Series: Book 1 - Brave New World

Year of publication of the book: 1932

Aldous Huxley's book "Brave New World" has become a model of dystopia for several generations. This novel has repeatedly been included in various ratings of the 100 best books of the last century, the novel has been filmed more than once and even banned in some countries. In 2010, the American Library Association even included the novel in its "Most Problematic Books" list. Nevertheless, interest in this work by Aldous Huxley is still high, and readers attribute it to those books that change their worldview.

The plot of the book "Brave New World" briefly

In Huxley's Brave New World, you can read about events unfolding around the year 2541. But this is according to our calendar. According to local reckoning, this is 632 of the Ford Era. A single state has been created on our planet, all the citizens of which are happy. The state has a caste system. All people are divided into alphas, betas, gammas, deltas and epsilons. Moreover, each of these groups can also have a plus or minus sign. A member of each group of people has clothes of a certain color, and it is often possible to distinguish people from different groups purely visually. This is achieved due to the fact that all people are grown artificially in special factories. Here they are artificially given the required physical and intellectual characteristics, and then in the process of education they are instilled with the necessary qualities, such as contempt for the lower caste, admiration for the higher caste, rejection of individuality, and much more.

The main characters of Aldous Huxley's book "Brave New World" work at one of these factories. Bernard Max is a hypnopedia doctor, alpha plus and beta nurse Lenina Crown, who works on the human production line. The plot begins to unfold when the two fly from London to New Mexico to a special reserve where people live as before. Here they meet a young man, John, who is different from other Indians. As it turns out, he was born naturally, beta Linda. Linda was also here on a tour, but got lost during the storm. Then she gave birth to a child, who was conceived even before entering the reservation. Now she prefers to drink in the reserve than to appear in modern society. After all, mother is one of the most terrible curses.

Bernerade and Lenina decide to take Savage and Linda with them to London. Linda is admitted to the hospital, where she dies from an overdose of Soma. This drug in modern society is used to relieve stress. They try to acquaint the savage with the blessings of the modern world. But he grew up on, so modern views are alien to him. He likes Lenina, but her free attitude to love scares him. He tries to convey to people such concepts as beauty, freedom, love, and in a fit of anger scatters drug pills during their daily distribution. Bernard and his friend Helmholtz are trying to calm him down. As a result, all three are arrested and sent to the Chief Manager of Western Europe - Mustafa Monda.

A fascinating conversation takes place in the office and Monda. It turns out that this person also has a developed personality. When he was caught, he was offered either the position of a steward or be exiled to the islands. He chose first and now became the mouthpiece of a "happy society." As a result, Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled to the islands, and Mustafa is almost jealous of them, because there are so many interesting people there, and John decides to live as a hermit.

The protagonist of the book "Brave New World" Huxley settles in an abandoned tower, grows his own bread and self-flagellation in order to forget Lenina. One day, his self-flagellation is seen from a helicopter. The next day, hundreds of helicopter gliders want to look at this spectacle. Among them is Lenina. In a fit of feelings, he beats her with a whip. This causes a general orgy in which John also participates. The next day he was found hanged in his own tower.

As for the reviews on the book by Aldous Huxley "Brave New World", they are almost unanimously positive. The world that the writer has built seems very viable and even attractive to some. It is often referred to as the finalized world, but it differs in many ways. The book is quite heavy, but its plot captivates and makes you think. Based on this, the novel "Brave New World" is a must-read for everyone who wants to try on the world of absolute perfection.

Brave New World Novel at Top Books

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World has been popular for generations. And she rightfully occupies a high place among. In addition, thanks to its fantastic content, it got into ours, as well as in the rating. And given the interest in the work, this is far from the limit, and we will see it more than once on the pages of our site.
O brave new world:

The dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley!

1. Poetics of the chronotope.

The events of O. Huxley's dystopian novel Brave New World!, created by the English writer in 1932, take place in the distant future, in the 26th century of the Christian era, more precisely, in 2541. But the chronology is now conducted differently, from the date of release of the first Model T by Henry Ford (1863 - 1947), an American industrialist, the founder of an automobile corporation, the owner of car factories around the world, an inventor who first used an industrial assembly line for mass production of cars. The Ford T Era has arrived, the 632nd year of the Ford Era is coming. The scene is the World State, London. God has been abolished, this is just a “fiction of the past”, now the Supreme Ruler is “Our Lord Ford”, and they pray to him in the United State, instead of the cross, from which the upper part is sawn off, the letter “T”. This period is the highest moment in the development of the United State, its heyday, the era of stability.

