Brave New World

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For other uses, see Brave New World (disambiguation).

Image:Bravenewworld.jpg Brave New World is a 1932 dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley, set in London in the 26th century. The novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, eugenics and hypnopædia that combine to change society. The world it describes could in fact also be a utopia, albeit an ironic one: Humanity is carefree, healthy, and technologically advanced. Warfare and poverty have been eliminated, all races are equal, and everyone is permanently happy. The irony is, however, that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things — family, cultural diversity, art, literature, religion and philosophy. It is also a society which delves in hedonism, focused on deriving pleasure from promiscuous sex and drugs.

Brave New World is Huxley's most famous and enduring novel. The title comes from Miranda's speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:

"O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beautious mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in't!"

Contents

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History and context

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931 while he was living in England. By this time Huxley had already established himself as a successful writer and social satirist. He was a contributor to Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, had published a collection of his poetry entitled The Burning Wheel in 1916, and published four successful satirical novels, Crome Yellow in 1921, Antic Hay in 1923, Those Barren Leaves in 1925, and Point Counter Point in 1928. Brave New World was Huxley's fifth novel and first attempt at a utopian novel.

The novel was inspired by the H.G. Wells utopian novel Men Like Gods. Inspired by Wells's optimist vision of the future, Huxley began writing a parody of the novel which became Brave New World. Contrary to the most popular optimist utopian novels of the time Huxley sought to provide a more frightening vision of the future. Huxley himself referred to Brave New World as a "negative utopia".

Although the novel is set in the future the themes and issues raised were heavily influenced by contemporary issues of the early 20th century. The Industrial Revolution was bringing about massive changes to the world, and to the personal lives of people living in it. Mass production had made cars, telephones, and radios relatively cheap and widely available throughout the developed world. The Russian Revolution of 1917 had brought totalitarian governments to the forefront of the world stage and, although The First World War (1914-1918) was over its social effects were still resonating throughout the world.

Huxley was able to use the setting and characters from his futurist fantasy to express widely held opinions and concerns, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of the future.

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Structure

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At its core, Brave New World is a "novel of ideas." The characters are often ill-defined, serving mainly to advance the themes Huxley wishes to explore. The novel is roughly split into three sections.

The first section introduces the reader to the World State and the characters that inhabit it. Bernard Marx begins the novel as the apparent main protagonist, portrayed as one of the few individuals in a world of conformity.

In the second section Huxley defies traditional utopian novel structure as he introduces a separate and contradictory version of the future, the Malpais Savage Reservation. Both of them are presented in an equally convincing fashion, allowing Huxley and the reader to contrast his futuristic utopian vision with contemporary society. This contrast is made even more evident by his introduction of the character John the Savage. Here again, Huxley defies convention by introducing the novel's real main protagonist nearly halfway through the novel. An outcast in both the Savage Reservation and the World State, John replaces Bernard Marx, becoming a heroic (albeit flawed) figure. With John's arrival in the World State, a place already somewhat familiar to the reader, Huxley is able to provide a new perspective for the reader to consider.

The third section deals almost entirely with John's reaction to, and inevitable destruction by, The World State.

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Characters

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Of The World State

Listed in order of appearance-

  • Thomas, the Director of the Central London Hatchery and father of John the Savage.
  • Henry Foster, administrator at the Hatchery and Lenina's current partner.
  • Lenina Crowne, Beta-Plus Embryo Worker, loved by John the Savage.
  • Mustapha Mond, World Controller for Western Europe.
  • Assistant Director of Predestination.
  • Bernard Marx, Alpha-Plus psychologist.
  • Fanny Crowne, Beta Embryo Worker, friend of Lenina.
  • Benito Hoover, an Alpha-Plus friend of Lenina, disliked by Bernard.
  • Helmholtz Watson, Alpha-Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing), friend and confidant of Bernard Marx and John the Savage.
  • At the Solidarity Service: Morgana Rothschild (woman whose unibrow haunts Marx), Herbert Bakunin, Fifi Bradlaugh, Jim Bokanovsky, Clara Deterding (the President of the group), Joanna Diesel, Sarojini Engels, Tom Kawaguchi.
  • Miss Keate, Headmistress of the high-tech glass and concrete Eton College.
  • Arch-Community Songster, a semi-religious figure based in Canterbury.
  • Darwin Bonaparte, a paparazzo who brings worldwide attention to John The Savage's hermitage.
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Of the Malpais Savage Reservation in New Mexico

