rebelgrrl's Full Review: Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Imagine living in a world where you're provided somas (painkillers) for everyday life. A world where women never have to have children. A world where promiscuity is encouraged and monogamy is ridiculous. It may sound either too good or really bad, but this world really comes to life in the novel "Brave New World."
A science fiction novel, Brave New World depicts a civilization that is based entirely on psychological conditioning. Children are not "born", merely "created" in laboratories, where they are altered to fit one specific type of social class. Each class is conditioned to think that they are better than the others, so everyone is happy. When even a hint of unhappiness or original thinking comes up, you take your soma and you're happy again.
The earth that we know now still exists, but only in reservations. These reservations are tourist attractions. The new civilization considers everything done on these reservations to be vulgar and uncivilized, such as giving birth and getting married.
As if the book's premise weren't interesting enough, the plot is interesting. It seems that every once in a while a subject doesn't take to the conditioning, and that subject must act like everyone else or he/she will be kicked out. This is the case with one of the men in the novel. I wouldn't dare give away any more of the plot.
Throughout the whole novel, I couldn't help but remember George Orwell's 1984. If you liked that, you'll like this. Brave New World is easy to read and understand, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction. I read this entire book over 8 hours of work, and it flew by.
The textbook, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, available in Hardback. Published by: Buccaneer Books, Inc.. Edition: . ISBN10: 0899664237. ISBN1...More at Textbooks.com
Aldous Huxley's tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a "utopian" future-where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically...More at HotBookSale
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.