"O wondrous new world” is a satirical, dystopian work by Aldous Huxley, written in 1932. The action of the novel takes place in the city of the distant future - in the 26th century in 2541. The society of the world lives in single state and is a consumer society. Moreover, consumption is elevated to a cult and, in principle, it can be called the very meaning of human existence.

In the world of Aldous Huxley, people are grown in special hatcheries using the biological unification method (Bokanovskization method). In the process of development, embryos are divided into five main castes, of which society consists. Each caste has different mental and physical abilities. For example, for the embryos of the most primitive caste "Epsilons" in a certain moment development reduce the supply of oxygen, as a result, their mental capacity and physical development qualitatively lower than the representatives of other castes. This is created for the purpose of forming strata () in society. People are physiologically and psychologically “programmed” in advance to perform a certain kind works. So that the caste system does not fall apart, with the help of hypnopedia (a method of learning during sleep), people form contempt for the lower caste, love for the higher and pride for their own. The vast majority of emerging psychological problems society is solved with the help of a narcotic drug, which in the novel is called soma.

There is no family and marriage in such a society. Moreover, the terminology and behavior inherent in these institutions are considered indecent and condemned. For example, the words "mother" and "father" are interpreted as one of the dirtiest curses. In a consumer society, the cult of sex prevails, there are no elevated feelings, and the presence of a permanent partner is considered extremely indecent ...

We will not touch on the artistic component of the work. A sane person will have negative attitude to the society described by Aldous Huxley. Why? In this system, the natural component of a person is ignored. In fact, a herd of ultra-modern slaves is described, moving according to the program and desire of the shepherd, moreover, intervening in genetics. From point of view long term such a society has no future, let alone prospects evolutionary development. More likely is the accumulation of genetic errors and, as a result, complete degeneration after just a few generations. After all human life, at least, has one goal - the development of genetically determined potential. And what is the potential of a pre-programmed genetic level slave?

Is it possible to draw parallels between the destructive society in Brave New World and reality? existing society? Undoubtedly! If you carefully study modern and apply to real existing systems(cinema, television, media, etc.), then you will come to not very rosy conclusions. Society has a direction vector. And what does it stem from? The same “entertainment factory” is not neutral. Movies, music, television, information on the Internet, etc. show how society should work, offering the viewer (primarily the younger generation) a model of behavior in it ...

Shortly before his death, on March 20, 1962, Aldous Huxley spoke at Berkeley and admitted that his bestseller Brave New World was based not on fiction, but on what the “elite” planned to actually implement:

… And here I would like to do brief comparison parables "Brave New World" with another parable, published much later - a book by George Orwell called "1984". I tend to think that the scientific dictatorships of the future will take place in many parts of the world and will most likely be closer to the model of my book than to Orwell's 1984 model and will be closer not because of the humanitarian considerations of scientific dictatorships, but simply because the Brave New World model is much more rational than the other. But if you can get people to agree to the state of affairs, to the circumstances of their lives, to the state of slavery... In general, it seems to me that the root cause of the fundamental changes that we are facing today is precisely that we are in the process of developing a whole range of methods that will allow the governing oligarchy, which has always existed and supposedly will exist, to make people actually love their slavery. People can be made to enjoy a state of affairs that, by the humblest standard, they should not enjoy. And these methods, in my opinion, are just a detailed refinement of the older methods of terror, because they already combine the methods of terror with the methods of approval. In general, there is a large number of different method. There is, for example, a pharmacological method, and this is what I talked about in my book. And as a result, you can imagine the euphoria that makes people completely happy, even under the most disgusting circumstances that surround them. And I'm sure such things are possible...

"Brave new world." Opinion on Aldous Huxley's book

Huxley's novel was the last I read from the top three "most famous dystopias", which also include Zamyatin and Orwell. As befits a representative of this genre, the book we are talking about some, and in a certain sense fantastic, social system. In order to build a "happy" and completely controlled society, Huxley decided not to create new security services and not wage a constant war with dissidents. To do this, he came up with a more radical means, namely, the controlled cultivation of those who need to be controlled. Although, perhaps, it would be more accurate to say - the cultivation of those that no longer need to be controlled.

