Print Page - Aldous Huxley : Brave New World

Τις διακοπές του Πάσχα διάβασα το κλασικό βιβλίο του 1932, Θαυμαστός Νέος Κόσμος (Brave New World). Αυτό που μου έμεινε είναι ότι ο Huxley έχει σπουδαίες ιδέες, αλλά δεν τις παρουσιάζει τόσο ρεαλιστικά, ενώ είναι και κουραστικός ο τρόπος γραφής του.
Παρακάτω 3 reviews αναγνωστών από το amazon.com, οι δυο πρώτοι δίνουν 5/5 και η τρίτη 3,5/5.

Is happiness worth the price of individual thought?, June 3, 2003
By bixodoido (Utah, USA)

When Brave New World was published (in the 1930s), the thought of a totalitarian form of government taking over a large portion of the world (or even the whole world) was not impossible. Today, of course, that threat seems more distant, but the possibility is still there. The most horrifying effect of this new, dictatorial civilization is the corruption of art and science. As Huxley himself points out in his foreword to this edition, his "Brave New World" is one in which science has been greatly perverted. Instead of science being used for the convenience of man, man is being molded and shaped according to the progress of science--a terrible possibility.

This Brave New World is one in which everyone is happy. This happiness comes, though, at the expense of both passion and thought. People are happy because they cannot be passionate--they do not pine over a lost love, do not desire anything they can't have (they have sexually promiscuous relationships indiscriminately, and say "everyone belongs to everyone"), and do not ever feel sorrow at the death of someone they know. They are created artificially, and thus have no parents or familial connections. They never marry. And even if they DO ever feel depressed or overwhelmed, they can always take soma (a mind-altering drug which does the job of alcohol and narcotics without the side-effects) and take a `holiday' from their troubles.

People are `conditioned' to feel and act a certain way from conception. There is no concept of instinct--every ideal, thought, feeling and belief a person has comes about both because of certain injections they received while fetuses and because of various messages played to them in their sleep when children. In effect, they are programmed, and feel no pain or sorrow because they are not conditioned to. This raises an interesting question--are these people really oppressed? After all, they are happy, they feel none of the sorrows and difficulties that free-thinking people do. And their lost liberties (thought, feeling, etc) are not missed--in fact, they don't even know they should miss them. "Mother" is an obscene word, and so is "chastity."

The central conflict of this book comes when a "savage" (from a `savage' reservation in the Southern US where people are allowed to continue with familial and religious beliefs, but not allowed to leave) is brought from the reservation to live in society. His home on the reservation was dirty, stinky, and full of hate, cruelty, and disease, yet, in the end, he actually prefers this kind of existence to the carefree one he is forced to live. In effect, he would rather have liberty, and all the pain that comes with it, than ignorant bliss.

This is one of the most thought-provoking novels of the twentieth century, and deserves a place next to such books as 1984, Animal Farm, and Slaughterhouse Five. It is perhaps less-known than these other classics, but it is every bit as good and ingenious a story, and every bit as poignant in its look at society.

More subtle than 1984, March 5, 2001
By David E. Levine (Peekskill , NY USA)

This novel looks into the future and creates a disturbing vision of social and genetic engineering creating a "utopia." The subtlty of this vision, however, is that people are conditioned to be happy with the empty lives they live. Any unhapiness is remedied by "soma." a drug which takes away all worries. A caste system is engineered and in the lower castes, all individuals are alike, indeed, through genetic engineering, dozens of identical siblings are routinely created. Stripped of all individuality, they are conditioned to be happy as cogs in the wheel. Romance is gone but, open sexuality is rampant and considered the norm. To abstain from promiscuous sex defies convention.
Through a character named John, who is known as the savage and who comes from a separate civilization, we compare whether a life of individuality and purpose, but also with pain and unpleasant experiences, is better than the controlled life of hapiness. The "brave new world" is a society in which humankind is enslaved but, is happy with its servitude. Unlike Orwell's chilling "1984" in which the totalitarian state is held together by the frightening concept of Big Brother watching, this society needs little coercive controls. People are conditioned to to be happy with their roles in society. With some exceptions hinted at in the novel, most people are indeed happy through conditioningopen sex and "soma holidays."
This novel is thought provoking, and as we see paternalistic (as opposed to coercive) big government assert it's role in our lives, parallels to the "brave new world" are certain to be drawn.

