Reviews

Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley

bittersweet_symphony's review

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4.0

When Huxley wrote it he initially assumed this dystopia would exist 6 centuries down the road. After WWII he commented that "today it seems quite possible that the horror may be upon us within a single century." Although I find Orwell's 1984 a much more timely and accurate portryal of our modern world than Huxley's A Brave New World, BNW touches on issues left unexplored: sexuality and mind-altering drugs. I see plenty of parallels, and hope the world will heed his prophetic counsel of the world we may choose for ourselves if we fear liberty more than the tantalizing cry for stability by central planners and those wanting an "easier way."

I wish the characters had greater depth, and richer development. They were a bit flat. That may not be a problem given the fact that the novel is more about the evils of collectivism and more macro-level issues in society. There is a reason this has been required reading for many schools. Unfortunately, too few heed its warnings.

punkygoo13's review against another edition

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dark reflective slow-paced

4.25

spectracommunist's review

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5.0

Not only a companion to the Brave New World but it's even a great non-fiction about how our societies gets victimized towards dystopia under psychological techno-dictators. This book explores the concepts of Brave New World, it talks about brain-washing and subliminal injection and how Hitler used these devices in propogandas, also about neo-pavlovian conditioning as applied by commercial brands and religious leaders. It revolves around human-psychology and how herd-corruption takes place.

Amazing thing being, Huxley extrapolated the contents of this entire book just from a single TV interview which he gave being disillusioned about how his fantasy can easily get real soon.

mctennant2's review against another edition

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challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

mmurph04's review against another edition

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fast-paced

2.75

classic_toby's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

Reads like what it is: a series of psychological / sociological essays. Reminded me of Machiavelli’s The Prince, but if it were written for the dictator of the future. Some light “did I call it or what?” bragging and on the subject of Orwell’s 1984 “nuh uh it wouldn’t happen like that it’d happen like how I wrote it.”

appreeshation's review against another edition

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3.75

-1.25 bc the esssay i wrote on this was bad . 

catievalentino's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

5.0

maryjf23's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.5

danicanread's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

3.5