It's been a while since I've delved into some proper dystopian fiction. Usually I'm a big fan - they make me question their world, our world and everything in between, but since the pandemic started I've been totally avoiding them. When real life feels too dystopian, they're not much fun.
Brave New World was published in 1932 and showcases a world obsessed with eugenics. Babies aren't born, they're made in factories, and the class of the person is decided when they're tiny embryos, and their prenatal and postnatal development is all based around which layer of society they should end up in. Everyone is conditioned to stay within their social grouping, but when one individual goes to see the 'savages' living outside the society, he starts to question the way things are more than ever before.
This was a very thought provoking and honestly disturbing book. With the whole setup of the book and way things are presented, you're always edging the line between this being Huxley's idea of a dystopia but also his idea of a utopia. This is a world seemingly without misery. It's a world where people don't have connections with others so don't feel grief. A world where industrialised society is in tip top shape with the labourers being ideal at their job and the managers ideal at theirs. It's also a world where one lives in total isolation, one with complete sexual freedom for women and men (set against a backdrop of still very present Victorian moral standards) and a world where Mother is a dirty word, let alone concept.
Huxley seemed to rethink some of his ideas after the Second World War, realising that eugenics actually wasn't something to idealise, and adding a preface to the book explaining that his writing has flaws. The book is one of the more interesting ones I've read this year. You can see where it's inspired other dystopian novels like The Handmaid's Tale (in the edition I read Atwood's even written an introduction to Brave New World), and the sexual freedom/rejection of Victorian morals is something very interesting to read in this modern day. I gave this four stars because it was a thought-provoking, if troubling, book.
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