Originally posted by Ziff
It's the depiction of the perfect society...
All my essays for it are going to be based on that
Not sure if that will work particularly well. Brave New World is clearly intended as a
dystopia rather than a utopia.
Even the 'beneficial' elements of Huxley's construction (ie; Elimination of sickness, old age etc
are represented as having negative consequences, creating dehumanisation. As such, BNW is a warning of the future if changes are not made before it is too late (Heightened by the satirical elements, ie; intertextuality and irony). As Huxley wrote in 1931;
'It's a bad world, at the moment worse than usual. One has the impression of being in a lunatic asylum"
Remember that the London of the text is depicted as a society where paradoxically, although
everyone belongs to everyone, the populace becomes increasingly isolated from one another, and ultimately their own humanity. Their thoughts and emotions are quelled by technology and soma, creating an
endless holiday from reality. Stratification is rampant, and John The Savage's reactions are intended to mirror those of the responder,
I'd rather have no happiness at all than the false, lying happiness you have here. The natural environment is eliminated to create a sterile, absurd (orgy-porgy) metropolis... In short, a dystopia where the population is largely unaware of their own oppression. (Sorry to spell it out, but..)
Aldous Huxley's own conception of an utopic state may be seen in his last novel,
Island.