Kyle+Brave+New+World

I can clearly see why this book made it onto the list of outstanding books. It’s intriguing, disturbing, and details something that (frighteningly) may happen one day in the future. The book details the “world society” which is a utopian society in which the citizens all are conditioned from birth to love their jobs, take a drug called soma that alters their mind and keeps the populous in check. And that’s just for starters. The book is creepy at times, and backs up how this could happen with big words and scientific facts; this makes the book even more believable. I would recommend this book to all people who enjoy looking at things from a different perspective. The books society reminds me of the one in then end of //A Wrinkle in Time//. The people are controlled by an “over mind” and don’t even know it. For anyone with an interest in the end of the world, or any politics, I highly recommend this book. **__About the author:__** Aldous Huxley the author of this book was born on July 26th 1894. He came from a family of esteemed biologists. Huxley in his youth studied biology in his father’s rather impressive lab. Later in his life he went to Eton, and Oxford. A bout with temporary blindness disqualified him from the draft for world war one. Shortly after he moved to Hollywood, and dove into writing and spiritual mysticism. Huxley worked on movies and writing in Hollywood for many years. Later in his life he would move onto a ranch further north. He is regarded as the spiritual father to the “hippie” movement. He was an advocate for the legalization of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. He famously took 100mg of LSD on his deathbed. He died on the same day as President Kennedy. The book details the “world society” in the future. The book opens up in the London conditioning facility. There the hatchery director is giving a group of students a tour. There humans are grown. In this society humans are “conditioned” into different social castes. The castes are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. The Alphas are the most privileged caste they are allowed to retain their intelligence completely and will become the thinkers and leaders of the society. The Epsilons are used for manual and relatively boring work. The tour continues where the students find out about the Sleep-teaching process that “conditions” children. The children are also conditioned with shock treatment to associate certain things with pain and keep them in check and with the proper caste. After the students meet with one of the world controllers: Mustapha Mond. He starts a long winded explanation on how the society was created and how it is a good thing. During this time we meet one of our main characters. Lenina, one of the more major characters is having a conversation with her good friend fanny crowne. They talk about her dating a certain Henry Foster almost exclusively for about four months. Dating in this society is not exclusive. One of their hypnopaedic lessons is the motto: //Everyone belongs to everybody else.// Dating isn’t drawn out, and they usually end the night by having sex. So here it isn’t normal to be dating for so long. Then she agrees that she will go on a trip to the savage reservation with a certain Bernard. Bernard is another one of our main characters. He works in the conditioning facility and he is a member of the Alpha caste. He is a thinker, and has dangerous new ideas. Later we catch Bernard in a conversation about him going to the reservation with lenina. Helmholtz is the one he is talking to. Another member of the Alpha caste, Helmholtz has the job of writing Hypnopaedic lessons. Helmholtz believes that he is far too smart for this job and that he should be writing something meaningful. Helmholtz isn’t excited about Bernard’s trip to the reservation with Lenina, and discounts Helmholtz as merely jealous. Bernard then proceeds to go to the center director and ask for vacation. There he learns that his current behavior hasn’t agreed with the director, and so he is to be exiled to Iceland when he returns. The dangerous thinkers are always exiled to distant islands where they cannot corrupt the world society with their new ideas. Bernard and lenina head to the reservation. When they arrive, they are shocked to see people that are old. In the world society no one ever gets old, the stay young and beautiful, until the day they drop dead. On the reservation they meet John and Linda. Linda was formerly from the civilized world, however she got lost. It turns out she was the lover of the conditioning center’s director, and that John is her son. In the civilized world being pregnant is the ultimate shame. Mother is a word that is taboo, and being a father or mother //ruined// you. John requests to be taken back to society. Lenina dislikes the reservation, so she takes the drug //soma// to relax. //Soma// is used for the purpose of pleasure. It keeps the population in check and happy. Lenina took an unreasonably large dosage and lost consciousnesses. Meanwhile John develops feelings for Lenina and breaks in, but then leaves suppressing his urges (mind you lenina is still unconscious for this). Upon their return, Bernard is able to avoid being sent to Iceland by showing the director his son. In shame the director resigns. John, shortly after becomes incredibly popular in the new world. Bernard also becomes popular due to being John’s guardian. John one night however becomes fed up with London society and locks himself in his room. Bernard was holding a party that night, but without his guest of honor, John, his social status is destroyed. Lenina develops feelings of attraction to John. One night Lenina takes a rather large dose of //soma// and attempts to seduce John. John of course, not being at all on board with this new way of living promptly turns her down and goes into a rage. John goes completely psychotic and lenina hides from him in a room in the apartment. John’s rage is interrupted by the phone call that Linda is dying. Linda had been on a binge of //soma// which unfortunately paralyzed her breathing muscles. As Linda dies, a group of children is taken to her for death conditioning. Death conditioning is made to reduce the fear of death and lessen human impact on society. John goes psychotic once again, and he goes out onto the streets inciting a riot. He succeeds with his riot. However, the riot is subdued and Helmholtz and Bernard rush to John’s aid. All three of them are arrested and taken to the World controller, Mustapha Mond’s office. The three of then confront Mond on the state of the world and engage in philosophical discussion with him. Here Mond admits that that he believes in the god that John does, but claims that the creator “manifests himself as an absence in the world” and that “god changes with the world”. After a large part of the discussion Mond banishes Helmholtz and Bernard to an island of their choice. Helmholtz requests a miserable and cold island somewhere, which he says will be better, suited to his writing. In the end Mond admits that he envies them, and that he had the choice to be banished once, but instead chose the option of joining the council of controllers. After Helmholtz and Bernard leave Mond and John continue the debate Mond argues for the use of //soma// and John against it. “//Soma// is Christianity without pain” Mond claims. Refused the rite to be banished with the others, he flees to a small lighthouse in the countryside. However, he is followed by the general populous there. In the end when they all arrive to see John Lenina comes to him, arms wide open. John screams obscenities and screams to kill her. This (disturbingly) causes and orgy in the crown in which John participates in. The next morning John hangs himself and the book ends with the following passage: The door of the lighthouse was ajar. They pushed it open and walked into a shuttered twilight. Through an archway on the further side of the room they could see the bottom of the staircase that led up to the higher floors. Just under the crown of the arch dangled a pair of feet. "Mr. Savage!" Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east. …  The book targets a powerful scenario; will we lose what makes us human? And to tell the truth, if you look close, you can see this already starting to happen. All of these //politically correct// statements are already taking our ability to say what we want. Faith in god seems to have declined as well, on heralding that out free will is slowly slipping away from us. The book I would recommend highly, it makes you look at the world in a new way, and makes you grateful for what you still have:
 * __ Plot Summary: __**
 * __ Closing statements:  __**
 * Your mind and your freedom. **