Book info

• Title Brave New World
• Author Aldous Huxley
• Year 1932
• Genre Science Fiction

Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...

Thoughts

If there are tales I like as much as time-travel, then it is those that are set in a distant future - post-apocalyptic or just plain society-gone-wrong, they all make for good reading. I wasn’t really sure where this Brave New World one was going, it starts out with such a long description of how babies are made in this modern era. Eventually, we start to get glimpses of the underlying story though.

What is fascinating is that there is no one main character, and none of the people that do make an appearance are particularly nice. I suppose we are meant to relate to John the Savage, but he is so very angry about everything, it doesn’t make much sense to me. Actually, there are lots of bits of the book that don’t make much sense to me, and I question why society would go this way and that, if there aren’t requirements to do this other thing or that. But I think that’s the beauty of stories such as this. It raises so many questions.

Fundamentally, the moral investigated is whether it is right to have mindless drones that are happy and fulfilled, or to be allowed independent thought when you get highs and lows, happiness and misery. These are questions that pretty much blow my mind, but it was a good read. I’m curious to read Huxley’s revisitation on the topic.

Rating: 3 / 5