All of the Advantages of Christianity and Alcohol; None of Their Defects

I love when professors just happen to assign books on this list. Not that I find reading other course books useless, but there's a nice sort of satisfaction in reading something that will "double count" for something. It makes me feel much more productive. And so, as per my syllabus, I completely dove into Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World.

I must admit that I enjoy dystopian novels, especially those that serve to point out how humanity will destroy itself if it continues down the path on which it is currently venturing. Is that morbid? Perhaps, but these books, in my opinion, are fascinating to read. However, I admit that I most likely would not have liked this particular novel as much were it not for the humanities gateway for which I am reading it. Thus far in the semester, my class has been examining the shift between the classical and modern views of the world and how the scientific revolution served as the catalyst of this drastic change. We have considered whether what we view today as "scientific progress" is really progress at all, and how all of our contemporary conceptions of reality are altered if we look at the world as a series of forms that have their own intrinsic meanings. In Brave New World, reality takes one more shift away from us, serving to exaggerate the very principles by which we are living life now. The allusions to our previous class discussions abound. Rarely have I seen a work of fiction so well employed in a class that has previously been reading philosophical works and scientific treaties.

I still, however, maintain that I would not have enjoyed this book as much without this class. Huxley's novel is surely not a literary work of art. There is nothing particularly admirable about his writing style; his sentence structure is short and clipped. Yes, this partly serves to demonstrate the barren nature of the world he has created, but is nonetheless unimaginative. His plot is interesting, but, as I suppose must be the case considering the setting, there is little to no character development. The entire plot, especially the ending, is rather abrupt. I felt as though the book should have been longer.

But despite this, Brave New World leads us to ask questions that are vital for the world in which we currently live. And for that, I give it an A.

59 down, 942 to go!

"It's with bad sentiments that one makes good novels." (Aldous Huxley)