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/lit/ - Literature

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22995133 No.22995133 [Reply] [Original]

Aldous Huxley predicted modernity:
>people taking drugs to distract themselves from a shitty existence ("soma" in the book, antidepressants in real life)
>people watching shitty, emotionally manipulative media to placate themselves ("feelies" in the book, TV and movies in real life)
>people indulging in sexual gratification, again to distract themselves from a dystopian reality ("orgy porgy" in the book, porn in real life)

Did any other pre-1960 novel predict the modern world as well as Huxley did?

>> No.22995148

>>22995133
Predict or do you mean planned.
Also you missed the point of the book if you believe the people were distracting themselves from something. No, that’s what they were created for. They have everything they want which is why it sustains itself

>> No.22995166

>>22995133
People have had alcohol for 13,000 years and he directly compares alcohol to soma in the book, Linda says it should be called liquid soma but it makes you feel bad in the morning so it was basically alcohol tablets with no hangover

>> No.22995263

>>22995133
This place has really just become high school english class huh

>> No.22995294

lol.

>> No.22995313

>>22995148
>he totally predicted it

>> No.22995463

>>22995133
Why cant the "Feelies" create an experience of struggle for the sake of John the savage and his need for struggle?

>> No.22995467

>>22995463
Isn't that what sports is anyways?

>> No.22995674

>>22995133
>>people taking drugs to distract themselves from a shitty existence ("soma" in the book, antidepressants in real life)
its actually just for fun
>>people watching shitty, emotionally manipulative media to placate themselves ("feelies" in the book, TV and movies in real life)
nothing really wrong with this. youre implying theres some sort of objectively superior endeavor that people should be pursuing instead.
>>people indulging in sexual gratification, again to distract themselves from a dystopian reality ("orgy porgy" in the book, porn in real life)
oh no, the humans are acting... human. and again, its actually just for fun.

>> No.22995699

>>22995133
You think of it as a dystopia, the real way to see it is as an utopia. Everybody has a role within society that is achived. In doing so, they contribute to the functioning of society. The masses are kept happy and productive. Anybody who shows are remote sign on intelligence is sent to a far away land to do as they please, therefore not subjecting themselves to ostracism from the mases.

>> No.22995707

>>22995674
this is your brain on liberalism. The end-all goal of all humanity is just fun. Your definition of a perfect life would be having humans orgasm for the rest of their life until they gracisouly expire.

>> No.22995802

>>22995707
not really. your entire argument rests on the premise
>someone does something
>it HAS to be because this really specific reason thats convenient for me to believe and aligns with my worldview!

>> No.22996179

>>22995707
Maybe read some books about liberalism so you can also stop making a fool of yourself, if you can read

>> No.22996184

>>22995467
No, the satyricon is a satire and sports are part of the martial tradition

>> No.22996224 [DELETED] 

>>22995133
This the first time you read a book?
FAGGOT

>> No.22996771

>>22995148
>Also you missed the point of the book if you believe the people were distracting themselves from something. No, that’s what they were created for. They have everything they want which is why it sustains itself
I think the whole point of the book is that these things are vapid distractions, though. To distract people from their oppressors.

Huxley even used the word "distractions" when describing the book, it seems:
>As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

>>22995166
Alcohol doesn't really lift you and make you feel happy though. I think soma as described in the book is more comparable to antidepressants. Here is a quote that is apparently from Huxley, I've read it before, and it seems to fit with the themes of Brave New World:
>There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/425564-there-will-be-in-the-next-generation-or-so-a

>>22995263
>>22995294
These aren't arguments.

>> No.22996781

>>22995674
Fun is okay. Looking at pictures of naked women occasionally is fine. But what Huxley seemed to be warning us about was an over-indulgence in hedonism that would distract us from oppressors.

>> No.22996786

>>22995699
It's a dystopia. The idea that a 4channer can seriously suggest that this book describes a utopia, despite all literary criticism agreeing that this book is dystopian, shows just how stupid 4chan contrarianism is.

>> No.22996834

>>22996771
>These aren't arguments.
This place really has just become high school debate club huh

>> No.22996912

>>22995133
I mean, that's all times everywhere
>People getting drunk
>People dancing to the Troubadours
>People fornicatin' and doing public SM orgies as penance
>Mid-brow mid-wits thumbing their noses at these terrible terrible fallen times, they just aren't like they were

>> No.22996930

>>22996834
Also not an argument. I accept your concession.

>>22996912
Okay sure, distractions have always been used by rulers to placate the oppressed. Bread and circuses and all that. I suppose what Huxley predicted is that technology and pharmacy would be used to create these distractions in the future.

>> No.22996944

Freud was a step further ahead with Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

>> No.22996950

>>22996930
What he did wasn't really predict it, but satirize tthe effects of Fordism/Taylorism. Back when I read it years ago, I found another book or text he did with the futurist tendencies of the times, and those are basically what he incorporates in a kind of homage to We. The basic tendencies weren't anything new, mass society was

>> No.22998152

>>22995133
>write a utopia
>call it a dystopia