It's one of those much raved about book that people say you must read. But I'm not sure if I like it that much. It was a futuristic world that Huxley created, where through eugenics and dysgenics, human beings were created according to a hierarchical system. Everyone knew where their place in life was and no one questioned why, as they had all been brainwashed since the day they were born. But Bernard one of the Alphas who was created different began to have doubts about the utopian world they lived in. He decided to visit the other world, where things had not changed and children were not created in test tubes. There he met the Savage (John), who was very much like us. He loved Shakespeare and the likes, all of which were destroyed in this brave new world. The Savage became a sorta circus freak, where the utopians would come and "see" him as we would in a zoo.
He subsequently ran away to live as a hermit but was eventually discovered. I'm not sure why the savage whipped himself as penance for feeling any forms of pleasure. Perhaps to remember the horror he had witnessed when living as a circus monkey in the brave new world, or perhaps he felt guilty for feeling joy when his mother had suffered indignity at her deathbed.
The new world that Huxley created is seemingly grosteque and unimaginable. But I wonder if people from the past would view us in the same way.
Although I don't like the book that much, I think I might have to revisit it some day coz I somehow feel that there are some
subtle nuances that I am not picking up on.
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