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Brave New World Revisited
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When the novel Brave New World first appeared in 1932, its shocking analysis of a scientific dictatorship seemed a projection into the remote future. Here, in one of the most important and fascinating books of his career, Aldous Huxley uses his tremendous knowledge of human relations to compare the modern-day world with his prophetic fantasy. He scrutinizes threats to humanity, such as overpopulation, propaganda, and chemical persuasion, and explains why we have found it virtually impossible to avoid them. Brave New World Revisited is a trenchant plea that humankind should educate itself for freedom before it is too late. Brave New World Revisted (first published in 1958) is not a reissue or revision Brave New World. Brave New World is a novel, whereas Brave New World Revisted is a nonfiction exploration of the themes in Brave New World.
123 pages, Paperback
First published November 1,1958
This edition
- Format
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123 pages, Paperback
- Published
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September 5, 2006 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics
- ISBN
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9780060898526
- ASIN
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0060898526
- Language
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English
About the author
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Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.
Born into the prominent Huxley family, he graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry, before going on to publish travel writing, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times, and was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.
Huxley was a pacifist. He grew interested in philosophical mysticism, as well as universalism, addressing these subjects in his works such as The Perennial Philosophy (1945), which illustrates commonalities between Western and Eastern mysticism, and The Doors of Perception (1954), which interprets his own psychedelic experience with mescaline. In his most famous novel Brave New World (1932) and his final novel Island (1962), he presented his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.
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Written in 1957, and still applicable to today, if not even more so, especially the parts on advertising and mass consumption and manipulating consumers. The only thing that I had problems with while reading this was Huxley's strong anti-Communism, which seemed to make him extremely pro-capitalist and knee-jerk reactionary. Finally, in the last chapter, he talks about preserving democracy, fighting Big Government and Big Business, and even mentions syndicalists in a positive manner. Thus I find myself agreeing with his anti-Communism (big C) and fears of it. Also, have to remember that this was written pretty much at the height of the Cold War.
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It's sad to see the author of what I think is a quite thought-provoking book in Brave New World relegated to a propagandist stooge of capital, making incoherent rambling arguments, siding with eugenicists, and promoting absurd red scare propaganda. I'm of the belief that Brave New World is a better book than Huxley knew, and this quite convincingly proves it. It would have helped his analysis greatly if he'd read more Marx than the 'opiate of the masses' line that he loves to quote (indeed without understanding even its full context). Alas, instead he is another George Orwell, blinded by chauvinism and self-interest, failing to see that his dystopia is already apparent in the capitalist world and that it's quite the opposite of the communist approach. Seeing population growth as one of the main drivers of 'authoritarianism' he develops this neo-Malthusian garbage in the logical direction, praising the western democracies (though fearing their downfall) in comparison to the backwards people who are incapable of grasping democratic principles. A shame he didn't read Marx's complete refutation of Malthus a century prior. Apart from that there's no real attempt at uncovering the underlying motion of the systems he supposedly has studied. In fact, he seems to consider attempts at this to disregard the complexity of the world (an absurd accusation constantly hurled at Marxists- complexity does not mean there aren't laws guiding the motion- just ask the physicists!). He's quite satisfied with the dull 'power corrupts' hand waving. The most unfortunate part of all perhaps is his view of 'the masses'. It appears he takes the same line as Orwell (who relegates them to the stupid work horse) and has a good deal of contempt for the masses. He brings up the fascist view in Hitler's words, and admits he agrees a good deal with it. Much like Orwell again, he ends up working towards the same things he portrays as a dystopia.
Poor worm, thou art infected.
This visitation shows it.
Poor worm, thou art infected.
This visitation shows it.
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Brave New World: Revisited is half "meh" and half mind blowing. Huxley’s treatment of propaganda in democratic societies, Big Business' impact on liberty through technology, and totalitarianism as most effectively instituted through pleasure rather than pain are worth considerable mulling.
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If only we listened to Huxley a bit more.
He would probably be horrified at how literally we’ve followed every step he told us not to follow. This collection of essays gives a lot of insight on the state of our society and great lessons on what we can do to prevent a future Brave New World.
He would probably be horrified at how literally we’ve followed every step he told us not to follow. This collection of essays gives a lot of insight on the state of our society and great lessons on what we can do to prevent a future Brave New World.
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While Brave New World was a fantastic book, one may not fully appreciate the amount of detail that had gone into it before reading Brave New World Revisited, an explanation from Aldous Huxley on what each part of the original novel had meant and to what purpose each detail served. Brave New World Revisited is practically a how-to manual on running a dystopian city and distributing propaganda and enforcing the law.
The work of Huxley in Brave New World Revisited is nearly as brilliant as the first book itself. In this book, Huxley explains how and why people respond to certain events, making it almost a tour through the human brain and human behavior. It goes into detail on what makes us happy and what makes us fear—and clearly shows that it can easily be manipulated. Huxley’s excellence in Brave New World Revisited almost emits a feeling of intelligence simply from reading his words. While the book happened to get stale and boring every once in a while, the ideas portrayed and the reasons behind them make Brave New World Revisited nothing to be ignored after reading the original novel, making it a great novel that I would recommend to fans of dystopian literature.
The work of Huxley in Brave New World Revisited is nearly as brilliant as the first book itself. In this book, Huxley explains how and why people respond to certain events, making it almost a tour through the human brain and human behavior. It goes into detail on what makes us happy and what makes us fear—and clearly shows that it can easily be manipulated. Huxley’s excellence in Brave New World Revisited almost emits a feeling of intelligence simply from reading his words. While the book happened to get stale and boring every once in a while, the ideas portrayed and the reasons behind them make Brave New World Revisited nothing to be ignored after reading the original novel, making it a great novel that I would recommend to fans of dystopian literature.
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I am pleasantly surprised. This book was a series of essays about certain social institutions that are slowly making the world more closely align with the future Huxley predicts in Brave New World. I am not sure why Huxley is trying so hard to prove that his predictions are more likely to come true than George Orwell's 1984. Here are some of the main ideas that I thoroughly enjoyed:
"That so many of the well fed young television-watchers in the world's most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising"
"To be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national State, or of some private interest with the nation, want him to think, feel and act"
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and never dream of revolution".
"That so many of the well fed young television-watchers in the world's most powerful democracy should be so completely indifferent to the idea of self-government, so blankly uninterested in freedom of thought and the right to dissent, is distressing, but not too surprising"
"To be under no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national State, or of some private interest with the nation, want him to think, feel and act"
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and never dream of revolution".
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