Brilliant.
Actually, I’m tempted to just leave it as that. There is a certain elegance in brevity.
I suppose I should probably expand upon that.
Certainly Aldous Huxley’s most well known work, ‘Brave new world’ is an examination of social themes told within the setting of a possible future. In this future, the world is at peace, everyone is happy and aging and disease have all but been eliminated.
Society is now rigidly structured into castes – Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. A persons’ caste is indicative not only of their assigned career, but of their general physical and mental development. Persons of the lower castes (Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons) are exposed to chemical influences during their ‘births’ to make them more suitable for their servile roles
Natural procreation, as well as any type of familial unit, is unheard of within polite society. Instead, something named ‘Bokanovsky’s Process’ is used to split each individual fertilised egg into multiple copies (potentially up to 96). This results in genetically identical foetuses (foeti?) which are then put through a method called ‘decanting’.
During this stage, they are put through what can only be compared to an assembly line – immunised and altered dependent upon their predestined role in society. Then they undergo Podsnap’s Technique. This artificially ages the foetus into early childhood, whereupon they are exposed to sleep teaching, aversion therapy, conditioning and a faux religion to reinforce their place in society.
Notably, Alpha and Beta individuals really are just that; Bokanovsky’s Process is not used in these cases, resulting in one child from one egg. These two castes represent the upper classes of this world.
Sex has….
Sorry, my mind wandered.
Sex has been reduced to a recreational or social activity and promiscuous behaviour is the norm. Indeed, it is unseemly to sleep with a particular partner exclusively, even for a short period. The majority of women are sterilised and the few that retain their fertility are extensively drilled in contraception and disease is a thing of the past, so there are no regrets and no repercussions to the sexual act. This, combined with the all powerful pleasure drug ‘Soma’, results in a blissed-out culture which yearns for nothing but to be as it is.
Later in the tale, we are introduced to another culture present within the world. The so called ‘Savage reservations’ are places which are not suitable for the benefits of society and people are lead to live free from interference from the state, although access to these places is restricted and egress from them is unheard of.
Well, almost. A young savage accidentally born to two ‘civilised’ people, is brought back to London. Here he sees this brave new world for himself and is horrified by what he sees. He attempts a brief, and doomed, effort to make a change. Ultimately though, society prevails and the noble savage falls victim to the very emotions he defends so strongly.
I realise I’ve left a great deal out of the above (characters names for a start) but there’s so much I could put down and that would make this review far too unwieldy. The themes within this book are so basic and vital that they are always relevant and are perhaps more pertinent in this day and age. Free will, religion, individuality, eugenics, consumerism, life, sex and death are all addressed in such a way to enjoin discussion and evaluation.
I still prefer 1984 mind.
Rating: 
