Talk Back

[alyson]

I last read this in seventh grade (I dunno, what, fifteen, twenty years ago?), and all I remember from that reading is that I found the descriptions of human-hatching and -conditioning interesting, and the rest of the book depressing and forgettable, except for the then-imcomprehensible ending, which was just depressing.

I'd really like to be able to give you a book-club style, in-depth review, because I liked it much more this time. Don't have sufficient energy to spare though--way too much to say.

Instead, this brief version. The detail of forethought and the consideration of each different character's perspective feels natural and smooth, even though every concept is totally innovative and foreign. I am kind of amazed at how persuasive this book's philosophy eventually is, even as I disagree with it. By the end I almost find myself thinking, but why do I disagree with it again?

This book is so philosophically deep, no wonder they have seventh graders read it in spite of its constant references to sex. (I assume this has been a banned book before, based on that.) It's like teaching toddlers in America to speak German: they may make no use of it, forget it entirely, but ten or twenty years down the line they'll find they have an aptitude for German language and pronunciation. I think kids need to read this book, to set that philosophical groove in their brains.

All this from a book first printed in 1939, years earlier than the previously-reviewed Trailer Trash. Huh.

[galactic_dev]

I can't be the only person who blames Brave New World for confusing technology with politics and inflaming irrational anti-technology sentiments. It's hard to get people to understand that genetic engineering has no necessary relationship to fascism, thanks to this book (and the Nazis).

[shaw]

I liked how we have a "hero" set up, and then he really has the chance to be heroic, and he just... isn't.

That, to me, is the real horror of this book. That the society is such that it doesn't get heros. Nobody is able to step up to the plate.

[Bea]

I keep meaning to re-read this again specificly for all the shakespeare references. They are aplenty in the novel. Especially from The Tempest.