Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

Posted on | January 8, 2009 | Comments Off

Everyone in this brave old world (well, my Dad and Mary) raves about the importance of this inter-war philosophical novel. So, never wanting to be left in the shade, I picked it up.

I’d heard that this book was packed with exciting predictions about future technology which had now come true, terrifying incitements of the handbasket the world is going to hell in, and a little bit of a novel to hold it all together. All of these were correct.

I’d also been told that to read it is to love it. And that wasn’t quite true.

It’s important to get straight that this book is written with a purpose: to wag a scornful nostalgic finger at what Huxley saw as the depravity of modern society, and by depicting the depths of  shame it would inevitably bring about, incriminate it. This book, in direct contrast to Elton’s, is very much about the context and the questions it raises. Issues of sexual promiscuity (although, reflecting its era, it doesn’t mention homosexuality or Huxley’s opinions of it), politics and the rise of Bolshevism as well as the English class system, feminism and gender equality (the book doesn’t mention any differences in male and female employment). It’s easy to take for granted how much he predicted has come to bear, especially without a clue of what the 30’s were like (which I don’t).

The beginning of the book is well enough written, but I’m not quite sure what I think of the interweaving of London landmarks and place-names into the story. I guess the idea is to enhance the relevance and plausibility of the story. But the occasional cynical links between current and future are a little too cynical, and I think I just don’t have the right sense of humour for it all. The characters are good, if a little too exaggerated, the constant settings pointing out the downfalls of the progress we are to expect. Use of interweaving dialogues with tiny paragraphs are a nice device and convey the claustraphobic world well. It’s definitely an easy book to read quickly.

Where the book really kicks in is when the Savage turned visitor to the new utopian society sits down to discuss the controller of the new world, and the book’s questions are unavoidably presented- the dispensation of the arts, true science, religion, even struggle, passion and emotion in favour of a drug induced, television addicted utopia, where the able are terribly smug about it, and the unable are not wise enough to know it.

Huxley asks all the right questions- despite an unhealthy dose of cynacism, despiar and general grumpiness he is obviously intelligent and his prescient words beg of you deep questions that are good (if not ‘fun’ to ask).

Which is why I was all the more disappointed when John, the shady character lazily introduced mid-way through as a first generation savage, born of a utopian mother into an uncivilised clan became the focus of the story. Inevitably his nature is equally exaggerated to mirror the modern characters, but the gross asceticism, encyclopedic Shakespeare knowledge and comical chastity make him too removed a character for you to care when he is found hung on the final page.

(Whoops, there should have been a spoiler warning there).

Verdict

Yes, I did get asked those deep questions about society (and would agree this should be required reading for the policy makers of today) and yes, Huxley is a very capable writer. But did he make me love his classic novel? Not quite.