Brave New World - Aldous Huxley BOOK REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
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“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.”
― Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
Your paragraph does not make sense since you misquoted it
@@jonasjorgensen8759 It made sense to me. Although I may be blinded by my ignorance of this apparent misrepresentation of what the source material included. I'll have to find this comments progenitor I suppose.
Who on earth would want to read Shakespeare when you have feelies like 'Three Weeks in a Helicopter'?
Love or desire?
@@jonasjorgensen8759 What is misquoted? I have the book and it appears as though dabrupro has correctly quoted text from the forward on pages XIX and XX.
(Spoilers)
The climactic conversation between the Mond, Watson, and John is the verbal expression of ideas that had been circulating under the narrative the entire book. The admission of Mond that happiness and stability are the ultimate goals of his society, a society that functions more like a factory than a civilisation. It was a great exposition that gave a balanced assessment of John's embracement of the hard life (and thus "authentic" happiness) as being neither more 'right' nor more 'wrong' than Mond's artificially happy life. John persists that there is something unsatisfactory that remains in an artifically happy life and Mond appears to take that as a personal shortcoming on behalf of John - A figure who simply isn't fit for life in the brave new world. An opinion that John himself agrees with and which we see manifest in a literal manner with John taking his own life.
Bernard's descent into an unlikable opportunist is an appropriate and realistic diorama of a subject of the brave new world who knows something is systemically wrong deep down, but enables and at some points even flourishes in a system that only values amenities and luxuries. He embraces society once it suits him and rejects it once more when it doesn't. He is a walking testament to all the manipulative traits in humanity that no manner of genetic modification can hope to remove, and yet of the acuteness of human intuition, opportunism, and self-interest
John's naturalist values are not just a result of his upbringing or Shakespearean 'old' values but come from deep within himself - his very conception of what it means to be human. Struggle, suffering, despair, are all deeply human traits. They are what make triumph and happiness meaningful. To anyone who read this book without having read Plato's Republic beforehand, I highly encourage you to do so and then come back and revisit BNW.
Well said!
I think Jorge Luis Borges was good at using literature like that.
I remember being assigned this book in high school. It made me think about the relationship between the individual and society, specifically how society may not only not work with John, Bernard, and Helmholtz but also against them. Indeed, the insulation of life can definitely breed that sense of ennui and isolation, which is exactly what the world represented.
I do recall the important debate John had with Mustapha Mond about pain and life. When you read more of Huxley's works like "After Many A Summer Dies A Swan" and "Time Must Have A Stop," you will notice that he always has a wise man character constantly challenging the other characters on their beliefs. Yes, those debates can get "essayistic."
You are living the best life ever sgt. You have no idea how many people are dragging through life doing things they dont like. Happy to see someone doing great.
My first "serious" read when I was fifteen, still have it and love it
My regret that when I read this book I was too imature, a lot of the message got lost on me then, now I really need to re-read it
@@NoxShadow this is why this book shouldn't be assigned during high school. Most teenagers are not mature enough the grasp the message and end up hating the book and/or dnfing it as a result.
Referencing Shakespeare; 'a fellow of Infinite Jest'. My favourite Huxley was 'Eyeless in Gaza' referencing Milton in this case and is perhaps more a novel where, if my memory serves me, the narrative threads are connected at the conclusion.
Antidepressants and Tinder: *exists*
Aldous Huxley: "I don't want to live on this planet anymore..."
Man I love Snow Crash. So happy to see others liking it. I found that book in library 10 years ago, didn't really know much about anything but I just loved it.
I read this a few years ago but this was the perfect refresher. Great review, thanks!
6:49 electrocution means death by electric shocked
It’s not dystopian. That’s the secret to understanding this book. Every new culture looks dystopian to other eras. Huxley thought this was the best possible world for humanity. The World State even has a place for the rebels and neurotics who still emerge from time to time. Brave New World is as close to utopia as humanity will get.
"Huxley thought this was the best possible world for humanity" this was the complete opposite idea Huxely was trying to convey. I think you missed the point of the book.
I agree the characters weren’t fully developed and I wish Huxley had added more perspectives in the book, especially from the outsiders, “lower” people and women, so we could have a better understanding of their interactions, but I still liked it a lot, even the “lecture” parts. I know a lot of people considere that a pet peeve, when a book explains instead of showing, but I think it fits the “preaching” tone of the story very well. Like you said, Huxley wrote Brave New World as a doomsday warning. However, it didn’t live up to the hype for me. Have you read Blindness (Saramago) and Canticle for Leibowitz (Miller)?
