Huxley's "Brave New World", Would you want to be a savage or civilized? Why?

Question

I'm reading it now and enjoying it very much. If you can reccommend other books along these topics also..please do!

I was just thinking of their goals: ending war, disease, violence..so many of our goals today. Is this truly the cost as the good director thinks? How about sheltered children..are they conditioned? Insurance policies? TV sitcoms, all new world phenomena? I hope there's a middle ground! And the continual references to the zipper are so hilarious! as if it landed from outer space.

Answer 1

I would want to be a savage. The civilized people in that book disgusted me.

Here are some good reads with the same theme:
"1984" and "Animal Farm" by George Orwell, "The Giver" by Lois Lowry, and "Anthem" by Ayn Rand.

Answer 2

To fit into society or be driven mad by their dystiopian ways, tough choice.

Another view of the future can be found in George Orwell's 1984. It doesn't rely on science as Brave New World does, but instead more on bueracracy and mass self-ignorance. I think it is a much better book.

Answer 3

Great book! It's a tough call for me because it's basically whether you choose to have your own opinions and range of emotions, or whether you choose to be happy but completely unaware. When I read the book, I thought "How could these people possibly live without families, love, literature, beliefs?" But then, thinking about it later, I realized that those things can also cause discontent. So many married couples end up divorced, and families separated. Religion is the cause of much conflict throughout the world, and the cause of a LOT of discrimination throughout the history of our world, and I do believe that without all these things, our lives WOULD be easier, because we would be content. We wouldn't know that we were missing out on love and relationships and God and whatnot, because we wouldn't know of their existence. So for me, it's a tough call. I keep thinking I couldn't deal without those things, but I don't know... maybe I wouldn't be so "disgusted" with these civilized people if I were brought up as one of them.

Answer 4

In Brave New World there were other small isolated communities besides the Savages, so I might like one of them. But I'd prefer Savage than the regular society there.

Answer 5

Anything by Vance Packard, George Orwell or H.G.Wells, or even other than Sherlock Holmes writings of Arthur Conan Doyle ....... On Doyle, read about, The Piltdown Man .......

Answer 6

I'd rather be a savage. They, at least, had a choice, by Ford! To have your entire life dictated to you, no matter how benign or pleasant that life might be, could never replace the most basic of all freedoms, the freedom to choose one's own destiny.