On the Reservation, people live in the “old way,” their lives replete with religion, disease, traditional tribal hierarchies, primitive technology, and certain freedoms not available to members of Utopia. The story focuses on Bernard Marx, a misfit Alpha from London who takes a vacation to a “Savage Reservation” in America. Henry Ford has become a deity of consumerism, and a handful of World Controllers (essentially philosopher kings) make all the important decisions for global society. Disease and old age have been eradicated, and the practices of monogamy and parenthood have been abolished in favor of frequent, safe sex with as many partners as one likes. Each caste is conditioned from infancy to happily play its part in ensuring social stability, and everyone routinely takes a pacifying, euphoria drug called soma to fend off bad feelings when they arise. The Epsilons are barely-human automata good only for simplistic manual labor, whereas Alphas are endowed with superhuman intelligence, beauty and strength. These individuals are raised by the State to occupy assigned positions in a strict caste system of five classes: Epsilons, Deltas, Gammas, Betas, and Alphas. Half a millennium from now, humans are manufactured in factories using advanced genetic engineering.

I’ve not read Brave New World Revisited, but the text of Huxley’s Foreword in this edition clearly indicates that he regards his Utopia as horrific (xvii). I will use the rest of this review to explain my position. It would appear that Huxley accomplished something quite rare and special with this work, which was to write one kind of thoughtful and topical book that, over time, would become a very different yet still thoughtful and topical book. This tension derives from my delightful inability to sort out whether there is a utopia hiding in Huxley’s dystopia, or a dystopia hiding in his utopia. From a 21st-century vantage point, the novel can be understood as both an utter failure as well as a tremendous success. This visit to Brave New World reminded me why it has remained an enduring and worthy part of our literary pantheon. Almost a century after its original publication, this captivating novel still has much to offer contemporary readers. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New Worldhas long been one of my very favorite works of speculative fiction, so when I heard this exceptional debate from Intelligence Squared toward the end of last year, I couldn’t resist returning once again to the land of soma orgies, hypnopaedic conditioning, and Centrifugal Bumble-puppy.

Take a trip with soma brave new world