Thanks I was actually just looking at this in the store. Its always been in the back of my mind to read. I'll put it on my list for down the road. Keep it metal, keep it classy 🤘
Love seeing the variations on those intro increase with every review
EXCITED.
Liked before watching
I just picked this up last week! Glad you did this review
Very interesting view on the book. At least a more critical view, I like that. Personally I like 1984 as a classical dystopian more and I think you will too, if you not already have read it.
I definitly like your style of videos and view of books, as well as your argumentation. Looking forward to watching more. (After my exams...)
A book dealing with similar themes but with much more beautiful (and enjoyable) prose is _The Glass Bees_ by Ernst Junger. Junger also wrote _On The Marble Cliffs_ which deals with a bucolic society and the threat of encroaching totalitarianism- this one is even more beautifully written but out of print.
When everyone is forced to be the same everyone who doesn’t like it tries to be “different” ends up being different in the same way.
Please give Saramago's Blindness a read!
Bookshelf tour please!
I love this book! I think there are elements to this book you missed, although I agree about the lack of character development and the dialogue between Mustapha Mond and John. If you have a chance, review ‘Children of men’ by P.D James. The book is much better than the film.
Intended or not, it makes sense in context of the culture that the protagonist is an incomplete character.
It seems like both books (1984) actually became a manual for some establishments.
I would recommend you read, and do a review, of something by Philip K Dick. His view of the future seems to be more nuanced that either Huxley or Orwell.
Blood Meridian sticks with you...for way too long. Careful with that read.
What made me more scared reading this book than reading 1984, is that Orwell was warning us, but yet belived it was possible to make sure 1984 never happened. But Huxley didn’t warn us, he wrote his story as if he knew this was going to happen.
He knew that safety for the human being will ALWAYS be more important then the wish to be free or happy, and that will be our doom.
Like he just said with a smile on his face. “This is the future. There is no way to change it. You can try, but you will fail...Enjoy it.”
Point Counterpoint is an awesome book, quite different from Brave New World. Lots of really sharp psychollogical descriptions.
I don't know if you have read Juan Rulfo but you should try Pedro Páramo!
was given much more than 2 doses at the end also was loosely associated with Tavistock and Fabians
Don't forget the sports!
Strong agree.
Awesome vid! Thanks so much!
So is this just a long form version of Harrison Bergeron?
Perfect timing 👌🏾
do infinite jest next :)
You're just the best, man. You're the fucking best.
Great review...Thank you
I have the same version! Also, touching intro and great review.
I wonder if this book was a dig at his brother.
BNW isn’t loved for its writing and narrative, it’s loved for its prophecy and understanding of modern humanities weakness. What’s gets me about the book, in comparison to 1984, is that we should take seriously government control and communism, but we also need to take seriously our own fallen nature. Instead of facing life’s problems, being disciplined, etc., we just pop a soma (TikTok, Netflix, etc.) and find artificial happiness again. Neil Postman said it best:
“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,”
cool
I’m curious as to how you go about your analysis of books. Is there a certain method or structure you follow? Or is it things that you find the most relatable? Very good reviews. Thanks.
He reads the comic book versions and if he likes one he reads the actual book.
On my first chapter of this book. It's crazy to me that this book was written in 1932 and he is correct...... TECHNOLOGIKILL
By the order of the peaaaaky foooooockin blinders!!!
Review a R.D. Laing book!
It's actually really funny to hear you describe a world with a caste system as "same and equal". What sort of drugs do I have to take for that kind of cognitive dissonance?
Oh no! You sold him your Blood Meridian?! It's one of the best novels written in the United States.
I mean, tbf it's also quite popular and not that hard to get
He did, what a gent 😊
Why read Brave New World when you can live it?
most relatable comment so far
this kid gets it
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis...check it out, my man!
I had your same take on the book, great philosophical ideas with weak narrative.
Huxley took notes from scientists and thinkers of the time, which makes it even more chilling, Philosophy with Fionn has a great video on it.
I just want to have a whiskey with better than food
We are tenacious, but modern society with it's interconnectedness is hypercomplex. It accelerates the homogenization to a degree never seen before. You won't find any similar historical examples to draw inspiration from. If humans don't destroy the world, developed AI will do it for us. We have to go offline if we want to save humanity, but that's no fun.
Huxley, and Orwell looked so damaged in interview footage on UA-cam.
Also, I never think you should be forced to read books in school but I think 1984 and Brave New World can quite possible be the best introduction for literature, as it was for me.
We force children to learn their alphabet and learn arithmetic. Is that wrong?
