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A review by midici
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
3.0
This was an interesting dystopia. Designing people in utero to pre-destin them to everything from the caste they will have, to the job they will work, to the types of commercial items they will by, the people of this future society have bred out free will. There are no choices but the socially acceptable ones provided, no change in society whatsoever, and no one has any problem with this due to their conditioning. It poses some interesting questions; if we abhor the society Huxley imagines then we have tactily agree with John, the so-called 'savage,' that it's better keep our suffering, our imperfect society, our unpredictable, violent and chaotic world then to choose the 'civilised' society that has achieved world peace and happiness. It's a utopia that's so devoid of emotion that any emotion, even the bad ones, are preferable.
The higher level Alphas occasionally produce throwbacks, characters who are unhappy with their lot in life and have no real way to express it. It's discovered at the end that most of these people are sent away to 'islands' so as not to upset the rest of teh population. This is not really supposed to be a punishment - it's a win-win in that those who are unhappy get to live amongst other people who feel the same way and the society doesn't have to deal with them.
The ending provides too extremes to choose from. John decides he can't live in the civilised society at all, and chooses to take his own way out. The other two decide to take up the option of leaving. The option to change society isn't presented - the people are so controlled that the possibility of revolution doesn't exist. It's a rather bleak take on things, that the set up is so well designed that it couldn't be brought down.
The higher level Alphas occasionally produce throwbacks, characters who are unhappy with their lot in life and have no real way to express it. It's discovered at the end that most of these people are sent away to 'islands' so as not to upset the rest of teh population. This is not really supposed to be a punishment - it's a win-win in that those who are unhappy get to live amongst other people who feel the same way and the society doesn't have to deal with them.
The ending provides too extremes to choose from. John decides he can't live in the civilised society at all, and chooses to take his own way out. The other two decide to take up the option of leaving. The option to change society isn't presented - the people are so controlled that the possibility of revolution doesn't exist. It's a rather bleak take on things, that the set up is so well designed that it couldn't be brought down.