Brave New World

1932, 1963 Time Incorporated edition
Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
Original price unknown, bought used for $3.95
Worn paperback
B-

As Huxley himself admits in his 1946 Foreword, this is a flawed novel, with faults of characterisation, setting, and plotting.  It does differ from other dystopias that I own in that here sex and even promiscuity is encouraged, as part of the destruction of individuality.  (Huxley points out that in '46 there are American cities in which the number of divorces equals the number of marriages, gasp!)  In a way, the mass production of "twins," sometimes nearly 100 identical beings in one litter, is more plausible than it was 80 years ago.  And while we don't have feelies, there was Smell-o-Vision by 1963, and movies have become more surrounding and sensory.  The references to radio and even television make the novel less dated, but it is definitely dated in its vision of the future.  The whole "noble savage" idea, here ironically embodied in a young man who quotes Shakespeare (hence the title), is definitely passe.

I do like what Huxley does with mass media and advertising.  The book starts out well.  But by the time we have Mr. Savage flogging his would-be girlfriend and then hanging himself, enough is enough.  Like the more optimistically futuristic Cold Comfort Farm, this book wears out its welcome before the end, and deliberately leaves more of a bad taste.  In CCF, a Ford is a chance to escape the farm, while here Ford is Lord of an automated society.

One of my favorite Mystery Science 3000 jokes, on the Catalina Caper episode, references this novel.