Brave New World

“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”

3.5 STARS

I actually wasn't expecting that I would like this novel as much as I did. Though it was really overwhelming at first with all the scientific evidence and explanation right off the bat, it mellowed out and was actually really fascinating. The only thing that really threw me was that we didn't really have a main character until we were like two thirds of the way through, but no matter. I think one of the most interesting things about this book is that it did not avoid talk of sex and erotic subjects. It makes me wonder if it was in response to a suppression of such tendencies in Huxley's environment and general society at the time, since this came out so many decades ago, but the stigma still exists today. I wonder if that's one of the main reasons people don't like this book: it doesn't beat around the bush regarding are, well somewhat ridiculous, social customs regarding sexuality and sexual activity both in adolescents and adults alike. Huxley makes a point to emphasize that these feelings are normal and the fact that we are restraining them seems abnormal, something our society is so desperate not to be. However, there are obviously hyperbolic tendencies in this book, with mothers and fathers being regarded as smut and such a control of the population being enforced and the strict social hierarchies put in place. But I think almost everything in this book correlates to our general society if you look close enough, and it made it extremely fascinating. One of the most interesting things about this was that it's pretty much the direct opposite of 1984. In Orwell's classic, Big Brother rules through paranoia, oppression, and fear to control society in which Winston must break free from. But in this novel, the Alphas and Directors of Hatcheries and Conditioning rule through some twisted form of happiness. In this society everyone is happy. Everyone is content with their lives because they have been conditioned to be and have no reason to be otherwise. It is some odd form of love that the Controllers yield to their subjects, and it's fascinating. Big Brother abused; the Controllers love. But both dystopias do not have freedom, the difference is that in one the people are repressed and in the other they are simply too blind with their own happiness to see any other form of autonomy that should be necessary to life. The writing was interesting, certainly elevated, but told in a way that was not unapproachable to the general reader, disregarding the initial chapter or two with the overload of scientific explanation and info-dump style of worldbuilding. All in all, 4 stars, and I might pick up another of Huxley's works in the future. Share your thoughts!