I realized that I was 26 years old and had never read the classics, so now I’m catching up, one volume at a time. You can read the intro to this blog series here.
Brave New World
by James Roland
I decided to bump Brave New World up my list because of some recent discussions I’d heard, both in person and on the internet, that argued Huxley’s vision of the future was far more accurate than Orwell’s 1984.
Unfortunately, this kicked my mind into overdrive since I’ve been a fan of Orwell’s book for years and truly wanted to prove this argument wrong.
Final conclusion: Brave New World is a far superior story to 1984, but the argument about which writer predicted the future better is completely idiotic. If you prescribe to the argument that’s apparently laid out in the book Amusing Ourselves to Death, you need to reread these novels. While Huxley certainly envisioned details far closer to reality, incorporating this unfortunate human desire to have technology pander to our laziness, this does not exclude Orwell’s theory of information suppression (which also happens in Huxley’s book, though no one seems to realize that in these arguments).
Sorry. Sidetracked. As for the story itself . . .
One of the things Huxley accomplished (which Orwell did not even attempt) is a real human emotion and character arc. Brave New World’s dystopian storyverse allows for passion (albeit misplaced) and love and depth, things that can never really be stamped out completely. Huxley rightly foresaw that, even in a dystopia, the Powers That Be can never win on their own, never stamp out the human spirit through sheer strength . . . and that the closest we could get would be by our own devices (something Orwell did neglect to incorporate into his argument, I must say).
The beauty of Brave New World is that it allows the reader deeper emotions than most bleak, analytical dystopian stories, but in the end rivals them all in sheer depressing endings. Sure, there’s a bit of hope inside John the Savage, but it’s totally wasted. Huxley depicts the uselessness of individuality as much as conformity, how two separate ethos and creeds lead to the same end. He lives the same life path as the rest of the civilized world, who exist in young, beautiful passion until they die abruptly.
Where Orwell points at the totalitarian regimes he saw and declares them evil, Huxley points his finger (and John’s lifeless toes) at the four corners of humanity, taking in the breadth of our depravity in all its forms.
For those of you just joining, click here. For those of you reading along, here’s my upcoming list. You should know that I never stick to it, though, so be warned.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