  • John the Savage, son of Linda and Thomas, an outcast in both primitive and civilized society
  • Linda, John's mother, a Beta-Minus Embryo Worker in London
  • Warden of the Reservation, an Alpha administrator
  • Kiakimé, loved by John
  • Kothlu, who married Kiakimé
  • Old Mitsima, who teaches John about Indian lore
  • Palowhitwa
  • Popé, Linda's lover, whom John detests and tries to kill
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Historical characters

These are fictional and factual characters who died before the events in this book, but are of note in the novel.

  • Henry Ford, who has become a messianic figure to The World State. "Our Ford" used in place of "Our Lord"; a credit to the assembly line.
  • William Shakespeare
  • Reuben Rabinovitch, (the fictional boy who first discovers sleep-learning, hypnopædia)
  • Sigmund Freud, "Our Freud" is sometimes said in place of "Our Ford" due to the link between Freud's psychoanalysis and the conditioning of humans
  • George Bernard Shaw, one of the few ancient writers left uncensored.
  • Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose conditioning techniques are used to train infants.
  • Thomas Malthus, whose name is used to describe the contraceptive techniques practiced by women of The World State.
  • Jesus, used as a foil to the technologically advanced, hedonistic future. The reservation's population follow a syncretic mix of indigenous beliefs and Catholicism, which highlights the absence of spirituality elsewhere.
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Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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Introduction to The World State & Lenina and Bernard (Chapters 1-6)

The novel begins in London, in the "year of Our Ford 632" (AD 2540 in the Gregorian Calendar). The entire planet is united as The World State, under a peaceful world government established in the aftermath of an apocalyptic global war in the 21st century; a government which has eliminated war, poverty, crime, and unhappiness by creating a homogenous high-tech society across Earth, based on the industrial principles of Henry Ford. Fordism forms the bedrock of the new society, gaining a semi-religious status and forming the backbone of philosophy. Society is rigidly divided into five classes, and all members of society are trained to be good consumers to keep the economy strong. All citizens are expected to be involved socially; spending time alone is discouraged, and sexual promiscuity is the social norm. Recreational drug use has become a pillar of society, and all citizens regularly swallow tablets of soma, a narcotic-tranquilizer that makes users mindlessly happy. A significant aspect of the society is the mechanisation of reproduction. Citizens of the World State do not reproduce naturally; people are taught to view natural reproduction as a barbarous and primitive act. Instead, all children are created from embryos grown in factories: production of embryos is planned according to the economic capacity of society. For the embryo, the womb is replaced by an artificial life-support mechanism referred to as a bottle. Significantly, each individual's destiny is determined long before he or she is "decanted".

Huxley reveals the world through the eyes of the main protagonists, Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx (their names allude to Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and founder of communism Karl Marx). Lenina, a member of the Beta-Plus caste is a laboratory worker in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. She is a personification of the new society, happy and "pneumatic", conformist in her behaviour, fulfilling her function in society, which seems to be to sleep with as many men as possible, but largely incapable of free thought. Her outlook on life comes entirely from government indoctrination. Bernard, an Alpha-Plus psychologist serves as an antithesis to her. Despite being a member of the upper caste of Alphas, Bernard is intellectually gifted but physically smaller than is typical for an Alpha. This has caused him to be unhappy with his life and dislike society. He feels deeply insecure with himself and is something of a joke to members of his own caste and others for his odd physical appearance and rejection of societal norms.

