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Note: Aldous Huxley wrote the novel Brave New World in the early 1930s, just as industrialization was beginning to affect and dominate human life.
The world in BNW is an unsettling, loveless and even ominous place. Huxley empowered his "ideal" society with features specifically premeditated to alienate his audience. Huxley's imagined society held great relevance for his generation, (and continues to do so for ours), for this dystopia is the result of the social and economic situation that surrounded them and has been maintained till today.
One very obvious criticism is that of consumerism. Individuals in BNW are strongly encouraged to want new thing because old things have no use and the desire for new things keeps the economy running.
“Ending is better than mending” is one of the most repeated of hypnopaedia lesson, encouraging people not to fix something that’s broken, but to buy a whole new product instead.
Promiscuity and sex in the book is part of Huxley's critique of the society's attempt to eradicate human feelings. There is no romance or love involved. By promoting sex without emotion, the society is trying once again to get rid of the most human emotions we have (in this case romantic love).
One of Huxley's major critiques is that its society has left no room for human relationships. It has tried to squeeze all the emotion out of human life. You can see this, for example, in its attempts to take the grief out of death. The character Henry perfectly sums up his society's attitude: "Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow" (Chapter 5). Science has even dehumanized death. Henry's admiration of this process reflects how deeply the lesson that individuals exist only to serve the community is ingrained.
From genetic engineering to class struggles, Brave New World covers a range of themes and issues that have been pertinent to moral society since it was first published in 1932. The use of Soma, as an instant anti-depressant reflects the chemical treatment of clinical depression. As well, ethical grey areas such as IVF (In vitro fertilization) are easily comparable to the key themes of the book. These are ideas that have been explored before, but as society shifts, the importance and weight of these key themes shift alongside it.
The enforced consumer society in Brave New World is stunningly familiar. Huxley may have written it as a form of satire critiquing the society he was living in, but it potentially holds even more relevance now.
Do you think Huxley was writing some sort of scientific prophecy or just a satirical piece of fiction?
The world in BNW is an unsettling, loveless and even ominous place. Huxley empowered his "ideal" society with features specifically premeditated to alienate his audience. Huxley's imagined society held great relevance for his generation, (and continues to do so for ours), for this dystopia is the result of the social and economic situation that surrounded them and has been maintained till today.
One very obvious criticism is that of consumerism. Individuals in BNW are strongly encouraged to want new thing because old things have no use and the desire for new things keeps the economy running.
“Ending is better than mending” is one of the most repeated of hypnopaedia lesson, encouraging people not to fix something that’s broken, but to buy a whole new product instead.
Promiscuity and sex in the book is part of Huxley's critique of the society's attempt to eradicate human feelings. There is no romance or love involved. By promoting sex without emotion, the society is trying once again to get rid of the most human emotions we have (in this case romantic love).
One of Huxley's major critiques is that its society has left no room for human relationships. It has tried to squeeze all the emotion out of human life. You can see this, for example, in its attempts to take the grief out of death. The character Henry perfectly sums up his society's attitude: "Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow" (Chapter 5). Science has even dehumanized death. Henry's admiration of this process reflects how deeply the lesson that individuals exist only to serve the community is ingrained.
From genetic engineering to class struggles, Brave New World covers a range of themes and issues that have been pertinent to moral society since it was first published in 1932. The use of Soma, as an instant anti-depressant reflects the chemical treatment of clinical depression. As well, ethical grey areas such as IVF (In vitro fertilization) are easily comparable to the key themes of the book. These are ideas that have been explored before, but as society shifts, the importance and weight of these key themes shift alongside it.
The enforced consumer society in Brave New World is stunningly familiar. Huxley may have written it as a form of satire critiquing the society he was living in, but it potentially holds even more relevance now.
Do you think Huxley was writing some sort of scientific prophecy or just a satirical piece of fiction?