The first few chapters are exposition -- a disjointed, opaque slog of a journey -- but once that’s out of the way and the story picks up, it’s a quick, multi-layered read studded with expertly-placed philosophical questions. Heavy on plot and light on character development, it’s clear this novel was written around a thesis, more of a manifesto via story than the other way around, but it’s skillfully done. Little details, like Huxley’s consistent use of “pneumatic” and “sententous” as adjectives, and repeated plot features like taxicopters and feelies and soma rations create an immersive world. I’m sure the pre-writing for this novel was vastly larger than the finished product. It’s worth a read, for its status as a classic and for those well-placed questions of philosophy, and because for a rather dark novel, it still has a beautiful message and some shining rays of hope.

In fact, the overall darkness of the story makes the hopeful parts shine brighter, which is a perfect metaphor for the novel’s main themes -- that it is variation that makes humanity human, that not only does light not exist without dark nor happiness without sadness, but that without a counterpart, everything good becomes its own opposite. In the absence of sadness, happiness becomes sadness in the form of numbness. In the absence of struggle, triumph is rendered null and becomes a struggle of its own. In the absence of imperfection, perfection is just boring and becomes (like imperfection) something to strive away from rather than toward. At least, that’s what I got from this novel, possibly because I needed to find a way to be grateful for the plumbing problems in my house… Without this problem, home ownership wouldn’t make me feel so badass? Yeah, let’s go with that. Read Brave New World, maybe you can find a way to be grateful for the variation in your life too.

Probably better than Brave New World.

Having read the original many times and finding my library copy also had this, I read on.
Interesting how he compares BNW and 1984.
I obviously had some of the assumed values in BNW way off; reading the author's own views on how his predictions were panning out was fascinating. Especially as things have moved on again.
Well worth a read.

So important to revisit this dystopian critique today!

Interesting dystopian vision. The commercialism aspect seems to be very true today. Definitely left me with things to think about.

Another high school re-read. I just....what even was this? I loved it so much when I was a teenager but like what's the big deal? They just wanna get high. (read 2021)

This book might put an end to my plans of studying anything publicity & marketing. Publicity is bad, bad, evil.

I read this in two days in 2015. I didn't love it and I didn't like any of the characters involved, but I thought it was interesting and i was glad I had knocked out another classic. I don't remember anything about the story now in 2017. I had accidentally deleted it from my shelves, so I'm throwing this blurb up.

3.5/5

Huxley, a través de doce ensayos, repasa algunos puntos interesantes de Un mundo feliz, tomando en cuenta información nueva o detalles que pasó por alto en el momento de escribir la novela.

Aunque interesantes, a mi parecer, no todos los ensayos envejecieron de la mejor manera. Atinó en algunas predicciones pero, por momentos, se siente encapsulada en el periodo en que se escribió (50's)

Debo decir que en cierta forma me decepcionó, pues esperaba un complemento más directo a la novela, que lo es, solo que se siente bastante ajena a la misma y en cierto punto podría decirse que llega a ser completamente independiente a Un mundo feliz y se convierte en una crítica a aspectos sociales reales que se tocaron en la ficción de la novela de Huxley a la que alude.

Diría que sí es una nueva visita a un mundo feliz, pero una visita al más puro estilo de "Comes y te vas".