![]() Throughout this entire portion of the book, all I kept thinking was. THE BAD/AWFUL - I thought the middle of the book including both the trip to the "reservation" and John's initial return to London was a sleeping pill and felt disconnected from the rest of the narrative. Thus, a superior 4.5 to 5.0 stars for this portion of the book. This last chapter/ending of the book, while abrupt, was masterful and struck the proper chord with the overall theme of the book. I also thought the final "debate" near the story's climax between John (the "savage") and Mustapha Mond, the World Controller, was exceptional. Now, long jumping to the end of the novel. This was easily the best part of the novel for me, and Huxley's mass production-based society of enforced hedonism and anti-emotion was very compelling. The reader gets a crash course in world and its history in a way that fit nicely into the flow of the narrative without ever feeling forced. This was as good a use of infodumping exposition as I had come across in some time and I was impressed both with the content and delivery method. We learn of the cloning/birthing process, the caste system and the fundamental tenets upon which the society is organized. The narrative device employed by Huxley of having the Director of Hatchery and Conditioning provide a walking tour to students around the facility as a way to knowledge up the reader on the societal basics was perfect. THE REALLY GOOD/EXCELLENT - I loved the first third of the book in which the basic outline of the "Brave New World" and its devalued, conveyer belt morality is set forth. In the end, the wowness and importance of the novel's ideas as well as the segments that I thoroughly enjoyed carried the book to a strong 3.5 star rating. I need to parse my rating of this book into the good (or great), the bad and the very fugly because I thought aspects of it were inspired genius and parts of it were dreggy, boring and living near the border of awful. "Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." -Chicago Tribune Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New Worldd likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. “A genius who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” ( The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Huxley died in California on 22 November 1963.Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. His beliefs found expression in both fiction ( Time Must Have a Stop,1944, and Island, 1962) and non-fiction ( The Perennial Philosophy, 1945 Grey Eminence, 1941 and the account of his first mescaline experience, The Doors of Perception, 1954). ![]() ![]() The exploration of the inner life through mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs was to dominate his work for the rest of his life. As the West braced itself for war, Huxley came increasingly to believe that the key to solving the world's problems lay in changing the individual through mystical enlightenment. In 1937, at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work Brave New World (published in 1932, this warned against the dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the pacifist novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and brilliant essays, collected in volume form under titles such as Music at Night (1931) and Ends and Means (1937). For most of the 1920s Huxley lived in Italy and an account of his experiences there can be found in Along the Road (1925). This was swiftly followed by Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925) and Point Counter Point (1928) – bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily but ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society. He began writing poetry and short stories in his early 20s, but it was his first novel, Crome Yellow (1921), which established his literary reputation. Aldous Huxley was born on 26 July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey.
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