People are born in test tubes and even at the embryonic stage of development they are “laid” with future character traits, intellect, moral and moral foundations. Only in some reservations (zoos, menageries?) there were people whom civilization could not attract.

What is the book about? Even if you try to briefly describe the plot, it is unlikely that it will be possible to achieve unambiguity. Perhaps it tragic story love of the "old" man (from the reservation) and the girl who is the fruit of the new order? Perhaps these are descriptions of all sorts of difficulties, absurdities and advantages of the “brave new world”, the existence of which is reinforced by a drug accessible to all (“Soms of grams - Internet of dram!”)? Perhaps the author's attempt to predict and warn future generations?

My general impression of the novel was just as ambiguous. On the one hand, Zamyatin and Orwell's works look more thoughtful and plot-driven, but Huxley's work evokes completely different thoughts and feelings. First, the "system" in Brave New World doesn't seem intimidating or destructive. And although there are also restrictions, prohibitions and control, but all the people there are really happy, well, or almost happy, and they themselves choose cinemas with pornographic films (at least for us pornographic films), and not Shakespeare. And the Savage, as the protagonist of a "modern" person, armed only with Shakespeare and his own feelings, is unable to offer something in return, or at least "invest" himself in a mosaic alien to him. That is, in in a certain sense the book can be assessed as a description of the struggle between culture and science in achieving super-global goals. No union or compromise, but disappointment and hopelessness in both cases (in the first case - due to incapacity, in the second - due to the lack of need for them).

A lot of attention is paid to the sexual aspect of life, from the upbringing of babies to some "incomprehensible anxieties and feelings" in the characters of the novel associated with this aspect. Moreover, the author's attempts to speculate on the topic of the relationship between sex and love are immediately striking.

The author's visionary "hits" are very fascinated, and many examples can be given from what is only described in the book, but we have already implemented. The novel is even more interesting if the reader is familiar with the fact that Huxley participated in experiments on drug use and took part in the life of hippie communes. He even wrote another utopia, only positive - "The Island".

Brave New World is a book that is easy to read (in terms of the author's language and plot), thought-provoking (in the most various aspects) and which you can re-read with pleasure, looking for something new and previously hidden from the eyes of the reader.

“One thousand two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour,” said the head of the airport impressively. “Good speed, isn’t it, Mr Savage?”

“Yes,” said the Savage. - However, Ariel was able to encircle the whole earth in forty minutes.

Excellent book!

AT recent times I was carried away by large-scale literature that tells about various state models-dystopias. I started with Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, then there was Owerell's 1984, then F. Iskander, Strugatsky's It's Hard to Be a God, then Huxley's Brave New World, now I'm reading Zamyatin's We. Of course, these works are in the same row on the topic, each of them is interesting in its own way, each makes you think. Huxley is a new author for me, one might say, a discovery author. He very skillfully described possible world of the future, a world in which the mind triumphs, there is no place for feelings and emotions, every human life is just a cog in the state machine - the personal is destroyed, the public is in the first place. This is a possible "sweet apocalypse" - an abyss for humanity, although attractive, if you look superficially (science is developed, there is a national idea, everyone seems to be happy, there is no suffering, etc.). But this is only superficial. After reading, you understand that lack of freedom is moral death for a person, that any tough external organization- an attempt to streamline people's lives - is done in the name of elites, and not in the name of ordinary citizens. The key thing in the work is the conversation between the Savage and the Chief Steward, a lot is revealed there - the mechanism of the machine, the goals that are true winners in this world order).

