Never read it. But I am buying a copy now (still waiting for it to arrive). And I am very familiar with the story. It is told and retold many times, by people who dread the ultimate end result of liberalism and political correctness. Oh, and there was a made-for-TV movie starring the late Leonard Nimoy that I did see once (although I got the feeling it wasn't as faithful to the original story as it could be). My question then is, what was wrong with the story portrayed? Some people call the book an example of a dystopia. I don't think that is true at all. Humans were very practical and reasonable. Revenge and retribution didn't exist, evil people were merely "sick". And when you died, they used your body for a practical purpose, reclaiming the precious phosphorous it held. I find that last one a little distasteful myself. But what the heck? Why not? Could people's criticism of Brave New World just be people's wistful desire to hang on to old and dated moral systems? I think we would be lucky to reach that stage in our sociocultural development some day. What do the rest of you think?
There's also a lesser known sequel, "Brave New World Revisited". I haven't read it though, but I might one day. Brave New World. I read that when I was in eighth grade or ninth grade while I was away at boarding school. I remember the classification system of people as Alpha Beta Gamma Delta and Epsilon seemed really unusual. I thought it was sort of mean. And why did they take soma? I can't remember, but the book was definitely good.
wait, leonard nimoy's dead? was this a recent occurrence? i read brave new world years ago, but it really didn't make much of an impression on me, so i don't remember much of it. 1984 was way more interesting to me.
^ no, i wasn't kidding. this one completely slipped by me. generally i'm not that surprised to find out that older actors are dead, but i thought i had seen him make some relatively recent appearances.
Interesting that OP sees the book as anti-liberal. I sure did not rather anti-conservative. Reading in a post 9/11 world I saw a lot of the Republican polices in the book. The general cold heated "pull yourself up by your own boot straps" mentality conservatives love. The class system present in America too. But Brave New World and 1984 are both books people always apply to current politics. If the other guy is doing it the book says so too. Everyone is so sure it's a little secret written just for their team. The purpose of the books is to look for this in any goverment not just one party. With technology advancing as it is now we need to control this sort of thing now or things that make life better can be seriously misused.
I read "The Machine Stops" for my English exams in 1964. Today, I feel that it is fast becoming a reality. The problem is, that the machine was programmed by humans and has all the nasty traits and selfish greed of the human race.
Whatever you may think, Huxley certainly meant it as a dystopia. It isn't people's criticism that makes it so, but the authors intention. It's that simple.
