Ugh. Had to read this for Advanced Placement English. Absolutely horrific. I agree with those above who suggested Huxley thought this was all a great idea. As for the Savage, I saw him as being used as the "intolerant ignorant" who jumps off the deep end when confronted with the nightmare the rest of the world has become. Typical elitist liberal garbage.
RAGEYou have that shit so bass ackwards it isn't funny.
Bass. Ackwards. Especially when you call it "typical elitist liberal garbage;" the irony my god it burns why does it burn make it stop oh god. I mean, let's review: the future is a placid place where everybody agrees with each other; because everybody is kept occupied by
unrestrained sex and drug use, and anything that could be controversial at all, including any kind of literature or philosophy, is banned. (Ultimate political correctness.)
If you're a conservative, then "Brave New World" reads like a description of the culmination of left-wing policies. I'm not sure how you read "Brave New World" as a
kudos to the society presented, given that the most honorable and noble character- the Savage, who is more educated, more dignified, and more moral then anybody else in the book- wastes himself rather then live with the
horror of that society.
Don't be thrown off by Huxley's whining about "Our Ford" and consumerism. That seemed to be less "omg haet capitalism" and more pointing out that consumerism was being mis-used. Ala the sports games- baseball is bad because it only uses a stick and a ball; most of the fun is not something that can be bought off the shelf; but is reliant on
interaction with other people, which in turn makes one dependent on others, forms friendships, etc. "Fun," much like the soma drugs, was engineered to be something devoid of any real emotional meaning- just push-button gratification, and equipment-intensive games aided that. Imagine Huxley's response to modern video games- he'd find something like Minesweeper or even Halo to be repulsive, but find World of Warcraft admirable. Both are the results of blatant consumerism, but one isolates a person in their own little world, while the other brings them together (HOW I MINE FOR FISH nonwithstanding.)
BTW, every English teacher I've ever had was an absolute moron. Of the "Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were gay" variety. Hell, I think I hated every book I read in that damn class, featuring "Ishmael" (Telepathic gorilla (...) declares religion, specifically Christianity, and white people to be the cause of the fall of human society.
THIS. As a fellow survivor of AP English, I sympathize with you greatly, though I think I suffered more because I had to deal with Toni Morrison's "Beloved." Yes, slavery was bad
I get it already. I hated Beloved on so many levels, for so many reasons. To begin with, by page seven we've already got bestiality. Page
seven. Now, I'm not exactly a prude, or squeamish (I play
dwarf fortress after all,) but page seven? Seriously? Couldn't hold that back a little longer?
And then there was all the allegories and the half-assed metaphysics. So this woman shows up who is like totally this manifestation of the dead baby ghost and... something? And
oh hey really shitty stream of consciousness chapter which magically switches the viewpoint to some random slave on a slaver ship, which is apparently supposed to expand the scope of the book from one woman's story to the
entire slave population, oh dear. Morrison said something about the book being a monument to
all the slaves ever, but her story really wasn't focused on such a broad mandate and all attempts to make it do so just tore it apart. Which just magnifies the fact that her use of metaphysical elements was just ham-handed. I loathed Wuthering Heights, but at least Bronte had the technical skill to pull off some truly creepy shit in that regard. I can recognize it as a masterpiece based on Bronte's technical skill alone, even if the plot is bunk, but Morrision? Get out. Get out and
never come back.Good: The Salvation War: Armageddon (online, pure epic win)
Hmmm. Is that the one at stardestroyer.net where hells tridents < 155mm big bore artillery?