The unspoiled, freedom-loving Savage, seeing the initially coveted life with a fresh, uncomplicated look, was eventually horrified, tried to appeal to the inhabitants, but it was already in vain - the slaves were brought up for a long time, their thinking has already been formed, they do not know what freedom and true human happiness are These people are already mentally lost. Using this as an example, the author showed (as I think) how much a person’s consciousness is “programmed”, what can happen if people are allowed to power who set themselves the goal of raising slaves, which happens when critical thinking and an alternative vision of life, that is, when a person thinks very primitively, putting the basest things in life in the first place - food, clothes, sex, pleasure, peace. How important it is to preserve the Human in yourself, to fight for every millimeter of the human in yourself: to sympathize, take what is happening to heart, set high moral goals for yourself, develop your spirituality, strive for the best, grow, fight for your freedom and not allow yourself to be manipulated. Now in Russia, the dependent central media are repeating the same thing: the great military power, the West is bad, there are Nazis in Ukraine, etc. People perceive this slop, people are addicted, people are not able to find an alternative and finally turn on their brains. That's how we live. But Huxley had a suggestion important trick correct "education" of people - from birth they were driven into the necessary settings, in order to then get a pre-planned result. So is the media. One can find various parallels between the novel and modern life- it's everyone's business! Definitely a book to read and think about!

I liked this dystopia. It makes you think about our current actions. Everything about the book is convincing. What are we striving for at this time? To simplify our lives! In principle, all progress is most often designed to simplify life. And what do we see? An interesting situation interesting world! So, where does a person come from, children often ask. Answer: grown in a bottle! Why not? people grow up with a predetermined destiny. Lucky - you are in the alpha caste, no - you are crazy, doing the "dirty" work. The question arises: how so? Can people really be satisfied with such a fate: not to choose what they want to become? The answer is very simple. FROM early childhood, even from infancy, people are taught their destiny: how to act, how to think, what to say. They inspire so skillfully that everyone is happy! What else does the world need? It would seem ideal. But, as they say, every closet has its skeletons. Mistakes happen, everyone makes mistakes. One of the main characters Bernard is not like everyone else. How did it happen that a very nondescript, ugly person ended up in a high caste. And what do we do with a person who is not like the others? Correctly! They belittle, laugh, try to "bite". Bernard endures everything, but what else to do? In addition, the hero is not only different appearance but his thoughts are different. He perfectly understands that the truth is imposed on them, not everything is so smooth and prosperous. No one has an opinion, there is only an opinion that has been put into small heads during sleep. But Bernard cannot find an ally in his thoughts, which is why he is thoughtful and sad. One fine day, the hero, together with his girlfriend (and in the world, sex without obligations is not just a norm, but an obligation) go to look at the Savages (people who live according to the old rules, with their brains, so to speak) and meet their former resident there beautiful world who managed to give birth to a child (which is unacceptable, since people appear from bottles), to devour and grow old. Everyone has a shock, mother and son are taken into the world. But after that, the skeletons come out of the closet ... Look for the continuation in the book! I can say one thing: at first, equality interested me, I even fell for it, but my eyes still opened in time. How can we live by someone else's rules without having our own opinion? Think about what we are striving for.

Dystopia in fiction occupies a separate niche. This genre allows you to think about the problems that can arise in society if a person stops thinking independently.

"Brave New World" - a world where the question of the future of man is decided at the stage of the embryo. In the world of the future there are no troubles and indignations, no social stratifications, no discrimination, no parents and children, no sexual restrictions. This is just a shell, just an imposed model of behavior that is business as usual, due to the fact that a person in the society of the future does not have the opportunity to compare. The opposition of this society is the society of the past, which anyone can look at. The plot is tied up when the Savage, brought up in the society of the past, gets into the society of the future. He is at a loss, trying to reason with others, alas, unsuccessfully.

Huxley perfectly described this society, the book is read in one breath

About Aldous Huxley's book "Brave New World" I had an extremely ambiguous impression. A very controversial story. Complex. In the process of reading, I often caught myself thinking, how could the person who wrote this dystopian novel in 1932 so thoroughly describe all the “bleeding wounds” and “ulcers” of modern society? Super world of the future, where people are grown in test tubes. There is no institution of marriage and family. All the necessary skills to build happy life embryos are laid when growing them in specially created embryoriums. Life is programmed at birth, even entertainment has already been chosen for you. A society divided into castes - from the elite ruling the world, to the herd doing the work for getting a daily dose of the drug. The deep loneliness and pain of a savage who decided to go against the system. An unexpected ending, or maybe quite natural ... Scary, and familiar. Something that you don’t want to think about. But something that is so useful to read about.

