/lit/ - Literature

>>>/sffg/

>>8648046
Good ideas but the prose is really lacking

Used to be my favorite when I was growing up. Still love it but it just feels very entry level to me now and not a very challenging work. Hate how people compare it to 1984 all the time

>>8648046
Possibly the most misreferenced book of all time.

Chilling prediction of the current state of the world.

>>8648046
None of the stuff in the book would ever come close to happening in real life, but it was ok as a simple genre fiction I guess.

The point about BNW is that people will learn to love their obedience to the state. I see this now in left leaning student types who abuse illegal drugs whilst eating up all the 'smelly little orthodoxies' of our age. All that's missing is proper Soma.

>>8648138
My exact sentiments.

>>8648046
Basically this>>8648098

He isn't the greatest writer, but MAN ALIVE did he ever make some incisive predictions.

>>8648046
>BNW is a utopia!

>>8648634

I guess you also miss how righties love the oppression of others, the military, the flag, the police, and when "lazy welfare blacks" get attacked for protesting?

The other day on Facebook someone was saying that if you don't stand for the pledge of allegiance you need to go die in Iraq. She was 100% serious too.

>>8648046
Connected with a lot of Foucault and 'governmentality'. No matter the political inclinations of the people, they have a tendency to order and govern themselves effectively without the need for an overbearing government. I think Huxley was right to focus on the consumerist, entertainment and 'amusing ourselves to death' aspect of society, but it is more interesting to think of how society governs itself on the political front without the need for, or the realization of, fascism, populism or authoritarianism.

bump

>>8648634
So are you a right-leaning student type who abstains from illegal drugs but has another set of orthodoxies handed down from on high?

>>8648046

Island >>> BNW

>>8649272
Triggers me hard when people say this shit

>>8651249
>>8649278
>if you are not left wing you are right wing
Excellent logic in action.

>>8651257
But it is?

>>8651267
No

>>8651269
Yes

>>8651260
But are you?

>>8651257
Why isn't it a utopia?
No disease to speak of
No crime to speak of
Everybody is happy, doing what they were bred to do
The only outlier was the savage, whose Calvinist nature told him that holiness could only be achieved by flagellation.
Unless I missed something, I don't see anything keeping the city from being a utopia.

Utopia means "no place", not "good place". It can be both a utopia and dystopia at the same time.

>>8651292
But not everyone is happy. Bernard has doubts about his role in society, as does Helmholtz. I imagine there would be others, even if they're not the focus of the book.

Furthermore, can someone who is bred and conditioned to be happy filling their role truly be considered happy? Sure, the Deltas don't mind shoveling shit in the sewers and they just wanna get that soma, but their happiness isn't theirs -- it's chemically maintained and state-mandated. Who wants a government monopoly on pleasure? That's the most dystopian thing I can imagine.

>>8651292

a strict caste system where a lot of people were mutilated pre-birth and reduced to half animals (i guess you don't imagine you could be born in that world as an epsilon minus), and most were limited in their perspectives and possible jobs

the life of people is significantly shortened, they die in their sixties

>>8651342
To be honest, we live far too long

>>8651354
[citation needed]

Really felt like Huxley had no plan. He started with an interesting idea then turned it into a meandering soap opera with no direction; it seemed like every chapter was written as just a whim of the moment.

>>8651357
KILL ALL HUMANS AT BIRTH

>>8651364
I agree with you. Damn thing was all over the place. After hearing about it so much i was sorely disapointed.

>>8651364
>>8651529
I remember reading for plot, too, sometime before puberty. Those were the days.

The book is okay, but the story is boring, and it annoys me that it's supposed to be some kind of allegory to some kind of future reality, when we all know that some actual future reality would way worse.

>>8648046
To be completely honest I prefered Tarzan of the Apes. The Return of Tarzan, in comparison to the original, has a completely lacklustre ending. At the end of the original you find out Tarzan is the son of Clayton, whereas at the end of Return, Tarzan and Jane just get married

If you think BNW was a utopia, you're pretty obviously out of place on a literature board, given the book's central conflict.