I don't agree with everything that Huxley says, but most of his ideas are interesting and some really make you think. It's a good update to "Brave New World", both in time and ideas.

Antes que nada aviso que este libro no fue lo que esperaba, y es que estaba segura que era una novela que continuaba con la historia de "Un mundo Feliz", pero en realidad es un análisis/ensayo crítico de la sociedad, y cómo lo que el autor presenta en su novela podría hacerse realidad en nuestro mundo dentro de este siglo.
Huxley parte de la base más que aceptada de que estamos viviendo con un exceso de población que nos hace enfrentarnos a una seria cantidad de problemas. A partir de allí desgrana las posibilidades de disminuir la población, mejorar las capacidades de producción, aleccionar a la humanidad para que se comporte de determinada manera, entre otros detalles relacionados.
Me llamaron especialmente los primeros capítulos que se centran en el comportamiento humano y cómo este se ve afectado por lo que lo rodea en la sociedad. Y es interesante observar las referencias a textos científicos, especialmente de psicólogos y sociólogos, que el autor toma en ciertos momentos para respaldar sus ideas.
En general no fue un texto del todo imposible, pero no es lo que más me llama la atención leer, y por eso la nota. Si a alguien le llama la temática seguro le encontrará algo interesante.

Despite taking me an incredibly long amount of time to read this book, I really enjoyed it. When I was first tasked to read this in high school, I remember being slightly disappointed in myself for sparknoting the whole book since it was actually an interesting story. Now that it had been enough time where I didn’t recall many of the major plot points, and some nagging to get me to read a book, it was time to read it for real.

As expected, this book was indeed interesting. The book’s futuristic society brings into question what happiness and freedom really are. This discussion gets played out in front of us at the end of the book with Mustafa Mond and John’s meeting after the soma incident. I enjoyed reading what felt like two really intelligent characters battle out their ideologies.

I do not have any profound thoughts that come out of reading this book. The society that was created by the world controllers, although peaceful and efficient, is decidedly not human. Humans are more complicated than simply maximizing for a twisted definition of happiness. I would say that I was not a particular fan of the ending of the book. John running away and attempting to live in solidarity without any joy seems reasonable enough, but him becoming violent and aggressive seems to go against his whole M.O. by the end.

All in all, I am glad I finally went back and finished this book. I actually don’t think that my discussions in my socratic seminar would have been any different. My viewpoint on this story overall has shifted as I have gotten older, and I’m glad I was able to experience that by rereading.

Political essay

"Fără libertate fiinţele omeneşti nu pot deveni pe deplin umane şi deci libertatea este de nepreţuit."

Here we have Huxley arguing for just a little bit of eugenics and social engineering in order to prevent a larger crisis that will lead to world dominance by the elites. He needs to reread his own novel.

It is remarkable how an author’s analysis of his own work can be so divergent from the reader’s. In Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley diagnoses society’s illnesses (overpopulation and over-organization), explains their freedom-crippling effects (propaganda, brainwashing, mass-manipulation), and suggests some vague remedies (education! Birth control!).

These are, for the most part, not the first things that come to mind after reading Brave New World and looking around at our culture today. Take sex. In Brave New World, sex is cheapened as a means - not an end - to serve the immediate pleasure of the citizenry, with no regard for the full humanity of those who partake in it. Partners come and go. In fact, it is even frowned upon to have any sort of commitment whatsoever. It’s all in an effort to make society more “open” and make sex less “taboo.”

What it has done in our own society, of course, is just the opposite : everyone is dehumanized, cheapened, and confused as the porn industry, sex-trafficking, out of wedlock birth, divorce, and, yes, selfishness grow out of control. Surely, a family society cannot coexist with such a negligent attitude toward the genesis of families. That’s why they’re abolished in Brave New World, and soon enough we’ll arrive at that point, not under any coercion, but by our own free choices.

Huxley’s portrayal of sex in his dystopia has been prophetic. Yet, there is little to no discussion of this in his analysis. I could write similar thoughts on a number of subjects - faith, friendships, and family, for example - that Huxley seems to ignore from his very own work! Granted, at the time of his writing, the issues of broken families, a sex-crazed (and ironically sex-devaluing) culture, loss of faith, cheapening of friendship, and so on, were probably nowhere near the levels they are today. It is ironic, though, that one of his remedies to overpopulation (birth control, I said it!) is in all likelihood one big contributor to the cheapening of sex as a means, not an end in itself.

Huxley’s entire thesis rests on overpopulation. Overpopulation leads to authoritarianism leads to loss of freedom, so he claims. Those less developed nations are out of control with their reproduction. How dare they stink up our earth. And who will feed them? There isn’t enough food to go around. I won’t go into it here, but this is one area where Huxley’s predictions not only reek of racism at times but have also proven to be flat out false. These same trite arguments have been touted before (Malthus in the early 19th century being the obvious case), all to no avail. Food has not run out, but rather grown to unthinkable proportions as a result of human ingenuity. Cities are actually far cleaner than the suburbs (see Glaeser’s work on cities!). And resources predicted to run out have continued and even grown.

The economic principles as to why Malthus’ (and Huxley’s) predictions have fallen flat is straightforward. Any shortage induces prices to rise, which incentivizes further exploration and creativity. As humans explore and create more, we produce at a level previously unimaginable. Overpopulation is both a myth and, in it’s more pernicious form, an excuse to be anti-human and anti-family. Again, it shocks me Huxley is touting the very idea that leads to the kind of society he depicts in Brave New World: a society that is anti-human at its core and that seeks to control reproduction artificially in the name of some greater good.

If you’ve read this far and sat through my crazy rantings , congratulations. My advice: read his fiction, but avoid his analysis. After finishing Brave New World, look around at our modern culture, and you’ll have done all the analysis needed. If you’re really curious, Huxley’s arguments are as good as they appear in the table of
contents. Just reading that will give you the gist of this let down.

I honestly enjoyed it, a bit strange but that's what made it interesting. I wish we could've seen more of Helmholtz Watson, tho and their life (with Bernard) after being exiled

3,5*

No doubt about it, Brave New World is an important book. When I first read it in high school it was a revelation and a lot more accessible than 1984, which seemed kind of dark, dreary, and difficult at the time. Twenty years later, I find myself rereading 1984 almost annually because it does what great literature can do so well: get under one's skin in a way that is uncomfortable yet illuminating. The world Orwell creates in 1984 is somehow more consistent and believable, the characters more "real" and sympathetic, their motives and fears more palpable.

I picked up BNW for the first time since high school and found it unreadable after a certain point. The characters are caricatures, the situations absurd, and the stabs at humor stilted and unfunny in that way only a towering intellect can be. When I was younger I didn't understand Nabokov's horror of the "novel of ideas," but after trying BNW after so long I finally got it. BNW just doesn't hold up on aesthetic grounds.

Which is why I'm glad Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited. In it he basically strips the novel of its fictional elements and compares his predictions (or, perhaps more accurately, observations and extrapolations) to the industrial world of the 1950s (and, again presciently, beyond).

In the end I suppose Huxley was a better social commentator than artist.

I understand the concept of the book and the theme that it’s trying to convey. However, the writing style was very boring which caused the book to feel unnecessarily long and as if it was dragging on. Overall, not my cup of tea.

An interesting read to understand more of Huxley's worldview and political theory. Fun to see where he got it right and wrong with his predictions. One of those reads that exposes you to another person's beliefs and make you examine yourself and your own views to further develop and/or defend what you believe. Some very good pearls of wisdom in this piece. I don't agree with everything he writes in this but still intellectually stimulating to read.