Consider how the chronotope (artistic space and time) is revealed in Huxley's dystopian novel.

First we find ourselves in a gray squat building - "only thirty-four floors", in the "Central London Hatchery and Educational Center", on the heraldic shield of which is the motto of the World State: "Community, uniformity, stability."

In the huge "Hall of Fertilization" the Director conducts a tour for the students. The words "parents", "mother", "father" are swear words or, at worst, scientific terms, since there are no "viviparous" mothers, children are brought out in the hatchery and brought up at the Center, using hypnopedia, when in a dream the children, as if under under the influence of hypnosis, caste consciousness is instilled. "Bokanovskization is one of the main instruments of social stability." Its essence lies in the fact that ninety-six identical twins are obtained from one “bokanovsky egg”, working on ninety-six identical machines. Consciously, at the biological level, castes of people with different levels of intelligence are created. Alphas - the smartest - walk around in gray clothes and are universally respected and worshiped, then there are betas who do lighter work and walk around in red clothes. Gammas are in green, deltas are in khaki, and epsilons with the lowest IQ are in black. These castes do the most menial work. Caste consciousness lies in the fact that each individual is proud of belonging to his caste, respects the higher caste and despises the lower one.

The chronotope reveals not only the present of the United State, but also shows the past with the help of historical excursions. For example, in the third chapter it is said that in the year 141 of the Ford Era, the Nine Years' War began. The choice was between world power and complete destruction. Then there was a civil movement for the rejection of consumption, for a return to nature and culture, which were abolished in the One State, as they interfered with the stability of society. Eight hundred supporters of a simple life were mowed down with machine guns, then they staged a pestilence of bookworms: they killed two thousand people with mustard gas in the reading room of the British Museum. And only later did the Chief Governors understand (and there are 10 of them in the United State) that you won’t achieve much by violence. They came up with another way: the formation of reflexes and hypnopedia. Agitation against "viviparous reproduction" was widely launched. At the same time, a campaign against the Past was launched, museums were closed, historical monuments were blown up, books published before the year 150 of the Ford Era were confiscated. In addition, the Chief Steward, “his forgery” Mustafa Mond, in his lecture informs students that in the year 178 of the Ford Era, through the efforts of two thousand pharmacologists and biochemists, an ideal drug was created - “soma”, which “calms, gives a joyful mood, causes pleasant hallucinations ". "A storehouse of hypnopedic wisdom": "Some grams - and no dramas." In this society, the problem of senile infirmity was also solved. People live up to sixty years, look young, lead the same way of life as in their youth, in fact, do not change in any way, and then die quietly and calmly, without fear of death.

Thus, the chronotope of the dystopian novel not only allows us to imagine the place and time of the action, but also the people who live in the One State.

But the artistic space in the novel is not uniform. In addition to the territory of the One State, that is, the World Beyond, there is also wild nature, where the Indians did not enter the so-called civilized world and continue to lead their former life. There are islands, for example, the Falklands, Iceland, where dissenters are exiled.

2. Type of hero.

The standardization of a society in which there is no history, family, marriage, art, love, passions and experiences, where the goal is consumption, and "everyone belongs to everyone", physical love is called "sharing", the entertainment industry is actively developing, everyone watches the so-called "sensual "movies, simply pornography, and all problems of a moral order are solved with the help of soma - a drug, there is no place for personalities, individuals. But it's not. The key character of the novel is Bernard Marx (perhaps the name of the writer Bernard Shaw, who, one of the few, was not banned in the United State, and the surname of Karl Marx, the author of Capital, which influenced the minds of socialist revolutionaries), a specialist from the department of psychology, " a man with a bad reputation." He comes from the alpha caste, but is an atypical representative of his society: he constantly thinks about something, indulges in melancholy. They say about him that instead of a blood substitute in the Incubator, he was mistakenly splashed with alcohol, and therefore he differs from the others not only in his mood, but also in appearance, he is shorter than ordinary alphas. He likes Linina Crown, and he is outraged that other men discuss the “pneumaticity” of the girl, they talk about her like a piece of meat, they offer to “try” her. Bernard's discontent stems from being treated with contempt. He consoles himself with the thought: "Despise those who despise you yourself."