5 more reviews

Today, you will not surprise anyone with the terrible prophecies of Aldous Huxley. What seemed disgusting, vile, unnatural and yet unlikely in the first half of the 20th century, in the 21st is already the realities of our life, if, of course, you look closely. We are living in a time when forecasts hundred years ago you can check and evaluate how close their author was to the truth. People re-read Orwell, Zamyatin (the novel "We"), Odoevsky, Huxley, criticizing, pondering, checking: who guessed right? Whose took? More precisely, what scenario of total loss turned out to be the most realistic?

Brave new world is based on the strongest World State. In the courtyard of the 632nd year of the era of stability, the Era of Ford - the deity and inspirer of the era. Ford is the founder of the world's largest automobile company. "Our Lord Ford" replaces God both in religious (he is prayed to and rituals are held in his honor), and in household level(people say things like "Ford knows him" or "save Ford"). The technocracy has swept the whole world, except for special reservations that are left as reserves, since climatic conditions in those places were recognized as economically disadvantageous for establishing stability.

main feature Huxley's dystopia is that in his world biological discoveries(Bokanovsky method) allow genetic programming: artificially fertilized eggs are grown in special incubators using various techniques. As a result, a caste society is obtained, where each group is prepared in advance for a certain functional load.

Where does the title "Brave New World" come from? It is pronounced by John in the novel, this is a quote from Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (Miranda's words). The savage repeats it several times, changing intonation from enthusiastic (like Shakespeare) to sarcastic (at the end of the novel).

What genre: utopia or dystopia?

The genre nature of the novel leaves no doubt about its certainty. If utopia is a fairy tale about a happy future that one would like to achieve, then dystopia is a scenario of the future that one would like to avoid. Utopia is an ideal, it is impossible to realize it, so the question of its implementation is from the category of rhetorical ones. But writers want to warn humanity about its opposite extreme, point out the danger and prevent it from going beyond the book pages. Of course, Brave New World is a dystopia in its totality.

But there are also utopian aspects in this novel. Many people note that the natural programming of people, the mentality of consumption and caste are the basis of stability, which is so lacking. modern world. In fact, Huxley solved all the burning problems of mankind by completely subordinating the planet to the will and consciousness of the world government. Even biological and physical laws prostrated themselves before the mighty thought of the alphas. Isn't this the ultimate dream? No war, no epidemics, no social inequality(no one is aware of it, everyone is satisfied with the place they occupy), everything is sterile, provided, thought out. Even the opposition is not persecuted, but simply expelled from the country and lives with like-minded people. Isn't that what we all strive for? So figure it out, did the author depict a utopia?

But in beautiful fairy tale reality clearly emerges: morality, culture, art, institutions of family and marriage are sacrificed to order, as well as the very essence of choice, because human life is predetermined and programmed from the very beginning. In ebsilon, for example, the ability to break into alpha is taken away at the genetic level. This means that all our ideas about freedom, justice, love are destroyed for the benefit of comfort. Is it worth it?

Description of castes

The standardization of people is the main condition for harmony in the era of Ford and one of the main themes in the novel. “Community, Identity, Stability” is the slogan in the name of which everything that is in the human soul has been destroyed. Everything around is subject to expediency, material and rough calculation. Everyone "belongs to everyone" and lives for today, rejecting history.

1. Alphas- people of the first class, are engaged mental labor. Alpha-plus-men occupy leadership positions (Mustafa Mond is his fordeystvo), alpha-minus-men are lower ranks (commandant on the reservation). Physical parameters they have the best, as well as other opportunities and privileges.
2. beta- women who are couples for alphas. There are pluses and minuses of beta: smarter and dumber, respectively. They are beautiful, always young and slim, smart enough to perform the duties of the job.
3. Scales, delta and finally epsilons- working classes. Deltas and gammas - attendants, workers Agriculture, and epsilons are the lower strata of the population, mentally retarded performers of routine mechanical work.

