I far prefer Huxley's Brave New World to Orwell's 1984, although I do consider both books to be essential to anyone who enjoys freedom.

Brave New World, by employing satire, seemed much more effective in carrying its message in comparison with 1984's bold-faced statement. I read the two books simeoultaneously and Brave New World always seemed so much more witty and Orwell always seemed more preachy because he was straightforward.

So much to say, but really, just read it!

Not only do I agree with Paladex’s reviews above, but I would go so far as to say that Huxley’s commentary on both the emptiness of a consumerist culture which must stabilize itself through manufactured markets, as well as the way he calls attention to our conditioning is clear, insightful, and crucial reading.

I strongly recommend reading Island after reading BNW to anyone who feels BNW raises some interesting questions about living a meaningful life. Island was the last book Huxley wrote before he died in 1963, thirty or so years after he wrote Brave New World. In Island Huxley gives voice to some ideas as to how we humansa are capable of creating both beauty and meaning in our daily lives at the same time as he includes a nod toward the forces working against such a quest.

And if afterwards, you want to appreciate how far Huxley as come as a thinker, (and if you like his sense of humor, which I adore) try to get ahold of his first novel, Crome Yellow.

The dystopian future of George Orwell’s “1984” gets a lot of attention, but Orwell’s vision of a rigid, totalitarian state was rooted firmly in the WWII / Cold War era. We can, to a certain extent, congratulate ourselves on having avoided that fate.

By contrast, Aldous Huxley’s vision of a world in which the government monitors everybody and everything, manipulates the media, and encourages sexual permissiveness in order to distract people from the emptiness of their lives seems rather uncomfortably familiar.

And don’t forget about “Soma,” Huxley’s spot-on version of the then-yet-to-be-invented antidepressant family of pharmaceuticals!

People may prefer to read “1984,” because it’s different enough from our lives to be an entertaining read. “Brave New World” is worth reading because it’s NOT so different from lives.

“An Alpha-decanted, Alpha-conditioned man would go mad if he had to do Epsilon Semi-moron work– go mad or start smashing things up. Alphas can be completely socialized– but only on condition that you make them do Alpha work. Only an Epsilon can be expected to make Epsilon sacrifices, fo rth egood reason that for him they aren’t sacrifices; they’re the line of least resistance. His conditioning has laid down rails along which he’s got to run. He can’t help himself; he’s foredoomed. Even after decanting he’s still inside a bottle– an invisible bottle of infantile and embryonic fixations. Each one of us, of course,” the Controller meditatively continued, goes through life inside a bottle. But if we happen to be Alphas, our bottles are, relatively speaking, enormous. We should suffer acutely if we were confined to a narrower space.”

“But that’s the price we have to pay for stability. You’ve got to choose between happiness and what people used to call high art. We’ve sacrificed the high art. We have the feelies and the scent organ instead.”