4eyedBlindGirl | diane.flaviano

I finished Brave New World yesterday and reread it today. This must be the... lemme think... 6th or 7th time I've read this book since 6th grade. I didn't really understand it then, and now, I've barely broken ground.

It basically follows the lives of two main characters, Bernard and Lenina, as they go through life in the State, a 'utopian' future where humans are genetically bred depending on their future 'skills' in life.

And not to be a killjoy... I'm summing the points of the State rather than give a spoiler of the book:

01. The State's ultimate goal is no war and no disease. In short, a seemingly unrealistic utopia of sorts several centuries away from now, in the year A.F. 632 (A.F. standing for After Ford, I presume).
02. In order for the State to realize it's goal, it has taken away the following:
- individuality (no freethinkers, multiple 'cloning', island desertations)
- family (the concept of father, mother, womb, birth, are considered repulsive)
- art (no literature or creativity... and no religion either)
- love ("everyone belongs to everyone else")
03. The tools the State uses to ensure peace and health are classifying, human conditioning via genetic manipulation of the fetii, and human conditioning via hypnopaedia.
04. There is also general control of what the citizens do for leisure, and the regulation of soma (think of a happy pill combined with Prozac), a powerful anti-emotion/anti-depressant pill.

When I first read the book, it seemed only too fictional for me. It wasn't possible to realize that sort of world. And then... you think and reflect... and think some more.

The State is highly possible. With the sort of technology we have now, what they do in the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre can be done. Personally, I believe the providing Alphas and Betas with their own transport (Helicopters?! Hello!!! Majorly impractical Aldous Huxley!!!) is more of a difficult than stunting the growth of Epsilons of sleep conditioning babies into consumerism. Give or take a couple more centuries (or not) for governments and religious heads to fall into complete chaos and for dystopia to occur.

My favorite part of the book is the Controller's debate with John the Savage on civilization and why humanity had to come to such a point. A close second is the tour of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.

Much much more real than 1984's Big Brother, and an easy read to boot. I give this book the whole nine yards.