The Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

“O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world
That has such people in’t!”

Miranda’s speech in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:

Remeber Nineteen Eighty-Four by Orwell? Brave New World is set in AF 632. Both talk about an orderly society – an ironic utopia. 1984 presents a future world where the human emotions are suppressed and tamed; where as Huxley’s world controls the reproductive mechanism and world is populated with perfect human beings who are always happy. If they are not, they get soma to make them happy.

The societ is hedonistic as a whole, rather that is the way of life. Everyone belongs to everyone else. No sexual tensions, no jealousy and no old age. They talk about the viviparous human species that used to exist before the time of Our Ford.

A great and a must read. But I think I like 1984 more. Brave New World feels too robotic and there is a disconnect between the author’s and my imaginations. But it is intentionally disturbing; probably thats what Huxley wanted.

~ by The Diva on November 14, 2007.