchery and conditioning centre giving a group of students a tour of the facilities. I thought they should have waited till later in the book. They view the various techniques for producing more babies and watch as babies are segregated into various castes. After the babies are decanted from their bottles they are conditioned. They use Hypnopaedia to teach the children ethics. I didn't like how they used this to teach them ethics. While the babies are asleep ,ethical phrases are played numerous times so that the phrases will become a subconscious part of the each person.
The world controller of western europe, his fordship Mustapha Mond appears and gives the students a lecture about the way things used to be. Before the Utopian world was established, he indicates that people used to be parents and have children through live birth.This led to dirty homes and families in them where emotions got in the way of happiness and stabilty. I agreed with this.
Bernard marx is introduced as a short, dark haired Alpha who is believed to have accidently recieved a dose of alcohol as a fetus. I didn't like how his coworkers talked about him in derogatory tones. Bernard had a crush on lenina Crowne and she informs the reader that he asked her to go with him to the Savage Reservations serval weeks earlier. Lenina has been dating Henry Ford Foster for the past serval months ,but since long term relationships are discouraged , she agrees to go with Bernard Marx to the Reservations. I liked that she made this descision.
Rating: 
Summary: Beth's review
Review: Brave New World by: Aldous Huxley
Huxley shows a world where everything is planned for you from your birth, which is in a laboratory. The life you live in the "New World" is filled with feelies and soma. Everyone conforms to society except for the main character Bernard Marx who doesn't all ways think that what everyone doesn't is the right thing. He is interested with the savages and the way people used to live. When he brought the savage back from the reservation the real problems started. Marx didn't think it was right to have multiply partners and when he would speak up about his thoughts he would be given drugs or laughed at by other.
I would recommend this book to high school age students. I really enjoyed reading this book, it was very thought provoking and I think teens need books like this to learn to question things and not just go along with everyone.
The book is filled with drama, I couldn't believe some of the things I was reading and the way they lived their lives. The characters in the book were what made it so good because they truly believed that the way they were living was right. I can't say that I connected with any of the characters but you could see them develop and really got to know them through out the book. Huxley used many allusions in his book to things that we know in out world right now, such as Ford and The Bible. It was interesting to see what people in their society thought about them.
Rating:
Summary: Great in its own way
Review: I feel that 1984 and B.N.W. can be compared as long as one admits that each has vast differences that make each equally special to the literary world.1984 is a straightforward, easy to read, entertaining tale of a dim future. Brave New World is more philosophical and a harder to read than 1984. However, if you are willing to stick with BNW--afterall it's not THAT long--you'll come away amazed at the book. What makes BNW so unique is that it remains accurate and possible even though it was written nearly 70 years ago. Huxley did it just right. This story is humorous as well as bleak, and one can eiasly see how our modern society is quickly entering into a society much like the one found in the, "brave new world." This may be among the best s.f. books ever written--along with Dune--and should be required reading. Often, it is. No doubt in a hundred years or more, this book will become a main part of the s.f. cannon. Or, however, if Huxley's predictions are true, Our Ford may not allow it. Afterall, it IS a tad old. (read to find out why this is funny) Summary: Go read it already!!! It's worth it.
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Summary: Intresting View of the Future
Review: Aldous Huxley's classic is a very intresting commentary on society. The book was written in 1932. This book is about a world where nothing matters except instant gradification. There is no culture in the future just work and endless partys. There are no families since everyone is concived in a test tube and raised as groups by specially trained personal. In this world there are special reservations where people live like in the old days (the way we live now). The story uses a person taken from one of these reservations and put into the future world to show that even though this future world is fun at first it takes away much of what makes us human.