The first half of the novel describes life in the World State, and the personalities of Lenina and Bernard. It also introduces the character of Helmholtz Watson, an Alpha-Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing). While Bernard's physical defects had isolated him from society, Helmholtz is isolated by his mental and physical excess. This isolation bring Bernard and Helmholtz together and they remain friends throughout the story. Bernard's unacceptable behaviour lands him in trouble with his boss, the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning. But nevertheless, Bernard secures his permission to visit the Malpais Savage reservation in New Mexico to where he takes Lenina on a date.

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The Reservation and the Savage (Chapters 7-9)

The second half of the novel begins with the visit to the Malpais Savage Reservation in New Mexico, where they see an ancient society that has been fenced off and ignored by The World State. In the reservation, the two encounter Linda, a woman from The World State who, through an accident, came to live as a savage in Malpais, having given birth to a son named John , the novel's main protagonist. While Lenina is disgusted and horrified by the dirty, neglected and viviparous society of Malpais, Bernard is fascinated by it and by John, who grew up with the lifestyle of the Zuni Native American tribe and a religion that is a blend of Zuni and Christian beliefs. However, he is also influenced by his mother's education (she taught him to read) and by his discovery of the works of William Shakespeare, unknown in The World State. Like Bernard, John is an outcast in his own society and is eager to see the world outside of Malpais. Bernard agrees to take Linda and John back to London, where he manipulates society's fascination with them to boost his own social position.

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The Savage Visits The World State (Chapters 10-15)

The culture shock which results when the "savage" is brought into the society of the "Brave New World", as he initially calls it, provides a vehicle for Huxley to contrast the values of The World State society with our own and point out the Brave New World society's major flaws. The key moral point of the book revolves around two diametrically opposing problems. The first, and most obvious, is that in order to ensure continuous and universal happiness, society has to be manipulated, freedom of choice and expression curtailed, and intellectual pursuits and emotional expression inhibited. Citizens are happy, but John the Savage considers this happiness to be artificial and "soulless". John, who has fallen in love with Lenina, is appalled by the World State and Lenina's promiscuity and willingness to sleep with him without vows. While in London, John meets and quickly becomes friends with Helmholtz Watson. They meet often to discuss writing, especially that of Shakespeare. When his mother Linda dies, he is unable to understand society's reaction to death and reacts violently by attempting to "free" a group of Delta caste menial staff members at the hospital by throwing their daily soma ration out the window. The result is a near riot, to which Bernard and Helmholtz arrive in an attempt to rescue John. Unfortunately the police arrive at the melee and after subduing the crowd with vapourized soma and hypnotic music, they quickly take all three into State custody.

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Resolution (Chapters 16-18)

This leads to a confrontation between the three and Mustapha Mond, the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. The heated argument between Mustapha and John ultimately leads to the decision that John will not be set free because Mustapha considers him an ongoing experiment. Bernard and Helmholtz, in a twist of fate, are sent to live in the Falkland Islands, one of several island colonies reserved for exiled citizens of the World State who can no longer be trusted to live in global society, where Helmholtz can become a serious writer and Bernard can live out his life in peace and solitude. John attempts to isolate himself from society on the outskirts of London however, he is unable to live without lusting for Lenina and constantly punishes himself physically and mentally. This causes him to be constantly harassed by inquisitive sightseers. At the very end of the novel, John attacks, and perhaps kills, Lenina and succumbs to an orgy of drugs and sex. In the morning John, horrified by what he has done to Lenina and disgusted by himself, commits suicide in grief, mirroring Shakespeare's Othello.

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Fordism and society

Template:Mergeto The World State is built around the principles of Henry Ford, who has become a Messianic figure worshipped by society. The word lord has been replaced with ford. The assembly line process is present in many aspects of life, and the symbol "T" has replaced the Christian cross, a reflection of the Model T car developed by Henry Ford. His famous phrase "History is bunk" has become the fundamental approach to studying the past – as a result, no-one knows of past societies. Citizens have no awareness of history except for a vague idea of how terrible things were before the inception of the present society. They know that humans used to be viviparous and what parents and birth were, but these concepts are taboo, and "mother" and "father" are dirty words. There are no family units, and no-one is born, per se. Instead, humans are grown in factories according to industrial quotas. In this society, people are "decanted" into a chemically enforced and totally conformist caste society. Children are engineered in fertility clinics and artificially gestated. The three lower castes are manufactured in groups of up to 96 clones from a single embryo (called Bokanovsky groups), and they are chemically stunted and/or deprived of oxygen during their maturation process to control their intelligence level and physical development.

