Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley
Rating ***(3 Stars)
**Warning Spoilers - I know but I can not help it this time.**
**Warning Spoilers - I know but I can not help it this time.**
Currently dystopian literature line the shelves of the teen racks in bookstores. Novels of brave and courageous youth who overturn society are all the current rage. Yet, dystopian literature did not start with the fame of The Hunger Games. Literature which as analyzed, and criticized, the system of government and current society has been around much longer.
One such novel is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. This is not your granddaughter's dystopian fiction. For one thing, there is not one agreeable characters. Even the characters who go against the norm of society have no substance that truly allows you to feel for them. The arguably main character, Bernard, is disagreeable because he would, and does, conform to society when ever given the chance to. John, the savage who was actually BORN, may disagree with society, but after his one attempt to actually change things fails he leaves society instead. Then when society finds him again - he kills himself. Even Helmholtz has no desire to change society. He may enjoy seeing the effects of a poem. Yet, he is more then happy to be shipped off to an island then actually change the effect of society.
This is why I find the novel disagreeable. There is no hope. One could argue that our society is very much progressed along the lines of Huxley's brave new world. People would rather become sheep having their fix of reality television shows, sports cars, and video games (not that any of these are disagreeable in themselves) then fight to make a change in our society. Yet, in many ways our world is nothing like Huxley's brave new world. There is no happiness without misery. No one in Huxley's world is truly happy. Yet in our world there is happiness, and sorrow, and the ability to choose between the two. There are people who fight to make a change. There people who continue work at bettering themselves and inso helping better society as a whole. The one aspect that our world has that is missing from Huxley's world is HOPE.
And this lack of belief in human beings is why Brave New World only received three stars. The writing is excellent. The characters (although disagreeable, are real in their disagreeableness), and the world is well created. Should you read this book? Yes, but there are many others who are better and should be read first. In a way, this novel is brave in the fact that it did view humanity without hope. The uniqueness is of value in itself.
by Aldous Huxley. This is not your granddaughter's dystopian fiction. For one thing, there is not one agreeable characters. Even the characters who go against the norm of society have no substance that truly allows you to feel for them. The arguably main character, Bernard, is disagreeable because he would, and does, conform to society when ever given the chance to. John, the savage who was actually BORN, may disagree with society, but after his one attempt to actually change things fails he leaves society instead. Then when society finds him again - he kills himself. Even Helmholtz has no desire to change society. He may enjoy seeing the effects of a poem. Yet, he is more then happy to be shipped off to an island then actually change the effect of society.This is why I find the novel disagreeable. There is no hope. One could argue that our society is very much progressed along the lines of Huxley's brave new world. People would rather become sheep having their fix of reality television shows, sports cars, and video games (not that any of these are disagreeable in themselves) then fight to make a change in our society. Yet, in many ways our world is nothing like Huxley's brave new world. There is no happiness without misery. No one in Huxley's world is truly happy. Yet in our world there is happiness, and sorrow, and the ability to choose between the two. There are people who fight to make a change. There people who continue work at bettering themselves and inso helping better society as a whole. The one aspect that our world has that is missing from Huxley's world is HOPE.
And this lack of belief in human beings is why Brave New World
only received three stars. The writing is excellent. The characters (although disagreeable, are real in their disagreeableness), and the world is well created. Should you read this book? Yes, but there are many others who are better and should be read first. In a way, this novel is brave in the fact that it did view humanity without hope. The uniqueness is of value in itself.
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