Sunday, June 12, 2005

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is a dystopian novel published in 1932 by the English writer Aldous Huxley. The novel describes a disturbing "ideal" society in the future. In this future world, humans are manufactured in production lines, and then placed at a designated social level.

In the novel, there is no love or commitment, and no sadness. If a true feeling emerges, then a dose of the comforting drug soma cures the feeling. John (the Savage), the novel’s protagonist, cannot understand this world. He defends the right to suffer over feeling false, enforced happiness.

Brave New World is a startling look at what can happen when science is misapplied by a totalitarian government. Moreover, it’s a warning that the public should take an interest in science. I consider this a must-read book.

Favorite Quotes:
"Of course it does. Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery."

"It's curious," he went on after a little pause, "to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to have imagined that it could be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate."

"Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears – that’s what soma is."

Purchase and read books by Aldous Huxley:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell by Aldous Huxley


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