'''Brave New World''' is a
novel by
Aldous Huxley, first published in
1932. Set in
London in 2540 (or AF 632), the novel anticipates developments in
reproductive technology,
biological engineering, and
sleep-learning that combine to change society. Huxley answers this novel with a reassessment in his 1958 non-fiction text, ''
Brave New World Revisited'', also summarized below.
The world the novel describes is a
utopia, albeit an
ironic one: humanity is carefree, healthy and technologically advanced.
Warfare and
poverty have been eliminated and everyone is permanently happy. The irony is that all of these things have been achieved by eliminating many things that humans consider to be central to their identity — family, culture, art, literature, science, religion, and philosophy. It is also a
hedonistic society, deriving pleasure from promiscuous
sex and
drug use, especially the use of ''soma'', a powerful drug taken to escape pain and bad memories through hallucinatory fantasies. Additionally, stability has been achieved and is maintained via deliberately engineered and rigidly enforced social stratification.
''Brave New World'' is Huxley's most famous novel. The ironic 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!"
History and context
Aldous Huxley wrote ''Brave New World'' in
1932 while he was living in
France and
England (a
British writer, he moved to
California in
1937). By this time, Huxley had already established himself as a 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.
''Brave New World'' was inspired by the
H.G. Wells utopian novel ''
Men Like Gods''. Wells's optimistic vision of the future gave Huxley the idea to begin 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 frightening vision of the future. Huxley referred to ''Brave New World'' as a "negative utopia", somewhat influenced by Wells's own ''
The Sleeper Awakes'' and the works of
D.H. Lawrence.
Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel ''
We'', completed ten years before in 1921, has been suggested as an influence but Huxley stated that he had not known of the book at the time.
[1]
Huxley visited the newly-opened and technologically-advanced Brunner and Mond plant, part of
Imperial Chemical Industries, or ICI,
Billingham and gives a fine and detailed account of the processes he saw. The introduction to the most recent print of Brave New World states that Huxley was inspired to write the classic novel by this Billingham visit.
Although the novel is set in the future, it contains contemporary issues of the early
20th century. The
Industrial Revolution was bringing about massive changes to the world.
Mass production had made cars, telephones and radios relatively cheap and widely available throughout the developed world. The
Russian Revolution of 1917 and
the first World War (1914–1918) were resonating throughout the world.
Huxley was able to use the setting and characters from his futuristic fantasy to express widely held opinions, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of the future. An early trip to the
United States gave ''Brave New World'' much of its character. Not only was Huxley outraged by the culture of youth, commercial cheeriness and inward-looking nature of many Americans,
[1] he also found a book by
Henry Ford on the boat to America. There was a fear of
Americanisation in Europe, so to see America firsthand, as well as read the ideas and plans of one of its foremost citizens, spurred Huxley to write ''Brave New World'' with America in mind. The "feelies" are his response to the movies, and the sex-hormone chewing gum is parody of the ubiquitous
chewing gum, which was something of a symbol of America at that time. In an article in the May 4, 1935 issue of ''Illustrated London News'',
G. K. Chesterton explained that Huxley was revolting against the "Age of Utopias" - a time, mostly before World War I, inspired by what
H. G. Wells and
George Bernard Shaw were writing about socialism and a World State.
''Brave New World'' received nearly universal criticism from contemporary critics, although his work was later embraced. Even the few sympathetics tended to temper their praises with disparaging remarks
[2].
Characters
Of the World State
Listed in order of appearance-
★ Thomas "Tomakin", the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (D.H.C.) for London; later revealed to be the father of John the Savage.
★ Henry Foster, administrator at the Hatchery and Lenina's current partner.
★ Lenina Crowne, a Beta, 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 (No relation to Lenina, despite same last name)
★ 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, and "that great lout" Tom Kawaguchi.
★ Miss Keate, Headmistress of the high-tech glass and concrete
Eton College (the name is a joke, based on the famous nineteenth-century Headmaster
John Keate).
★ Arch-Community Songster, a semi-religious figure based in
Canterbury.
★ Primo Mellon, a reporter for the upper-caste newssheet ''Hourly Radio'' who attempts to interview John the Savage and gets kicked in the
coccyx for his troubles.
★ Darwin Bonaparte, a
paparazzo who brings worldwide attention to John's hermitage.
Of Malpais
★ John the Savage, son of Linda and Thomas (Tomakin/The Director), an outcast in both primitive and modern society.
★ Linda, John the Savage's mother and Thomas's (Tomakin/The Director) long lost lover. She is from England and was pregnant with John when she got lost from Thomas in a trip to New Mexico. She, like John the Savage, is disliked by both savage people because of her "civilized" behaviour, and by civilized people because she is fat and looks old.
