Brave New World

For other uses, see Brave New World (disambiguation).

Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley. It was first published in 1932. The novel is set in London of "AF 632", which is about 2540 AD, and speaks of developments in reproductive technology, operant conditioning, and sleep-learning that change society.

The general idea is a World Government manipulates people so as to make them easier to govern. They are split into five castes, hatched by the state to fill preset positions in society. The lower castes, which are clones, are treated with chemicals to arrest their mental and physical development. Children are treated by a process which gives them only information appropriate to their caste. They are moulded for their positions in life. Psychological needs are met by compulsory dosing of the drug soma, a hallucinogen which takes the user on an enjoyable trip. In the novel various characters experience life in this planned society and struggle with the problems it causes them.

Related pages

• Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century

References

• Huxley, Aldous, 1894–1963 (1998). Brave New World (First Perennial Classics ed. ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-092987-1.
• Huxley, Aldous, 1894–1963 (2000). Brave New World Revisited (First Perennial Classics ed. ed.). New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0-06-095551-1.
• Postman, Neil (1985). Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. USA: Penguin USA. ISBN 0-670-80454-1.
• Higgins, Charles & Higgins, Regina (2000). Cliff Notes on Huxley's Brave New World. New York: Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-8583-5.
• http://www.huxley.net/

Other websites

• 1957 video interview with Huxley as he reflects on his life work and especially Brave New World
• Scholarly essay/article on Brave New World
• Aldous Huxley: Bioethics and Reproductive Issues
• A Defense of Paradise-Engineering. A critical review of Huxley's novel by David Pearce.