Brave New World
Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
By Ford what a book! To be completely honest it did take me a few chapters to get into this one, but once I did, I absolutely loved it. Shamefully, I’d never read Brave New World before despite it being the exact sort of book I like. It was worth the long wait.
They’d have you believe the future is a Utopia. Illness has been lagerly eradicated, all have their place in life, and everyone is super happy all the time and can fuck all day long without consequence. Utopia. The only price for this utopia is the deletion of passion, love, being a parent (ok that one does appeal) freethinking, science, art, and any type of individuality whatsoever. But, if you do want any of those things, you can put yourself in a Soma haze and forget all your troubles. Bliss.
It always fascinates me how so many of these older books accurately predict large chunks of the future. Often the mechanism to get there is wrong, but the social standards and philosophy is spot on. It’s kinda scary. Brave New World had me feeling angry so often as I could see the governments arguments playing out in real time in the present world. We had been warned I guess, but it seems no one paid attention to Orwell, Huxley and Atwood.
There was so much world building to love about this book, and the book delighted in sharing it. From the bottled babies to the conditioning in their sleep. The Soma pills. The scents everywhere. The Feely’s had me laughing and horrified at the same time. The death building was insane. Weaponising sex. The Savages. The fucking TV on all the time. So many ideas, and all so well executed. (Yes, i’m aware one of the above is slightly dated presentation wise, but the book’s like a hundred years old almost)
The battle of comfort over individuality plays throughout the story as we witness varying viewpoints and follow several different characters who are trying to figure out this argument themselves. It’s a subject which interests me greatly, and it was all told so well. Both sides where fairly put forth, and a few chapters towards the end were some of the best philosophical discussions i’ve read in a book. (if only we could still have these types of conversations now without them descending into instant name-calling and hate)
I really liked all the characters, especially John and Lenina, but the book really is about the (in my opinon) terrifying world presented as a faux Utopia. As someone who often writes about individualism and creativity Brave New World read as a straight up horror. Every page made me wince and smile.
Brave New World is considered a classic for a good reason, it absolutely is one. The style is daring, the prose interesting, the characters complex, while also trying to live simple lives. The world building is some of the best i’ve seen, and the explanation for a lot of it would seem farcical if it wasn’t all too real. An incredible book, and one I already can’t wait to read again.