I enjoyed this novel a lot more. I think casting Jeremy Irons as Bernard shows that you might not have keyed into the humour of the novel. My Bernard looked like Karl Marx. He wasn't necessarily made of superior genes but of the political leader's genes, which they would think are superior. In our world maybe there would be a lot of the Bill Gates gene. IS he the smartest? No ... is he the best looking or most healthy? No. but of course if our world did this his genes would be one of the ones used for the alpha people's gene's
So a ridiculous looking Bernard (an amalgamation of George Bernard Shaw and Karl Marx would be more accurate but having him look just like Marx is funniest) makes the whole novel funnier. There's a sense of absurdity lurking in the novel that you have to cooperate with to see it.
Also the conception of the people where the savage came from have those values. His mother was ostracized because she came from the tech society and didn't have their traditional morals. That was set up. The people would've been Trump supporters in our world. People that wouldn't submit to the new world order would be sent to Mexico to live as a savage.
Huxley was an educated elite in touch with educated eugenicists and utopians. I think he was saying the savage people were the traditional people so they would've had religion. These people are being starved out by the establishment. It's an apartheid state where people have been demoted down to the lower regions of Maslow's hierarchy from time to time. These were the people who had principles, the independent thinker's progeny.
It's been a while since I read the novel but I think if you visualize it as a black comedy with a lead that looks like Karl Marx in a world where strangers in the background sometimes look like Karl Marx as well, it is an entertaining and funny read.
Don't cast Jeremy Irons!
I think you will be blown away by 1984. It's actually incredibly written, it just gets coloured in a strange light since it is one of the only "literary" books that a lot of the masses actually read. It's messaging is also much more complex than the culture surrounding it would have you believe.
I think Asimov could be a more interesting comparison
Greetings from Cyprus! (Yes, that Cyprus...it’s a real place.)
Huxley is a brilliant and Genius authors. However, to me he is also has an evil mind.
1984 is much better imo
Brave New World is one of my favorite books. I think it's way better than 1984. It's honestly amazing just how much Huxley was able to predict, and I don't just mean the dystopian elements. Genetic engineering, porn theaters, Pavlovian mental conditioning, etc. It's probably one of the most prescient books ever written.
what;s what's Prescient
Have u read or seen Equilibrium, it like the modern interpretation of BNW
7:47
A story doesn’t have to be prescient to apply or be valuable
8:18
This part is channelenged in the end of the book whereas brave new world is simply a tour of a society
It's not prescient. Huxley's grandfather, T.H. Huxley is known as "Darwins Bulldog" for his advocacy of Darwin's theory of evolution. Aldous' Brother Julian was an evolutionary biologist, and eugenicist, and the first director of UNESCO, a founding member of the Word Wildlife Fund, and president of the British Eugenics Society. He coined the term "Transhuman". He's cut from the same cloth as Cecil Rhodes(Rhodesia, Debeers, Rhodes Scholarship), HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, and Bertrand Russell. All racists, eugenicists who through the formation of many foundations and clubs, and society's, like the Milner Roundtable Group, The Fabian Society, Club of Rome, etc. who planned the very things you see happening today. It seems prescient, but its not. He simply fictionalized and dramatized the actual plans the his grandfather along with his contemporaries and colleagues had for the future of an oligarchical technocracy, with a controlled global populous. One much smaller than the population is currently.
It’s great that you’re reviewing more Non-Fiction here.
lol. When he goes back to reviewing fiction, more specifically fantasy, I recommend The Bible.
The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, had a brother named Julian Huxley who ran the science division of the United Nations (UNESCO). Aldous was revealing in this book what he knew about the globalist plans for humanity
Huxley also taught George Orwell at university, and introduced him to the Fabian society (Globalist), which is like some paranoid shit out of Gravity’s Rainbow
@@acechandler6440 define globalism
@@willwilder622 Where are you getting that BS about Huxley and Orwell from?
Excellent Review. I agree with you when you say the best part of the book is Mond explaining his reasons for the society.
You say that you're weirded out by the direction Huxley took Bernard, but I like it. Bernard is all of us; we pretend to be the hero. We pretend that we are the ones that hate "the man" and want to fight back, but just like Bernard, we would all falter. The second power comes the way of Bernard, he becomes corrupt and blinded by the power and fame he receives. When he loses it, he is willing, just like everyone else, to get it back at all costs. When the novel starts out, everyone assumes that Bernard will be the hero of the book; the one to fight back against the system....but instead, he becomes conformist and greedy; how can you not love that?
Agreed
Huxley was an essayist at heart, like Orwell. Even his novels were essays. He's more enjoyable a writer viewed that way.