Historical characters & names
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" is used in place of "Our Lord", as a credit to his invention of the
assembly line.
★
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. It is also implied that citizens of the World State believe Freud and Ford to be the same person.
★
H.G. Wells, "Dr. Wells" is mentioned in one of the conversations; this refers to British writer and utopian socialist, whose book
Men Like Gods was actually a starting incentive for Aldous Huxley to write Brave New World. "All's well that ends Wells" - wrote Huxley in his letters, criticizing Wells for anthropological assumptions Huxley found unrealistic.
★
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose conditioning techniques are used to train infants.
★
William Shakespeare, whose banned works are quoted throughout the novel by John "the Savage." The plays quoted include ''
Macbeth'', ''
The Tempest'', ''
Romeo and Juliet'', ''
Hamlet'', ''
King Lear'', ''
Measure for Measure'', and ''
Othello''. Mustapha Mond also knows them.
★
Thomas Malthus, whose name is used to describe the contraceptive techniques practiced by women of The World State.
★ Reuben Rabinovitch, the fictional boy in whom the effects of sleep-learning,
hypnopædia, are first noted.
Other historical characters are assumed to be the sources of the limited number of names that the World State assigned to its bottle-grown citizens:
★ Bernard Marx, from
George Bernard Shaw, playwright and
Karl Marx, a German Philosopher famous for
The Communist Manifesto.
★ Lenina Crowne, from
Vladimir Lenin, the
Bolshevik leader during the Russian Revolution.
★ Polly Trotsky, a minor character. From
Leon Trotsky, deputy under Lenin during the Russian Revolution.
★ Benito Hoover, from
Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy from; and
Herbert Hoover President of the USA at the time the book was written.
★ Darwin Bonaparte, from
Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of the First French Empire, and
Charles Darwin, author of ''Origin of the Species''.
★ Herbert Bakunin, from
Mikhail Bakunin, a Russian philosopher and anarchist.
★ Mustapha Mond, from
Mustapha Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic after World War One. Also
Alfred Mond, charismatic British businessman and politician, the founding father of Imperial Chemical Industries corporation.
★ Primo Mellon, a reporter. From
Miguel Primo de Rivera, prime minister and dictator of Spain from 1923 until 1930. And from
Thomas Mellon, banker.
★ Sarojini Engels, reference to
Friedrich Engels, co-author of
The Communist Manifesto along with Karl Marx.
Synopsis
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). In this world, the vast majority of the population is unified as The World State. No one argues because they all have a strict place in society. There is no social competition. Sex has become a social activity rather than a means of reproduction, and is encouraged to be practiced since childhood (however, due to the remmants of some innate behavior of the past, several children do find the activity unnatural & frightening at first, as the beginning of the novel shows). Natural reproduction can occur, but is frowned upon in society, so women take birth control. Humans are now created in a lab and grown in an artificial life supporting machine until the fetus is matured. As a result, sexual competition and actual romantic relationships are obsolete. Marriage is no longer necessary.
Society is rigidly divided into five castes — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon (with each caste further split into Plus and Minus members). All members of society are trained to be good consumers to keep the economy strong, are expected to be involved socially; spending time alone is discouraged. However the need for time alone is negated with the use of the drug Soma. Everyone in the State takes Soma. Soma is a hallucinogen apparently unlike any known in prior lifetimes like ours. The drug makes it possible for everyone to be blissfully oblivious and perfectly content to do the assigned tasks of their caste.
The caste system eliminates the need for professional competitiveness. This also reduces the differences in social classes, contrary to caste systems with which the reader is familiar. The highest castes get no more food, medical attention, housing, drugs, etc. than the lowest castes. Instead, people are separated into categories based on "natural" abilities they have been bred to possess. For instance, through selective breeding the highest castes are the smartest, so they are largely assigned jobs as scientists and scholars. The lowest castes are bred to do menial tasks and to have such a disposition as to be very happy with this type of work.
People who do not fit into this "Utopian" society live on a "Savage Reservation". These "savages" do reproduce normally, though the story implies reproduction is infrequent.
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).
The Reservation and the Savage (chapters 7–9)
Bernard secures passage for himself and Lenina to the Savage Reservation as a "date". Here they are introduced to the society of
Malpais, which has been largely forgotten about by the people of The World State. Here people still reproduce naturally and live in a nonsterile environment. This disgusts Lenina and fascinates Bernard.
The couple encounters Linda, a woman formerly of The World State. She had given birth to a son, John (later referred to as John the Savage). Most of the residents of this land are illiterate and uneducated. John, however, was educated by his mother while being raised among people who had religion. Also, because he was not raised in The World State, he had gained access to censored literature such as Shakespeare.