The Alpha caste consists of those destined for leadership positions, with Betas filling professional and administrative posts requiring higher education, but without the leadership responsibilities of the Alphas. These two groups together form the upper castes, with Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons comprising the lower castes, each with a descending degree of intelligence, Epsilons being so stupid as to be described as "semi-morons", and trained to perform the most menial tasks without complaint. People are thus manufactured to fill their jobs, rather than jobs being created for people. Within these classes are subgroups, plus or minus, which further determines their roles in society (every possible combination appears at least once in the text, with the exception of Delta-Plus). In addition, a subgroup dubbed "Alpha Double-Plus" appears twice (once in a class about relativity, the other in a discussion between Mustapha Mond and John the Savage). Members of each caste also wear uniforms, the colour of which identified which caste they belonged to. Alphas wear grey, Betas a bottle green (except for Beta Minuses, who dress in a mulberry or purple), Gammas leaf green, Deltas khaki, and Epsilons black.

From birth, members of every class are indoctrinated, by recorded voices repeating slogans while they sleep, to believe that their own is the best class to be in. Any residual unhappiness is resolved by an antidepressant and somewhat hallucinogenic drug called soma.

Contrary to what modern readers would expect, the biological techniques used to control the populace in Brave New World do not include genetic engineering. Huxley wrote the book in 1932, twenty years before Watson and Crick discovered the structure of DNA. As the science writer Matt Ridley put it, Brave New World describes an "environmental, not a genetic, hell."

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Possible symbolism

It has been discussed by several literary critics, and backed up by Aldous Huxley, that the book, while satirizing the development of society, also provides a suicidal outlook on the future. In the novel, the reservation (which is associated with the past, and all the squalor and disease in it) and the futuristic society come together in the protagonist, John. In a metaphorical sense, this coming together could represent the present, as John is neither fully part of the past or future societies. At the end of the novel, John commits suicide out of remorse, but it can also be inferred that he commits suicide because there is nowhere left for him to go. All he has is the disease-ridden past or the conformist future.

In other themes, the book attacks assembly line production as demeaning, the liberalisation of sexual morals as being an affront to love and family, the use of slogans or thought-terminating clichés, the concept of a centralised government, and the use of science to control people's thoughts and actions. Indeed, the use of modern science, technology, and pharmacy to replace violence in keeping people chained in pleasurable (and thus unperceived) servitude was the main point of the book. While Huxley attacks the emergence of socialist and communist attitudes, he also opposes capitalist consumer society. Indeed, the latter motifs are stronger than the former: in the novel, the legendary founder of the society was Henry Ford, whose writings occupy Mustapha Mond's bookshelves. The letter T (a reference to the Ford Model T) has replaced the cross as a quasi-religious symbol.

As a method of underscoring similarities to his fictional dystopia and his own contemporary culture, Huxley incorporates several sly, satirical references to targets such as the Church of England (which he refers to as a "community sing"), the BBC or British tabloid The Daily Mirror ("The Delta Mirror"), "Christian Science Monitor" ("The Fordian Science Monitor"), Henry Ford, George Bernard Shaw and Sigmund Freud. Brave New World's London propaganda centre is at Fleet Street, the traditional home of the British press, and the pseudo-religious Arch-Community Songster is based at Canterbury, where the clergical head of the modern day Church of England sits.

