Brave New World Book Rev
by Shoray Singhal
“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
Brave New World is a social science fiction novel written by the beautiful and twisted mind of Aldous Huxley in 1931. Set in a Utopian Dystopia, this masterpiece explores deeply many social and personal topics like drugs, abortion, promiscuity, motherhood, monogamy, atheism, selective breeding, global fascism, castism, racism and so many more matters that are still relevant today.
Brave New World takes place in a world where humans have built a “Perfect” society. A society where humans are bred in test tubes and placed into castes based on their intelligence which is predetermined at the “Human Hatchery”. The world is controlled by a “World State” that is racked up to be this flawless body with access to all the modern technologies and keeps the population in perpetual prosperity, but the reality is far from it.
“Every one belongs to every one else.”
What sets the world of Huxley apart from other Dystopias like 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 is that it is non-oppressive at least not in the traditional sense of the word. There is no perpetual surveillance, proxy conflicts, and traditional banning or censorship but only a society that has taken Hedonism too far. Free sex, hypnosis, and a drug called Soma are utilized by the government as a tool of control, keeping its citizens in a constant state of eternal bliss and Submission. Here is a quote from the novel about Soma :
“A gramme is always better than a damn . . . A gramme in time saves nine . . . One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments . . . Everybody’s happy nowadays . . . Every one works for every one else . . . When the individual feels, the community reels . . . Never put off till to-morrow the fun you can have to-day . . . Progress is lovely”
In Huxley’s world, the society into broken into 5 castes each denoted by a greek letter, each forked further into + and −
Alphas and Betas are at the top of the caste system and perform all the intellectual jobs like leaders, engineers, scientists, etc. On the other hand, the lower three castes do more menial and standardized work like cleaning, farming, factory work, etc. And each caste has an assigned color of clothes, Alphas wear grey, Betas wear mulberry, Gammas wear green, Deltas wear khakis, and Epsilons wear black, and believe me this is nothing compared to the rest. In early chapters, we get a tour of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in New London where humans are bred like cattle, processed like cars on a production line, and then conditioned into their respective castes.
“One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”
Now I am going to explain how these children are created. The population has been conditioned by the government to look upon reproduction (not intercourse) and parenthood as something beastly and primitive so they only focus on pleasure and not on procreation but to maintain a stable population the people (only the upper castes ) are encouraged to donate their “material” which is then processed in Hatcheries. After being fertilized the embryos are sorted within a certain class. Embryos destined for the higher classes get chemicals to perfect them both physically and mentally, whereas those of the lower classes are altered to be imperfect in those respects either by limiting oxygen to them or making them endure harsh and direct sunlight for example Epsilons meant to be miners are given rationed nutrition and limited oxygen so that they can endure the harsh conditions of the mines. The Alphas and Betas on the other hand are bred to be leaders, scientists, and other skilled labourers.
Huxley has also explained the reason why this society depends so heavily on “Mass Production and Mass Consumerism” so much so that even babies are produced in factories and it is non-other than Henry Ford the father of Mass-Production himself. In this society, he has been promoted to a Prophet level and his teachings are viewed as a pseudo-religion and his symbol is a “T” why? a T you ask. Because his first mass-produced car was the Ford Model-T.
“A love of nature keeps no factories busy.”
However, the society that we are familiar with still exists in a reservation in central America called “The SavageLand” which is an amusement park of sorts for the “Civilized” to gawk at and make fun of. The Savages still practice monogamy and reproduce naturally which are both punishable by detention in “Reconditioning Camps” for the Moderns. The key conflict of the novel occurs when the artificial happiness of this world is interrupted by the introduction of John “The Savage”, an outsider who is at once disgusted by the attitudes of the citizens. He believes in suffering, passion, love, and wretchedness. In his mind, happiness cannot exist without despair. In this monotonous society John serves as an echo of the past, a nod to a Shakespearean (which he is a fan of) sort of existentialism that we as readers can appreciate with some twists along the way.
Obviously, I won't spoil the ending of the novel as the story is filled with twists and philosophical and ethical ideas that are sure to keep you thinking about the world we live in currently and the future ahead. While expertly written the novel is undoubtedly a piece of its time and the author's mindset can be very racist and misogynist at times but despite all these shortcomings, Huxley succeeds in presenting to us a world that is a Logical Utopia and an Ethical Dystopia without being one-sided like the worlds of Orwell and Bradbury.
“In a perfect world with no poverty, sickness, or sadness, what is society missing?”
This question and the answers provided by Huxley in Brave New World are, perhaps, the reason the novel continues to resonate with readers throughout the world.
“Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning, truth and beauty can’t.”