How deep are you in the system? An Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Review
What a mental ride.
This book challenges the reader to the very core of their being. Who are you is not of importance anymore, but rather who the people around you are. The world is much easier if you make it about yourself, because you have nothing to worry about except being comfortable with yourself and what you do. This book makes you realize that controlling yourself and your actions is just one tiny fraction of what influences your life. You don’t know per say what is controlling the reason you are what you are, you just know what is around you day by day and who rules whatever system you let yourself be ruled by.
In my experience the book crept on me. At first I thought I was reading a book like George Orwell’s 1984, where it described a society that evolved depending on some particular political events. As the book progressed I thought this was a book that simply gave out anotherperson’s point of view of the future. Although this is one way to look at it, I find it neither; I denominate it an existentialist book. The reader comes into a point of realization in which he or she doesn’t know which view of life (savage or civilized) is the correct one. The entire book seems to me a prelude, a background information, for that one conversation between the Controller and the Savage (notice the names and how descriptive they are of their point of views). Is art a savage tendency? Is it better to control the destiny and lifestyle of everyone? Are social standings set by birth and scientific incubation the way to have a stable society? How horrid is to think that the only way to achieve bliss and happiness is by complete ignorance and in exchange of actual liberty. Is liberty less useful than ultimate happiness? Or is it the pains of daily life what really gives us a meaning to exist? All these questions are left for the reader to debate on itself while receiving perhaps the most unpredictable and gruesome conclusion that I have ever read…
If by the end of this reading you as a reader don’t get blown away, then you should re-read. With subtlety this book teaches you so many things of not only yourself but the world around you. The misconception of utilizing relevant examples to make people understand a concept is a plague that a lot of authors propagate through their writing. With a unique society ruled by a philosophy, shunned by modern society, who achieves the actual state of utopia the reader gets a perspective that makes him/her a visionary in many aspects. After you read this the meaning of life, god, and happiness is no longer a priority. The real question will be… How deep are you in the system?
-Original Work from Adevarias
