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[SearchingForThree]

Anyone here read it? If so what did you think? I just decided to read it and am currently on the second chapter.  It sounds vaguely reminiscent of 1984 by George Orwell (my favorite book of all time) but with a bit lighter feel.  Discuss.....

[Kai]

I read this in 8th grade. I actually like it much better than 1984 (Orwell's Animal Farm trumps both, though). But that's just because I like the way Huxley writes alot and he's pretty muhc my hero anyways.

[Kid Modernist]

I didn't like it, personally. Could be because I read 1984 first.
But in fact, I thought it was bad on it's own merits. The only thing worse than the book was the movie with Peter Gallagher, heh.

[KharBevNor]

but with a bit lighter feel.  Discuss.....

Yeah, you might not be feeling that by the end.

Indeed, I think the somewhat Jovial air makes Brave New World almost far MORE terrifying than 1984. Everyone is a soulless drone, enslaved forever, and they are blissfully happy.

[jmrz]

I was given 1984 for my birthday or christmas by my neighbour one year, i never got around to reading it. It was one of those books that i just couldn't bring myself to read.

I picked up Brave New World one day at my boyfriend's house while i was waiting for him to come home from school or whatever, it is one of his HSC texts. I started to read it before he did, and finished it and new the text before he had even picked it up to start studying it. The best thing is, it is going to be one of my prescribed HSC texts as well!

[Lines]

i haven't read 1984, but i read Brave New World for AP Lit and i really enjoyed it. i know a lot of people hate books they are forced to read, but i actually enjoyed this. but i really like books that involve odd societies, like things Bradbury and Vonegut wrote.

and if you're only in the second chapter, it's going to get heavier once the plot gets rolling.

[pig nash]

I read it and 1984 relatively close together so I pick up on more of the differences than the similarities.  But yeah, I think it's scarier what with the ultrapacification with drugs and feelies.

[messeduplilkid]

I really loved the book. Unfort. one thing really irked me, the charchter focus shift. I was really enjoying reading about Bernard. I'm sure Mr. Huxley wanted to have the shift, but it just didnt feel right for me. I didnt want to read about a "savage" who is trying to understand a new world. I wanted to read about Bernard coping with a world that was supposed to be perfect, that was supposed to quench the thirst for things you want but cant have.

Did anyone read the sequel? (errr.. was there even a sequel? I thought I had seen one.)

[SearchingForThree]

Well i just finished it.  It was good, but i enjoyed 1984 alot more.  I agree with messeduplilkid that the character shift is a bit of a shame,  but i liked seeing both sides.  I wish that Huxley would've expanded further on both the savage and Bernard's view of the world.  But I think he does a good job of finishing off the story.
  Huxley never wrote a sequel though he did right a small book (essay?) titled "Brave New World Revisted".  In "Revisited" Huxley takes the main ideas from his book and fleshes them out.  Giving explanations for his reasoning.

[Omnicide]

More of a 1984 fella myself.

Anyone else prefered 'The Island' to Brave New World?

[JLM]

Probably not, though I preferred Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go to both of them in terms of character development and storyline, and I found that one just a bit more disturbing because of the ease in which the characters accept their destiny.

[Kai]

I need to read 1984 again. I was fairly young the last time I read it, and I remember getting bored with all the sex (it was cool at first, but then got boring...) and the way they keep reading this book. But I thought the ending was great. yeah, gotta re read this book...

No, you're pretty dead on: The entire second section gets so boring. It's like, "stop boning and do something already". And the entire part where he's reading a book inside of a book? It needs to die.

[sjbrot]

Did anyone read the sequel? (errr.. was there even a sequel? I thought I had seen one.)

Brave New World Revisited wasn't really a sequel. It was just Huxley revisiting the themes of the book years after he had written the original and seeing were they applied to current society and where they didn't. Basically talking about whether or not his "predictions" came true in any form. It's pretty enjoyable, and Huxley's style of writting that he uses outside of a narrative is easy to follow and clear.

[IronOxide]

Am I the only person who's only read Brave New World?

I liked it enough, but the problem was that the people that resisted against the norm in the book were almost as lifeless as those who didn't. (Not just Bernard, all of them)

The world was creative enough though.

[tania]

You might be. It's not necessarily a matter of which book is better or worse, but (in my opinion, anyway) 1984 seems more plot-oriented while Brave New World is more idea-oriented, so people are more drawn to the former, while the latter has a more "high school required reading" feel to it. though maybe no one here agrees with me; that is just sort of how I see them. Personally I have no beef with either of em, I loved them both.

[est]

They are both pretty good books, and only similar in as much as they show a dystopian future where an overbearing government controls everything about your life.  To me comparing the two is like comparing Star Trek and Star Wars.  They deal with the same underlying setting, but in noticeably different ways.

[Johnny C]

I was always more of a Spaceballs fan.

I honestly haven't finished either book; Huxley's prose bored my mind out, and Orwell seemed to lose focus midway through 1984 and I'm laughing because my cat just violently attacked a yam and so I have to end this post.

[Juanathon]

I love disstopian books like these although my fav would have to be WE. this book rocks, i suggest it to anyone who likes either 1984 or brave New world. itsa kinda a hard book to find but its definatly a good read.

