Genetic manipulation is no longer a fantasy of science fiction but a reality slowing invading our 21st century lives. Huxley understood advancing technology absent of the restraint of ethical consideration would pose grave consequences for society-at-large. "Brave New World" is Huxley's warning to this planet to refrain from weeding out the humanity of our existence through mechanical efficiency or ideological fanaticism.

"Brave New World", though written 16 years before "1984" is actually a political sister book to that terrifying vision that did come true with the crimes of the Soviet Stalinist regime. Both books stress the total control that is required by dictatorships. In "Brave New World" dissent is squashed by flooding the masses with "freedoms" like drugs and unrestricted sex while populating the society with genetic underclasses grown in a test-tube factory. Basically you were conceived to be a janitor and that is all you will ever be. Huxley's homeland of England, most likely gave him a few ideas in this direction, due to its class-obsessed society.

"1984's" policy of control was decidedly more grim. Drugs and sex were banned. Even thinking of drugs, sex or unstately thoughts were banned as "thoughtcrimes." Punishment was the controlling mechanism in "1984's" society. And yet both society's succeeded in total control through lies and restrictions. True freedom was banished. Like Huxley, Orwell too was a subject of England, and most likely received a great deal of his ideas by observing English government in India.

Unlike "1984", "Brave New World" is satirical in nature. It strives not only to reveal important truths about human nature and nasty dictatorships but mocks the very moxy that supposes this is what people truly want: someone to control their lives for them. The title alone "Brave New World" is itself a mocking reminder of Huxley's enormous distaste for the monsters who would create such a society in the dark hope for future order and "civilization."

I recommend for further reading:

Brave New World Revisited------ by Aldous Huxley

Huxley revists the ideas he incorporates into the novel "Brave New World"
twenty years later. This is a short but fine book of essays written in
1952.

Brave New World Re-Revisited--------by Mark Antony Rossi

This is my in-depth feature article on today's technological leaps and how they fit into Huxley's vision of what we are bound to do to each other without ethical oversight of scientific achievements.

Collages & Bricolages 2000 order at: (www.amazon.com)





Recommended: Yes