Huxley's characters are given names chosen from significant individuals in the World State's past. For example, Bernard Marx refers to Bernard Shaw (one of the few ancient writers left uncensored) and Karl Marx. Because the World State embodies traits typically attributed to opposite ends of the political spectrum, some of the names Huxley coined refer to diametrically opposed individuals or ideologies. For instance, we find a young girl named Polly Trotsky and a woman named Morgana Rothschild, echoing both Communist leaders and a dynasty of bankers. In addition, the name Henry Foster draws a parallel to William Foster, an American communist who ran for President in 1924, 1928, and 1932, all around the time of the book's publishing. Among these references are the following:

  • Lenina Crowne: Crown is a turn of phrase referring to the monarch and monarchial government; her first name recalls Vladimir Lenin and the Russian Revolution of 1917, a radical overthrow of a monarchy. Fanny Crowne is a split that needs no explanation.
  • Mustapha Mond: The head of the local society is named after a particularly modernistic pair, Mustapha Kemal Atatürk and Sir Alfred Mond. The former was a leader who modernised Turkey from Islamic ties while the latter was head of Imperial Chemical Industries, a leader in modern labour relations in Britain – and also happened to be Jewish.

Two characters are named after a blend of fascists and industrialists:

Furthermore, there are references to the emerging communist state of the Soviet Union in the 1930s:

Other minor characters who take their names from scientists, political leaders, and industrial leaders:

Additionally, the word "Ford" is used as a replacement for the word Lord or God; the starting date for their calendar is the date on which Henry Ford introduced the Model T, their dates are prefaced by A.F., for After Ford, and in dialogue, the word Ford is used in expressions such as "Oh my Ford!", in a clear substitution for Lord. These details allude to the religious level in which mass industry is treated in Brave New World.

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Controversy

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Comparison with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

Brave New World and George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four are often used in political discussions of government actions perceived to be authoritarian. However, a key difference between Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World is that while in Nineteen Eighty-Four people are kept from knowledge perceived to be "dangerous" by means of continual mass surveillance and coercion, in Brave New World the characters are socially engineered not to desire dangerous knowledge in the first place. One could say that while in Nineteen Eighty-Four people are dehumanised by the state controlling their natural instincts such as sex or free thought, the One State infantilises the masses by giving free rein to basic human instincts and ceding responsibility to herd mentality. Huxley himself described the difference in means of punishment and reward. Nineteen Eighty-Four's world is ruled with hate and fear, while the One State uses constant rewards for model behavior to control the masses.

Both novels incorporate a class of people (in 1984, the "proles" and in Brave New World, the "savages" of the "Savage Reservations") who exist on the periphery of the dystopian society in a state of relative physical squalor with little interference outside of an enforced state of non-education who serve as an important device for contrast between the dystopian society in question and what the author arguably perceives as being a more ideal society.

The two novels also contrast in many ways. The nightmare world of Nineteen Eighty-Four is dominated by suffering. Slavery, torture, and war are the societal norms of the world, and the overriding theme is one of intense hatred. That of Brave New World, in contrast, is one of euphoric love. War, crime, and even pain have been eliminated, allowing all citizens of the World State to live long, permanently happy lives in peace and plenty. The ghoulish fascination London's citizens have in John's self-abuse highlights the extent to which society has been conditioned to abhor negative feelings.

In addition, the society presented in Brave New World is, to some extent, tolerant of outsiders, in so much as it respects the idea of there being an "outside". While the dystopian world of 1984 is all-encompassing, the world Brave New World includes "savage reservations" and "the islands". The latter are effectively places of exile for freethinkers, but they are also to some extent a "safe haven". No such places exist in 1984.

