Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A clever dystopia until it gets too preachy

Brave New World is one of those books that many American high school students are forced to read in English literature classes. It may very well be, however, one such book that they remember enjoying. Aldous Huxley’s science fiction novel of a dystopian future was first published in 1932 and now resides securely on many “best of” literary lists of the greatest novels of all time. After having first read the book in high school, I decided to reread it a few decades later and found it not quite as amusing as I remember. Brave New World is at its best early on when Huxley maintains his sense of humor. Towards the end, however, the novel takes itself too seriously.

The story takes place in London in the year 2540. We are first introduced to the baby factory where humans are manufactured to fit into one of five prescribed social castes. Biological reproduction is now considered disgusting, but indiscriminate casual sex is encouraged. Every citizen fits into their socioeconomic niche like a finely oiled gear in a clockwork machine. Nonconformity and is outlawed for the good of the whole. Any residual discontent is nullified by drugs. Henry Ford, the American father of modern industrialism, is worshipped as a god, and worship is compulsory. Amid this tightly prescribed system, however, there are anomalies. One is Bernard Marx, a high-caste worker who doesn’t fit into and doesn’t buy into this shallow world around him. Bernard craves solitude, individuality, meaning, and love. He’s not even satisfied when the woman of his dreams, Lenina Crowne, wants to have casual sex with him.

After establishing this future London, the plot makes a surprising turn to New Mexico, where Bernard and Lenina venture on vacation. There, on a Native American reservation where the inhabitants live a “primitive” existence (by 2540 standards), Bernard finds a white man living among the Indians. With ulterior motives, Bernard brings this wild young man, whose name is John but who is often referred to as “the Savage,” back to civilized London. If Bernard was a fish out of water in this society, John is even more so. Huxley contrasts the Savage’s old-fashioned (i.e. twentieth-century) morals with the vapid hedonism of the dystopian Londoners.

After contrasting the ways of the Savage with the meaningless existence of the “brave new world,” what is Huxley’s prescription for societal ills? Shakespeare and the Bible. Really? For such a daring book that has been frequently banned for its racy content, Brave New World ultimately delivers a surprisingly conservative ending that’s almost Victorian in its traditional morality. Is Huxley merely directing his satire from one vision of society to another? Though he might be exaggerating some of the Savage’s Christian religious fervor, it seems unlikely that Huxley’s glorification of Shakespeare is insincere.

The surprising thing about Brave New World is that the future it satirically depicts has turned out to be the opposite of where society seems to be heading in the 21st century (at least as far as Americans are concerned). Instead of Huxley’s vision of soulless science, free love, and selfless conformity, the United States moves toward a future that’s anti-science, anti-intellectual, pro-religion, anti-sex, anti-birth control, and pro-redneck individualism. At least our rampant income disparity parallels Huxley’s stratified caste system. Huxley’s brave new world, come to think of it, doesn’t seem so bad, with its blissful ignorance, unlimited sex, and total lack of material wants. By comparison, maybe we’re the ones living in a dystopia.
If you liked this review, please follow the link below to Amazon.com and give me a “helpful” vote. Thank you.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R21UBZNUESUX71/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm