ok, lets have a chat about this book,

Tell me what you think of the style of writing?
what are your thoughts on the world - this Brave New World?
the people?
the so called Reservation and its peoples.


Let me start by saying first off i am very torn by this book. I love the premise behind it, however i find it quite badly written. Both in words and also in love - bear with me. What i mean by this, is that Huxley doesn't really seem to have any love for ANY of his characters and therefore neither have i. I was wanting to love Bernard, then when he turned out to have no redeeming features, i was hoping that John would be the one i could feel for. But alas no.

I wasn't hoping for a hero, i was just wanting a character that i could feel for and love. The only one for me, was Helmholtz, and even that was scraping the barrel

One thing did strike me, Huxley, in some parts, seemed to be up his own bum. one example leaps out from memory, but i am sure there was more than one. When John and Mund are argueing the existence of God. Huxley just rambles and rambles, as if to say 'aren't i clever with all the books i read'

Now in regards to the Utopian world that has been made, initially i was horrified by this world. But the more i read the more i was actually thinking, you know what? the mans got a point. yes the whole civilisation has been made childish, they all look to the Fordom to feed, entertain, drug them. But apart from a very small few they are all happy. Mund himself says they tried to have a society of equals, but the experiment failed and the subjects of this experiment begged for assistance. So although they have played with science to create certain people to do certain jobs, and these people are in a way enslaved to the system, is this so bad when they are happy with their lot?

talking about this however, also makes me think that in todays society we are 'bred' for a certain class of living, and it is only a small few that break out of that to change the style of life they are accustomed to, and we are also to an extent slaves to the system. The only difference is, there are not that many people happy with their lot in life.

One thing i noticed in this Brave new World is that things are not as equal as Mr Huxley would like us to presume, if you read between the lines the women are taken and fucked at the mans descretion. Not the other way around, it seemed to me that the women were used in a very sordid way.

So, onto the characters. I was going to dissect them one by one, but you know what, i had the same problem with each of them. I was hoping one of them would have some passion, some ooomph. but at the end all they cared about was themselves, even John the savage was an annoying irk. Initially you thought he would be the one, the one you cared about. especially after you read his back story. But alas, he turned out to be just as selfish as the rest of them (urgh those ghastly twins - get over it you arse)

And the reservation was for me a huge disappointment, maybe i expected too much. Or maybe this was Huxley idea, to show that nothing is perfect. But what i really wanted from the reservation, was normal life, for him to come across people living normally. As man and wife, mother and father. What i didn't want was a society that was more fractured and broken than 'utopia' I didn't want a society that parralled the Utopian world, where the conditioning was there and where the castes were as set in stone as they were in Utopia**sigh**



All in all i found this book a pleasant read, but i left with a very unsatified feeling.

I would love to know your thoughts, and if i expected too much? or maybe didn't quite 'get' what Huxley was trying to say?