First, the embryos stay in strictly defined conditions, then they "hatch" from glass bottles - "open". Individuals, of course, are brought up differently. Each of them is brought up respect for the higher caste and contempt for the lower castes. Even their clothes are different. The difference is in color: alphas are in gray, epsilons are in black, deltas are in khaki, etc.

The main characters of the novel

1. Bernard Marks. His name is a combination of the names of Bernard Shaw (a writer welcoming socialism and communism in the USSR) and Karl Marx (ideologist of socialism). The writer sneered at the Soviet regime, which he considered the prototype of his fictitious state, therefore he assigned to his hero the names of such people significant for the ideology of the USSR. , like socialism, at first looked pleasant, conquered with its opposition to evil for the glory of good, but by the end of the novel he revealed his ins and outs.
   Alphas higher order sometimes they get out of order, because they are overdeveloped. So was the psychologist Bernard Marx, main character"Brave New World" essay. He is skeptical about the entire progressive world order. His friend, teacher Helmholtz, is also in opposition. Bernard's negative perception In reality, it happened because he was "splashed with alcohol in a blood substitute." He is 8 cm smaller than the other alphas and uglier than them. He feels own inferiority and criticizes the world, if only for the fact that it cannot enjoy all the blessings due to it. Girls ignore him, bad temper and "weirdness" scare his friends away from him. The authorities also have a negative attitude towards the employee, feeling a catch in him, but Bernard works well, so he manages to keep his job and even use his official position in order to somehow attract women. If in the first part the hero plays, rather, positive role, then by the end of his vile and cowardly essence is exposed: he betrays friends for the sake of vanity and the dubious benefits of his world, which he so animatedly denied.
2. John (Savage)- the second main character in the novel "Brave New World!". His personality was formed under the influence of a volume of Shakespeare, which he found on the reservation. Linda taught him to read, and from the Indians he adopted the habits, philosophy of life and craving for work. He was glad to leave, as the “white-skinned” son of a “prostitute bitch” (Linda “shared” with everyone) was not accepted in the tribe. But, as soon as he arrived in the New World, his disappointment knew no bounds. Lenina, whom he fell in love with, could be invited to his place for the night by any man. Bernard went from being a friend to being a miserable greedy man: he used John to make society love and accept him. Linda in oblivion soma (this synthetic drug, which is given to all members of society as a cure for feelings and sadness) did not even recognize him and, in the end, died. John rebels against the New World by staging a riot: he threw out the catfish, calling for a flock of deltas to freedom, and they beat him in response. He settled alone near London in an abandoned airport. Knocking out vice from the body, the Savage tortured himself with an impromptu whip, prayed all night and worked hard. However, he was relentlessly pursued by reporters and curious Londoners, constantly intruding into his life. Once a whole crowd of onlookers arrived, and among them was Lenina. The hero, in a fit of despair and anger at her lust, beat the girl to the delight of the distraught spectators. The next day the savage hanged himself. Thus, the finale of the novel is a sentence to that suffocating progressive world where everyone belongs to everyone, and stability outweighs the very essence of human existence.
3. Helmholtz Watson– His initials are made from surnames German physicist Helmholtz and the founder of behaviorism Watson. From these real existing people the character inherited a consistent and firm desire for new knowledge. For example, he is sincerely interested in Shakespeare, understands the imperfection of the new art and tries to overcome this wretchedness in himself, mastering the experience of his ancestors. Before us true friend and strong personality. He worked as a teacher and was friends with Bernard, sympathizing with his views. Unlike his friend, he really had the courage to resist the regime to the end. The hero sincerely wants to learn sincere feelings and acquire moral values getting involved in art. He realizes the squalor of life in wonderful world and is sent to the island of dissenters after participating in protest action John.
4. Lenina Crown- her name is derived from the pseudonym of Vladimir Lenin. Probably, the author wanted to show the vicious essence of the heroine with this name, as if hinting at Ulyanov's ability to please both ours and yours, because many researchers still consider him German spy, who organized a coup in Russia for a tidy sum. So, the girl is just as immoral, but she was so programmed: among them it was even considered indecent not to change a sexual partner for a long time. The whole essence of the heroine is that she always does what is considered the norm. She does not try to get out of the rut, even a sincere feeling for John cannot dissuade her of correctness and infallibility social order. Lenina betrays him, it costs her nothing. But the worst thing is that she does not realize her betrayal. Frivolity, primitive and vulgar tastes, stupidity and inner emptiness- all this applies to her characterization from the first page to the last. By this, the author emphasizes that she is not a person, the dialectic of the soul is unusual for her.
5. Mustafa Mond– His name belongs to the founder of Turkey, who recreated the country after World War I (Kemal Mustafa Atatürk). He was a reformer, he changed a lot in the traditional Eastern mentality, in particular, he began the policy of secularism. Thanks to his activities, the country got back on its feet, although the order under him was not soft. The hero's surname belongs to the British financier, founder of Imperial Chemical Industries, Alfred Mond. He was a noble and wealthy man, and his views were marked by radicalism and categorical rejection of the labor movement. Democratic values ​​and ideas of equality were alien to him, he actively opposed making any concessions to the demands of the proletariat. The author emphasized that the hero is contradictory: on the one hand, he is a shrewd, intelligent and constructive leader, and on the other hand, he is an opponent of any freedom, a staunch supporter of the caste social system. However, in the world of Huxley it merges harmoniously.
6. Morgana Rothschild- her name belongs to the American banking tycoon John Pierpont Morgan, philanthropist and talented entrepreneur. However, he also has a dark spot in his biography: in civil war he traded arms and made a fortune out of bloodshed. Apparently, this hurt the author, a convinced humanist. The surname of the heroine came from the banking dynasty of the Rothschilds. Their successful enrichment is legendary, and rumors of secret conspiracies and conspiracy theories hover around their family. The genus is large, it has many branches, so it is impossible to say exactly who the writer was thinking about. But, probably, all the rich got it just because they are rich, and their very luxury is unfair, while others barely make ends meet.

