Thursday, February 26, 2015

Brave New World 1-5: Thoughts and Questions

After starting the book I now realize what is means by Henry-Georgian as it stated on the second page of the foreword. It is an allusion to both Marx-Leninism and two characters of the story.
One thing I wonder is why Preston keeps saying when Huxley wrote this book in the 1950's when it predates Nineteen Eighty-Four (published 1949) and in the foreword the author he mentioned he had no knowledge of the weapons of mass destruction ahead. Googling it says it was written and/or published in 1932 so it explains why he could predict an imminent war to come but not that man would soon develop a method that could end all life on Earth.
Another thing that seemed odd was the apathy to caring ratio. The characters exude the most feelings, if they truly posses any, towards things like a few minutes, classes, and what the Director tells them; yet is completely uncaring on matters like their own peers, passion, and ambitions.
Something else that is remarkable was Huxley's prediction on society and marriage. He writes in the foreword and foreshadows the entire novel so far about the disintegration of the family as a unit and the rise of the state. Considering people can no longer hold a relationship for more than a month nor do much without direction from an authority figure seems fairly accurate. Maybe considering the social trends from the date of publication compared to just a few decades prior anyone could witness a movement, gradual and subtle yes, but that would amount to half of marriages failing and human reliance on the state to do practically everything for them.

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