Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World was published in 1932. The novel is often mentioned in the same breath as George Orwell’s 1984 (1949). Both books depict a dystopia—a society you would probably rather not live in, and thus the opposite of a utopia.
Pleasure and drugs versus effort and patience
A state-controlled life and the lack of personal freedom are key themes in both novels. Personally, I think I could just about tolerate Brave New World slightly more so than 1984. In Huxley’s novel, people are conditioned through sex, entertainment, and pills, whereas in Orwell’s 1984 the emphasis is on surveillance, propaganda, and torture.
Brave New World and 1984 in the mix
With a little imagination, you could argue that our society is turning into a blend of Brave New World and 1984. Right now, we live in a world where various agencies constantly monitor us through cameras and internet trackers. Your data is stored in countless databases—held by governments, companies and perhaps private individuals. At the same time, advertisements and magazine articles sell us a wonderful world of continuous “enjoyment.”
Not a prediction
This does, of course, require a fair amount of imagination. Societies can never be fully captured in words, and the future can never be precisely predicted. Not even by literary giants. So even if certain developments in our society remind us of Brave New World or 1984, that doesn’t mean we actually live in, or will live, in those worlds. At the same time, both novels still offer plenty of food for thought—as mirrors. Reason enough, then, to reread them. Let’s start with Brave New World.
Cultivating people
Brave New World begins with a tour of students through the London Centre for Hatching and Conditioning. A perfect opportunity to explain to both the students and the readers how, in the year 632 AF (After Ford), people are created. Fatherhood and motherhood no longer exist; both words even have a disgustingly animal connotation for the characters in the novel. Instead, children are grown in test tubes. With the right manipulation after fertilization, it is possible to create the right type of people for the many tasks that need to be performed in the world.
Physically and mentally conditioned
People come off the assembly line in different classes: from super-intelligent Alphas to near-idiotic Epsilons. This leads to a standardization of people so that they fit well into the roles they will play in society. With the added benefit that they are easier to manage.
“That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.”
Thanks to the “Bokanovsky Process,” you can even create up to 96 identical people, which is super-efficient . You can, for example, staff an entire small factory with identical machines perfectly. Even uniforms can be made uniform: one size fits all, like a bespoke suit. In addition to physically, people in this brave new world are also mentally tailored. For example, by having them listen to spoken messages while they sleep.
Contentment in exchange for freedom
The life path of the characters in Brave New World is largely predetermined at birth. That doesn’t sound very appealing. But precisely because they are both physically and mentally conditioned for that life path, most people are very satisfied with their situation. Moreover, they get a well-organized society in return: “Community, Identity, and Stability.” There is no social unrest, crime, or war; diseases no longer exist, and you no longer visibly age. Any lingering feelings of dissatisfaction are eliminated by soma, a drug that lets you take a mental vacation for a few hours.
“Take a holiday from reality whenever you like, and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology.”
Small and nervous
Bernard Marx is one of the few characters who is still not satisfied with himself and the world around him. He belongs to the Alpha Pluses, but is very small and nervous for his class. Rumor has it that this is because alcohol was accidentally added to his test tube during his creation. Bernard wants to be happy in his own way, not in the way everyone else is happy. He likes to be alone and feels more like an individual than part of a group. His behavior is so conspicuous that his boss threatens to send him to Iceland.
On safari to watch savages
As an Alpha Plus, Bernard has the privilege of visiting a “Savage” reservation. It is a place in New Mexico where people live who have not been absorbed into the brave new world. They live in relative poverty and try to gain control over the uncontrollable world through rituals. Birth happens the “natural” way, and violence still occurs there. Bernard takes Lenina Crowne (a Beta and employee of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre) with him to the reservation, where they meet Linda and her son John. Linda originally comes from the brave new world, but years ago, after an accident, Bernard’s boss left her in the reservation. However, she desperately wants to return.
Back in order
Bernard and Lenina take John and Linda back to London. However, this does not end well. Linda realizes that the people in the brave new world find her aging body repulsive. She withdraws, wanting only soma, and spends the rest of her days on a mental “vacation,” which soon leads to her death. Bernard becomes extremely popular for a while because he has introduced “the Savage” John to London and parades him everywhere. But after John, following his mother’s death, causes a disturbance in the hospital for the dying, Bernard is sent to the Falkland Islands.
Reason versus meaning
John comes from a society where there was a lot of suffering. You would therefore expect him to find life in the new world fantastic. But that is not the case. He becomes frustrated because everything is determined by reason and technical efficiency, and deviating from the “norm” is not accepted. He misses personal meaning, imagination, attention to the soul, and human connection. John is in love with Lenina and longs for a deep relationship with her. She likes John, but has no idea what he is talking about and doesn’t understand why they can’t just have sex.
Suicide
John claims the right to be unhappy, if only to use this suffering to grow as a person. However, the authorities cannot allow this. Feelings of dissatisfaction can, after all, lead to a desire for change and thus to social instability. John decides to go and live in an abandoned lighthouse, where he wants to spend his days in solitude, flagellating himself with a whip. He also tends a vegetable garden there:
“After those weeks of idleness in London, with nothing to do, whenever he wanted anything, but to press a switch or turn a handle, it was pure delight to be doing something that demanded skill and patience.”
After farm workers reveal John’s whereabouts, he becomes an attraction. As a result, he completely loses it and commits suicide.
Shakespeare or Ford?
John quotes Shakespeare at every opportunity, as he owned a book of Shakespeare’s works in the reservation. The title ‘Brave New World’ is also a quote from Shakespeare (The Tempest). Shakespeare, however, is forbidden in this brave new world, as is all other literature. Ford, the father of the assembly line, is the great prophet there. It is no coincidence that year 0 in the calendar is the year the first Model T Ford rolled off the production line. This new calendar was established after the world was devastated by a nine-year war in 141 AF (2049 in our calendar). Since then, history and traditions from before that time exist only in reservations like the one John came from.
Is the Brave New World not a utopia?
Brave New World is often cited as a description of how the government can control society through distraction and pleasure, which is easier and cheaper than through continuous surveillance and violent oppression. A world where you no longer need to ban books because no one is interested in reading them. A world where people amuse themselves to death (shoutout to: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman). But what is actually wrong with looking young your entire life? Dying without a single day of suffering? Having work that suits you? Enjoying yourself to the fullest in your free time? The opposite, a lifetime of illness, unhappy, doing shitty work, I certainly do not find desirable.
Originality
What I find fascinating about Brave New World is that, despite all its achievements, you probably still wouldn’t want to live there. That seems to me to be the core of John’s frustration. I don’t think he finds the “old” life in the reservation any better. John is disappointed that in this brave new world, people live who no longer have any original thoughts of their own and are only interested in fleeting pleasure. He finds the price for not having to suffer too high.
Consuming or creating
Brave New World therefore seems to me less a novel against pleasure and more a novel that makes you think about what makes us happy. Is it endless consumption, unlimited free sex, instantly available entertainment, and drugs to banish any remaining unpleasant feelings and thoughts? Or are we happier when we use learned skills and patience to create something ourselves, overcoming any adversity and letting it grow?
Pascal Klaassen
August 2017
Originally published in Dutch on RodeMuur.nl. Translated with AI (Vibe / Mistral).
Geef een reactie