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Summary: Unusual and yet relevant to today's world
Review: Aldous Huxley's book "Brave New World" was, to say the least, a bit unusual at first. In reading this book, I had some initial difficulty in relating the futuristic consumption-oriented dictatorship to today's world. However, after finishing the book, I realized that in many ways, Huxley was truly prophetic in his view of the future world. A world driven by consumption of products not necessarily needed by those consuming them. The most interesting thing I found in the book, though, was the drug named "soma". As I finished the final few chapters, I began to think what "soma" might be - did it really have to be a drug or does our own society have its own versions of "soma"? Movies, TV, large sporting events, sex, pornography, and yes, even illicit drugs (and even licit drugs in some cases) could all be equated with the author's "soma" - something which allows an individual to escape the need to face the realities, however unpleasant, of life. Our own civilization has, in many ways, placed its own version of "soma" as the most important thing - think about how we are constantly encouraged to buy things for our own pleasure and enjoyment: CD's, videos, DVD's, computer games, entertainment systems, TV's, etc. The possibilities are endless. I was facinated by the world that Aldous Huxley created in his book. I would highly encourage its reading by any mature adult. That being said, I would also include a warning that the book does contain many references to sex, and although not explicit, I believe that may be sufficient to preclude its reading by younger reading enthusiasts. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Great Read!
Review: I highly recommend this novel to a MATURE reader. To some, the ideas of this futuristic, so-called "civilized" society may be shocking, if not offensive. Especially disturbing to some may be the fact that "everyone belongs to each other." Therefore erotic play for children, as well as promiscuity in adults is encouraged (required actually). However, this novel is about much more than sex. Nonetheless, I found this book to be very good. Huxley sets up the "World State" very well through the use of vivid descriptions. Even if you typically shy away from science-fiction type novels, like me, you will most likely enjoy the lessons that Huxley is teaching through the novel. All in all, this book makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD book
Review: I really liked this book, it was great. It is a must-read for anyone interested in sci-fiction books, or just really great books. I enjoyed it thouroughly. Even though it was not recently written, it is still a future you have to watch out for, and you can still relate to the characters and get into the situations. After reading the book you should watch the movie
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Summary: Buzzzz......
Review: I read the book 'Island,' also by Huxley, and loved it. So I picked up this one, heard it was a classic. Couldn't agree more. The ending was a bit confusing, though. What was with the feet? Anyway, it was great. A real timeless masterpiece, whatever that is. It definitely made me think. If I was the savage in that book, would I choose that horrible civilization where babies are made in bottles, or would I too go off and live in a lighthouse? This isn't a book that is easily forgotten, and I think that is the reason that it is still popular after all these years. P.S. I noticed Huxley makes a lot of drug refrences...soma...moksha...TRIPPY!
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Summary: Brave New World
Review: Brave New World
Aldous Huxley takes us on an adventure into the future to witness society's possible outcome in his famous science fiction novel, Brave New World. Written in 1932, Huxley presents society a century or two ahead of time, predicting the capabilities of mankind with the consistently rapid development of technology. Huxley grasps imaginative readers and provides them with opportunities to expand their horizons in predicting the future.
Taking place in London, society is set up in a Utopian form of government where everyone is treated the same. In the novel, feelings such a love, sadness, and gladness are not accepted; instead, people take a drug called "soma" to stop their mixed feelings and make them forget about their problems. Babies are no longer born to their mother and father; instead, they are born in predestined nurseries, and there are five different types of people: the Alphas and Betas and the Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. In a communist type government, each type of person is conditioned and trained to know their purpose and job in life at a young age by using repetition of words on the infants. I found this method used by Huxley fascinating as it closely relates to many experiments used by the famous Sigmund Freud such as the salivating dog. Every time he rang a bell in front of the dog, he would give the dog a treat and the dog would then salivate. Eventually, the ringing of the bell alone would cause the dog to salivate, even if there was no treat; this is impressively the type of conditioning that Huxley uses on the people-they are experimented on by the use of repetition physically and verbally.
