Welcome all to the Literature Lounge! Today’s feature will be a book review of a critically acclaimed novel written in the 30s. This is one of the things (book reviews, short stories, etc.) I look to feature in the lounge moving forward. So, have a seat, relax, and enjoy.
I recently finished the novel Brave New World written by Aldous Huxley. It’s set in a dystopian/futuristic England where pleasure and living free is the norm, sounds good, right? Well, the downside to the utopia is suggestive programming (i.e., brainwashing tactics) and mind-altering drugs, specifically a drug called “soma,” that relaxes the people to a fault to make them more susceptible to a low-key totalitarian state.
Bernard Marx, one of the characters in the story, reminds me of those individuals who flip-flop and are wishy-washy. There were times he wouldn’t conform to societal norms, but there were times where he caved in to the very things he took a stand against. For instance, he’s firm against causal sex, but later sleeps with Lenina, a woman quite a few guys had their eyes on.
His lack of height made him insecure, which was part of the reason he struggled with his confidence initially when it came to women, but the soma alleviated some of that. He was friends with Helmholtz Watson and John, but was secretly jealous because the two of them managed to form a tighter bond.
When John tried to free the people from the very thing that was causing their mental prison, causing an uproar, Watson, who was accompanied by Bernard to find John, joined in when things turned into a physical confrontation. Bernard, on the other hand, was hesitant, and wound up not helping his friends at all, although all three of them were arrested.
When he was exiled, he threw them under the bus, but the decision was made to exile him and Watson, and keep John around. To sum up Bernard's character, he showed flashes of strength, but overall, he was weak.
In between Bernard’s story came the story of John, whom Bernard met when he went to Malpais with Lenina. Mainly known as “The Savage,” throughout the story, John, in this case, reminds me of the labeling of the so-called dominant society. It might be more underwraps nowadays, but there was a time when they would call people they looked down on, people who didn’t look or act like them “savages,” “gorillas,” “apes,” etc. His description when he was first introduced in the story made me wonder if he was “Black” or Native American, but as I read on, I realized he was the latter.
This was a character I thought meant well, but was child-like and all over the place in his way of thinking. A reject in Malpais and a Shakespeare head--the words of Shakespeare was pretty much his Bible--he dreamed of a better world, a “Brave New World.” Bernard takes him out of the badlands and back to England with himself and Lenina, but eventually he grew tired of the conveniences. It became too convenient to him, one of the things he explained to The Controller, Mustapha Mond.
This brings me to the debate between John and Mond when John, Bernard, and Helmholtz were being detained. They had a discussion on the existence of God, the laws of the state, and philosophy.
I agree with John’s take on not restricting information from the masses, claiming it’s for their own good, basically paternalizing them, but I also agree with Mond’s take on the concept of God being something people have been conditioned to believe. While I didn’t agree with Mond’s micro managing approach, John didn’t help his case much constantly using fictional Shakespeare works as a reference, making his argument look childish after a while. Not saying that you can’t use fictional works as a reference, it has its place, but when if that’s your answer to everything, it can be difficult to take you seriously, in my opinion.
He told Mond that the people had it too easy, and impurity and sin is needed to (I guess) balance things out. However, later, when he went into isolation, he took a whip and flogged himself at the thought of getting aroused when thinking back on Lenina coming on to him, whom he aggressively rejected at the time, calling her a bunch of whores and strumpets. The purpose of the whipping among other odd actions he was doing, was to purify himself of the impure thought.
While he was making a fool of himself, he was secretly being recorded by Darwin Bonaparte--that reminded me of the FBI or CIA tactic, with the secret wiring, bugging, and planting--which was sent to play all over, creating an even bigger spectacle than before. In modern times, that’s called “going viral.”
This led to an even bigger spectacle and an orgy, which led to realization of his actions after awakening from the orgy, and he hung himself.
As I mentioned earlier, his character struck me as confused and all over the place. He wanted a brave new world, but still had an old-fashioned mindset. He had the same mindset that he had on the Malpais Reservation. He reminded me of the saying that sometimes “you can take a person out of the ‘hood,’ but not the ‘hood’ out of the person.”
Lenina Crowne seemed to be the love interest of the story. She’s a law abiding citizen, going from relationship to relationship, quoting all of the cliches that she was programmed to recite like everyone else, such as, “Everyone belongs to everyone,” and popping grammes of soma. She initially develops feelings for Bernard, and although Bernard has similar feelings, his insecurities won't allow him to commit. She later falls for John, who also liked her, as he admitted later, but his archaic way of thinking got in the way.
To me, it’s art imitating life. It’s funny how this book was written in the 30s--1932, to be exact--but it reflects so much of today’s society. Now, people bed hopping, sleeping around, and bouncing from relationship to relationship is nothing new, and in some cases, it’s encouraged nowadays as it is in the book, and I think this behavior is more prevalent nowadays.
The only difference is marriage and long-term relationships isn’t forbidden in reality as it is in the novel. The soma reminds me of what I’ve heard about the affects of LSD in the 60s, in terms of the psychedelic type of state it puts people in.
The Director, whom I didn't mention earlier, was embarrassed and immediately quit his position when it was openly revealed that John was his son, meaning that he slept with a woman who people in his world would view as a “savage”. If that’s not art imitating life, I don’t know what is. The very people some view as “trash” and “beneath them,” will secretly sleep with and sometimes have side children with these so-called savages.
The only thing about the story was Bernard and Lenina's endings seemed incomplete to me, in terms of a possible relationship, and the aftermath of their stories, such as what happened after Bernard was banished, and what happened after Lenina left John’s place. You don't hear anymore from Lenina after her encounter with John. Otherwise, I think it’s a very good read. I give it a 4.5 out of 5.
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