THOUGHTS & POINTS OF INTEREST| Chapters 1-7

* WARNING this post will contain spoilers and probably too much personal information about Autumn @Kitty Cat Reads and I. So if you haven’t yet read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley  I would recommend closing your eyes/computer/tab or anything else that might ruin the book for you. 

Ashley
♠ All the promiscuity
♠ The craziness of the process in which is gone through to create-raise a child.
♠ The caste system and predestined/determination of a persons life is crazy/interesting
♠ There are a few phrases that are found in so many dystopians today
♠ 1 ovary = 15,000 adults (WTF)
♠” FORD” replacing God
♠ Erotic play haha
♠ The parallels with our society today although it was written 80 + years ago
♠ First chapter is a little difficult to follow, get into the world
♠ What caste is Lenina in ?
♠ Soma is like modern day xanax
♠ Such unique wording used, like pneumatic 

Autumn
♠ She is very interested in the names and the use of the names
♠ They mock the former society for its religions but then participate in a ritualistic gathering/meeting that is very reminiscent of religion.
♠ Can’t figure out if Huxley was racist or is trying to comment on racism by making so many of his lower caste characters black or describing them as darker at the very least
♠I feel like I don’t know anything about Huxley aside from the fact that he was from a family of scientists to know what kind of commentary he would be making.

DISCUSSION POINTS|

(This is just basically like a stream of thought and might not be grammatically correct or form correct sentences. I just was typing up thoughts for discussion and would love to hear your thoughts on the topics. There is just so much in this book that makes you think and is so interesting.)

Parallels to our society–

I noticed from the first half of the book there are some weird parallels to our society today even though this was written 80+ yrs ago. It is crazy how closely our society is leaning towards a less crazy version of this book. Test tube babies is a thing. With the advancements in technology and how people have began looking into altering and choosing features of their children. Socialization is also a thing that is happening around the world, not to the extent to which it is done in this book, but there are countries and communities in which want everyone working for everyone else in a way. Trying to create conformity and stability, taking away free will and the opportunity to make decisions in certain aspects of their life.

 
Sex, Drugs and Discrimination–

It seems crazy with the way that sex is a part of the society and taking out the family aspect of life. The fact that someone only being with the same person for close to 4 months is seen an insane seems like nothing in our society. The conformity and silencer of the drugs that put them into a sleepy trance, not being able to think and do for themselves would drive me crazy. I am a very independent and individualistic person and dont think I would be able to fit into the cookie cutter utopian society they are trying to create. I still feel like although these people are conditioned to accept their status and situations in life, there is still such a divide(class system and all that marx shit) between the people. Though not done maliciously (or at least really done consciously), there is a lot of discrimination done even to those in their own class for physical differences etc. I feel like this goes along with the parallels and is a huge problem in our society today. The section about the “savages” I also found interesting because the Zuni people still live like that today (for the most part) even though there have been many advancements in the world and are still seen as culturally different (although I dont think anyone would consider them savages)

What are your thoughts and points of interest? We would love what you think and feel about this book and the world described. 

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