Brave New World: A Struggle Between the Genius and the Mediocre

After the publishing of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, modern literature has changed forever. It is considered a masterpiece and one of the pillars of the dystopian novel. However, both of those affirmations can be called into question. The former based on a subjective opinion of a reader and the latter through compromising its dystopian nature. Similarly to George Orwell’s novels, the main appeal of Brave New World is within the ideas it contains, not within its literary merits. Huxley’s talent is essentially composed of his ideas and the attitude he assumes towards the problems he presents. He took full advantage of his endowment in Brave New World Revisited, a non fiction work sequel to Brave New World. The sequel is devoid of a mediocre narrative in favour of factual information and proposing solutions of the tackled problems. Simply put, Brave New World Revisited is what Brave New World should have been.

The first chapters of Brave New World are without any doubt ingenious. Aldous Huxley uses them to grab the reader’s attention wisely. For the time being, the core story is only just hinted at. Instead, the main focus is on scientific-like discourse, explaining the method of reproduction. During the Director’s speech, additional points about the imaginary society are revealed through minor details. The fact that there is a character called the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, introduced in a rather casual manner, implies the whole tone of the novel later to be explored, including a distant, unemotional feeling of pragmatism. However, it slowly evaporates from the novel as the plot develops, thus fundamentally flawing the book. After the initial introduction, Huxley shifts towards a standard, more common narrati...

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...g means and live their lives in eternal joy and therefore a utopia. However, since anyone can decide whether he sees it as the former or the latter, this can serve as a means of exploring oneself for the reader. After all, Aldous Huxley just showed the world a possible scenario of future and it is up to the world whether they will see it as a warning or a warm invitation.

Works Cited

Congdon, Brad. "“Community, Identity, Stability”: The Scientific Society and the Future of Religion in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World." ESC: English Studies in Canada 37.3-4 (2011): 83-105.

Firchow, Peter. "Science and Conscience in Huxley's "Brave New World." Contemporary Literature. 1975.

Firchow, Peter. The End of Utopia: A Study of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 1984.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946.