Book Review: Brave New World

(I'm spitting these things out like poppity-pop-pop to make up for lost time, as you can guess.)



My high school had a thing for futuristic, dystopian novels. I was put through Fahrenheit 451, Anthem, and 1984. After my friend had to read Brave New World for her IB class and started complaining about it to me, I decided to read it myself. I can say that surpassed Brave New World surpassed Fahrenheit 451 as my favorite dystopian novel.

Aldous Huxley's novel presents an entirely different future from the one presented in Orwell's 1984. The contrasts between these two novels are summed up beautifully in Margaret Atwood's introduction to the Vintage Classics edition of this novel. Most striking is how Atwood shows how, in the early 2000s, both novels seemed to be edging ahead in the race of "What will our future really look like?" race. At the beginning of 2010, having seen it all, I can say that both have elements present in our society, but as for which is actually winning the race, well... That's up to each person.

Brave New World presents a future of freedom in every sense of the term as defined by Plato in his Republic. Describing the ideal state, Plato sees democracy as very low on the scale of good politics, since it promotes Freedom, freedom being a lofty way of saying "the pursuit of pleasure". Brave New World indeed focuses on this pursuit of pleasure and freedom, but in a somewhat paradoxical way. Inhabitants of Huxley's future are encouraged to be sexually promiscuous, shop shop shop, and go to multiple entertainments (before going home and having some more sex). The family is abolished as obscene and obsolete. Mother is a dirty word. At the same time, citizens are created in laboratories and strictly conditioned and medicated to respect their proper place in the order. You can only wear a certain color depending on your class. You had better go to those community sings. You had better be sexually promiscuous. It's all very interesting to see how "free" the society is, while at the same time seeing how restricted it is by the higher ups, the World Controllers (I believe is the term, I don't have my book with me and it's been a while).

Of course, the old ways of those living without freedom are preserved in the reservations throughout the world. These reservations are host to those who have not yet been exposed to, or have totally rejected, the brave new world of zippicamiknicks and soma. Rather, the soma of the reservations are the rather extreme, self-mutilating religious ceremonies of the people on the reservation (in the one visited in the book, Native Americans). To the Brave New Worlders who visit, they are seen as disgusting and quaint, repulsive and yet interesting. It's sort of how you can feel going to a zoo and viewing the animals. You don't think you could ever be in their place, and maybe you even pity them for being animals and not knowing better, but being fascinated by them at the same time.

The main character of the novel is really one of three persons. Bernard Marx is an alpha who is rather discontent with his life. He doesn't really fit in with other citizens of the new nation. Then there is Lenina, who is beautiful and also sometimes doesn't fit in (for instance, her friend fears that she isn't being promiscuous enough and seeing enough men). Lastly, there is John the Savage, whose mother was a Brave New Worlder who got stranded in the reservations. John grew up knowing only the reservation life, but then is taken back by Bernard and Lenina to civilization as they know it. John, "the Savage" as everyone calls him, is an immediate hit and at first he is amazed and awed by the new world. Then, John grows disgusted with it all and reverts back to his more "savage" ways. Bernard, meanwhile, finds a rather peaceful, very non-MiniLove alternative to the brave new world in Iceland, and Lenina sort of fades into the background over the course of the novel.

Brave New World cautions us not against the all powerful, all controlling regime which is always watching us a la Big Brother, but rather a more subtle, less overt Big Brother. It is still a controlling and imperfect, horrific state, but on the surface, it looks absolutely wonderful. People can do whatever they care to and fly all around the world, see the "feely" movies, and shop till the drop. They can take soma to get away when they can't go anywhere else. But they also can't know about the world that came before this brave new one. For all the freedom they have, their own freedom is limited by the government in place in the novel.

Huxley's use of Shakespeare in the novel is also wonderfully done, but would require a whole new review just to talk about that. Rather than diving into every play and every reference, let me just mention my favorite, which is of course related to the title. Coming from The Tempest, Miranda at the end exclaims, "O brave new world, that has such people in it!". Having grown up in isolation on the island with only her learned father, Prospero, and the savage servant Caliban, the prospect of marrying Ferdinand and going to live in mainland Italy seems brave and exciting. Prospero, however, who knows the ways of the world and is at times cynical and harsh (just as the world really is), responds, "'Tis new to thee". These two lines sum up wonderfully the attitude of John the Savage through the novel. John starts off (in Bernard and Lenina's eyes) as a Caliban, being savage and uncultured but not really knowing it, except by a tiny little inkling. He then turns into a Miranda, becoming amazed and entranced by this new life. At the end, he becomes a Prospero, cynical and disgusted with the world as he has come to experience it.