But as soon as this hero experiences success in society, he comes to terms with the order of things. The world is good for him because it has recognized Bernard's importance. The success of the hero is due to the fact that he brought John from the reservation, who was nicknamed the Savage. But as soon as the Savage refused to communicate with journalists and in general with anyone else, in society they lost interest in Bernard, and he again became despised by everyone. And his flaunting "caustic dissent" only repelled and forced to call to stand "on the true path."

Another hero - a loner, dissatisfied with life, feeling a vague languor - Helmholtz Watson, a lecturer at the institute's department of creativity, who is aware of his individuality. Once he could not resist reading his poem at a lecture to students, and they immediately wrote a denunciation against him.

Despite the fact that in these heroes, as in everyone else, they brought up caste self-consciousness, the desire for stability and community, they belong to the type of renegade heroes who could not get along in society.

But the real hero - the rebel is John the Savage. Mother Linda belonged to the Beta caste, but having gone on an excursion to the reservation with her lover Thomas, who became the Director of the Center, she got lost during a thunderstorm and stayed with the Indians, where she gave birth to a white-skinned son, John. The Indians did not accept Linda and his son, they considered her depraved; lacking soma, she became addicted to alcohol. The mother told her son a lot about the wonderful heavenly world beyond. But when he got into this world, he became disillusioned with it and decided to fight it. Romantically in love with Lenina, John was horrified to see that she was just a harlot and banished her. "I have come to give you freedom!" - he exclaimed, but no one understood him, everyone was happy with their existence and outraged that the Savage threw out the soma pills, deciding that this was the main evil, since his mother Linda, refusing alcohol, switched to drugs and died of an overdose. The fate of the Savage is tragic. He settled in an old lighthouse separate from the "civilized world", but even here he was not left alone by curious onlookers who want to see how he whips himself. The savage committed suicide.

3. Poetics of the title.

The title is taken from the play "The Tempest" by W. Shakespeare. They are spoken by Miranda, the fifteen-year-old daughter of the magician Prospero. They ended up on the island against their will, where, as a result of a shipwreck during a storm and through the witchcraft of Prospero, Prince Ferdinand, who became Miranda's fiancé, was washed up. These words in the dystopian novel are spoken by the Savage, since on the reservation his mother gave him a book of Shakespeare so that he could learn to read.

When Bernard had a “cunning military plan” in his head to take with him the Savage, who was the son of the Director, the young man quotes Shakespeare for the first time, not yet seeing the One State, but only knowing him from his mother’s stories: “Oh, a miracle! .. How many beautiful I see creatures! How beautiful is the human race!.. O brave new world…”

But when the Savage got acquainted with this world, visited the lighting device factory, where forty-seven dark-haired dwarfs and forty-seven fair-haired ones stood opposite each other at the conveyor, then the memory no longer enthusiastically, but maliciously, caustically and with bilious sarcasm suggested the words: “Oh wondrous a new world inhabited by such people." The savage tells Bernard that he has "tasted civilization" and "was poisoned by it; polluted my soul."

After the death of his mother, seeing the twins swarming nearby, in whom they want to eradicate the feeling of fear of death, John once again, teasing himself and mocking himself, recalls the words of Shakespeare's heroine about the "brave new world". But after some time, these singing words sounded no longer a mockery of him, grieving and repentant, not a malevolent and impudent mockery. “Not devilish laughter, aggravating the vile squalor, the nauseating ugliness of a nightmare. Now they suddenly sounded like a trumpet call for renewal, for struggle. Now Miranda proclaims that a world of beauty is possible, that even this nightmare can be transformed into something beautiful and sublime. Now he understood that the words "Brave new world!" sounded to him like a call, like an order. His mother Linda lived and died a slave, let the rest be free. But the Savage's rebellion against soma and his desire to "give freedom" were perceived as "violence." The desire to free the inhabitants of the United State "in defiance" of them did not lead to anything.

4. Plot construction.

The plot of the novel develops linearly and sequentially, with small historical digressions, revealing the image of the United State. The novel has 18 chapters. In the first seven chapters, we learn about the life of the United State, about the rules and customs of representatives of caste systems, about the relationship between the characters. The mutual interest of Linina and Bernand leads them to a tourist trip to Malpais, where they meet the Savage. John falls in love with Lenina, seeing Shakespeare's Juliet in her, but she is only physically attracted to him.

