Brave new world - book review

When I started reading this book I wasn't very excited about it. I just wanted to read it since it was so famous, I expected it to be plain old dystopia. But as I kept on reading I got more and more interested. It's a classic. I would say one hasn't read enough dystopia if he hasn't read Brave New World and 1984. But where this book differs from most dystopic fictions is that the dystopic world described here by Huxley is not intended to be totally evil as it is in say 1984. The futuristic civilized society created by Huxley is presented as a solution for sustaining human civilization and the arguments are pretty convincing. Although as Huxley himself later accepted it may not be the only solution but it certainly is one of the solutions. In light of this important distinction, Brave New World turns out to be a really depressing read. One can't keep himself from thinking, if this is what it has to come to for human beings to survive, would I be well off dead !!

I don't want to give spoilers but will give a brief background of the story. The futuristic civilized society in Huxley's Brave New World is a highly materialistic world. Here human beings are in a way industrially mass produced. Hence there is no concept of mother or father. All are children of the state. The society has a strict class system in place, which is implemented right from the birth of a child. In fact the children are mentally conditioned in various ways to belong to their particular class through out their mortal lives and never dream of questioning the system, be jealous of other classes or be in any kind of conflict with them. The state takes various measure to keep its subjects happy like by free distribution of drugs, encouraging promiscuity etc.
There are though a group of people who do not live in this civilized society, they choose to carry on living the old way - where women are still viviparous. They are understandably called the savages.

Through this story the author tries to argue which alternative is better. But till the end the author remains undecided and ambiguous and I believe the reader too would feel the same way. A must read for all thinking minds and fans of dystopic fiction.