I could not entirely relate to the book, and would not call it one of the greatest works of English Literature, as some have coined it.
Nevertheless here are some thoughts. It does not have the same nightmarish quality of social warning of George Orwell's 1984, and seems in some ways a mixture between the latter and the lighter more satirical Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.
Some have compared the world drawn by Huxley in this book, to the `hedonistic consumerist culture of the West' but of course the totalitarian thought control rather reminds us of some other system that many have believed in and some still believe in, although in Huxley's world there is a lot less pain and bloodshed than there is when the world has had certain Utopian ideologies forced upon it!
Unlike the world drawn by Huxley here, there is no soma, or pleasure to draw one away from the bloody hellish nightmare of Communism.
Note the names chosen for the citizens of Huxley's Utopia/Distopia such as Lenina Crowne, Bernhard Marx and Polly Trotsky.
Note also the compulsory study in `Class Consciousness', and of course a type of thought control, which resembles today's political correctness.
The taboo on the words `mother' and `father' bring to mind the fact that in some schools in Ireland and the UK, children are forbidden from using those words, as part of the war by the politically correct left against the institution of the family.
Then the savage, John, who go's to the other extreme, away from the life only for pleasure, extols suffering and sainthood. His vicious attack on the young girl Lenina, for doing only what she knows, is disturbing. Lenina is of course not a [prostitute] or a strumpet, but simply responding in the way she has been conditioned to his declarations of love.
The sad thing is that it is Lenina, who at the end seems to show genuine love, in a society where it is taboo.
Only to be again mauled by John.
I could not entirely relate to the book, and would not call it one of the greatest works of English Literature, as some have coined it. Nevertheless here are some thoughts. It does not have the same nightmarish quality of social warning of George Orwell's 1984, and seems in some ways a mixture between the latter and the lighter more satirical Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. Some have compared the world drawn by Huxley in this book, to the `hedonistic consumerist culture of the West' but of course the totalitarian thought control rather reminds us of some other system that many have believed in and some still believe in, although in Huxley's world there is a lot less pain and bloodshed than there is when the world has had certain Utopian ideologies forced upon it! Unlike the world drawn by Huxley here, there is no soma, or pleasure to draw one away from the bloody hellish nightmare of Communism. Note the names chosen for the citizens of Huxley's Utopia/Distopia such as Lenina Crowne, Bernhard Marx and Polly Trotsky. Note also the compulsory study in `Class Consciousness', and of course a type of thought control, which resembles today's political correctness. The taboo on the words `mother' and `father' bring to mind the fact that in some schools in Ireland and the UK, children are forbidden from using those words, as part of the war by the politically correct left against the institution of the family. Then the savage, John, who go's to the other extreme, away from the life only for pleasure, extols suffering and sainthood. His vicious attack on the young girl Lenina, for doing only what she knows, is disturbing. Lenina is of course not a [prostitute] or a strumpet, but simply responding in the way she has been conditioned to his declarations of love. The sad thing is that it is Lenina, who at the end seems to show genuine love, in a society where it is taboo. Only to be again mauled by John.