Brave genius (Brave New World - Aldous Huxley)

Member Name: Dringostarr

Product:	Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Date:	27/11/02 (414 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stunning Story, clever and brave, discovery

Disadvantages: Not for everyone

A world where you were hypnotised into thinking a certain way, a world where love doesn't exist and a world where the Ford Company rule the world. Welcome to our Brave New World, everyone is now made, not born, everyone is born into a certain social life, and they are taught how to grow up, they are told how to live. Bernard Marx doesn't like this apparent utopian life and after visiting a savage reserve where people live the life of our ancestors (or from the readers point of view our present), Bernard begins to oppose this perfect world.

The book is an ingenious look at future life on earth, creating a parody of modern life yet making his new world as sinister as possible. Silly little things such as the name of Big Ben being renamed 'Big Henry' (as in Henry ford maker of the ford car) show how Huxley has attempted to rip off modern life. Drug taking was always on the increase and this book now shows how the government practically tell people to take the drugs, underage sex has grown to an extent where 'erotic play' with children is basically encouraged!

Huxley?s depicts ?Brave New World? in a specific way, he is content of making the entire concept ridiculous. Huxley is trying to show the direction that life is taking and as it shows a future society it creates a far larger response from the reader. The entire idea of being born to be a certain way, unable to think for yourself because you?re thinking the way you were taught to think as a child:

?Bottle of mine, It?s you I?ve always wanted!
Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted??

This song shows the loveless society and from the readers point of view this is a ridiculous. The fact that people are made as opposed to being born means they no longer have a Mother but a ?Bottle? and that the human race doesn?t have an elder to take care of them. The entire idea takes away the feel of being loved in the form of motherly love. Huxley.net shares the same
viewpoint claiming that ?Brave New World is an unsettling, loveless and even sinister place.? It isn?t just motherly love though some statements such as: ?You?re still going out with Henry Foster?? shows that even relationships are loveless especially with the idea that you move from person to person week by week. The ridiculous society continues with the becoming a ?Greater Being? where characters joined hands and tried to ?become one?, it seems almost like a cult. Combine the idea of Children indulging in erotic play at an incredibly young age and the heavy use of drugs and you have a reader that will be shocked and like Huxley?s view point on American society find it ridiculous.

The irony begins when the characters within the book are shocked at how the reader lives his/her life whilst the reader is shocked on how they live theirs. It is a stunning portrayal so cleverly written, making you laugh and cringe at this new society that is so utterly ridiculous yet strangely compelling from the start until the end. I'm not a fan of Huxley books but Brave New World is special, it features far more depth and enjoyable discovery, you really do not know what will be thrown at you next. Excellent modern classic. Give it a go!

Dringo.

Summary: