Book Review: Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Aldous Huxley published Brave New World in 1932, a dystopian fantasy written as a counterpoint to H.G. Wells' optimistic view of the future presented in Men Like Gods. Perhaps what's most amazing about Brave New World, is that Huxley wrote it before WWII, when the prevailing attitudes about the future were overwhelmingly positive.

Brave New World is set in London in the year 2540. After years of war, a single World State is in control providing community, identity and stability for all of society. Sounds pretty good, until you hear what's been given up in order to get it. Reproductive technology and sleep-learning make this society possible. People no longer live in families. There are 5 castes of people all "hatched" and grown in "factories" of a sort. Alphas (the highest caste) are allowed to develop naturally and, to some extent, experience a kind of individualism. The other 4 castes are tampered with at some point in fetal development to limit intelligence and physical growth. All people are bred for certain jobs. These jobs aren't a prison, however, because the breeding also happens at the level of desires. They only could want to do these specific jobs. "Sleep-learning" is a kind of conditioning that keeps each caste in its place, and also creates in them consumer desires that keep the economy running smoothly. Additionally, the world population is strictly kept to 2 billion assuring there are enough resources for everyone.

Much of the plot revolves around describing this society. The critical event is the recreational visit two Alphas take to an Indian reservation in New Mexico. They go to see the "uncivilized savages" who are not apart of the world society. They end up taking John Savage and his mother Linda back to London, to introduce them to civilization. This is where the title of the book comes from, a direct allusion to Shakespeare's The Tempest, where Miranda (living as a slave on an island) first encounters other people. She exclaims "O brave new world! That has such people in it!" It's an ironical title, as John Savage is not at all impressed with Civilization, and eventually tries to flee from it.

What works: Huxley's fears, as it turns out were well-founded. Neil Postman, in Amusing Ourselves to Death compared Brave New World with George Orwell's 1984, and he contends (rightly) that Huxley's fears were closer to the mark (at least for modern Western society):

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

The most poignant parts of the book are discussions about the World State's decision to exchange the noble, the true, and the good for absence of pain and easy happiness.

What didn't work: While necessary to set the stage, some of the factory tours in the first 6 chapters of the book were laborious to read. The book's entertainment value increases drastically from chapter 7 on.

Read it if: you like dystopian novels, or are interested in cultural critique of Western society.

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