Brave New World / Brave New World Revisited by Aldous HuxleyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a collection of two classic works by Aldous Huxley. I have heard about "Brave New World" nearly all my adult life, but had never read it. Written in 1931, "Brave New World" is a brilliant, chillingly prophetic story of what life could be like in a controlled utopian world 700+ years in our future. Huxley's keen foresight, wisdom, and conceptual depth and breadth are amazing. Some of the details of the tale may seem a little dated or "weird", but the concepts are dead on target. A picture of a future society designed for peace, happiness, abundance, and efficiency is painted with enough detail to portray both the perceived advantages, but also the dark dangers to the individual. The reader cannot help but connect the events and concepts in this story to what we have seen unfold in our world over the past 80+ years since it was written. This tale serves as a serious warning of what happens when individual freedom and humanity are traded wholesale for the well being of the group or society, and what is lost in the process.
"Brave New World Revisited" is a collection of essays written by Huxley in 1958 to address and update many of the concepts and predictions laid out in the 1931 tale. One by one he lays out the various aspects of "Brave New World" that have taken shape in merely 27 years since the original work was written. Reading each of these essays which connect the dots between the 1931 predictions and the 1958 reality, it is far too easy to extrapolate them to today, 2017. The catalysts which accelerated these predictions toward the 1958 period are even stronger today; technology, overpopulation, over-organization, instant communication via the internet, mass media controlled by corporations and the top 1%, etc. Again, the reader cannot help but connect major aspects in warped utopia of "Brave New World" to specifically what has unfolded and continues to unfold TODAY! The warning is urgent and frightening. I especially loved the last 2-3 essays in which Huxley puts forth some potential ways to avert his predictions, and to win back the humanity and community of our species. Sadly, in spite of his 1958 proposals of ways to turn things around, the past 59 years have not seen any perceivable reversal, but rather an acceleration toward the bizarre utopia portrayed in 1931. Humanity is not winning. Rather, we are happily along for the ride down the drain, in our soma induced bliss. It is very scary. This is a must-read. (see also https://www.huxley.net/ )
A side note: Aldous Huxley died on Nov 22, 1963, the same day as C.S. Lewis, and most notably, President John F. Kennedy. Because of JFK, both the Lewis and Huxley deaths were a footnote in the media. Having read nearly all of the C.S. Lewis works, and now some of Huxley, i feel that i should find something by JFK to read - just to be complete. :)
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