I almost put Brave New World down several times, but since I was reading it for a book club, I struggled on.

It just goes to show that it’s all convention, that people will believe what they’re told to, that “mother” and “father” and “home” can be turned into dirty, disgusting words.

Many parts of Brave New World were really nightmarish, with the human conceptions of right and wrong and what’s immoral completely turned upside down. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress…”īrave New World is a very disturbing but interesting science fiction classic, opening with chilling descriptions of the hatchery, where human babies are “decanted” and then trained to abhor books and flowers and the other classes by brainwashing (sometimes during their sleep). Harbouring an unnatural desire for solitude, feeling only distaste for the endless pleasures of compulsory promiscuity, Bernard has an ill-defined longing to break free. But, in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, Bernard Marx is unhappy. From the Alpha-Plus mandarin class to the Epsilon-Minus Semi-Morons, designed to perfo rm menial tasks, man is bred and educated to be blissfully content with his pre-destined role.

In laboratories worldwide, genetic science has brought the human race to perfection. “ Far in the future, the World Controllers have finally created the ideal society. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.

Brave new world book review