Delving into Dystopia – Thoughts on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World

“O brave new world! That has such people in it!”

Miranda, from Shakespeare’s the Tempest, V.1

I take so much delight in dystopian stories – while the idea of a utopia is fantastic, they are, in my opinion, the dreams and fantasies of optimists unable to accept the fact that humanity is broken at its core. Dystopias, conversely, are gritty and frighteningly real, often displaying repressive government control, regulation, and force to keep society in line. Mankind seems to already be heading towards this pessimistic future – for example, there are many countries run by dictators or totalitarian governments that impose force on their citizens, repress individuality or creativity, and shelter their citizens from the outside world. The most chilling dystopias, though, are those that masquerade as utopias – they refuse simple human rights or freedoms that we as readers in this modern age can identify with, and yet the characters or citizens of the society know no other way to live and believe it is acceptable. It is this dystopia that is the Brave New World of Huxley’s creation.

It is now the year 2540 (632 A.F. in the book), and the world is teeming with happy citizens populated for the World State not by traditional procreation, but created and hatched through “decanters” and then sleep-conditioned to fit societal norms. Hallucinogens are given away to workers as compensation to be taken whenever one feels depressed so as to forget their worries. Monogamy and family have been eliminated – replaced with wild orgies and recreational, meaningless sex. In this world where people are pre-conditioned to hold certain beliefs, participate in frivolous distractions and activities, and forbidden to enjoy being alone, there are some that begin to question the society’s intentions – namely, the main character, London psychologist Bernard Marx. Isolated by others in his “caste” for having asocial sentiments, Bernard has realized that everyone believes what they do only because of their conditioning during childhood, and wishes to visit a Savage Reservation to experience their taboo culture and to further impress his attractive lover, Lenina. Upon visiting, Bernard meets a savage named John and brings him back to London, where everything seems to go according to Bernard’s expectations – but not for long. The story revolves around these characters trying to adapt and survive in a society where “everyone belongs to everyone else”.

The society itself is frightening for a number of reasons, but mainly because it focuses on personal gratification through sex, drugs, and recreational games. The Word State citizens are preoccupied with “feelies” (movies you can actually feel), sex hormone gum, and mindless activities like Obstacle Golf and helicopter rides. Old books from before the times of the World State are no longer needed and are discarded, as well as anything that glorifies the individual and creativity, such as the fine arts. There is an absence of family structure and religion in the World State, but they consider Henry Ford, who developed the assembly line, as their “Lord” (the word “Ford” is subsequently used to replace the word “Lord” or “God”, i.e. “your fordship”, “My Ford!”, etc). In a society where the citizens are encouraged to live in such a way, they are easily manipulated and controlled by the government, which regulates their access to pleasure and can condition future citizens to fit their needs.  This future that Huxley predicted is eerily similar to the youth and adults in our modern society, who, like  Huxley’s youth, are becoming more and more fixated on mindless activities such as video games , the internet, and television, while they are constantly and  subliminally being “conditioned” to participate in and consume products through advertisers and the mass media. With the discovery of DNA structure and research into genetic engineering, a future where citizens are bred to benefit society does not seem so far-fetched.

The plot is simple and straightforward, and more attention is paid to describing the technologically based future of mankind and truly satirizing the typical utopia than actually creating an extensive complicated series of events. Huxley’s way with speech, diction, and imagery transport you to a fantastical world that is too good to be true, proving he does not need a strong plot to weave a wonderful and engrossing story. In the last few chapters of the book, Huxley brings you into an ethical and philosophical debate about whether or not the individual is more important than the society as a whole, and what sacrifices should or need to be made to keep a society “happy”. You may even begin to challenge your own thoughts about what is best for the future as you read the ethical banter between “the Savage” and the Resident World Controller, who presides and rules over all the laws and regulations for all of Western Europe.

Huxley’s Brave New World will leave you dreamily lost in the recesses of your mind, your imagination running wild with thoughts about the future generations and generations to come. We, as readers, are left pondering…Could the future world really unite under one uniform governing body and completely change society as we know it? Could our modern luxuries and values one day be considered “pornographic”, taboo, or “savage”? Or is there a more gruesome and unimaginable fate waiting for mankind 500 years into the future? Huxley’s fantastical story will leave you breathless and wanting to know more, more, more about what brave new world awaits us all.

Read it for yourself online for free at: www.hedweb.com/huxley/bnw/

Huxley published two books after Brave New World, one an essay entitled Brave New World Revisited and a utopian “counterpart” to BNW, entitled Island.