Huxleys Brave New World is definitely new and is something that is difficult for a person living in a 90s world to imagine for it is so very diverse compared to our society and customs today. The odd world and lifestyle that was prophesied by Aldous Huxley in the first half of the 20th century has much of the same basis of customs but they are just performed different ritually in these peoples everyday routines.
If anyone from our time and our world were ever to spend any given amount of time in Huxleys world then they would be confused, shunned by society and looked at almost as a savage like John for having such different and “primitive” ways. This of course would happen to anyone from Huxleys world that infiltrated our world that we know. Its all in ones opinion whether or not Huxleys adjustments for a stable environment are just are not but what can be done is to show a comparison between a world subjected to Huxleys ideas from Brave New World and our reality today.
One comparison that can be made and also the most obvious is how people are brought into the world. In Huxleys world there is a complicated hatching process where embryos are monitored and adjusted. This occurs in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center. There are many, many aspects to this process and many different methods used to bring life into the world then what we are accustomed to.
Here embryos are kept in jars and processed in several ways and conditioned in such a way that everything about the person can be determined and altered. Once these children are born they are put through several events from day one which help to suit them for the rest of their lives. For example, a type of treatment would occur to a certain group of children with a certain determined destiny and so that they enjoy their occupations and niche in their world no matter what that role may be.
The people who work to keep this world stable would not want a child predestined to become a construction worker to ever find curiosity in books and learning; that child would be conditioned to stay away from books and learning by means of bad association with those certain things. The child may be given a book and then shocked so they can affiliate bad memories with studying. All persons produced by the center are subjected to many other types of conditioning processes to fit them perfectly to perform their job in the world such as hypnopaedia which is sleep-teaching.
In todays reality two people mate and the woman conceives the child through birth. There is no other method of creating a human being. In our world pregnancy is considered natural and beautiful. Children are brought up very individually and in different ways, usually by families and taught the basics of growing up. Children are educated in school learning all subjects including history which is another aspect of life that is shunned by Huxleys society. The mating part in the ritual of creating life is what brings us to our next comparison, sex.
In Huxleys society sex is had hastily and through promiscuity, with many partners. Love is something that is not even imagined in their world. But in reality sex is something precious and is not had without thought and without knowing the person well, actually, this is in most scenarios but it is sad to say that promiscuity does exist to some extent in our world. Love is a very serious thing in reality, even more precious than sex and love does occur often.
Both worlds use contreceptives which is wise to prevent disease transmissions and unwanted births but in Huxleys world the sole reason for protection during sex is to not impregnate the woman and have society look down upon you. Contraceptives are used more in Huxleys world than in ours because there no wants to have children so protection is always used, most likely nearing 100% of the time but in our times, some have sexual intercourse hastily and dont stop to think to use safety precautions and also some couples choose not to use protection so that they can have children.
An aspect of sexual intercourse in the brave new world is soma, a drug that was invented to create an artificial happiness with no side affects. There is no such thing as this in the real world, there is no drug with no affects on the human body, there arent any legal pleasure drugs either. Huxley makes many parodies throughout the book in reference to the real world. One that he makes is the first idea that you get about the societys religion.
The time period is given as A. F. which stands for “after Ford” instead of A. D. Also, instead of making a cross resembling the cross that Jesus was put upon, a “T” is made standing for Ford. Ford being the inventor of the simple model car that their world worships. Also, instead of synagogues or churches they have orgy-porgy which is a group of twelve people, six men and six women, who more or less say a little chant to the tune of a nursery rhyme and then break into a massive dodeca-orgy, this is introduced to the reader when Bernard Marx goes here to seek guidance in his confuzed life.
This orgy-porgy sounds a little out of hand and is obviously far from our religious customs. There are no specific religious customs that everyone has to follow, everyone is free to have their own religious beliefs and what G-d if a G-d to believe in. Another aspect of freedom comes up with each persons determined occupation and place in the world. Each person is put in one of five categories which almost stand as a grade of person, from smartest to dumbest and best occupation to worst occupation.
Regardless of what a person in this society is, they are trained from birth to enjoy what they will do and do it and not have jealousy of the higher grades of people. In our society of reality each persons occupation is determined by their determination and ability to do that task well whatever it may be. Each person is also raised to believe that they can be whatever they want to be, and that they have the freedom to follow any ambitions or dreams that they may have.
