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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley; October BOTM
Topic Started: Sep 29 2010, 08:10 AM (414 Views)
aragorn
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Just.Keep.Swimming.
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Written in 1931.

Amazon.com Review:

"Community, Identity, Stability" is the motto of Aldous Huxley's utopian World State. Here everyone consumes daily grams of soma, to fight depression, babies are born in laboratories, and the most popular form of entertainment is a "Feelie," a movie that stimulates the senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Though there is no violence and everyone is provided for, Bernard Marx feels something is missing and senses his relationship with a young women has the potential to be much more than the confines of their existence allow. Huxley foreshadowed many of the practices and gadgets we take for granted today--let's hope the sterility and absence of individuality he predicted aren't yet to come. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.
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burgandykat
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The Golden Chaise
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picked up a copy at the library this afternoon
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mary024
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Put mine on hold. :)
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burgandykat
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phew. Only 30 pages in...I think I know where the book is going. Going to have to concentrate a little harder on this one.
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Vikks14
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I have my neighbor's book, which also includes Brave New World Revisited at the end, which I think he wrote 20 years later or so ... anyway, haven't started yet ...
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burgandykat
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Only about 40 pages to go so I'll finish it but honestly I'm not liking it. Don't know if it's the time period it was written in or the language or Huxley's style but I'm kinda bored. I'm reading just to turn the page - no connection to any of the characters.
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burgandykat
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Finished it a few days ago. Overall, I wasn't impressed. I understand why it's considered a classic and why many find it an important novel in the 20th century, but honestly I was bored through probably 75-80% of it. Only the conversation between John and Mond near the end held my attention.
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Vikks14
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I'm almost done! Just so you know where I'm at, the last scene I read was when Lenina tried to seduce the Savage, John, and he savagely rejected her. Then he finds out his mother is dying.

Here are some of my random thoughts so far, not necessarily in any order ...


There were two forwards in my book, and though they are fuzzy in my mind (I read them way before I actually started the story), I am glad I did read them. From what I understand, the author was into abstract philosophy and although he wrote about a world in which he thought could happen, he also had a bit of fun with the absurdity of his predictions. This has helped me in reading the story, to remind myself not to take it so seriously, because sometimes I found the concepts so absurd that they made me chuckle. I mean ... FORD has taken the place of the all-powerful godlike presence in people's lives?? Absolute silliness! :)

I had a hard time following the descriptions of all they did with the embryos ... only because I kept wondering exactly what medical knowledge they had at the time the book was written ... did he really think embryos could survive such manipulations, or was he just pulling things out of the air to provide this sci-fi element?

Funny how the caste system also hides racism. OK, maybe not so funny, maybe that's exactly how caste systems work.

I wonder what the author thought when not so many years after this book was published, Hitler wreaked his havoc on Europe.

And I find it interesting that although he wrote about a futuristic world in which sexual revolution takes on a whole new meaning, his world of the future is still strictly shaped by the sexual roles of his own time period. For instance, the men are still in charge. The women are still being patted on their behinds and not vice versa. The women are still responsible for birth control.

The 9-years war doesn't jive with me. Or it wasn't explained enough (or maybe it will be explained more at the end and I just haven't gotten to it yet!). I could better see western civilization suffering an economic slowdown of epic proportions — perhaps as a result of the death and destruction of the 9-year war — as a catalyst for this sort of society. But see, that was my mind filling in the blanks to help me understand how the whole world fell under such complete tyranny.

I would think that more of the people in Bernard's vocation would also feel discontent ... how could they perform that job and not realize that they were involved in brainwashing? I think the story could have been a lot more interesting if some discontent decided to switch around all the recordings!

And how could the nurses stomach torturing babies? Yes, yes, I know, they have also been conditioned.

You know, he missed the boat with children and consumerism. Packing them away in institutions without parental units to want to buy EVERYTHING for them, too busy brainwashing them into ideal adults in their caste to allow them to sit in front of TV sets and watch all sorts of colorful, fun commercials about toys that they'll outgrow within the year. Again, an author is a product of his own time (in his case, a time in which children did not rule the household's spending habits), no matter how sci-fi he wants to get.

Oh and erotic play for children? Beyond icky. Natural curiosity, OK. I'm sure most people have played doctor at SOME point in their childhoods. Brainwashing them and encouraging them to take part in such activities as part of the curriculum? I have no words. So glad he did not provide descriptions.

Though I did want more description on how the industrialist/consumerist-driven society worked. I almost thought he was making a point against capitalism, showing a utopian capitalist society. But that couldn't be the case since proponents of capitalism are so very against the government enacting laws, regulations, etc. that would influence and/or control the free market. Let the free market decide, right? Or else the pure capitalists start slinging around the Ev.il socialist label. Capitalists are big on FREEDOM from just about everything. There is also a lot of communist influence in this society, I guess. Sort of. Everyone belongs to everybody. But in utopian communism everybody is also equal, no? No rich, no poor. Either they would all fly helicopters or they would all take the tram. Of course, I would have to break out my old college texts to really talk intelligently on these subjects.

And if you ask me, that reservation life, not so much better. No ideal worlds in this book.


OK, that's all I've got for now!
Edited by Vikks14, Oct 25 2010, 09:05 AM.
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Vikks14
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OK, I finished the book last night, and BK you are right, the story got much more interesting with the conversations in the Controller's office!

Mond really made a good case for the World state, genetic engineering, etc etc. Not that I would want to EVER live in such a world ... but it's a hell of a lot better than the Savage's desire to live in complete misery. What was with his desire to isolate himself, flog himself, self-inflict suffering? Ugh. And his violent tendencies toward others, toward the girl! Ironic how none of the sheep helped her, demonstrating the Savage's point with a need for heroism. Instead her friend ran and hid to save himself, and the crowd saw it as an "orgy porgy" game. (Seriously, orgy porgy?? I snickered every time that was brought up.) Although the Savage made many good points in his argument with Mond, his actions afterward demonstrated to me the dark side of religious devotion. Me thinks he read way too much Shakespeare. :)

But after finishing the book, I'm a little confused about the main objective of the society. Is it economic stability, or is it emotional stability? Which is the first priority?

I also failed to see the point of the story. I know the author wanted to show a world in which population control is practiced so that the number of people in the world does not overpower available resources. And he also wanted to show how easy it could be to nonviolently control and manipulate the general populace. At least that is what he indicated in his piece, Brave New World Revisited (which I so far have only read a portion of). But I guess I fail to see the theme of the actual storyline.

He wanted to show the horrors of a future he saw on the horizon, that I know. And maybe it made more sense in his time, lord knows we are facing many of the same problems that he feared. But I don't see us ever allowing ourselves to be controlled like the "civilized" people of Brave New World. Not at that level.

I just don't get what I was supposed to get out of this book. Other than extremes are bad.

Edited by Vikks14, Oct 26 2010, 08:33 AM.
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aragorn
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I will read this book. I will read this book. LOL. Briefly going over both of your reviews isn't making me too excited about it.
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Vikks14
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LOL, it's definitely more of a type of book I could see as required high school reading, or maybe even college reading with a huge class discussion afterward.

I would have never read it on my own, but my friend, who IS a HS teacher highly recommended it to me. For some reason, this is her fav book ever.
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