i'm about to read this for english 12 and it sounds pretty cool but id like to know how good of a read it is.
It's one of my favorite books. You should be happy that they are requiring you to read such a cool book in high school. My high school would have never let us read anything remotely interesting. There are a few threads already in existence about Brave New World though, which I have already posted in. Otherwise I would have said more.
hey court; I'm glad to see some of our schools are still having Brave New World as a required read.It is a very good thought provoking book,along the lines of Orwell's 1984.So enjoy the reading and let us know what you think after you are finished,I doubt if you will be disappointed.
Anything by Huxley is great, anything. Can't believe they're having you read Huxley in highschool...lucky you, take advantage of the opportunity, not everyone is exposed to this kind of litterature in school. So, anyway. I have to admit, at first, Brave New World didn't really appeal to me, but i kept on reading anyway. It was all a bit confusing being 13 when i read it. Wasn't really impressed by his "most praised novel", so i moved on to other authors like Kerouac, Rimbaud, Paulo Coelho, etc. I decided to pick it up and read it again last year and since have a new respect for his work, although i do believe Brave New World is widely over rated. I decided to pick up more of his works after reading it so if you enjoy Brave New World i strongly suggest you read more of his works. If you're not into sci fi, you might not like it, but give it a chance. It's original, and i took kind of as a wake up call/warning as to what society may become, i mean, not litterally but you'll get what i mean once you finish the book. Don't expect something HUGE and exceptional, don't have people make you fall in love with the book before you've even opened it, expectations can be deceiving with this kind of book, this ain't Shakespeare or Rimbaud or Dickens. Anyway, if you enjoy this read, you should really look into more of his works because there's alot more to Aldous Huxley than just Brave New World, the man's mind expands into multiple, stunning worlds. A few suggestions: Time Must Have a Stop is also good. In my opinion the book is directed to a specific audience, one that finds in interest in art and theology and the like. Not for everyone but i injoyed it. Eyeless In Gaza, by far my favorite of his works. Almost poetic in it's own way, brutaly true and eye opening, i loved it loved it LOVED it, FAR better than Brave New World, in my opinion anyway... Heaven and Hell and The Doors of Perception, non fictions. If you're familiar with the notion of Huxley's drug use, this ones about his experiences and such with mescalin and mysticism. Kind of reminded me of um...arg, can't remember the name of the book, anyway, interesting read if you're into the non fiction (and drug) thing. (Ahhh, if you like weird drug related books, check out Timothy Leary.) There's tons more, and if you're into poetry, deffinitly check out his works in that aspect. Those 4 i liked alot more than Brave New World. So, if you injoy reading Brave New World i deffinitly recommend you those 4. well i hope you enjoy reading Huxley! hehe
thanks guys.. i look forward to reading it..... wax.. thanx for the suggestions.... i appreciate it. always love a new read
Huxley was a very good writer, and Brave New World is a good book, although not his best. It is almost where we are living now
im not really a fan of this book........... ive had a hard time getting into it. liked 1984 a lot better........ it wont deter me from reading any of his other works though....... ive heard he's quite a good author
That's an understandable view of Huxley's writing in general. Compared to Orwell, Huxley's writing style is stiff and clumsy. Huxley is trapped in his head, and that's why his writing style doesn't flow, but jerks along from intelectual concept to intelectual concept. To get the most out of Huxley, one needs to forget about style and not focus so much on readability. One needs to focus instead on how Huxley contrasts conflicting concepts, and uses the interplay and interaction of differing concepts to develop new and dramatic dialectical synthesis. Such as the dialectical synthesis of our Brave New World with the world of John Savage, and how these contrasting concepts synthesize to create our hero's evolution. It's been so long I can't remember our young hero's name. The young man who brought John Savage back from the Primitive Reservation to our Brave New World.
m6m that would be bernard i can read it. and it is interesting. just not what i expected and it's definitely overrated
Wow… I think just the reverse. When I read 1984, I thought it’s full of journalistic clichés. As for Huxley’s permanent jerks and jumps, they’re just a part of his style I wouldn’t say he is trapped in his head, if I understand correctly what you mean. I’d say that he had no head at all to keep a concept for a long time; in Jungian terms, he had either intuitive or feeling type of personality. But I am not a professional and can be easily mistaken.
You're right, 'trapped in his head' is a little harsh, because one could say that about most of us. But he tries so hard to get his concepts across that I kept picturing some constipated guy in a squat grunting with the effort. I feel the easy flow of his story suffers from it. I suspect you're also right about his intuitive or feeling type of personality, but that must have made him all the more frustrated with his own stiff style. A lot of Orwellian quotes have become today's cliches, but back then they were original. Orwell's journalistic style is crisp and vivid as a reporter's expose of the story behind the news. Thanks, yeh poor old bernard. what a goof! You might prefer a really good narrated and dramatized audio-tape/disc version of A Brave New World that I heard a few years ago. They knew just how to breathe life into Huxley's story. There was also a good British cinema production a few years back.
Yes, his writing is somewhat pretentious; I think, he understood that. But it is very good in some way. It reminds me of baroque painting or, say, Villon’s poems. As far as I understand, he was much inspired by medieval and ancient authors, who usually wrote very roughly, but it is almost impossible for a modern writer to surpass their best passages – I guess, just because of that authentic roughness. So I don’t feel the easy flow is always necessary, but everything should be done in harmony, of course, and I agree: Huxley sometimes is cumbersome and strained. Judging by huge amount of his works, he lived for the sake of literature, just couldn’t stop writing. No, it wasn’t constipation. It’s another thing As for the Brave New World itself, it clearly depicts the state of the modern society, though it was written 70 years ago, and this was one of its greatest merits. Huxley was disappointed a little bit that he couldn’t predict the nuclear bomb, but there were more important things waiting for prediction. His description of the totally standardized society, which keeps people occupied by expensive sports and movies in order to save them from introversion and deep feelings, and which encourages xenophobia to alien cultures, – this description is not exact in details, of course, but grasps the essence, in my opinion. That’s probably because people don’t read Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler Yes, I agree with that. It’s just not for me.
"After Many Summers" is superb........ About "Brave New World" .....it raises many questions....for example, is that brave new world an umbearable world from wich we must try to escape by any means or a world we must try to rebuild ???
It’s up to you, Crosslight. As for me, I’d like to escape from it, if this is possible without leaving Babylon, so to speak. After Many a Summer is better, I agree.
It's been a while since I read I myself, but it falls in the same category of 1984. I think it has some timeless qualities that make it applicable to today's world, and I believe we are slowly marching towards its eventuality. But, I hope you enjoy it! Look at it as pleasure reading, not as something you hae to do for school. Annnnnd if you finished the book already (I just looked at the date of your post...) I hope you enjoyed it.
