Brave New World, a novel by Aldous Huxley, is in my personal opinion, one of the greatest works of the 20th century. It shows us the future, or at least as Huxley imagined it. Brave New World contains some surprisingly accurate predictions about our modern-day society. Aldous Huxley’s work is often regarded as science fiction or fantasy, but in many aspects, it seems to be more non-fiction than anything.
Margaret Atwood recently wrote an article comparing both Brave New World and the George Orwell novel, 1984, and how they compared to modern times. She explains that Huxley’s work shows many similarities to the present. I think that her most interesting connection, something that I had not really thought about before, is the use of sex for recreational purposes. As explained in her article, Margaret Atwood states, “Huxley wrote before the pill, but its advent brought his imagined sexual free-for-all a few steps closer” (Atwood 6). I think that Huxley hit the nail on the head when he wrote about recreational sex. This was a concept that did not exist when the novel was written in 1932. Such a bold, yet accurate, prediction was made when Huxley eloquently wrote of the dystopia that he dreamt about; possibly while under the influence of drugs himself.
Huxley wrote about many of the flaws of the future, such as its meaningless nature; Atwood states, “in a world in which everything is available, nothing has any meaning” (Atwood 6). This is a message that could definitely be applied to our current society. Everything is becoming so available; it is almost pointless to leave the house, other than for a job or a social event. Fruits, vegetables, car parts, school supplies, nearly anything can be shipped to your house. Why even socialize? Our modern society is turning its population into recluses, a topic mildly discussed in Brave New World.
Overall, Atwood has articulately explained her stance on how Brave New World has stood up to its original risqué predictions. She implements a well-written summary of some of the more bizarre aspects of the novel.
Composition 111 