The structure of the story is in third person and is shown by many different characters from the book as many characters play crucial roles in the famous novel. Bernard in the story symbolizes the famous communist leader Karl Marx as he strives in the story to keep everyone equal no matter the circumstances. "Ford", the higher spirit that everyone worships, represents Henry Ford where the people are treated in an assembly line fashion. The lusting Lenina is a sex symbol that represents the image of people avoiding their problems with sex and drugs; no one faces their problems, they all turned away, especially Lenina. Lenina is an object to men, the woman that every man wants to sleep with. Main character, John, also known as the 'Savage', is an important factor in the novel as he's from the normal civilization that we basically had in the past with the Native Americans. John is taken into the 'New World' and attempts to express to the people the meaning of emotions and different feelings, but everyone is extremely confused by his way of life and are more entertained than convinced. Another important character in the story is a man by the name of Mustopha, one of the ten world controllers. He displays himself as a full believer to the communist ways, but deep down he wishes the structure of society were different as he hides religious literature in his office such as Bibles and scriptures. Mustopha tries to tell himself and the Savage that the new way is better, " [...] And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your mortality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that's what soma is."
Huxley may shock readers with his incredible predictions of the future society as he proves to be on the right path. In fact, Huxley is so accurate that readers criticized his work when Brave New World first came out, claiming that his work was way out there and far too sexual; but taking a look at the casual sex in our generation today, Huxley's on the right track. In Brave New World, the Savage attempts to help convince the people of London that their ways are unhealthy and that they need God to reflect on their lives, "If you allowed yourselves to think of God, you wouldn't allow yourselves to be degraded by pleasant vices. You'd have a reason for bearing things patiently, for doing things with courage."
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Summary: In age of MTV, B Spears & Prozac, potent as ever
Review: I've read in several places that BNW is somewhat trumped by 1984, which is absolutely true in sales terms and popularity today, in poignancy, and to a lesser extent by 'Clockwork Orange' also. One must concede that Orwell's and Burgess' works are much, much stronger as literary works, as BNW is essentially Huxley expounding on his political views of what he saw for the future in a very stripped-down fashion with a thread-bare plot and little character development. Despite this, I was enthralled with the book, and would posit that it blows away 1984 not as a work of literature, but certainly as a work of poignancy in today's world. Huxley's main thesis is essentially that of the idea of happiness in slavery, of the new totalitarianism- its main tenets centering around frequent, meaningless sex, which is part of the non-existence of the nuclear family, babies being born in factories and indoctrinated from birth into the govt's class categories, constant use of soma if one starts to feel down, and the stifling of all dissent first by ridicule or just ignoring the dissenters, then finally arrest by the political police. But it is the very idea of happiness, of freedom, which is an overriding concept here. The people are very happy in their enslavement to the government- they enjoy sex, who doesn't?, and immediately stifle all bad feelings with Prozac-like drugs. They are too busy to mess around with political activism or dissent because they are so content and numbed with their lives- sound familiar? In an age where something like one-third of the adult US pop. is on antidepressants, and where Abercrombie can market thongs for 8-13 year-old girls, is all so reminescent of the John Lennon- Marilyn Manson song "Working Class Hero": "They keep you doped with your religion, sex and TV; you think you're so clever and classless and free; But you're still [...] peasants as far as I can see." It is this idea that Huxley nailed on the head, in 1932, and which I think 1984 somewhat misses (of course I think Orwell was partly distracted by the thuggish nature of Stalinism, his brilliant analysis of the misuse of language aside). Big Brother is important, and growing more important with the Patriot Acts today, but the government would much prefer everybody to revel in their slavery, think they're free and wonderful participants in this brave new world rather than have any fear of the government coming to get them. Huxley's 1946 forward to this edition is also very interesting, in that he reveals that he was trying to predict the future, but he was predicting several hundred years in the future in rather flagrant fashion, which shocked many critics of his era, but he can now (in 46) see that this is the very near future. To me, a fun, light read, again, no literary masterpiece, but a devestatingly poignant, powerful work 70 years after the fact.
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