10 out of 10 people found this review helpful.
Herr Flick likes to Orgy Porgy
Date of Review: Jul 30, 2000
Herr Flick finds this book to be of a superior manner, and it will forever hold a place in my stone cold heart.
A book that on the surface may seem somewhat childish and dated, exposes a society without thought, individuality or meaning. This may smack strongly of 1984, yet when we look deeper we see ourselves. A society that values conformity more than individuality.
Huxley wrote this book in a time long gone, a time we may view as different and alien, yet we are all human and the code for humanity has remained unchanged since the birth of the cosmos.
I his book Huxley writes of a world made up of humans that are manufactured in test tubes, who before birth are already labeled with class status and what their purpose in life will be. A problem that we as a society face day in and day out. The lack of individuality and the ever growing zombiefication of conformity.
In A Brave New World, the manufactured individual is constantly fed a diet of mind numbing drugs, that make them ever more responsive to the will of those that control the society as a whole. Our modern day advertising industry is such a mean. We are fed what is considered right and what is considered wrong, what to buy and what to wear, and in the end the individual fearing rejection for not fitting into society falls for these commercial campaigns. We all do it, and that is the sad yet plain truth. A point highly expressed by Huxley.
The government also bans all forms of literature and religeon in this world of conformity, as it fears the human and its ability to discover its spiritual and inner self. This is not too much of a problem in our society today, yet when one views communist China and its crack down on freedom of speech and religeon, the picture soon becomes clear. Even though this was not in full force during his time, except in Russia, Huxley knew of what a world under a state of conformity could be.
Huxley also expresses society's lack of morals for in the book, one is supposed to have sex with as many partners as possible, and children from as early as six are taught self, and partner exploration. Though we are all driven by sex, Huxley does express a society gone mad due to the abuse of such a holy and sacred act. All we have to show for it is AIDS.
The actual story deals with a man who rebels against a society that only lives to conform. Later on in the novel, he runs into a Savage, a person who does not belong to the society, a man with a soul, a man who values individuality over conformity. This Savage opens his eyes, and rebellion flows ever more strongly through his veins. These two souls stand up to fight a society bent on killing all the individuality they have left. Yet in the end one can only expect failure, for how can the individual change a society already brainwashed to the point of self denial and conformity.
I recommend this sci-fi book to any reader that wishes to find out why society is the way it is. Even though this was written in the thirties, it has a message that is still strong and of great importance to a society slowly slipping away into a state of commercial conformity.
If one can get over it being rather dated, it can be and will be a good read. It will always have a space on my bunker book shelf.
