Archive for November 18th, 2010

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (book review)

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Brave New World First edition Book Cover

I’ve bought the small book called Brave New World by the Author Aldous Huxley
I’ve bought the book second for 2 euro and I have to say it was quite a good investment.

The first time I heard the title was when Iron Maiden’s Brave New World album become popular some few years ago.
Thus I was quite interested to see what has inspired Bruce Dickinson and the other maiden guys to come with an album title,what is so much about this book by reading it 🙂
Well I should say the guys were right the book is really an awesome piece of modern sci-fi classic.
The Brave New World book in short is a story about an evaluated futuristic society, whenever every person is conditioned from his birth and another very different society which has decided not to adapt to the new way and keep their old ways.
The book is basicly a story about the clash between the new world looking only ahead (a world without pain), and the old one full of pain statitic, brutal but still real.
In that evaluated society, the human mind is conditioned what things to like and what things to dislike constantly. Whenever somebody experiences even the slightest unconfortable feeling, there is always soma a magical mood fix up drug to work it out.

In that society, marriege is prohibited and children are born in a test-tubes in the laboratories.
In that modern world people does travel only through an air transport and woman constantly change their male partner, basicly acting like whores.
Out of this fake society, the old society which decided not to go the new fake ways of living exists, there in are Indians, Christians,and all type of people who has decided not to have their children born in a test-tube or for some reason has failed to integrate to the highly technologic new society

The book story progresses as one of the persons part of the World State develops a sort of vague hatred for his society and wants to see the old type of living, e.g. go out on a vacation in a place where still “savages” as they call them live.
He mets there an fat ugly woman whom fore some reason has been abandoned to the old world, because during her vacation she got pregnant and was in violation of the norms of the new society and therefore was banned of the “brave new world” society.
As the story progresses she and her is brought again to the World State society. Her son however cannot really integrate into this society since he has a different mindset of all of them and has a strong sense for right and wrong.

At a certain point “The Savage” as the son is called develops a completely hatred for this modernistic society and does violate the World State’s rules and gots captured by the World State police.
He consequently got cast out of the futuristic society and starts living a hermit like life in a lighthouse nearby the sea.
Because of the Savage unusual behaviour he attracts the attention of the local World State inhabitants and his type of living enters the newspapers.

The Savage gots really popular and at a certain point, many many of the local World State inhabitants comes to see him personally, even Lenina (the lady he is in love with).
Seeing Lenina around is too much for John and he attacks her with his whip. People got excited and follow their conditioning getting into a huge combination of soma and sex (an orgy).
On the morning John wakes up and remembers that he has used the soma and participated into the Orgy horrified alone and hopeless as well as tormented by the painful memories he makes his last attempt to escape civillization.
When however thousand of gawking sightseers arrive in the morning to see John whipping himself, they found him dead hanging by the neck.

The book was a high interest to me as it presents clearly the general direction that the modern society has taken (the more carnal) and confortable life as the one of choice, though it’s fakeness.
John’s personality is a very interesting one since he synthesizes in himself the eternal fight between the spiritual beginning and man and the carnal one.

Just to conclude I have to say that I recommend the book to anybody that is a true seeker and a old-fashioned sci-fi stories fan.

I’ll close this post with Iron Maiden’s Brave New World song as it was inspired quite a lot by the Brave New World book.