Brave New World - Read Jim Fulner

No cover — Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (2016)

289 pages

English language

Published March 11, 2016

ISBN:: 978-1-78487-095-9
Goodreads:: 30109283

Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. The novel is often compared to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (published 1949). In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, Robert McCrum, writing for The Observer, included Brave New World chronologically at number …

Brave New World is a dystopian social science fiction novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy, the novel anticipates huge scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story's protagonist. Huxley followed this book with a reassessment in essay form, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final novel, Island (1962), the utopian counterpart. The novel is often compared to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (published 1949). In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World at number 5 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, Robert McCrum, writing for The Observer, included Brave New World chronologically at number 53 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 87 on The Big Read survey by the BBC.Despite the above, Brave New World has frequently been banned and challenged since its original publication. It has landed on the American Library Association list of top 100 banned and challenged books of the decade since the association began the list in 1990.

5 editions

JIm FUlner reviewed Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

3 stars

Brave new World can really be split into two separate stories: Before and after the visit to the savage reservation. In the first half of the story I really was not impressed. There was no significant difference between Brave New World and other fictional accounts of collectivist dystopian futures (1984, Fountainhead, etc.) It was clear that Brave New World was more paleo-conservative than libertarian compared with some other similar stories (with such an emphasis on the loss of religion in the artificial downfall, for example). There is one very long, very disturbing description of a ritualistic orgies that nearly made me return this audio book before completing (I did, however, need to take a break and "read" another before I completed). Also including a strange reference to "erotic play" of children that I still don't totally understand. The only other oddities is somethingâs that are a little ridiculous now-a-days, like …

Brave new World can really be split into two separate stories: Before and after the visit to the savage reservation. In the first half of the story I really was not impressed. There was no significant difference between Brave New World and other fictional accounts of collectivist dystopian futures (1984, Fountainhead, etc.) It was clear that Brave New World was more paleo-conservative than libertarian compared with some other similar stories (with such an emphasis on the loss of religion in the artificial downfall, for example). There is one very long, very disturbing description of a ritualistic orgies that nearly made me return this audio book before completing (I did, however, need to take a break and "read" another before I completed). Also including a strange reference to "erotic play" of children that I still don't totally understand. The only other oddities is somethingâs that are a little ridiculous now-a-days, like everyone travels everywhere by helicopter yet we need to stop somewhere to use the telephone, and no mention of a downfall of the Catholic Church in the elimination of religion. returnreturnThe second half of the story, after returning to the "savage" reservation (a place made up of "Indians" from around the world who did not abandon the old ways). It is still somewhat unclear as the "religion" practiced by the savages seemed to be some weird combination of all 20th century religions, yet the other savages treat our hero John as an outcast partially do to his white skin which i felt was odd. I wonder if in Huxley's dystopian future only White people exist in England; perhaps he never could have imagined anything else. returnreturnSeeing the world of what humanity has become from someone who was living a more traditional life, who wanted to bring freedom to "civilization" is quite different than that of other dystopian futures where a "civilized" human wakes up to wanting something different. Itâs a unique perspective that almost makes this book worth something. However the ending, is incredibly anti-climactic. That combined with the horrible begging lead to this getting a 3 when it could be at least a 4, if not a 5 star, but without John's perspective, this would be a 2 star at most.returnreturnAs far as the audio production goes, I felt it was quite good.