Issues

The stability of the New World is described in the Supreme Controller's line:

Everyone is happy. Everyone gets what they want, and no one ever wants what they can't get. They are provided, they are safe; they never get sick; they are not afraid of death; they are not annoyed by fathers and mothers; they have no wives, children, and lovers to deliver strong feelings. We adapt them, and after that they cannot behave differently than the way they should.

The main problem is that artificial equality, which turns out to be biological totalitarianism, and the caste structure of society cannot satisfy thinking people. Therefore, some alphas (Bernard, Helmholtz) are unable to adapt to life, they feel not unity, but loneliness, alienation from others. But without conscious members of society, a brave new world is not possible, it is they who are responsible for the programming and well-being of all the rest, deprived of reason, free will and individuality. Such people either perceive the service as hard labor (like Mustafa Mond), or depart for the islands in a state of painful disagreement with society.

If everyone can think and feel deeply, stability will collapse. If people are deprived of these rights, they turn into disgusting, dumb-headed clones that can only consume and produce. That is, there will be no society in the usual sense, it will be replaced by functional castes, artificially bred, like new varieties of potatoes. So solve problems social structure genetic programming and the destruction of all its main institutions - it's like destroying society as such in order to solve its problems. It is as if a person beheaded himself because of a pain in his head ...

What is the meaning of the work?

The conflict in the dystopian Brave New World is not only a dispute between the old and the new worldview. This is a confrontation between two answers to eternal question Does a good end justify any means? Mustafa Mond (the embodiment of the ideologist of the New World) believes that for the sake of happiness, you can sacrifice freedom, art, individuality and faith. The savage, on the other hand, wants to give up saving stability for the sake of all this, he believes that it is not worth it. Both of them are programmed by education, so the conflict turns into a collision. The savage will not accept the “white lie”, on the basis of which the “brave new world” is built, he was brought up by the highly moral ideals of Shakespeare's time, and Mustafa consciously chooses stability, he knows the history of mankind and is disappointed in it, therefore he believes that there is nothing to stand on ceremony, and all means are good to achieve this very "good." This is the meaning of the work.

