Brave New World is one of those classics seemingly everyone has read, if only because it has been among the leading books banned by libraries and schools since it was first published in 1932. However, in a case of not learning from what one reads, there are enough similarities between Huxley's envisioned "utopia" and today's world that are downright frightening. Huxley's world is just as relevant, maybe even more so, today than it was eighty years ago. That is just plain scary.Either Huxley was a genius or life truly does imitate art because there is so much in Brave New World that hits too close to home. As this was a book club selection, the first thing that people noticed was the focus on instantaneous gratification. In Huxley's world, waiting four hours for something is a travesty. Sound familiar? In this day and age of instant news coverage, ordering everything possible online, FedEx and next-day delivery, text messages, chat rooms, social media, and everything else, we are quickly becoming a society that is disgusted by news taking more than a few minutes to be verified, by packages that take more than a day to arrive, by food we actually have to take the time to cook or wait for someone else to prepare. Huxley's commentary on this fixation is better suited now than when he first envisioned this dystopian future and is almost depressing to behold.It does not take a huge stretch of the imagination for readers to be able to recognize more than a few bits and pieces of today's society in Huxley's fictional one. The focus on technology and idolization of mass production is another aspect that hits a little too close to home, except in today's age, we could be worshipping Our Jobs instead of Our Ford. Feelies and the scent organ are similar to the 3-D and even 4-D movies that are in abundance these days, with feelies all-too similar to haptic game controllers and keyboards. As for soma, is there any doubt how popular such a drug would become, especially if it were legally sanctioned and provided no hangover? These similarities are the most chilling aspects of Brave New World.It is so easy for a reader to get caught up in Huxley's world without paying attention to the message he is trying to make about what one sacrifices in order to create and live in such a world. There is plenty of food for fodder when one is able to set aside the horror of this new world. Bernard's and Helmholtz's inability to conform are indications that all is not well, while John's inability to cope with his new surroundings is the most blatant reminder of all that was lost to make the new and improved. The sterilization of the world diminishes the true nature of humanity, and everything for which humans have worked over the past centuries is naught.Psychology, sociology, technology, and a healthy dose of imagination all combine to create the chilling image of a future society in which there is no religion, no family, no messiness, and no fuss. Its warnings are more true today than Huxley could ever have imagined. Therein lies the power of Brave New World.
