July Books 43) Brave New World
43) Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
After the Plato discussion a few days ago, I happened to spot a copy of Brave New World in a charity shop for 50p, and snapped it up, eager to see how accurately I had remembered it.
Two things I had forgotten: it is a very quick read - less than 240 pages - and the characterisation of the male characters is acute (less so the women). It is also pretty funny in places, although it does bring home to you how sexually neurotic the 1930s were. The final tragedy is entirely believable.
I was glad that I seem to have remembered correctly the key points of difference with Plato. In fact chapters XVI and XVII, the final confrontation between the Savage and Mustapha Mond, are in places almost an explicit argument with The Republic, especially on the crucial question of aesthetics. Mond actually says, "that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art." He then goes on to tell the story of what sounds very like an unsuccessful attempt to establish a society along Plato's principles (in, of all places, Cyprus). So I am satisfied that I Am Right.
After the Plato discussion a few days ago, I happened to spot a copy of Brave New World in a charity shop for 50p, and snapped it up, eager to see how accurately I had remembered it.
Two things I had forgotten: it is a very quick read - less than 240 pages - and the characterisation of the male characters is acute (less so the women). It is also pretty funny in places, although it does bring home to you how sexually neurotic the 1930s were. The final tragedy is entirely believable.
I was glad that I seem to have remembered correctly the key points of difference with Plato. In fact chapters XVI and XVII, the final confrontation between the Savage and Mustapha Mond, are in places almost an explicit argument with The Republic, especially on the crucial question of aesthetics. Mond actually says, "that's the price we have to pay for stability. You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We've sacrificed the high art." He then goes on to tell the story of what sounds very like an unsuccessful attempt to establish a society along Plato's principles (in, of all places, Cyprus). So I am satisfied that I Am Right.