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A review by alexiacambaling
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
There are many thoughts running through my mind while I read this book. It's impossible to read it and not think. But chiefly, I thought of Plato's perfect society that he depicted in The Republic. Strip away the mass production, genetic engineering, and drugs present in Brave New World and you'd see a version of the society Plato wished for. The Alpha Plus Controllers being the Philosopher-Kings. A society made up of a hierarchical caste structure, which everyone is conditioned not to challenge. I wondered what Plato would have thought of such a society.
Brave New World depicts a society controlled by mass production and consumerism. The conditioning of its inhabitants geared towards continuous consumption, more machine than individual. Throw away the old, they said, why mend when you can get something new? In a way, I was reminded of an ant colony. The lower castes were being thoroughly dehumanized conditioned to hate nature, to not seek art and free thought because passion is dangerous, destabilizing. The stability came at the cost of the loss of what made humans human. Happiness and stability, but only a shallow one. Soma exists because thinking of these things would make one realize how depressing, vapid, and shallow it all is.
The most interesting thing about Brave New World is the society it depicts. The characters serve to guide you along the world the author depicted, but other than that, I don't find them very much memorable. The Savage, perhaps a mouthpiece for those horrified at the society depicted. The writing isn't particularly memorable either. It's great achievement lies in depicting a dystopia eerily plausible.
I like that there was an argument for the society. I don't agree with it but I like that it exists. I can see why people would choose it and I can see why they'd choose it for everyone else. To be honest, I've not read many dystopias since I've had my YA dystopia phase when I was 13, but I would say Brave New World is better than every one of them if only because those in charge were not incompetent. This society doesn't fall, it continues, because the alternative is too frightening for the mass-conditioned inhabitants to imagine.
Brave New World depicts a society controlled by mass production and consumerism. The conditioning of its inhabitants geared towards continuous consumption, more machine than individual. Throw away the old, they said, why mend when you can get something new? In a way, I was reminded of an ant colony. The lower castes were being thoroughly dehumanized conditioned to hate nature, to not seek art and free thought because passion is dangerous, destabilizing. The stability came at the cost of the loss of what made humans human. Happiness and stability, but only a shallow one. Soma exists because thinking of these things would make one realize how depressing, vapid, and shallow it all is.
The most interesting thing about Brave New World is the society it depicts. The characters serve to guide you along the world the author depicted, but other than that, I don't find them very much memorable. The Savage, perhaps a mouthpiece for those horrified at the society depicted. The writing isn't particularly memorable either. It's great achievement lies in depicting a dystopia eerily plausible.
I like that there was an argument for the society. I don't agree with it but I like that it exists. I can see why people would choose it and I can see why they'd choose it for everyone else. To be honest, I've not read many dystopias since I've had my YA dystopia phase when I was 13, but I would say Brave New World is better than every one of them if only because those in charge were not incompetent. This society doesn't fall, it continues, because the alternative is too frightening for the mass-conditioned inhabitants to imagine.