This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“’And that,’ put in the Director sententiously, ‘that is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.’” – Aldous Huxley, Chapter 1, Page 12
“Primroses and landscapes, he pointed out, have one grave defect: they are gratuitous. A love of nature keeps no factories busy. It was decided to abolish the love of nature, at any rate among the lower classes; to abolish the love of nature, but not the tendency to consume transport. For of course it was essential that they should keep on going to the country, even though they hated it. The problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes. It was duly found.” – Aldous Huxley, Chapter 2, Page 18
“No wonder those poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and
miserable. Their world didn’t allow them
to take things easily, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the
prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey, what with the temptations and
the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain,
what with the uncertainties and the poverty – they were forced to feel
strongly. And feeling strongly (and
strongly, what was more, in solitude, in hopelessly individual isolation), how
could they be stable?” – Aldous Huxley, Chapter 2, Page 35
Elaborate Description
Is This An Overview?
This is a world in which eugenics is the prevailing method of
social engineering. People are produced
via technological instruments, and conditioned for their intellect, abilities,
and wants. People are predestined to fit
into a particular social class, have certain jobs, and have specific likes and
dislikes. Even though people are
conditioned to be happy with who they are and what they do, people are still given
a state sponsored drug that makes them happy.
All this is done for the stability of society. Part of the world is dedicated to a reserve,
a place where people carry on with the traditional social methods, without
eugenics. This story follows those who
question the culture, question their conditioning. This is a story of how people perceive those
different then themselves.
Caveats?
The narrative was derived from the prevailing ideas of the
era in which it was written, that of eugenics.
The book was written in support of the ideas, but the author changed
values to disapproval of the ideas after reality showed the horror of
eugenics. The book was not changed, but
the message of the book was changed to a warning against such a society.
The experiment in world building is wonderful, but the way
in which the book was written is not.
The book can be difficult to read.
Book Details
Publication: 2004
1st Edition: 1932
Format: Paperback
Ratings out of 5:
Readability 2
Content 3
Overall 2