I can't remeber the wauthors name right now but he is russian, the tittle is We, and was origanly printed befoure wither 1984 and brave new world

[lh1031]

You guys should read the Handmainden's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

[LeeZion]

The entire second section gets so boring. It's like, "stop boning and do something already". And the entire part where he's reading a book inside of a book? It needs to die.

It was kind of funny, the first time I read 1984, I was a horny teen and couldn't wait to get to the sex scenes. I skipped the essays in the middle of the book just so I could read more sex.

Now, however, I think those essays in the middle were absolutely brilliant. In them, he describes how a manufactured enemy is the perfect device for wasting labor to spend money on a war effort that could have gone to building schools and other public projects to help people. The only other person I know who made this connection so brilliantly was Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous speech, "The Chance for Peace." In it, the famed U.S. president and former five-star general described at great length what the money spent on a battleship could have gone to, instead.

[IntermittentEvil]

Interesting addendum to the Brave New World discussion:  Huxley wrote another -topian book, but with a U on it, called Island.  I heard about it secondhand, and I don't think it gets much play, but it's a very interesting read.  Although it beats home the theory that his writing was very idea oriented, as the plot is virtually non-existant.  Instead, he basically uses plot-like incidents to portray his vision of a utopian community, as well as his fear for the fate of such a community when faced with other less-ideal nations' plans.  It's kind of a dense read and gets preachy, but is interesting to those who want a companion to the ideas presented in Brave New World.

Anyone else read this?

[sjbrot]

I read Island a while ago. A lot of the ideas put Huxley puts forth for his idea of a perfect society, while completely unfeasable, are very interesting. His re-imagining of parenthood as a non-centralised, community-based affair was one that can kinda take you by surprise, as do a good number of other ideas he writes about there.

[Valrus]

I love disstopian books like these although my fav would have to be WE. this book rocks, i suggest it to anyone who likes either 1984 or brave New world. itsa kinda a hard book to find but its definatly a good read.

I disagree. Maybe it was just the translation I read or something, but I thought the writing was execrable. Ellipses everywhere. At this point I don't remember much about the plot; presumably it didn't make much of an impact on me.

[GuitarJunkie]

I read this years ago when I first started reading per se.

I enjoyed it a lot. There are always inevitable comparisons between this and 1984, funnily enough, Huxley actually taught Orwell for a bit at...Eton I think?

One large difference between them would be the glorification of sex within the society in Brave New World and the barring of it within the society of 1984.

As for Huxley's utopian literature, isn't Eyeless in Gaza also one? I haven't had the opportunity of reading it yet.

[KharBevNor]

Neil Postman on the differences between 1984 and Brave New World:

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. "

[Artiste Extraordinaire]

I haven't read Eyeless in Gaza, but I don't think it's a utopian novel (could be wrong, I always just thought it was a pacifist book). Nineteen Eighty-Four (not 1984, although that's just pedantic) and Brave New World win the prize for second best and third best pieces of English literature from me. The best is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which EVERYONE SHOULD READ.

Also, open question: should Brave New World be made into a film? Nineteen Eighty-Four was (in 1984) and it wasn't so bad. So was Catch-22, and it was pretty average, but considering the scope of the source material it's understandable. The setup of Equilibrium, with The Christian Bale, basically merges Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World together, and I think that weakened it a bit conceptually. So would Brave New World make for a shit film, or a good one?

[Garcin]

More of a 1984 fella myself.

Soma or Room 101?

Soma or Room 101?!

Umm . . . Soma please.

Very well!

You there, Soma or Room 101?

I'll have Soma as well please.

Sorry, we're all out of Soma.

So . . . my choices are "or Room 101?"

[pennyroyal]

i liked brave new world. i love dystopian novels, but i never got around to reading 1984.

[Lines]

More of a 1984 fella myself.

Soma or Room 101?

Soma or Room 101?!

Umm . . . Soma please.

Very well!

You there, Soma or Room 101?

I'll have Soma as well please.

Sorry, we're all out of Soma.

So . . . my choices are "or Room 101?"

or the room with all the soma and massive orgy. or the feelies.

the idea of feelies freaks me out.

[Garcin]

It occurred to me after I posted that, that the only way somebody could understand it is if they knew 1984, Brave New World, and Eddie Izzard fairly well, and even then they probably wouldn't find it funny.  I feel dirty.

[GuitarJunkie]

I haven't read Eyeless in Gaza, but I don't think it's a utopian novel (could be wrong, I always just thought it was a pacifist book). Nineteen Eighty-Four (not 1984, although that's just pedantic) and Brave New World win the prize for second best and third best pieces of English literature from me. The best is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, which EVERYONE SHOULD READ.

Also, open question: should Brave New World be made into a film? Nineteen Eighty-Four was (in 1984) and it wasn't so bad. So was Catch-22, and it was pretty average, but considering the scope of the source material it's understandable. The setup of Equilibrium, with The Christian Bale, basically merges Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World together, and I think that weakened it a bit conceptually. So would Brave New World make for a shit film, or a good one?

I saw a horrible tv movie of Brave New World once. I only have one arm left because of it. I gnawed the other off.

It had Lenina ending up with Bernard Marx and all sorts of craziness.

I think Brave New World could be done quite well if they got the right guy to pull it off. Although I am always sceptical of directors making films of books I like.