Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.īut we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another-slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves.
Here’s the money quote, expanded from what’s in the movie: It’s a famous comparison of the prophetic insights of Orwell’s 1984 with that of Huxley’s Brave New World and it’s from the foreword to Neil Postman’s 1985 book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. There’s one that I had heard before, probably via my dad. In any case, within the first few minutes there are a couple quotations that sparked my interest. I finally got around to starting it, but haven’t yet finished it. Just so that you know, 1984 is my favorite book.A good friend of mine has been pestering me to watch Boys State (2020) on Apple TV for weeks. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain.In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.
Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. This is from Wikipedia about the differences between these two seminal work of dystopian literature. in 1984 there is an all engrossing pessimism, the other has a overwhelming consumerist nihilism. in 1984 it is oppression that makes people forgo rights, in other it is pleasure that makes them do it. in Brave New World there was no truth, it's all make belief. while 1984 was about rewriting the truth. while 1984 had all its frugality, the Brave New World instead was full of unbridled excesses. But yet the two books are so so different in the way they showcase this alienation. I am these days reading Huxley's "Brave New World", I found that there are unmistakable similarities with Orwell's 1984, in the sense of stark and futuristic London, where there is an all powerful and all knowing authority and everyone else is just a empty face walking down the street or working in the offices.
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