Brave New World is an exceptional novel which warns against the subtle dystopia threatening our existence. Rather than startling us awake with messages of BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!! or paradoxical Freedom is Slavery slogans, Brave New World slowly startles us with its parallels to our modern world. For those of you who are into the dystopian, futuristic novel, this one is a rather refreshing, illuminating change from the harsh, cold and gray type of future presented in 1984.

I give Brave New World four and a half stars out of five.

Book Review: Pirate Latitudes

First off, I'd like to apologize sincerely for neglecting this blog. Unfortunately my schedule at college is really not helping me read books for fun. I've only read one book "for fun" while I was living at school, since getting out for break, I've read three. Also I am going to try to add a few movie reviews in here and there, just to try to stay constant with the updating. Not that I have m/any followers, but for the casual reader, or whatever... Without further ado, then.



Pirate Latitudes is a posthumous work by the author Michael Crichton, as you can likely guess since his name is bigger than the title of the work. The manuscript was found complete in his files after his death and I believe it is just recently/semi-recently published. In any case I got my copy at Costco for $12 off list price, and I am rather glad of that.

The story is basically that of one Captain Hunter, who, in 1665, sets off with a crew from Port Royal to the Spanish-held island of Matanceros, where there is a treasure ship port. He comes up with an ingenious, some say impossible, plan to capture the treasure and return to Port Royal. The crew of his ship encounters a formidable Spanish foe (who they thought would be guarding the fort of Matanceros) and other dangers after the attack on the fort. As well as this, there is a small plot line regarding the governor of the Jamaica Colony and his new secretary, which really only appears in the beginning and in the end, likely because the story focuses on the pirates.

The plot is basically a good adventure read. Hunter's crew is indeed motley, featuring different characters of different nationalities and ethnicities, showing how the pirate (or privateering) lifestyle really was based on a sort of equality with a somewhat democratic flair evidenced in different scenes throughout the novel. However, the characters of Hunter's crew really seem two dimensional and more there for variety. We get their names and back stories, but we never really get to know them as people. It is unfortunate, because they seemed to me more interesting than the character of Hunter himself.

Then, in the middle of the story, Pirate Latitudes pulls what I will call a "Pirates of the Caribbean 2". The story, which started out believable enough and firmly rooted in historical fiction, suddenly takes a turn for the "weird" when a supporting character, who we are introduced to halfway through the story and sort of floats in and out of the next few chapters, conducts some magic. Then the ship runs into a kraken. And then cannibals. Then the story goes back to its more "historical", so to speak, ways. It all seems very strange and as if it was just thrown in at random.

Another thing is the fact that Lady Almont (the aforementioned spell-casting character) shows up in the battle at Matanceros. This is plausible enough, as she is being held by the Spanish. However, she only appears in a few chapters here and there, mostly as a love interest for Hunter, and then vanishes again for periods of time. This is especially strange during the battle scenes. I found myself thinking, "What did they do with Sarah Almont?", and then she appears later on after the fight. It just seems rather strange and, though I suppose it could indeed happen and have happened back in the 1600s, rather strange and almost as more of a device to get her to Port Royal.

Another gripe I had with the book was that some characters who show up in the beginning then only show up later at the end. Of course this is because the middle of the work is about the pirates and not the Port Royal-ians, but it seems rather strange for these people to be mentioned in the beginning and then not again until the end, especially because some of them wind up playing key roles. This is just a nitpick on my part but it seemed odd to me, especially considering that some of the characters (like Hacklett, the governor's secretary) are presented one way in the beginning, and then entirely different in the end, with no real showing of how they arrived at point B from point A.

All in all, my general feeling once I had finished this book was that we got to know everyone's names and a few of their personality quirks, but we never got to know their motives or their reasoning besides the back stories that Hunter knows of them. I found it very hard to be very interested in any of the characters, except that of Lazue, but that is probably just because she is a female dressing as a man (a la Mary Reid and Anne Bonny) and I am a female reading the book.

On the whole, Pirate Latitudes is a rather enjoyable book. It made for a quick and entertaining read and really was fun to read, too. It wasn't very challenging in terms of what was going on, and aside from a few random scenes (the kraken, Hunter's musing on the word vincit stamped into the canons on his ship), the book generally seems to run at a flowing, smooth pace. However, the characters are somewhat under personalized and are really more identifiable based on the character traits (Lazue is the human telescope, able to see very well and very precicely; Don Diego is the munitions expert; Sanson is an expert killer; Bassa the Moor is the muscles).

Nonetheless, the book really is enjoyable. It's hard to make pirates boring and Crichton certainly does not make them boring at all. The story is interesting and captivating and made for an altogether light and enjoyable adventure about pirates, although at times it did leave me wanting more.

I give it three stars out of five.