Monologues and dialogues play an important role in plot construction. Mustafa Mond - the embodiment of the ideologist of the New World - believes that for the sake of happiness, you can sacrifice freedom, art, individuality, faith. In a dispute with the main ideologist, Savage, on the contrary, claims that for the sake of all this he is ready to give up saving stability, he believes that it is not worth it.

5. Speech organization.

The speech organization is aimed at revealing the image of the United State most fully and vividly. For this purpose, the terms used are: "Central London Hatchery and Education Centre"; "Hall of fertilization", "bokanovskization", "alpha". "Beta", "Gamma", "Delta", "Epsilons", "Embryonic", "Nursery. Halls of neo-Pavlovian formation of reflexes”, “bases of caste self-consciousness”, “hypnopedia”.

Besides. in the new consciousness in the place of God - Ford, so "test tube people" often mention Ford: "Ford knows what," "For Ford's sake," "Glory to Ford." "Trust in Ford, but don't make a mistake yourself."

Caste consciousness is created with the help of hypnosis, sleep and suggestion (hypnopedia), when the same phrase is repeated a thousand, million times to fill the consciousness of the Center's pupils. The clichédness of consciousness is created with the help of proverbs, sayings, slogans, most often and most of all they are pronounced by Linaina: “Somy grams - and there are no dramas!”; “It is better to buy a new one than to fix an old one”; "Cleanliness is the key to goodford"; “A, be, tse, vitamin D is cod liver oil, and cod is in water.”

Trying to prove his point, John reads Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and gets Helmholtz laughing. The offended Savage indignantly slams the book shut and locks it in the table - "he hid the beads from the pigs." Here the proverb is paraphrased and its metaphor is realized: "Do not swords pearls before pigs."

In order to most fully reveal the thoughts and feelings of the characters, the author uses indirect speech. For example, when conveying the inner speech of the Savage, the author, using improperly direct speech, also uses quoting, since his hero reads Shakespeare a lot: “No more. Fall asleep. And dream, perhaps. Here quotes from Shakespeare's Hamlet are included in the Savage's inner speech.

6. Poetics of the genre.

In Huxley's novel, the following features of dystopia can be distinguished. Firstly, it projects onto the imaginary society those features of the society contemporary to the author, which cause him the greatest rejection. The image of the United State combines the worst features of "barracks socialism" and consumer society. Secondly, the dystopian world is located at a huge time distance (26th century). Thirdly, the negative features characteristic of a dystopian world evoke a feeling of nightmare.

A dystopian novel by O. Huxley “Brave New World!” is a polemical response to the model of an ideal "scientific society" proposed by Wells in the novel "Men as Gods".

Updated: 2018-07-04

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To understand how deep the meaning of a prose work is, you should first study the summary of the works. "Brave New World" is a novel with deep meaning, written by an author with a special worldview. Aldous Huxley wrote wonderful essays based on the development of scientific technology. His skeptical view of everything shocked readers.

When, by the will of events, his philosophy led him to a dead end, Huxley became interested in mysticism and studied the teachings of Eastern thinkers. He was especially interested in the idea of ​​raising an amphibious man, adapted to exist in all possible natural conditions. At the end of his life, he said a phrase that to this day makes everyone think about how to live correctly. Huxley's novel "Brave New World" tells about this to some extent, the summary of which reveals the main meaning of the work.

Huxley tirelessly tried to find the meaning of existence, while pondering the main problems of mankind. As a result, he came to the conclusion that you just need to see each other. This is what he considered the only answer to all questions of earthly existence.

Biographical sketch

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Godalmin, Surrey, UK. His family was wealthy and belonged to the middle class. The great humanist Matthew Arnold was related to him on his mother's side. Leonard Huxley, father of the future writer, was an editor, wrote biographical and poetic works. In 1908, Aldous entered the Berkshires and studied there until 1913. At the age of 14, he suffered the first serious tragedy - the death of his mother. This was not the only test that fate had prepared for him.

