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Brave New World
"Community, Identity, Stability"

I just bought a copy of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Even though it was originally published in 1932, it appears to contain some very cool CP elements and looks really good. Anybody else read it? Good or bad?
Did you ever finish BNW?  I read that for the first time a few years ago, when I was going through what I would call a "dystopic" phase - I read Orwell's "1984" immediately after.  In this same period of time, I also read a book by Ursula K. Le Guin called "The Dispossessed", which was supposed to be a Utopia.  The order I read them was Dispossessed, BNW, 1984 - so there was a steady decline in my mood as I continued the progression.

If you haven't read 1984, you should read it right after BNW.

Brave New World?

That was required reading in my 8th grade English class.

It is one of -the- classics of science fiction.

And yes, it's good.

1984 came and went, it's now 2005 and shit is obviously a lot more complicated than Orwell himself ever could have compressed into a novel or even guessed about. Actually, the book wasn't much of a prophecy, but the natural extension reflecting the social and political conditions of the early 20th century world in which he lived. World wars and dictatorships and that sort of thing.. old news... Both good books, although Brave New World is a bitty too fluffy around the edges and too typically  British for my taste.

Quite honestly though, while those books might still have a lot of relevance in the world we live in today, I'm fucking tired of hearing about them.

Quote: from BuddhaBrand on 7:59 pm on Jan. 16, 2005[br]1984 came and went, it's now 2005 and shit is obviously a lot more complicated than Orwell himself ever could have compressed into a novel or even guessed about. Actually, the book wasn't much of a prophecy, but the natural extension reflecting the social and political conditions of the early 20th century world in which he lived. World wars and dictatorships and that sort of thing.. old news... Both good books, although Brave New World is a bitty too fluffy around the edges and too typically  British for my taste.

Quite honestly though, while those books might still have a lot of relevance in the world we live in today, I'm fucking tired of hearing about them.


I understand how you could be tired of hearing about 1984, it is referenced way too much, but I was describing my own experience in reading both the books.  I think they approach a similar subject in dissimilar ways, and so make interesting reading back to back.  If you only judge books by how accurately they predict the future, you will cut yourself off from a lot of great literature.

Luckily, neither of these books were required reading in FL public schools, so I was able to read them of my own free will.  I feel like I got a lot more out of them by reading them as an adult.

I finished it, and it wasn't anything like I was expecting, but I still enjoyed it very much. I can agree that it's one of the better science fiction classics I've read.

I'll definitely have to to check out "The Dispossessed" next time I'm at the bookstore, because when I'm finished with all the nonfiction I've been reading lately, I'll definitely be vying for a nice juicy slab of fiction.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

I am still trying to track down a copy in a library.

And I have yet to read 1984 or Brave New World. Our high school and junior high reading lists concisted of Shakespeare and Sophocles and things like 'The Glass Menagiere'...

*eyes his Amazon wish list*

Oh...lord.

I read DADoES in high school, while I was in the height of my Blade Runner obsession, and I found it a little dissapointing at the time.  Mainly because it didn't have the same "technoir" feel, which of course didn't exist when it was written.

I haven't had a chance to re-read it, but I have since read a number of Philip K. Dick novels (Time Out of Joint, The Man in the High Castle, and several short stories) and the more I read his work and read about him as a person, the more interesting and timely his work seems.  The was so paranoid, and distrustful of everything - down to his senses, and reality itself.

Damus, regarding "The Dispossessed", please keep in mind that it is neither CP nor even dystopic, but a new form of utopian literature that came out of the hippie-commune-feminist mindset.  The thing that was interesting was that there were two worlds in stark contrast - one utopian and one "realist" - and I was slightly put off by the form of utopia the LeGuin created.  What was great for me, at the time, was in reading these three book in a row (Dis., BNW, 1984), I went through a palpable downword slope from hopefulness to dispair.  

And I don't know if this conversation should be moved to another literary post, but if you want a GREAT (imho) book that captures a lot of the angst of CP, you should read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.  Many have seen the movie, but the book is a wonder to behold.  I read it before I saw the movie, and liked it a lot better.