Social Critic Neil Postman contrasts the worlds of 1984 and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1986 book Amusing Ourselves to Death thusly:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.
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Quotes from Shakespeare in Brave New World

The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
pg 117 Macbeth (II, ii)</br>

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty…
pg 133 Hamlet (III, iv)</br>

When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,
Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed…
pg 134 Hamlet (III, iii)</br>

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait, her voice,
Handlest in thy discourse, O, that her hand,
In whose comparison all whites are ink,
Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure
The cygnet's down is harsh…
pg 146 Troilus and Cressida (I, i)</br>

On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand
And steal immortal blessing from her lips,
Who even in pure and vestal modesty,
Still blush, as thinking their ow n kisses sin.
pg 146 Romeo and Juliet (III, iii)</br>

Eternity was in our lips and eyes,
pg 157 Anthony and Cleopatra (I, iii)</br>

O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear...
pg 181 Romeo and Juliet (I, v)</br>

Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
pg 186 The Phoenix and the Turtle</br>

Property was thus appalled,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
pg 186 The Phoenix and the Turtle</br>

Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O, sweet my mother, cast me not away!
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.
pg 187 Romeo and Juliet (III, v)</br>

If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite…
pg 191 The Tempest (IV, i)</br>

Outliving beauty's outward, with a mind
That doth renew swifter than blood decays!
pg 195 Troilus and Cressida (III, ii)</br>

The wren goes to 't, and the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight.
pg 199 King Lear (IV, vi)</br>

The fitchew, nor the soiled horse, goes to't
With a more riotous appetite.
Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends';
There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit,
Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,
fie, fie! pah, pah!
Give me an ounce of civet,
good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:
pg 199 King Lear (IV, vi)</br>

O thou weed,
Who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet
That the sense aches at thee
pg 200 Othello (IV, ii)</br>

Was this fair paper, this most goodly book,
Made to write 'whore' upon?
pg 200 Othello (IV, ii)</br>

How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is!
O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
pg 215 The Tempest (V, i)</br>

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices
pg 224 The Tempest (III, ii)</br>

I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal
pg 237 King John (III, i)</br>

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us:
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.
Thou hast spoken right, 'tis true;
The wheel is come full circle: I am here.
pg 241 King Lear (V, iii)</br>

But value dwells not in particular will;
It holds his estimate and dignity
As well wherein 'tis precious of itself
As in the prizer:
pg 242 Troilus and Cressida (II, ii)</br>

If after every tempest come such calms,
May the winds blow till they have waken'd death
pg 244 Othello (II, i)</br>

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport.
pg 261 King Lear (IV, i)</br>

To sleep: perchance to dream
For in that sleep of death what dreams?
Pg 262 Hamlet (III, i)</br>

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Brave New World Revisited

Image:Braverevisite.jpgBrave New World Revisited (Harper & Row, 1958, 1965), written by Huxley almost thirty years after Brave New World, was a non-fiction work in which Huxley considered whether the world had moved towards or away from his vision of the future from the 1930s. He believed when he wrote the original novel that it was a reasonable guess as to where the world might go in the future, but in Brave New World Revisited he concluded that the world was becoming much more like Brave New World much faster than he had ever thought possible.

Huxley analysed the causes of this, such as overpopulation, as well as all the means by which populations can be controlled. He was particularly interested in the effects of drugs and subliminal suggestion. Brave New World Revisited is different in tone and impact to the original novel, due to Huxley's evolving thought and his conversion to Vedanta between the two books.

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Related media works

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Literature

  • The Scientific Outlook by philosopher Bertrand Russell. When Brave New World was released, Russell thought that Huxley's book was based on his own book The Scientific Outlook that had been released in previous year. Russell contacted his own publisher and asked whether he should do something or not. Russell's publisher advised him to do nothing and he followed this advice.
  • The 1921 novel Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells. Dystopian novel that also was the source of inspiration for Brave New World.
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Film & Television

