Deven Science
6/26/2017
This novel shows us a future world where people aren't born anymore, they're grown in a bottle, to the exact specifications that the society requires. Religion, marriage, monogamy, enterprise, war, and freedom have all been done away with, but what everyone gets in return is happiness. People may have a shallow society, but ignorance is bliss.
We see this world through the eyes of a "savage." A boy raised outside of the cities, with the morals and attitude of a man of the time in which this was written in the 30s. We're supposed to marvel with him at the cold, vapid nature of this future society. Here's the problem: I would rather live in that shallow world than the one that our "savage" wants to build. He was a whiny little punk, that absolutely cannot see other people's point of views, or even empathize with them. He is a bully, abusive, and feels that things can only happen one way. The "right" way. He wants God. He wants pain. He wants a woman that will grovel and live for only him. Very immature. And he is young, which may account for some of that. And he was abused and bullied, but a better man would have stopped that cycle.
Really it comes down to this: I didn't like a single character, had nothing to latch onto, and rolled my eyes several times that there was not a single person that used that illusive thing called logic.
I know that people are shocked when you don't love a classic. You're supposed to love this novel!! But no, I didn't enjoy myself, and it was a bit of a slog to get through.