Yahoo for Ballard!
The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, had a brother named Julian Huxley who ran the science division of the United Nations (UNESCO). Aldous was revealing in this book what he knew about the globalist plans for humanity.
@@acechandler6440 is this true?
@@nadine338 yeah it's true search Wikipedia for his brother. His brother is even one of the first members of the league of nations the predecessor of the UN (United nations).
@@acechandler6440makes sense! Because it is uncanny how so many things he wrote about are becoming true
That's seriously the best damn moustache on UA-cam.
i would not say it's the best but it is up there i suppose
After the Plague and Divine Comedy, now BRave new world? Look what Quarantine gave us! :) Love your work :)
One of the best distopian novels of all time. Its also interesting to read Doors of perception along with this book to understand Huxley knowledge of drugs and psychedelics.
"Biggest international catastrophe of our lifetimes"
I didn't take you for an optimist, but it's nice to hear.
... so far ;)
I was thinking about re-read this book, that I read was a teenager, but I remember everything, apparently. So sad that our brains turns into mashed potato as adults.
Loved the review, the chanel, everything. Came here the first time like every other brazilian, to see Machado or Clarice, but ended up staying and enjoying.
For me, the comparisson between this book and 1984 that I think all the time is that in New World, we become slaves of what we love, and in 1984, of what we fear.
This book, along with Orwell's 1984, was my introduction to literature
Tack on Slaughter House 5 and you have my eyes opening.
It's sad when you see adults quoting this stuff as if it's deeply revelatory. "Yes... the basics of modern western literature. Welcome to the world."
You see it with 1984 a lot...
Edit: only difference is the government gives me soma and the government arrests me for using any substance but alcohol.
They all encourage the rampant sexuality.
Ah well.
@@SuperMrHiggins yeah, and how does anybody learn the basics?
The author of Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, had a brother named Julian Huxley who ran the science division of the United Nations (UNESCO). Aldous was revealing in this book what he knew about the globalist plans for humanity.
@@acechandler6440 this sounds like conspiracy bullshit
Love this book, one of my favorites. One of the parts that really stick with me is when Bernard takes his date to see the beach and watch the ocean hoping she might enjoy it like he does, however she cries how terrible it is since their is no constant stimulation or people and even finds it scary. Being in nature is scary to them, they can't even find joy in a hike or a walk on the beach.
I will say, if you're looking for more character-driven science fiction then "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman is superb. Military sci-fi in a very loose sense; it's more about alienation and the passing of time than anything. Better than food imo.
Great call. Sci-Fi has a rich history of exploring human alienation. PKD "A Scanner Darkly", J.G. Ballard's "Crash" (mentioned), Ursula le Guin "The Dispossessed", or one of my personal favourites "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.
That book is amazing! I call it the anti-Starship Troopers.
Such a classic book! Character wise for classic dystopian books, 1984 is way better
The title for this work is taken from The Tempest by Shakespeare. It is a line said by Miranda, "O, Brave new world, with so many wonderful things in it". "The Doors of perception" title is taken from canto 94 of William Blake's The mystical marriage of heaven and hell........ "man lives in a prison of his own making, but once the doors of perception are cleansed, he sees himself for what he really is, immortal and divine". Noel
I thought it was "O Brave new world that has such people in it."
Just read this last week and I am following it up with 1984 right now.
They are two sides of the same coin
"Some guy on UA-cam" Don't underestimate yourself Cliffy, you da mahn!
Orwell was a student of Huxley's at Eaton.
Yo longtime fan, you helped get me reading so many new things and have expanded my love of literature and got me reading so much. I was wondering,
Do you think you could do a review of A Confederacy of Dunces?
I think this is the first time you’ve reviewed something that I’ve actually already read! Completely agree with your bottom line here, it’s prophetic with immense historical significance, but it’s hardly a story at all. Fairly light reading though so definitely worth the time, but only once. Love the review and love the channel! Cheers Cliff
Saw the film version of Crash and it turned me on to Ballard. Love all his stuff but most especially Crash. So...when are you going to read and review Moby Dick?
When I was very young Aldous Huxley was one of my favourite actors. The book I liked best was not Brave New World but Point Counter Point, a novel about real people with real faults trying to get bye in life.
3:00 this didn't age well
Any Murakami's book review?
The novel also posed a question: if everyone is 'happy' and the process of achieving it isn't immoral, then should there be a problem with regards to the 'artificialness' of their happiness (if such a thing even exists)?
This book is easily the book that made me think the most. Not the most entertaining to read but such good way to make you think.