  • The 1927 film Metropolis is a silent, German expressivist film which featured a futuristic dystopia with a very rigidly defined class structure.
  • The 1993 movie Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Sandra Bullock and Nigel Hawthorne, repeatedly makes allusions to Brave New World. Both involve a mechanised future where everybody is kept happy, where undesirable things (those that reduce society's happiness) are banned. A couple of references to the book include the fact that Sandra Bullock's character is named Lenina Huxley, a mix of Lenina Crowne and Aldous Huxley, and a scene where Lenina Huxley tells John Spartan (Stallone's character), "John, you're a savage!" calling John the Savage to mind. At one point in the movie Snipes' character says, "It's a brave new world," to Spartan. The movie is otherwise not related to the book.
  • The 1998 (made-for-TV) movie Brave New World, starring Peter Gallagher and Leonard Nimoy, is an abridged version of the original story. The numerous alterations to the novel include the absence of the Epsilon caste as well as the Plus/Minus inter-caste distinctions, the characterisation of Linda as a"savage" who was seduced by the Alpha DHC, the addition of a Delta who was conditioned by the DHC to kill Bernard Marx, John the Savage falling off a cliff while being pursued by the paparazzi and Mond giving Marx the job of DHC (after the previous one was fired), which he leaves when Lenina becomes pregnant with his child. The film ends with Marx and Lenina raising their child in a Savage Reservation.
  • The 2002 movie Equilibrium, which describes a dystopian futuristic world, borrows several themes from Brave New World. The film depicts a world society created in the aftermath of a catastrophic war, in which an all-powerful world government has eliminated war, crime, and poverty through compulsory use of the sedative drug "Prozium". All races have equality and citizens of the society wear colour-coded clothing according to their class. Outside the clean, efficient cities are "The Nethers", a reference to the Savage Reservations of Brave New World. The Nethers, which encompass the ruins of cities destroyed during the war, are home to those who do not wish to live in the new society. Equilibrium borrows imagery from Brave New World such as the "T" symbol and colour-coded clothing.
  • The Simpsons have an episode in which the town is ruled by the most intelligent members of society. They refer to themselves as the Alphas.
  • Brave New World is mentioned in the 2001 movie, Garden State, comparing the drug use in their town.
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Music

  • Singer-songwriter Donovan recorded a song titled "Brave New World" on his eponymous 1977 album, borrowing from the book's themes, and declaring "Test-tube brother, test-tube sister, it'll never be," with the preservation of the family.
  • The 1979 album (and the 1982 movie based on the album) The Wall by Pink Floyd has a song named "Goodbye Blue Sky", which features the line "Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a Brave New World unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?". This references the similitudes of post-war Europe and the conditions of the world described in the novel.
  • The Swedish band Tiamat made a song named "Love Is As Good As Soma," a direct reference to the book.
  • Reagan Youth released a song named "Brave New World," which describes the conditions of the novel.
  • The dance track "Opera Song," by Jurgen Vries, features a chorus with the lines "and it's a brave new world that we live in... we have no control of our feelings."
  • New York City rockers The Strokes have a song on their 2001 Is This It? debut with a song entitled "Soma" that is undoubtedly inspired by Huxley's novel.
  • In their CD, The Woods, the band Sleater-Kinney released a song called "Modern Girl" which features the line "I'm sick of this brave new world."
  • The Australian drum & bass/techstep band Pendulum's song "Coma" features the lyrics taken from a song quoted by Lenina in the book itself, "Hug me til you drug me honey/Kiss me til I'm in a coma."
  • The Ambient/Dub music compilation "One A.D." includes a track titled "Soma Holiday" by the band G.O.L.
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Publications

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  • Brave New World
    • Aldous Huxley; Perennial; Reprint edition (September 1, 1998); ISBN 0060929871
  • Brave New World Revisited
  • Huxley's Brave New World (Cliffs Notes)
  • Spark Notes Brave New World
  • Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (Barron's Book Notes)
    • Anthony Astrachan, Anthony Astrakhan; Barrons Educational Series; (November 1984); ISBN 0812034058
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See also

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External links

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References

de:Schöne neue Welt es:Un mundo feliz fa:دنیای قشنگ نو (کتاب) fr:Le Meilleur des mondes it:Il mondo nuovo he:עולם חדש מופלא nl:Brave New World (roman) pl:Nowy, wspaniały świat pt:Admirável Mundo Novo ru:О дивный новый мир fi:Uljas uusi maailma sv:Du sköna nya värld th:โลกวิไลซ์ tr:Cesur Yeni Dünya

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