Huxley should be pleased. Many note that this particular writer was right when he came up with “sense” (a movie without meaning, but fully reproducing the feelings of the characters), “soma” (a drug equivalent to today's weed, LSD, which even a child can buy), “sharing” ( analogue of free love, sex without obligations), etc. It is not only the forms that coincide (helicopters, electro-magnetic golf, artificial analogues of food), which can still be attributed to technical progress civilization, but essential characteristics: the spirit and the letter of the "brave new world" has absorbed our reality. Firstly, people of all ages are obsessed with sex, not love: they get younger, expose their naked bodies in a net, wear revealing outfits in order to be not beautiful, no, sexy. married women, married men, young children, their grandparents, young couples against the backdrop of a fat plastic heart on Valentine's Day - all bargain themselves, stripping and grimacing for the illusory approval of followers. They dump their ins and outs for everyone to see, publishing candid photos, details from their personal lives, addresses, phone numbers, place of work, etc. Secondly, fun leisure- it is now a drunken gathering, like Huxley's act of union: men and women take soma, see hallucinations and, in the euphoria of drug bliss, feel closeness. Common interests or beliefs are abolished, people simply have nothing to talk about, which means there is no basis for unity, except for soma, alcohol or other stimulants of joy. The list could be long, but modern man and he understands what's what.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

PREFACE.

Prolonged self-nibbling, according to the consensus opinion of all moralists, is the most undesirable occupation. Having acted badly, repent, make amends as much as you can, and aim yourself at doing better next time. In no case do not indulge in endless sorrow over your sin. Wallowing in shit - not The best way purification.

Art also has its own ethical rules, and many of them are identical or, in any case, similar to the rules of worldly morality. For example, endlessly repenting for both the sins of behavior and the sins of literature is equally of little use. Omissions should be looked for and, having found and recognized, if possible, do not repeat them in the future. But endlessly pore over the flaws of twenty years ago, bring with the help of patches old work to perfection, not achieved initially, in adulthood trying to correct the mistakes made and bequeathed to you by that other person as you were in your youth is, of course, an empty and futile undertaking. That is why this newly published Brave New World is no different from the previous one. Its defects as a work of art are essential; but in order to correct them, I would have to rewrite the thing again - and in the process of this correspondence, as a person who has grown old and become Different, I would probably save the book not only from some shortcomings, but also from those advantages that the book has . And therefore, having overcome the temptation to wallow in literary sorrows, I prefer to leave everything as it was and aim my thoughts at something else.

It is worth mentioning, however, at least the most serious defect in the book, which is the following. The savage is offered only the choice between a crazy life in Utopia and primitive life in an Indian village, more human in some respects, but in others scarcely less strange and deranged. When I wrote this book, the idea that people are given free will to choose between two kinds of madness seemed to me amusing and quite possibly true. To heighten the effect, however, I allowed the Savage's speeches to often sound more reasonable, which is in keeping with his upbringing in an environment of adherents of a religion that is a cult of fertility in half with a ferocious cult of the penitente. Even the acquaintance of the Savage with the works of Shakespeare is incapable of real life justify such rationality of speeches. In the end, he throws away my sanity; the Indian cult takes possession of him again, and he, in despair, ends in frenzied self-flagellation and suicide. Such was the deplorable end of this parable - which it was necessary to prove to the mocking skeptic-esthete, which was then the author of the book.

Today I no longer seek to prove the unattainability of sanity. On the contrary, although I now sadly realize that in the past it was very rare, I am convinced that it can be achieved, and I would like to see more sanity around. For this conviction and desire, expressed in several recent books, and most importantly, for the fact that I have compiled an anthology of sayings of sane people about sanity and the ways to achieve it, I have received an award: famous academic critic regarded me as a sad symptom of the collapse of the intelligentsia in a time of crisis. This should be understood, apparently, in such a way that the professor himself and his colleagues are a joyful symptom of success. The benefactors of mankind should be honored and immortalized. Let's raise a Pantheon for professors. We will erect it on the ashes of one of the bombed-out cities of Europe or Japan, and above the entrance to the tomb I would draw two-meter letters simple words: "Dedicated to the memory of the scientific educators of the planet. Si monumentum requiris circumspice.

