A brave new world

Thu 18 April 2013 by Thejaswi Puthraya

In 1984, the government of the future keeps it's citizens under constant surveillance and uses coercive measures to keep them under check. "A brave new world" shows us a different point of view of how future governments may administer.

In this book, Aldous Huxley writes that future governments will keep their citizens distracted with pleasure and comforts. They will isolate and shun those who don't believe in it's approach much like animals in a zoo.

The book starts off in a fertilization factory where children are manufactured to specifications. A caste system is ingrained in them during birth and then they are indoctrinated through a scientific process. Lenina is an outgoing girl seeing Bernard, a semi recluse psychologist. Bernard doesn't believe in the system while Lenina finds nothing wrong with it. They go on a holiday to a "savage" safari where they see outcasts living by themselves. Bernard manages to get two savages into the new world. One savage, John falls in love with Lenina but has issues settling down in this strange new world.

Unlike 1984, this book has a fascinating philosophical debate at the end that makes up for it's sluggish pace.