WHY YOU SHOULD READ
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Lately, it feels like dysantopian novel is the new trend and some people seem to consider that it’s a new thing. It’s not a new thing. It’s a very old thing. 1984 is kind of an obvious one. Brave New World is another, and I decided to put this one in the list because of many reasons. For one thing, if you love Shakespeare and you’ve read some of his work, you’ll really enjoy this book, because it’s just filed with reference from Shakespeare’s plays. Just the name of the book is from The Tempest. In a way, Shakespeare writing worked as the father figure in John’s life.
So basically, how this world works is that kids are all made in tubes. People don’t have parents and when John dares talking about his mother, then he gets ridiculed, because having a mother is like totally gross—I hope you had a Valley Girl intonation when you read that last line. And these babies in tubes, well, they put chemicals in there so you have better more intelligent peeps, and then you get dumber ones. They are all separated into five classes : Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.
And so that world is kind of all kinds of fucked up. Consumption is highly praised, sex is a social activity, spending time alone is just god damn weird and they shy away from any kind of strong feelings. Oh also anything like marriage, pregnancy, parenthood and all that shebang are like the new taboo.
So basically, you have a chain of human being, being created and they are really nothing more than useless shells.
But when you throw in there a dude that’s lived in the wild all his life and has a mother and actually read literature, well, then you have a nice recipe for disaster.
Also, you’ve got an epic orgy scene. For you naughty folks. Though it’s not explicit!
Anyway, all in all, this is a very interesting read, one that shows you the importance of actually feeling things, the good and the bad.
Quotes: “The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?"
"You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons–that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned to.”
“All right then," said the Savage defiantly, I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat, the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.”