Feel like it is much better than 1984 for some reason.
This book is basically showing us a perfect world where everyone is fully happy, yet we hate this world. Just made me think how much we value happiness, like we are not ready to sacrifice everything for happiness, cause if so we would be in this brave new world
I prefer Brave new world over this endless war world we are living in
Another battle right after the utter exhaustion the battle with horrible disease brings. That's just so brutal. I can't imagine the trials he's endured and is enduring now, he sounds like a truly tough and inspiring man.
If I was anything more than flat broke and unemployed I would contribute. I wish him the best, truly.
Cliff you're a good man, and as always, thank you for all the hard work.
This was the first book that got me into literary fiction (whatever that means) - the society is sorted according to intelligence which is determined before. However when they are foetuses, their oxgen levels are depleted according to the class which is agreed upon
I agree with your review I found the society that Huxley imagined interesting but the story itself was lacking. It is an odd narrative choice to have the main character of the book fade into irrelevance in the second half of the story.
The Book is not a Masterpiece and I'm not becoming a Huxley fan hereafter. However, the world that he paints, even if it is done in satire, is not, in fact dystopian. Rather, it is Utopian. It is a utilitarian dream. The most good for the most people. The scant few people who are not happy are such a minuscule segment of the population as to be basically ignored. It isn't a perfect society but it has achieved more good than any other type of social order in all of history. Sure, it will have a serious lack of progress but not a total absence. new ideas happen but they are only implemented when the social stability can be maintained. It would fail miserably if an outside force attacked it, like your sci-fi alien invasion. Yet, for a lasting social construct it was beautifully balanced. It is not, however, the world for savages like the people of today. John, the savage, is modern (our present) day man who rails against the perfection and fails. Ok, maybe not the man of today but of a few days ago. I'm sure that a lot of people today could live in Huxley's world. Sadly, we cannot because it is a world made for the people who are born into it. Sculpted from conception to fit into their roles in life.
Huxley's world isn't totally devoid of the problems of our society but it did cure enough of them that it is a worthy model of study.
WE, by Yevgeny Zamyatin.
Was informed aeons ago to get all 3. "1984", which was written in 1948 on Jura, one of the Orkney Islands, off Scotland, Brave New World, and, WE.
I've only read 1984.
Well I read we and 1984, hopefully will get to Brave New World this hear itself 🙂, hopefully .
the savage society was part Christian so you could make a case he got his values from there.
I'm a simple man: I see Clifford Lee, I click play.
I'm complicated and I do the same thing.
I read this in high school and hated it. Although; the last few years I’ve read similar novels and loved them. I just don’t think I appreciated it, so I’ve been wanting to read it again lately. Your review made me want to push it up my list of books to read. Thanks Cliff!
Huxley taught Orwell at Eton and the pupil certainly returned the compliment. Orwell predicted that we would be enslaved by our fears. Huxley's view is actually much more prophetic; we would be enslaved by what we love. We are all enslaved by shiny Apple gadgets and seem to have embraced conformity and uncritical adulation of mediocrity.
For the record, in 1984, Orwell's Big Brother was a character in an advertising campaign for correspondence courses after the second world war and the novel is really a portrait of life in London in 1948.
Read 1984 now.
Agreed!! They go together 🤙🏽
Brave New World is happening now.
Ya I thought the same thing, the book is well written and I appreciate the ideas in it. However it just didn't do it for me as a novel/story. You should definitely read 1984 its an amazing book. If you thought BNW was disturbing , 1984 will freak you out, its way darker.
I agree 100 percent. Brave New World was not a natural, organic read. I've attempted to read it several times and understood the setup but the characterization is just bizarre and there is almost no coherent unfolding of a plot.
1984, however, scares the shit out of me.
Orwell understands the sheer horror of totalitarianism, gets under your skin, forces you to feel the isolation and paranoia.
wishing the best for corey
Actually though I'm a fan of Huxley I think it's by far one of his weaker books, still as a Georgist I was interested to find out the 2nd edition of Brave new world included the following preface from Huxley himself.
'If I were to rewrite the book, I would offer the Savage a third alternative. Between the utopian and the primitive horns of his dilemma would lie the possibility of sanity - a possibility already actualised, to some extent, in a community of exiles and refugees from the Brave New World, living within the borders of the Reservation. In this community economics would be decentralist and Henry-Georgian, politics Kropotkinesque and co-operative. … a society composed of freely co-operating individuals devoted to the pursuit of sanity. Thus altered, Brave New World would have possess an artistic and … a philosophical completeness, which in its present form it evidently lacks.'