Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Matej Lačný kindly sent us a guest review all the way from Slovakia. His thoughts on Huxley's classic reminded us why Brave New World is more relevant than ever!
Set the scene for us: What made you pick up the book? Where and when did you read it? How long did it take to read?
I am interested in sci-fi.
Mostly at home during Covid lockdown, 2 weeks ago
Probably one week
How did this book make you feel?
Curious and sometimes even a little bit anxious
What themes did it explore?
Dystopia exploring lots of themes including technology and totalitarianism
What did you like about the plot/characterisation/writing style?
Sometimes I lost interest in it. There were times where I had to put down the book and come back to it a couple hours later.
Who'd love/hate this book?
The novel is able to portray how one often suppresses their true emotions to escape society through technology and medicine.
Psychologists, psychology students
Economists lol
Care to share a specific line or paragraph you liked?
The novel focuses on the importance of not feeling emotion, the idea that "everyone belongs to everyone else", for babies are made in test tubes and a pill called soma is used to take away pain.
Found a funny/stupid Amazon one-star review?
"Boring boring boring boring bori zZzzZz"
Anything else to add?
Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World highlights how what may seem like a utopia, is actually a dystopia.
The novel focuses on the importance of not feeling emotion; the idea that "everyone belongs to everyone else", for babies are made in test tubes and a pill called soma is used to take away pain.
Although this book is written in the 1930s, the way it predicts modern day society is truly amazing. It portrays how one often suppresses one's true emotions to escape society through technology and medicine. Therefore in the novel, soma is their escape for everything, when they are feeling sad take soma, feeling anxious take soma; no one is truly themselves in the World State. With different social classes, each social class is genetically created to fit their role and job in society, for your life is predetermined when you are made.
Through the main characters, Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowen, and John the Savage, we are able to see through different lives people live in this dystopia.
When reading the novel, I found it to be very slow and disturbing at times, causing me to have a hard time getting through the first few chapters. Around Chapter 4 a clear story line develops making it easier to follow along and the book more interesting.
In conclusion, the book was very well written and I enjoyed reading it, however I wouldn't read it again.
Thanks so much Matej for filling in our review form!