But back to the topic of the future... If I were to rewrite the book now, I would offer the Savage a third option.

Between the utopian and the primitive extremes would lie for me the possibility of sanity - a possibility already realized in part in the community of exiles and fugitives from the Brave New World living within the boundaries of the Reservation. In this community, the economy would be conducted in the spirit of decentralism and Henry George, politics - in the spirit of Kropotkin and cooperativism. Science and technology would be applied according to the principle “the Sabbath is for man, not man for the Sabbath,” that is, they would adapt to man, and not adapt and enslave him (as in the current world, and even more so in the Brave New World). Religion would be a conscious and intelligent striving towards Ultimate Goal humanity, to a unifying cognition of the immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendent Deity or Brahman. And the prevailing philosophy would be a kind of Supreme Utilitarianism in which the principle of Greatest Happiness would recede into the background before the principle of the Ultimate Goal - so that in each life situation the question would be raised and decided first of all: “How will this consideration or action help (or hinder) me and the greatest possible number of other personalities in achieving the Ultimate Goal of mankind?”.

Growing up among primitive people, the Savage (in this hypothetical new version of the novel), before being transported to Utopia, would have had the opportunity to experience firsthand the nature of a society of freely collaborating individuals dedicated to the exercise of sanity. Redone In a similar way, "Brave New World" would have acquired artistic and (if one may use such lofty word in relation to the novel) philosophical completeness, which in its present form it is clearly lacking.

But Brave New World is a book about the future, and whatever its artistic or philosophical qualities, a book about the future can interest us only if the predictions it contains tend to come true. From the current temporary point recent history- after fifteen years of our further sliding down its inclined plane Are those predictions justified? Are the predictions made in 1931 confirmed or refuted by the bitter events that have taken place since then?

One major omission immediately catches the eye. Brave New World never mentions nuclear fission. And this, in fact, is rather strange, because the possibilities atomic energy became a popular topic of conversation long before the book was written. An old friend of mine, Robert Nichols, even composed a play about it, which was a success, and I remember that I myself mentioned it in passing in a novel that came out in the late twenties. So, I repeat, it seems very strange that in the seventh century of the Ford era, rockets and helicopters do not run on nuclear fuel. Although this omission is unforgivable, it is, in any case, easily explained. The theme of the book is not the progress of science itself, but how this progress affects the personality of a person. The victories of physics, chemistry, technology are silently accepted there as a matter of course. Specifically, only those scientific advances, those future researches in the field of biology, physiology and psychology, the results of which I have directly applied to people. Life can be radically changed in its quality only with the help of the life sciences. The sciences of matter, used in a certain way, are capable of destroying life or making it utterly complex and painful; but only as tools in the hands of biologists and psychologists can they modify natural forms and manifestations of life. The release of atomic energy means great revolution in the history of mankind, but not the deepest and final (unless we blow up, blow ourselves to pieces, thus putting an end to history).

It is possible to carry out a truly revolutionary revolution not in outside world but only in the soul and body of man. Living in times French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade, as might be expected, used this theory of revolutions to give an outward rationality to his brand of madness. Robespierre carried out the most superficial revolution - political. Going a little deeper, Babeuf tried to produce economic revolution. Sade, on the other hand, considered himself the apostle of a truly revolutionary revolution that transcends politics and economics, a revolution within every man, every woman and every child, whose bodies would henceforth become the common sexual property, and whose souls would be cleansed of all natural decorum, of all the hard-learned prohibitions of traditional civilization. It is clear that between the teachings of Sada and truly revolutionary revolution there is no indispensable or inevitable connection. The garden was insane, and the revolution he conceived had as its conscious or semi-conscious goal general chaos and destruction. Let those who run the Brave New World, and can not be called reasonable (in the absolute, so to speak, sense of the word); but they are not mad, and their goal is not anarchy, but social stability. It is precisely in order to achieve stability that they carry out by scientific means the last, intrapersonal, truly revolutionary revolution.