Laura’s Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
This book was a highly anticipated read for me, so much so that I accidentally bought two copies over the course of a year or so as I planned to read it. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
The Analysis:
In the distant future, the World State consists of humans engineered in giant laboratories. Through injections, controlled oxygen levels, and other careful tinkering, embryos are intentionally created to belong to certain social classes. The social hierarchy has five castes, with Alphas at the top as the most intelligent and psychically strong of the World State’s citizens. Next come the Betas, more intelligent than average but happy to not bear the burden of an Alpha’s responsibilities. Next come Gammas, Deltas, and finally, Epsilons, the ugliest, smallest, and least intelligent people. People are conditioned from a young age to understand certain truths about the world and their place in it. Everyone is happy, except Bernard Marx, who dares to question society’s methods of control and determinism.
Some of the technological predictions in the novel are pretty incredible and the book doesn’t feel outdated, despite its publication date in 1932. The class commentary and ideas about passivity towards knowledge in a quest for pleasure remain relevant even in today’s context. That being said, I didn’t enjoy reading this book. I felt no connection whatsoever to any of the main characters and there were many details shared with the reader that had little effect on the plot of the book. Essentially, the ideas were interesting, but the writing style did nothing for me. I think the book’s cultural significance cannot be overlooked but I wish I could get the concepts in Brave New World from a different, more engaging source.
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