You really should read Brave New World

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is undeniably a classic. It is a tale of technology, designer babies, drugs, brainwashing and controlling the populace through shallow pleasures. Unbelievably, it was written in 1932.

In 2540, there is no longer any natural birth. People are born / grown en masse in hatcheries, their roles in society already pre-determined. If someone is destined to be one of the lower classes they have alcohol introduced when they are fetuses, to limit development. When growing up, they are conditioned through sleep learning to accept their role and the way society operates.

Everyone is happy and if they feel a bit sad, they take a drug called Soma, which makes everything A-Okay again. The rest of the time they are encouraged to drink, be promiscuous, and generally enjoy life. Consumption is highly encouraged, as is the idea that once you have used something, it is better to throw it away and get a new one.

The main protagonist is an angry Alpha called Bernard Marx. Marx is a psychologist and who knows all about the conditioning that goes on every night and to every developing citizen. For an Alpha, Marx is a bit short and unattractive and this leads to a bit of an inferiority complex.

Marx manages to persuade a pretty lady called Lenina to go on holiday with him to a ‘reserve’ in New Mexico. Reserves are basically pretty shit pieces of land that have ‘savages’ in them. Essentially, they are tribes who are not part of the new global utopia. One the reservation they come across a savage and his mother who had actually come from civilisation but had been stranded there. They rescue them and introduce them to ‘civilised’ society.

Although Marx was displeased with society, it is really the savage’s viewpoint that introduces the reader to the ‘Brave New World’. The fixation with consumerism and the idea that you should never be unhappy is appalling to him.

I had read Brave New World when I was around 12 and had forgotten nearly everything about it. Now that it is to be a TV show and a trailer was released, I deemed it time to give it a reread. And I am glad I did because it was incredible. The show has been a long time coming and I talked about how I didn’t think it would do the source material justice back in 2015.

The only thing that reminds you how long ago the book was written is the style of jumping from one character’s thoughts to another, or in one section, from a completely different scene to another and then back again. It is not a style that modern writers tend to do. Other than that, the ideas and characters and setting could have been written today.

In fact, if written today with the rise of Amazon, Google, Apple and so forth, it would seem like a blatant attack on modern consumerism. Popping a pill when you feel a bit sad, the use of CRISPR to edit out bad bits of babies, and the general pointlessness of people’s lives one technology replaces most jobs are all examined (well, not CRISPR but similar). Goddamn prescient are the words I am looking for.

I was tempted to link to the trailer next but will link to the book instead. It will be better. It is a bit bleak and dark and I suspect the TV show won’t go some of the places the book did. Which is a shame. I suspect the show will have a lot of nudity, so that will be a plus.

I highly recommend a Brave New World and think you should read it before the show comes out if you haven’t already.

You can get it here. Enjoy.