Brave New World

This is my review, taken off of my Goodreads page (http://www.goodreads.com/BookNerd94) on Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, enjoy :)

Okay, so I have been wanting to read this book for around 2 and a half years, after delving into more modern classic dystopias.

(I don't know if that is right to say but I wanted to say not YA dystopia, as to me dystopia has been around so much longer and is slightly becoming tainted by the YA obsession - However saying that it won't stop me reading them and enjoying them) 

So when I finally picked up this book to read for uni, I was excited but also a bit apprehensive. Apprehensive you ask? Well when I had to slog through introductions and forewords about the book that I had yet to read, I become a bit nervous. Now don't get me wrong the introductions by Margaret Atwood and David Bradshaw were very good, BUT could they have not been put at the back of the book. I know I could of read the story first then the intros but I have a thing about chronological order. So skimming through these without knowing anything about the book put me on a rocky road of uneasiness. I will probably go back and read the intros now and be fine, It just felt s alien from me because I knew NOTHING and they were talking about things that did not make any sense AT THE TIME. 

Anyways, away from that slight drama...the book itself. As I said I was really looking forward to this but after a few pages I was very much 'huh?!?'.

So about 3 pages in, the disjointed listing overload of information had me doubting Huxley, the writing felt very fractured and I felt a barrier was brought up. I couldn't get into this world, yes it a very different alien one to our own society but I did not feel like I could take the book and plunge myself straight into it like I wanted to. The listing at first would of been okay if it did not go on for pages with no sign of a full stop anywhere and as a said a very disjointed narrative at first. However the details of the hatching centre were very intricate, yet I felt like Bam! Info Overload. 

(Now Please Before you think I am hating on a esteemed piece of work, check my rating and let me continue, because I will get into what was good :) )

Now chapter 3, I have something to say on...

I know Huxley was probably going for a choppy and quick narrative to create a certain atmosphere, but this chapter to me was HELL. There are four different scenes or voices occurring talking about different things. I became so confused and lost on who was talking that I felt the effectiveness of this narrative technique was diminished. I don't mind chopping and changing between say two scenes, but with clear distinction of the changes. I think Huxley was a bit overambitious with this part, there needed to be a bit more clear changes or scenes cut up a bit differently. Now the passage was interesting but very frustrating, I do however very much understand what Huxley was trying to present, to me it just did not work as well as it could of.

So now.... on to the good stuff!!!!

THIS WORLD! I love the way Huxley has created this Utopia world so different yet so close to our own! It's so imaginative and complex and intriguing. 

The social conditioning and the way the people in this world act are so peculiar but almost all seem happy. The control of the governing body is so astoundingly obvious to the reader but there is no doubt in the eyes of the people, except of course Bernard Marx. 

Now to me when Bernard and (I think) Lenina head over to the Savage reservation the book picked up. I really enjoyed the 'savage' aka John and when he came into the world that is so conditioned from birth. The idea of the outsider looking in and unable to participate in this world he has been told so much about by a mother who used to live there. I felt sorry for him in the end, the other guys were quite happy but his self destruction was painful to witness. 

I am trying here to really put everything I want to say in, but I finished this book a few days ago and have already read another so I hope this review can do this book justice. 

Two more things I really want to touch on is the sexual and motherhood aspect as well as the Directors words near the end. 

Now for our world the sexualness throughout this book is in some ways a stone throw away from our world. BUT its not, the weird conditioning that they undergo through birth creating the touchy feely and Orgy-Porgy, is very disturbing at the same time. Especially in the case of young children, which would in our society be very very taboo! Huxley explores taboo very well for the time he is writing for, as well as being relevant for today. He creates this almost god like character of the Ford that people worship like they would do a god in todays society, but it becomes so perverse and peculiar. Not to say that is a bad thing, I think Huxley's imagination and creativity in this world is outstanding. I like the way Huxley, made everything either quite subtle or the sexual tones where not very explicit unless read into. I know some parts this is not the case but I feel Huxley dealt with it rather well. 

Motherhood, is a foreign term for the people in this world, and I found it so hard to understand that, a bit like the savage John, being from the society we are from, the idea that these people are actually so incredibly alone yet together is so sad as well. As the book goes on, this perfect world becomes so un-perfect. People have no emotional ties to anyone, are constantly being drugged by Soma to stay completely happy and bliss (as not to cause any instability ) or to knock them out as to make them in a permanent state of blissful sleep for several days.

This society was founded as to stop wars and pain by eliminating anything that could cause instability. So although the idea of the society was right, they take out some aspects, such as emotional ties with relationships and motherhood, that make up humanity. The conservation between the Controller and the three men was very enlightening into the true nature of the world and you begin to not just despise this world but understand the creation of it. 

Overall this book made me tear my hair out at first but once I was in it I felt the wonder and beauty that is this world of Huxley's. I am giving it four stars purely based not just on the book, but the world created and the endings. And the ending is a shocker in some ways. 

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dystopias, who likes to see the ins and out of different world and politics.