Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley was written in 1931, nearly twenty years before 1984. Comparably, it portrays a dystopian future, but one totally different from that was seen by George Orwell.
Interestingly, both are set in England and written by English writers.
The sharp difference in the books is that people, in Brave New World, are not born, they are ‘decanted’. They are grown in Laboratories. They are selected from embryo stage to be Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas; that is having different levels of intellectual achievements.
Where Alphas hold the top positions and rule, Deltas are at the bottom performing manual tasks. The lives of those who live in Brave New World are set before being ‘decanted’. It is a world of castes.
Society virtually worships Henry Ford, his conveyor belt and assembly line for that is how they see themselves.
On holiday, the protagonist, Bernard, visits a Savage Reservation in New Mexico. They observe ceremonies, and encounter a woman from their world, Linda, who lives on the reservation with her son John.
She had visited, just as Bernard had, but became separated from her group and was left behind. She became pregnant by a fellow-holidaymaker (who happens to be Bernard’s boss).
Due to the shame of pregnancy she made not attempt to return to “civilization”. However, neither Linda nor John are accepted by the villagers.
Linda now wants to return to civilisation and John wants to see the “brave new world”.
Bernard gets permission to take Linda and John back home.
He uses Linda and her son against his boss. Who resigns in shame.
What is so important is the use of sex as no more than a bowel movement, the lack of cohesion of the society, the inability to love or feel anything real.
There are drugs, ‘soma’ which people take to keep them happy.
Although there are things in Brave New World which we can see, in part, in modern society, it moves deeply into the mental challenges of living in such a society in which individuality, which feels and connection are shunned.
It is book well worth reading.
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