‘The Brave new world’ by Aldous Huxley, published in 1932 , is a science fiction. Like most science fictions, it is placed in the future and uses a lot of ‘scientific’ concepts(real or created by the author). Looking at the start of the novel , it does appear to be a medical thriller(like Robin Cook’s for example).But the reader is in for a big disappointment if he/she is looking for one. It is a one of a kind book with the theme being quite unique.
The novel explores the effect of advancement of science and technology on society. It is a change from the routine kind of science fiction discussing the effects of science on people rather than science itself. It is also a non utopian novel ,(that is nothing in the society is good) in contrast to other prominent science fictions of the same era.
The novel is a brave venture completely against our morals , that is things which we consider immoral and wrong are done in the novel with the view that they are right. The story is set in London in the year 632 A.F. (After Ford). ‘Ford’ (most probably meaning Henry Ford, a prominent figure in industrial revolution) is considered almost like a god. Advancement in technology particularly in the field of reproduction and hypnopaedia(sleep teaching) has completely changed the world. The children are ‘decanted’ , that is they are synthesized from sperm and egg by scientific means.
Sex and erotic play are encouraged. Mother, father, family are considered obscene and pornographic. Society is classified into five classes based on heredity – alpha, beta, gamma , delta , epsilon(from high to low). The concept of hypnopaedia or sleep-learning is used extensively. The children, right after their births are subjected to ‘conditioning’. They are ‘taught’ various moral lessons like class-consciousness etc. The morals are beaten into them mentally by constant repetition during their sleep. This leads to loss of individuality, that is to say there is practically no difference between two people of the same class. People are made into robots with a restricted amount of emotion and programmed to think only in a certain pre-programmed way.
Drugs have also been shown in a positive way. Everyone uses ‘Soma’, a drug which can make people have good dreams. The main plot of the story concerns a few people at the Hatchery and Conditioning centre. There is no clear protagonist in the start. Bernard Marx and Lenina Crowne go to a ‘savage’ area, an area which is not a part of the World state, where people follow practices of our present like giving birth to babies etc. The story is about how they meet a person (referred to as Mr. Savage or John) and his experience back in the ‘civilised’ world.
The story is clearly thought-provoking making us realise a side of science which is quite possible and also very terrifying. Looking at the period in which the book was released, we notice that it was some time after the industrial revolution, in which technology had completely changed the lives of people. People at that time were all for science which is evident from the amount of utopian science fictions which were released. But Huxley chose to differ in his opinion showing people the dark side of science. The advancement of technology was so rapid that Huxley’s fears that man might one day lose his individuality and become a machine is justified.
The style of writing in the novel is nothing extraordinary or special, it is just the standard “you talk-I talk” style. The third chapter has been written quite different from the others. In the process of introducing the characters ,the author has shown the conversations of all the characters almost simultaneously, that is a dialogue by charecter1 to his partner followed by a dialogue by character2 to his partner etc. This part is not like the rest of the novel and requires the full attention of the reader.
Overall the novel is a one of a kind in its genre due to its theme and is definitely worth a read.
C.V.Ambarish
2009ph10713
Brave New World
ReplyDeleteThough Brave New World is often cited as one of the greatest works of the last century, I admit that I fail to see any characteristic that would make it so.
Brave New World is essentially a thought experiment without much of a story, about a world in which people are grown rather than born and most importantly, through various treatments during the embryonic phase are given different physical and mental abilities. So a person of Alpha category is better-looking and more intelligent than someone in the Beta category. This difference is then enhanced via mental conditioning to drill into everyone the differences between the classes. The result is a multi-tiered society, where classes actually represent the different ability levels of the constituents. This is in sharp contrast to the real world, where the person's status in society is not dependent just on his abilities, but also on other factors like birth.
This raises a lot of questions : Are all humans actually equal, or is their worth determined by their abilities? Is it ethical for the talented to rule the rest? Is it ethical for humans to change the abilities of a human(even an unborn one)? Is the pyramid the only stable political structure for humans, that must be achieved in one manner or another?
I suspect that Huxley wished other points, like the lack of natural births and loose sex to be very shocking, but in this day and age they have perhaps lost their shock factor.
Apoorv Gupta,
2007CS10160
Huxley wrote the novel at the time of the industrial revolution.I don't think he was comfortable with the rate with which the society was changing due to improvement in science.The purpose of the novel was to raise questions.He wanted to show how 'damaging' science could actually be.Maybe, he did not want us to forget that we are human(with all kinds of emotion and with the ability to think freely)and not a robot which can be produced in a factory in the required quality and quantity.
ReplyDeleteWe realise the true value of anything only when it is not with us anymore.This is precisely what Huxley has done,he has taken away the induviduality of a person and has shown us the leftovers.