It's All Geek to Me!

Disclosure: The following paragraphs may contain spoilers and other points crucial to the plot. Read ahead at your own risk. Feel free to skip ahead to the section titled The Review if you are anxious to avoid spoilers.

More on the Dystopia

Brave New World is set in London of approximately 2550 A.D. (approximately A.F. 600) Society is divided into five castes -- the Alphas, the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas and the Epsilons. Alphas perform all the highly skilled and desirable tasks in society. They are the scientists, doctors, statesmen and sportsmen. Alpha embryos are born of one egg fertilized by one sperm cell. Everyone other than the Alphas performs tasks requiring progressively less mental effort. The lower castes, Deltas and Epsilons, come in groups of identical twins, called Bokanovsky groups. Early in the life of the fertilized egg that eventually gives rise to a Bokanovsky group, it is subjected to hostile conditions, which causes it to multiply over and over. Sometimes, Bokanovsky groups numbering 72 can be manufactured from just one egg. Because individuals from the same Bokanovsky group are overwhelmingly genetically similar, they think in similar ways, which favors people from the same Bokanovsky group performing tasks like working in factories and assembly lines.

People are no longer born to their parents. In fact, the words father and mother are vulgar and generally unmentionable in so-called 'civilized' society. Instead, people are decanted out of bottles, in which they spend their embryonic life. The bottles are lined with the uterine tissue of pigs and have a blood-like surrogate circulating inside them, carrying oxygen and nutrients to the embryos within. Depriving lower-caste embryos of oxygen by reducing this rate of circulation is another way of ensuring that their mental development will not be at par with higher-caste embryos. Once babies are decanted (and in some cases, even before), they are subjected to several rounds of Pavlovian conditioning, which will ensure that they lead their lives just as the Director of Predestination intended for them. Moral and pseudo-factual statements are repeated to young children in their sleep for much of their early lives, in a process known as hypnopaedic learning, so that these statements become instinctive and self-evident to them.

These statements include dictums such as "Everyone is happy now" and "Everyone belongs to everyone". Monogamous relationships are uncommon and are, in fact, discouraged. When somebody wants to have sex with somebody else ("to have them"), all they need to do is go up to them and ask. Men and women are encouraged to be as promiscuous as possible, for after all, everyone belongs to everyone else. What's more, a free exchange of sexual favors doesn't lead to pent up emotions, which could be the cause of unrest in society. If anybody in the civilized society of Brave New World experiences any remotely unpleasant emotion, it is easily cured by popping a gram or two of soma, a mass-produced form of purified cocaine.

Dramatis Personae

It is against the backdrop of this civilized, happy dystopia that the chief characters Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne and Helmholtz Watson lead their lives. Bernard is an Alpha who has an uncommonly small physical stature, supposedly due to alcohol added to his blood surrogate when he was still in the bottle. Helmholtz is an Alpha who is almost too successful. Lenina, a Beta woman, accompanies Bernard on a trip to a 'savage reservation' in New Mexico in the United States. A savage reservation is a place untouched by the civilized dystopia described above. Its inhabitants lead a squalid, relatively primitive existence, speak dead languages like Spanish and believe in Jesus and other deities. Lenina and Bernard encounter Linda, an emigre from the civilized world brought to the reservation by circumstances, not by choice, who has given birth (*gasp*) to a child, John, in the reservation. John learns the ways of the reservation from his peers, much to the disdain of Linda, who tries to impart as much civilization to him as she can, nonetheless. John is well versed in Shakespeare's works, one of which lends the book its title. Bernard and Lenina manage to procure permission to take Linda and John back with them to London. The rest of the story revolves around John's experiences in the civilized world.

The Review

The novel is a satirical fantasy at its core. As far as alternative reality novels set in London go, one can't help but be reminded of another scary and influential novel, 1984. Brave New World appears at the 5th position in a list of the Twentieth Century's 100 Top Novels compiled by Random House, Inc. 1984 checks in at #13. I, for one, felt that this novel didn't deserve so high a spot in that list, especially a spot much higher than 1984.

The characters of 1984 are very real and readers can easily identify with the ordinary, yet terrifying life of Winston. The sense of horror one experiences as one reads 1984 is very palpable and realistic. This impression is further enhanced by the fact that it is set in a stark, yet credible world. In contrast, the events of Brave New World, grotesque and stark as they stand in comparison to those of today's world, do not evoke the same empathy and character identification in readers. The Brave New World is also far less believable relative to today's circumstances. If characters readers don't identify with well are set in a barely believable set of circumstances, the end result doesn't leave as deep an impression on the readers anymore. The plot of Brave New World seems to be little more than happenstance set in a fantasy world, where the reader gets bombarded continually with new facts about the world along the way. In 1984, the development of the world is much more deliberate and quite complete by the time readers get into the thick of the plot.

However, Brave New World isn't without its flashes of brilliance. The introductory parts of the book, before the main characters are introduced, makes for good reading. The climax, when the Controller for Western Europe explains the rationale for the way things are in the civilized world, is undoubtedly the best part of the book. Despite the iron grip the Controller and his administration hold on the lives of the people, the Controller is shown to be a well-meaning renegade who had to learn to love the system he administered. In well thought out, precise, amoral terms, he explains that the painful history of humankind necessitated a society where happiness was valued over everything else, including passion and achievement. The snippets of Shakespeare that John quotes in the book are poignant and well chosen.

The book leads to interesting discussions and thought experiments on the state of the world and its problems today, and ways in which they could be solved. The book presents one solution that seems to work on the surface. Readers can quickly see the problems with the approach presented in the book. However, the striking amorality with which this fantasy world is presented is commendable. A few strangers on the subway did make passing remarks about how they liked the book. I concur with them. Overall, I would definitely recommend this novel as a great piece to read on the subway or any other public transportation of your choosing.

Overall grade: A-