John is also fascinated by Bernard and Lenina, and wants to see the world his mother came from. Bernard agrees to take Linda and John back with him.
The Savage Visits The World State (chapters 10–15)
Culture shock results when the "savage" is brought into the society of the "Brave New World", as John initially calls it.
During this time in the story, the Director of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre wastes no time in verbally denouncing Bernard for his lifestyle choices in front of all of the higher-caste workers at the Centre. However, as soon as the Director finishes his tirade, Bernard defends himself by presenting the Director with his seemingly-forgotten lover and unknown son, Linda and John, in front of the entire Centre, to the absolute humiliation of the Director. This tremendous amount of pressure forces the Director to immediately resign afterwards, as he had been exposed as a hypocrite.
Meanwhile, John is appalled by the World State and Lenina's promiscuity. While in London, John meets and quickly befriends
Helmholtz Watson. They meet often to discuss writing, especially that of
Shakespeare, with whom Watson is obviously unfamiliar.
When John's mother died he mourned, which was bewildering to those of this society. After seeing their cold reactions to death, John becomes angry and a bit violent. He goes off and destroys a large supply of soma, causing a riot. This results in the police having to come in and use soma-gas on the crowd, and John and his would-be rescuers are arrested.
Resolution (chapters 16–18)
Bernard, Helmholtz and John are brought before Mustapha Mond, the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. The heated argument that begins between Mustapha and John leads to the decision that John will not be set free. Mustapha considers him an experiment. Bernard and Helmholtz are sent to live in Iceland and the
Falkland Islands respectively. These are but two of several island
colonies reserved for exiled citizens of the World State, where Helmholtz can become a serious writer and Bernard can live his life in peace. Mond reveals that exile to the islands, a frequent threat and dread to prevent unorthodox thinking, is where more freethinkers are put, rather than engage in repression.
In the final chapters, 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 for these thoughts. This causes him to be harassed by sightseers who are intrigued by the extremely (to them) unusual behaviour. At the very end of the novel, John attacks Lenina as she joins the crowd of onlookers 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. His limp body swings around in no particular direction.
Fordism and society
Main articles: The World State
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 the similar-sounding ''Ford''. "After Ford" (AF), a parody of
AD, Anno Domini, is used as its year designation that starts at
1908, the creation of the
Ford Model T. 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. Ford's famous phrase "History is bunk" has become The World State's approach to the past.
From birth, members of every class are
indoctrinated, by recorded voices repeating slogans while they sleep (called "
hypnopædia" in the book) to believe that their own class is best for them. 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 the 1920s, thirty years before
Watson and
Crick discovered the structure of
DNA. However
Mendel's work with inheritance patterns in peas had been re-discovered in 1900 and the
eugenics movement, based on Darwinian selection, was well established. Huxley's family included a number of prominent biologists including
Thomas Huxley, half brother and Nobel Laureate
Andrew Huxley, and brother
Julian Huxley who was a biologist and involved in the eugenics movement. In light of this, the fact that Huxley emphasizes conditioning over breeding is notable. As the science writer
Matt Ridley put it, ''Brave New World'' describes an "environmental not a genetic hell." Human embryos and fetuses are conditioned via a carefully designed regimen of chemical (such as exposure to hormones and toxins), thermal (exposure to intense heat or cold, as one's future career would dictate) and other environmental stimuli, although there is an element of selective breeding as well.
Controversy
★ In 1980, ''Brave New World'' was removed from classrooms in
Miller, Missouri among other challenges.
[ Radix.] In 1993, an attempt was made to remove this novel from a
California school's required reading list because it "centered around negative activity";
[ Banned Books, Alibris.]
★ The
American Library Association ranks Brave New World as #52 on their list of
The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000.
★ A number of Polish critics believe Huxley
plagiarized two science fiction novels – ''Miasto światłości'' (''The City of the Sun'') and ''Podróż poślubna pana Hamiltona'', written by Polish author
Mieczysław Smolarski in
1924.
[3].
==Comparison with Orwell's ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four''==
Social Critic
Neil Postman contrasts the worlds of ''1984'' and ''Brave New World'' in the foreword of his 1986 book ''
Amusing Ourselves to Death''. He writes:
: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,'' Orwell 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.
