Brave New World?

Question

Who was responsible for John’s death? Explain your choice.

Few of Huxley's predictions have proven to be perfectly accurate, yet many aspects of the Utopia of Brave New World feel uncomfortably like our world. Talk about the book as a prophetic vision of the future. Which aspects of the book did you find most disturbing? Which hit closest to home? Which seem the most far-fetched?

Answer 1

John committed suicide, probably because he felt responsible for his mother's banishment to the reservation.

I disagree with your statement that few of Huxley's "predictions" have come true. If you think of "predictions" as metaphors for future events, he was correct.

He wrote "Brave New World" in the early 1930's (it was published 74 years ago). Except for natural cross-breeding, there was no such thing as genetic engineering. In fact, the structure of genes and chromosomes would not be known until the mid-1950s.

His work also addresses the destruction of the family. In his time, single-parent families were rare. Today,1/3 of live births take place out of wedlock in the U.S. and the number can go to twice that rate in Europe (Iceland is close to having seven of every ten of its babies being born to unmarried mothers)

He wrote about a redefinition of sexual pleasure -- the hippie generation's "free love" comes very close. Nowadays, one doesn't have to be a hippie to engage in sex with multiple partners with no thought of an extended relationship in mine.

The A./F. and Sign of the T were a reference to the secularization of religion. Robert Bellah, UC Berkeley, refers to the phenomenon as "civil religion."

The use/abuse of Soma was indicative of a redefinition of happiness. Today, we have Librium, Valium, Zoloft, and a couple of dozen more drugs that are used by tens of millions of Americans.

Obstacle Golf symbolized conspicuous consumption. Today we have Gerald Gent watches ($250,000 each) and Jaguars X12 cars ($750,000) at the extreme, but less shocking commodities at lower economic levels of society.

One of Huxley's theme's is the continual denial of death. Starting in the 1970's people who were very rich and dying of a disease that might be curable in the future (ex., cancer) were having their bodies frozen. Cryogenics is still a big industry, but it doesn't make headline news anymore.

Huxley "cloned" human beings in his novel; we've alreday cloned sheep and other animals, and some scientists suggest that we can do the same with people.

If you go through the work carefully, you'll find many more metaphors. And, if Huxley were alive today, he'd probably not be too surprised.