Brave New World : Book Review

May 4, 2012 | Filed under: Books,Editor's Pick | Posted by: Shashank

We are now at book no. 17 of my Top 20 list.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in No. 17.

This again is one of the ‘old’ ones on the list. This book was first published in 1932! That is very old! So you might think that this book might not be as relevant today as it was back then. WRONG!

If anything, this book is a very important today, for a number of reasons. This book shows for one the growing culture of future utopias and dystopias among the writers back then. George Orwell, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley. They were all writing about the future as they saw it. Even though Brave New World came out as an exercise in satire against novels by H.G. Wells, still it’s a frightening vision of the future.

As before now I will give the description of the book, “Far in the future, the World controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs all it’s members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone in harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, maybe be the cure for his distress…”

So there you have it, a vision of negative utopia, or dystopia as it is now referred to. What is the most haunting about this particular book is that the ideas that are at work here are as relevant as they were back then. The whole idea of creating perfectly engineered people is amazing, until you realize the repercussions. Surely the roots of genetic engineering lie with this book, for it opened the possibility of creating the perfect breed of men. Then as the author discusses the dependence of people on the recreational drug soma you can’t help but wonder about today and how people are dependent on sleeping pills and what not!

Truly then we are in a way living the world that this book created. Which is why we must read this one, it is a book par excellence! It is again one of the most thought provoking books of the 20th century and as such must not be ignored for it does have an important message for us!

Buy Brave New World on discount and pay cash on delivery

Top 20 Science Fiction Books

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