Brave New World (Paperback: 288 pages)

A whole new world :))

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Aug 25, 2007

Pros: Population control is definitely my most favorite . By the Bokanovsky process, they get exactly the number of children they want, and also the male/female ratio. In our time every country is stuck with this problem. We are afraid that a hundred years later boys will be much more than girls. Developed countries, including Asian like Japan & Singapore, are worrying about old aged citizens… Well, “we can make a new one easily” may be really cruel, but this achievement is brilliant in some extent. A lot of people, many of which are quite intelligent, are making bleak predictions about the future, pointing out that the limited resources on earth will be far from sufficient to support an increasing population. So population control is indeed an important issue to deal with, and since an effective solution to this problem is offered here, it seems to me to be a postivie aspect of this society, provided, of course, that we ignore themoral implications of interfering with people’s personal lives.

Cons: I think the most illogical or impropable about Huxley’s civilization is the “surrogate” stuffs. From normal things like morroco, flour, leather… To parts of human body : “blood-surrogateâ€
 and the Pregnancy substitute and the Violent Passion Substitute. They are all “surrogate”! Well, it sounds so stupid to me. The World State is proud of getting rid of viviparousity and passion, then why still they need these stuffs? Well, although they say” What man has joined nature is powerless to put asunder”, they still cannot change the human nature. Moreover, why don’t they use robots for doing low level work instead of Deltas and Epsilons ? Robots can perform much better with fewer mistakes for sure. With this high development of technology, they can produce millions of robots per day! Oh yes, stupid citizens make for a less than perfect world, hence the collapse of this utopia.

a/ My favorite part of the book is the description of Linda’s death. Death is something of the greatest fear of human beings which causes extremely strong feelings. It’s been like that, since the day human came to settle on earth. Ancient Egyptian kings had gorgeous pyramids built, kings and queens and rich people got themselves corpsed. And every funerals are also very sad. Well, not until this scene could I feel how dehumanizing dis society is! This is exactly the most shocking representative than the promiscuity, the lame interest on consuming, the decanted identically children. And it makes me think that this society is just a multilevel zoo. Each “caste” is like visitor to the lower one. The Deltas look at Linda as if she’s a strange animal. Alphas and Betas judges Deltas and Epsilons like animals. And The World Controller are like zookeepers. Dey say “we make them this …we make them that…we arrange their lifes…” Everyone is dehumanised to de point where there is no turning back – he is bereft of that very substance which sets human beings apart from, say, a cow. He is little more than a hedonistic creature whose purpose in life is to attain as much satisfaction as possible, without any regard for ethics and ideals.

b/ I like the way the writer describes the things in this society using “x-surrogate”. Everything ‘s surrogate : from normal things we use in daily life : flour-surrogate, leather-surrogate,morroco
-surrogate to human part : blood-surrogate, pregnant-surrogate, passion-surrogate…Hu
xley’s way of using this word is brilliant, showing me how dehumanizing this society is. It seems like human important activities have been degraded to the level of commodity. Just like the word “pneumatic” is used both to describe Lenina’s attractive body and the soft gentle armchair in the World Controller’s room…Well, technology has been over-developed. In our dynamic society, it's been shown very clearly that we may be obsessed with high-technology. In every aspect of life we all have to call on the help of robots and computers. The invention of computers and automation has changed and will continue to change de way we live. It's amazing how information technology help you keep in touch, help you learn, help treat sick patients, help make many of life's little chores easier, help you earn more money.On de other hand, if we rely too much on machines to the point dat we cant survive without technology, we are no longer human beings ourselves.

c/ I think the book is very realistic because it shows aspects of life we are moving to. You see, all the consuming interests-“The more stitches the less riches”,the promiscuity-“everyon
e belongs to everyone else”, the increasing drug use to escape from anything human doesn’t want to think about,and more ignorance of traditional values such as literature, religion, cultures. People drowned in the world of materials searching for frivolous happiness showing more and more ignorance of traditional values such as literature, religion, cultures…Many smash hit songs are about spending money for love : “Material Girl-Madonna”, “My humps- Black eyed peas”…The singers are even very well-complimented for these songs by the youths. Well, you know we are living in a material world. And we may need more and more shocking masterpieces than Brave New World to awake people. It will take a long time in addition, just like the global warming issue had been raised around 10 years ago, but now, when each new year is “the hottest year ever”, the whole mankind seems just to move a bit. At least, I truly hope that better late than never.