(3.5) Worth reading once, but not as good as Orwell's "1984", May 29, 2004
By Monika "equestrienne_23" (Davis, California)

The year is 632 A.F. ("after Ford"), and babies are no longer born. No one has a mother or father. In fact, those terms are now considered "dirty" words and are no longer used. Instead, everyone begins life as a test-tube baby, genetically and environmentally conditioned to fit into their own predestined social caste - Alpha (the highest caste, composed of society's most intelligent members), Beta, Delta, Gamma, or Epsilon (the lowest caste, composed of mindless semi-moron clone laborers). Godlike status has been conferred upon Henry Ford, and mass production is taken to frightening extremes. The world is considered stable, and everyone is happy. Working hours are light (and people are pre-conditioned to enjoy their work anyway), entertainment options abound, and promiscuity is encouraged. Taking the place of church services are weekly orgies. Happiness is the ultimate goal of existence, and if anyone should ever feel the slightest hint of depression, they are conditioned to turn immediately to the hallucinogenic drug called "soma" for immediate relief.
However, among the ranks of the intellectual Alphas, there remain a few who question the desirability of this synthetic world. One such man is Bernard Marx (interestingly, most of the names in this novel are adapted from those of historical political figures and theorists - Lenina Crowne, Polly Trotsky, Benito Hoover, Sarojini Engels, Herbert Bakunin, Helmoltz Watson, etc.). A few places in the world that are not considered worth modernizing are set aside as "savage reservations" which are now the only places where people still live in a "pre-Fordian" way. Marx takes a vacation to one of these reservations, and ends up bringing a savage back home with him. This, of course, sets the stage for all sorts of challenges to the society's values.
Perhaps I was expecting too much, based on all I'd previously heard about the book, or perhaps I would have been more struck by it if I hadn't already read "1984" by George Orwell, but Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" came as a bit of a disappointment to me. It's definitely worth reading once, especially for fans of dystopian literature, but unlike "1984" it's not one I'm likely to return to for a second helping anytime soon. The ideas Huxley puts forth are valuable, but the delivery leaves room for improvement. The story just doesn't hang together quite tightly enough to pack a full-blown punch.
The first couple of chapters are very interesting and seem promising, but after that it felt like the story deteriorated somewhat. As I said before, I do admire the points Huxley makes, but the book was not very compelling as a whole. Much of it takes the form of satire, which is fine, and even amusing, but then there are numerous points at which the plot goes far overboard and borders on the ridiculous. When this happens, the story ceases to be believable, compromising the strength of Huxley's messages. One of the things that makes Orwell's "1984" so terrifying and thought-provoking is that, though it is futuristic fiction, it is so detailed and serious that is actually seems plausible. Books like this need to be both plausible and scary for them to have an impact. If the reader doesn't get the feeling that such a world just might actually come into being, and that it is not a place they want to live, then it's hard to take the message seriously.
My overall verdict, therefore, is that you should read "Brave New World" once, but, unless you're a real dystopia buff, I'd recommend checking it out of the library or borrowing a copy from someone else rather than purchasing it. It's a valuable piece for the ideas is proposes, and it's a quick and easy read, but it is not the most effective book of its type. The fact that it was written so long ago (1932) also means that it does not take into account any historical events that have happened since then, and perhaps this is another reason why it seems a little less realistic. I do not regret reading it, as having done so adds to one's literary and philosophical repertoire, but I much more highly recommend George Orwell's "1984" (written in 1948), which is both thoroughly engaging and highly thought-provoking.

THMMY.gr

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