When he was 16 years old, he was ill with keratitis. Complications were serious - for almost 18 months, vision completely disappeared. But Aldous did not give up, he studied and then, after intensive studies, was able to read with special glasses. Through willpower, he continued his studies, and in 1916 he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baliol College, Oxford. The state of health of the writer did not allow him to continue his scientific activity. He also could not go to war, so Huxley decided to become a writer. In 1917 he got a job at the London War Office and later became a teacher at Eton and Repton Colleges. The twenties were marked by friendship with D. G. Lawrence and their joint trip to Italy and France (he spent the longest time in Italy). In the same place, he wrote a unique work, which presents the embodiment of the gloomy life of the society of the future. To understand the meaning that the author put into his creation, his summary will help. "Brave New World" can be called a novel-appeal to all mankind.

Prologue

The World State is the setting for a dystopia. The heyday of the era of stability - the 632nd year of the Ford Era. The supreme ruler, who is called "Our Lord Ford" is the well-known creator of the largest automobile corporation. The form of government is technocracy. The offspring are grown in specially designed incubators. In order not to disrupt the social order, individuals are in different conditions even before birth and are divided into castes - alpha, beta, gamma, delta and epsilon. Each caste is assigned a suit of its own color.

Subservience to the higher castes and disregard for the lower castes is instilled in people from the very birth, immediately after the Uncapping. To understand how the author looks at the world, a summary will help. Brave New World, a novel written by Huxley many years ago, depicts events that are taking place in the real world today.

Civilization through the eyes of Huxley

The main thing for the society of the World State is the desire for standardization. The motto is: “Community. sameness. Stability". In fact, from infancy, the inhabitants of the planet get used to the truths, according to which they then live for the rest of their lives. History does not exist for them, passions and experiences are also unnecessary nonsense. No family, no love. From early childhood, children are taught erotic games and accustomed to the constant change of partner, because according to such a theory, each person completely belongs to the others. Art is destroyed, but the entertainment industry is actively developing. All electronic and synthetic. And if you suddenly feel sad, all problems will be solved by a couple of grams of soma - the most harmless drug. A summary of O. Huxley's novel "Brave New World" will help the reader to get acquainted with the main characters of the work.

The main characters of the novel

Bernard Marx is from the Alpha caste. He is not a typical representative of his society. There are many oddities in his behavior: he often thinks about something, indulges in melancholy, he can even be considered a romantic. This is the key image of the novel "Brave New World". A summary of the work will help to understand the mindset of the hero a little. They say that in the embryonic state, when he was still in the incubator, instead of a blood substitute, he was injected with alcohol, and from this all his oddities. Linea Crown belongs to the Beta caste. Attractive, figured, in a word, "pneumatic". She is interested in Bernard because he is not like everyone else. Unusual for her is his reaction to her stories about pleasure trips. She is drawn to a trip with him to the New Mexico Wildlife Sanctuary. The motives of the actions of the characters can be traced by reading the summary. Brave New World is a novel filled with emotion, so it's best to read it in its entirety.

Plot development

The main characters of the novel decided to go to this mysterious reserve, where the life of wild people has been preserved in the form that it was before the Era of Ford. Indians are born in families, brought up by parents, they experience a full range of feelings, they believe in beauty. In Malparaiso, they meet a savage unlike everyone else: he is blond and speaks old English (as it turned out later, he learned Shakespeare's book by heart). It turned out that John's parents - Thomas and Linda - also once went on an excursion, but during a thunderstorm they lost each other. Thomas came back, and Linda, who was pregnant, gave birth to a son here in the Indian village.

She was not accepted because her usual attitude towards men was considered depraved here. And because of the lack of soma, she began to use too much Indian vodka - mezcal. Bertrand decides to transport John and Linda to the Beyond World. John's mother is disgusting to all civilized people, and he himself is called the Savage. He is in love with Linina, who became for him the embodiment of Juliet. And how painful it becomes for him when, unlike Shakespeare's heroine, she offers to engage in "sharing".