Journalist
Christopher Hitchens, who has himself published multiple articles on Huxley and a full-length book on Orwell, notes the difference between the two texts in the introduction to his 1999 article "Why Americans Are Not Taught History":
:We dwell in a present-tense culture that somehow, significantly, decided to employ the telling expression "You're history" as a choice reprobation or insult, and thus elected to speak forgotten volumes about itself. By that standard, the forbidding dystopia of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four already belongs, both as a text and as a date, with Ur and Mycenae, while the hedonist nihilism of Huxley still beckons towards a painless, amusement-sodden, and stress-free consensus. Orwell's was a house of horrors. He seemed to strain credulity because he posited a regime that would go to any lengths to own and possess history, to rewrite and construct it, and to inculcate it by means of coercion. Whereas Huxley… rightly foresaw that any such regime could break but could not bend. In 1988, four years after 1984, the Soviet Union scrapped its official history curriculum and announced that a newly authorized version was somewhere in the works. This was the precise moment when the regime conceded its own extinction. For true blissed-out and vacant servitude, though, you need an otherwise sophisticated society where no serious history is taught.
[4]
''Brave New World Revisited''
''Brave New World Revisited''
'''Brave 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 thought.
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 due to Huxley's evolving thought and his conversion to
Vedanta between the two books.
Related media works
Literature
★ ''The Scientific Outlook'' by philosopher
Bertrand Russell. When ''Brave New World'' was released, Russell thought that Huxley's book was based on his book ''The Scientific Outlook'' that had been released in previous year. Russell contacted his own publisher and asked whether or not he should do something about this apparent plagiarism. His publisher advised him not to, and Russell followed this advice.
★ The 1921 novel ''
Men Like Gods'' by
H.G. Wells. A utopian novel that was a source of inspiration for ''Brave New World''.
★ The 1985 book ''
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business'' by
Neil Postman alludes to how television is goading modern Western culture to be like what we see in ''Brave New World'', where people are not so much denied human rights such as free speech and expression as they are conditioned to not care.
★
Kurt Vonnegut said that in writing ''
Player Piano'' (1952) he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of ''
Brave New World'', whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from
Eugene Zamiatin's ''
We''."
[5]
Adaptations
★
''Brave New World'' (film) (1998)
★ Brave New World (TV) (1980)
★ Brave New World (Radio Broadcast) CBS Radio Workshop (January 27 and February 3 1956)
★
''Demolition Man'' (1993) - allusions.
★
''Equilibrium'' (2002)
★
''The Island'' (2005)
★ Brave New World (Stage Adaptation) Brendon Burns, Solent Peoples Theatre 2003
★ Schöne Neue Welt (Musical) GRIPS Theater Berlin, Germany, 2006
★ Brave New World (2000 song and concept album by Iron Maiden metaphorically following the events of the book)
Publications
★ Brave New World
★
★ Aldous Huxley; Perennial, Reprint edition, September 1, 1998; ISBN 0-06-092987-1
★ Brave New World Revisited
★
★ Aldous Huxley; Perennial, March 1, 2000; ISBN 0-06-095551-1
★ Huxley's Brave New World (Cliffs Notes)
★
★ Charles and Regina Higgins; Cliffs Notes, May 30, 2000; ISBN 0-7645-8583-5
★ Spark Notes Brave New World
★
★ Sterling, December 31, 2003; ISBN 1-58663-366-X
★ Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (Barron's Book Notes)
★
★ Anthony Astrachan, Anthony Astrakhan; Barrons Educational Series, November 1984; ISBN 0-8120-3405-8
Also publications for NSW HSC Students.
See also
★
''Brave New World'' argument against
Transhumanism
★
''1984''
★
''We''
★
''Fahrenheit 451''
★
''Island'', Huxley's second utopian novel
★
Demolition Man (film)
★
THX 1138
★
Logan's Run
★
Brave New World Records
Notes
1. The Vintage Classics edition of Brave New World.
2. Huxley, Aldous. ''Brave New World''. Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition (October 17, 2006), P.S. "About the Book."
3. (pl)A. Smuszkiewicz ''Zaczarowana gra'', Poznań 1982
4. Christopher Hitchens, "Goodbye to All That: Why Americans Are Not Taught History." Harper's Magazine. November 1998, pp. 37–47.
5. Playboy Magazine interview with Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., July 1973. [2]
References
★
Brave New World, Huxley, Aldous, 1894–1963, , , HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, ISBN 0-06-092987-1
★
Brave New World Revisited, Huxley, Aldous, 1894–1963, , , HarperCollins Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0-06-095551-1
★
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business., Postman, Neil, , , Penguin USA, 1985, ISBN 0-670-80454-1
★
Cliff Notes on Huxley's Brave New World, Higgins, Charles & Higgins, Regina, , , Wiley Publishing, 2000, ISBN 0-7645-8583-5
★
http://www.huxley.net/
External links
★
Online edition of ''Brave New World''
★
1957 video interview with Huxley as he reflects on his life work and especially ''Brave New World''
★
Scholarly essay/article on Brave New World
★
Aldous Huxley: Bioethics and Reproductive Issues
★
A Defense of Paradise-Engineering. A critical review of Huxley's novel by
David Pearce.
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