Chet Reads & Writes*

Of the three Utopian, or Dystopian depending on your view, society novels I’ve read, and enjoyed enough to recall at this very moment, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is my least favorite. It’s not that the story is trite or poorly developed, it’s not the rampant sex throughout the book, it is not the always present theme of humans must be stupid to be happy, it is that I couldn’t bring myself to truly care about the characters.

At first I really felt for Bernard, and disliked everyone else for the constant barrage of insults towards the only character that appeared to have any kind of enlightenment. However as the story progressed I found myself thinking of Bernard as just another fool in London, and couldn’t stand him for much past meeting John in New Mexico. I’ve done no research on the topic, and maybe that’s bad, but I don’t care currently, of how well Bernard is generally regarded among readers. If you’ve read this, what did you think of him?

John the Savage is the character I found myself caring the most about, but in the end still not particularly enjoying his acquaintanceship. Of course he’s the character who’s faced the most hardship. He’s a bastard child in the native tribe facing derision and exclusion daily. He takes find comfort in the world of Shakespeare’s characters, of course he’s greatly disappointed to learn that the “civilized” world isn’t aware of who Shakespeare was, with exception to some rule bending head honchos. Of course the reader is nearly forced to feel even worse for John when he is forced to come to terms with the fact that civilization isn’t quite as spectacular as Linda had made it out to be. You know, I’m going to go ahead and renege on not liking any of the characters, hate me if you will, but as I write this I’ve decided that John, I like.

Lenina, the apple of John’s eye, is annoying throughout the story.

Linda is abandoned by a past lover in New Mexico with the savages. She spends all of her time in the novel upset about having to be a mother, upset about having to drink alcohol and face a hangover each morning rather than popping pills, bedding men, or dieing.

Also, I haven’t decided how I feel about the dictator theme running through the characters’ names.

While it appears after writing this, and having some time to stew over the book, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped I would. I’m still going to say that you should read it if you haven’t. Despite it not being a favorite of mine, it’s worth the read.