Savage, having survived the death of his mother, decides to challenge the system. What for John is a tragedy, here is a familiar process explained by physiology. Even very young children are taught to get used to death, they are specially sent on excursions to the wards of the terminally ill, and even entertained and fed in such an environment. Bertrand and Helmholtz support him, for which they will later pay with exile. The savage is trying to convince people to stop eating soma, for which all three get to the Fordeysheotp Mustafa Mond, who is one of the ten Chief Stewards.

denouement

Mustafa Mond admits to them that he himself was once in a similar situation. In his youth, he was a good scientist, but since society does not tolerate dissidents, he was given a choice. He refused the exile, and so he became the Chief Steward. After all these years, he even speaks with some envy about the exile, because it is there that the most interesting people of their world are gathered, having their own view of everything. The savage also asks for the island, but because of the experiment, he is forced to stay here, in a civilized society. A savage escapes civilization to an abandoned air lighthouse. He lives alone, like a real hermit, having bought the most necessary things with his last money, and prays to his god. They come to see him as a curiosity. When he frantically beat himself with a whip on a hill, he saw Lenina in the crowd. He cannot stand this and rushes with a whip at her, shouting: "Wobble!" A day later, another young couple from London arrives at the lighthouse for a tour. They discover a corpse. The savage could not bear the madness of civilized society; the only possible protest for him was death. He hanged himself. This concludes the fascinating story of Brave New World by Huxley Aldous. The summary is only a preliminary acquaintance with the work. In order to penetrate deeper into its essence, you should read the novel in its entirety.

What did the author want to say?

The world may indeed soon come to such a turn of events that Huxley describes. You can understand this even if you read only a summary. Brave New World is a novel that deserves special attention. Yes, life would become carefree and problem-free, but cruelty in this world would not decrease. There is no place in it for those who believe in a person, in his rationality and purpose, and most importantly, in the possibility of choice.

Conclusion

A brief summary of the novel "Brave New World" will allow you to first get acquainted with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe work. Aldous Huxley in his work tried to create a picture of a utopian society. But this desire for an ideal device is akin to madness. It would seem that there are no problems, the law reigns, but instead of the victory of good and light, everyone came to complete degradation.

Huxley's novel was the last I read from the top three "most famous dystopias", which also include Zamyatin and Orwell. As befits a representative of this genre, the book deals with a certain, and in a certain sense fantastic, social system. In order to build a "happy" and completely controlled society, Huxley decided not to create new security services and not wage a constant war with dissidents. To do this, he came up with a more radical means, namely, the controlled cultivation of those who need to be controlled. Although, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say - the cultivation of those that no longer need to be controlled.

People are born in test tubes and even at the embryonic stage of development they are “laid” with future character traits, intellect, moral and moral foundations. Only in some reservations (zoos, menageries?) there were people whom civilization could not attract.

What is the book about? Even if you try to briefly describe the plot, it is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve unambiguity. Perhaps this is a tragic love story of an "old" man (from the reservation) and a girl who is the fruit of a new system? Perhaps these are descriptions of all sorts of difficulties, absurdities and advantages of the “brave new world”, the existence of which is reinforced by a drug accessible to all (“Soms of grams - Internet of dram!”)? Perhaps the author's attempt to predict and warn future generations?

My general impression of the novel was just as ambiguous. On the one hand, Zamyatin and Orwell's works look more thoughtful and plot-driven, but Huxley's work evokes completely different thoughts and feelings. First, the "system" in Brave New World doesn't seem intimidating or destructive. And although there are also restrictions, prohibitions and control, but all the people there are really happy, well, or almost happy, and they themselves choose cinemas with pornographic films (at least for us pornographic films), and not Shakespeare. And the Savage, as the protagonist of a "modern" person, armed only with Shakespeare and his own feelings, is unable to offer something in return, or at least "invest" himself in a mosaic alien to him. That is, in a certain sense, the book can be assessed as a description of the struggle between culture and science in achieving super-global goals. No union or compromise, but disappointment and hopelessness in both cases (in the first case - due to incapacity, in the second - due to the lack of need for them).

A lot of attention is paid to the sexual aspect of life, from the upbringing of babies to some "incomprehensible anxieties and feelings" in the characters of the novel associated with this aspect. Moreover, the author's attempts to speculate on the topic of the relationship between sex and love are immediately striking.

The author's visionary "hits" are very fascinated, and many examples can be given from what is only described in the book, but we have already implemented. The novel is even more interesting if the reader is familiar with the fact that Huxley participated in experiments on drug use and took part in the life of hippie communes. He even wrote another utopia, only positive - "The Island".

Brave New World is a book that is easy to read (in terms of the author's language and plot), thought-provoking (in a variety of ways), and re-read with pleasure, looking for something new and previously hidden from the reader's eyes.

“One thousand two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour,” said the head of the airport impressively. “Good speed, isn’t it, Mr Savage?”

“Yes,” said the Savage. - However, Ariel was able to encircle the whole earth in forty minutes.

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

The English writer Aldous Huxley was one of the first to ask the question of paying for his happy life. What price can a person pay for happiness? Professionals have been pondering over the conclusions that the writer cited and the interpretation of these conclusions for more than 70 years.

Is it possible to build a society without freedom of choice and action? In the world that Huxley depicts, for well-being it is necessary to eliminate all conceivable troubles - social injustice, wars, poverty, envy and jealousy, unhappy love, illness, dramas of parents and children, old age and fear of death, creativity and art. In general, everything that is commonly called life. In return, one will have to give up the “existing trifle” - freedom: freedom to dispose of oneself, freedom of choice, freedom to love, freedom of creative, social and intellectual activity.

The state created by Huxley is ruled by technocracy. And it's not just about the world of modern fifty-story buildings, flying cars and high technology. After a brutal and bloody nine-year war between the new and the old worlds, the Ford Era has come. It is no coincidence that the writer named his world after the famous American engineer, founder of the Ford Motor Company - Henry Ford. He is known to many for the first time he began to use an industrial conveyor for the in-line production of cars. In addition, his success in the economic sphere gave birth to such a difficult political and economic direction as Fordism.

In Huxley's world, the reckoning is from the year the model of the Ford T was produced. There is also a respectful appeal, "his fordeism", and scolding - "Ford is with him", "Ford knows him." Ford is the name of the God of this utopia. It is no coincidence that after the war, the top of the crosses was sawn off in churches, so that the letter "T" was obtained. It is also accepted to be baptized "t-shaped".

From the words of one of the chief rulers of this world, Mustafa Mond, we learn that Ford and Freud are one and the same person for the inhabitants. The German psychologist, the founder of psychoanalysis, according to Huxley, is also "guilty" in the arrangement of the new world. First of all, the development in utopia was his allocation of specific phases of the psychosexual development of the personality and the creation of the theory of the Oedipus complex. The destruction of the institution of the family - these are the merits of Freud's teachings, the production of clones - Ford's "handiwork".

The future is a place where all living things are banned. In the future, everything is created artificially, and people are no longer viviparous. Rather, such a possibility remains, but is strictly prohibited. Artificially fertilized eggs are grown in special hatcheries. This process is called "ectogenesis" Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" Ed. AST, 2006, p. 157. Previously, the technology invented by some Pfitzner and Kawaguchi could not be applied, because the norms of morality and religion interfered, in particular, the book talks about Christian prohibitions. But now there are no restraining circumstances, people are produced according to the plan: how many individuals of one type or another are needed by society at a given moment, so many will be created. First, the embryos are kept under certain conditions, then they are born from glass bottles - this is called Uncorking. However, they cannot be called completely identical: their appearance is slightly different, there are names, not serial numbers of embryos.

In addition, there are five different castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. In this classification, alphas are people of the first class, mental workers, and epsilons are people of the lower caste, capable only of monotonous physical labor. Each class has its own uniform: alphas wear grey, betas red, gamma greens, deltas khakis, and epsilons black.

Babies are brought up and trained differently, but each one is necessarily instilled with reverence for the higher caste and contempt for the lower castes. They grow up in state training centers like some kind of guinea rodents: “The nannies ran to obey the order and returned two minutes later; each rolled a tall, four mesh storey cart loaded with eight-month-old babies, like two peas alike" Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" Ed. AST, 2006 p.163.

Infants are taught with the help of hypnopedia. While sleeping, they are given notes with the dogmas of the brave new world and the norms of behavior of a particular caste. Therefore, since childhood, everyone has known hypopedic sayings: “Everyone belongs to everyone”, “Some grams - and no dramas”, “Cleanliness is the key to well-being”. Also, little "creatures" are taught sexual promiscuity from childhood. In Huxley's world, it's shameful and wrong to date just one person. It provokes condemnation. Both men and women constantly change partners. Thus, they try to avoid any manifestations of feelings of affection and love.

“Stability, resilience, strength. Civilization is unthinkable without a stable society. And a stable society is inconceivable without a stable member of society, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Ed. AST, 2006, p.178, says General Manager Mond.

The main thing, according to the builders of utopia, is guaranteed happiness, in this case, the comfort that science can create.

The secret of eternal utopia is simple - a person is prepared for it in an embryonic state. The forge of personnel is a system of incubators where representatives of different strata of society are raised, they are taught social roles. And most importantly - no one will ever express dissatisfaction with their position in society. In addition, any unpleasant situation, any stress is solved by taking a special drug - soma - which, depending on the dosage, allows you to forget any problems.

It must be said that in Huxley's dystopian world, all "happy babies" are far from being equal in their slavery. If the “brave new world” cannot provide everyone with work of equal qualification, then “harmony” between man and society is achieved through the deliberate destruction of all those intellectual and emotional predispositions in man: this is both drying out the brains of future workers and instilling in them a hatred of flowers and books through electric shock. To one degree or another, all the inhabitants of the “brave new world” are not free from “adaptation” - from “alpha” to “epsilon”, and the meaning of this hierarchy lies in the words of the Chief Steward, which he utters at the end of the novel: “ A society entirely composed of alphas is bound to be unstable and unhappy. Imagine a plant staffed with alphas, that is, different and varied individuals, possessing good heredity and, in their molding, capable - within certain limits - of free choice and responsible decisions. Alphas can be quite good members of society, but on condition that they do the work of alphas. Only epsilon can be required to make sacrifices related to the work of epsilon - for the simple reason that for him these are not sacrifices, but the line of least resistance, the usual life track ... Of course, each of us spends his life in a bottle. But if we happen to be alphas, then our bottles are of enormous size compared to those of the lower castes ” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006, 293-294.

Alphas do not rule this world, they are happy in their unfreedom. True, genetic failures make it possible to think “beyond”. Like, for example, the main character - Bernard Marx. Recall that he does not fully understand what he is striving for, but his desire is already an impulse, this is the desire of a free person. And if it were not for this desire, there would be no hero.

In the brave new world, there are certain people who understand what is happening, the so-called "masters of the world." One of them, Mustafa Mond, is introduced in the novel. Naturally, he knows much more than his subjects. He is able to appreciate a subtle thought, a bold idea or a revolutionary project.

Another layer of people who are free, but do not understand what is happening - these are savages. They live on reservations, and their morals, their gods, their understanding of the world have remained the same. They are free to think, but not physically free. This is the conflict of anti-utopia - the "savage" sees this new, wonderful world and cannot accept its clichés, its monotony, its course. Passions are not alien to him, feelings are not alien to him, but he does not need progress.

During a campaigning conversation with a savage, the steward explains that he can break the rules, because he sets the laws. The economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek once said: “The higher the mental abilities and the level of education of individuals, the sharper their tastes and views differ, and the less likely they are to unanimously accept any particular hierarchy of values” Freedom Institute Moscow Libertarium, Chapter VII "Who wins?" http://www.libertarium.ru/l_lib_road_viii . Thus, for the society of the future, a program is needed, a plan is needed, but not individuality. This is confirmed by the main ideas presented in the utopia. That's why you need to create stamps, not individualities (we are talking about children).

First of all, it is a view of history as an unnecessary legacy. Everything that was achieved before Ford (the new God) is crossed out. It doesn't exist. In Orwell's 1984, history was also mercilessly destroyed. A person does not need to know the mistakes of the past in order to build a utopia.

The second point is the rejection of the social institution of the family. In this world, the words "mother", "father" have become synonymous with obscene words: "our Lord Freud (Ford) was the first to reveal the disastrous dangers of family life ..." Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" Ed. AST, 2006, p. 175. It is the family, it is the close environment that forms a person as a person. But it is no more, because the goal has been achieved and there are clones.

And the third is the destruction of art and science: “We have to pay this price for stability. I had to choose between happiness and what was once called high art. We have sacrificed high art. We keep science in blinders. Of course, the truth suffers from this. But happiness flourishes. And nothing is given as a gift. Happiness comes at a price.” Aldous Huxley, “Brave New World,” Ed. AST, 2006, p.

This is the path of Huxley's utopia. The society will be forced to be happy, but will not know about it. Their "happiness in a test tube" is unshakable. And the last dumbfounded savages are left to vegetate in their reservations, because even a not very educated, but sane person is simply not able to accept such a world.

dystopian novel by huxley orwell