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Who wrote a work about a brave new world. Brave New World text

Utopias turned out to be much more feasible than previously thought. And now there is another painful question, how to avoid their final implementation... Utopias are feasible... Life is moving towards utopias. And, perhaps, a new century of dreams of the intelligentsia and the cultural layer is opening on how to avoid utopias, how to return to a non-utopian society, to a less “perfect” and freer society.

Nikolay Berdyaev

Reprinted with permission from The Estate of Aldous Huxley and the Reece Halsey Agency, The Fielding Agency and Andrew Nurnberg.

Chapter first

The gray, squat building is only thirty-four floors. Above the main entrance is the inscription: “CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND EDUCATIONAL CENTER”, and on the heraldic shield is the motto of the World State: “COMMUNITY, SAMEENESS, STABILITY”.

The huge hall on the ground floor faces north, like an art studio. It’s summer outside, the room is tropically hot, but the winter-like cold and watery light that greedily flows through these windows in search of picturesquely draped mannequins or nudes, albeit faded and chilly-pimply, and finds only nickel, glass, cold shiny laboratory porcelain. Winter meets winter. The lab technicians' lab coats are white, and their hands are wearing gloves made of whitish, corpse-colored rubber. The light is frozen, dead, ghostly. Only on the yellow tubes of microscopes does it seem to be juicy, borrowing a living yellowness - as if it were spreading butter on these polished tubes, standing in a long line on the work tables.

“Here we have a Fertilization Hall,” said the Director of the Hatchery and Educational Center, opening the door.

Bent over their microscopes, three hundred fertilizers were immersed in an almost lifeless silence, except for the occasional purr of an absent minded voice or a whistle to themselves in detached concentration. On the heels of the Director, timidly and not without servility, followed a flock of newly arrived students, young, pink and fledgling. Each chick had a notebook with him, and as soon as the great man opened his mouth, the students began to scribble furiously with pencils. From wise lips - first hand. It's not every day that you have such a privilege and honor. The director of the Central London Computing Center considered it his constant duty to personally guide new students through the halls and departments. “To give you a general idea,” he explained the purpose of the walkthrough. For, of course, at least some kind of general idea must be given - in order for things to be done with understanding - but given only in a minimal dose, otherwise they will not turn out to be good and happy members of society. After all, as everyone knows, if you want to be happy and virtuous, do not generalize, but stick to narrow particulars; general ideas are a necessary intellectual evil. It is not philosophers, but stamp collectors and frame cutters who form the backbone of society.

“Tomorrow,” he added, smiling at them affectionately and a little menacingly, “it will be time to get down to serious work. You won't have time for generalizations. For now..."

In the meantime, it has been a great honor. From wise lips and straight into notebooks. The youngsters scribbled like crazy.

Tall, lean, but not at all stooped, the Director entered the hall. The Director had a long chin, large teeth protruded slightly from under fresh, full lips. Is he old or young? Is he thirty years old? Fifty? Fifty five? It was difficult to say. Yes, this question did not arise for you; Now, in the 632nd year of the era of stability, the Ford Era, such questions did not come to mind.

“Let’s start over,” said the Director, and the most zealous youths immediately recorded: “Let’s start over.” “Here,” he pointed with his hand, “we have incubators.” – He opened the heat-tight door, and rows of numbered test tubes appeared - racks after racks, racks after racks. – A week’s batch of eggs. They are stored,” he continued, “at thirty-seven degrees; As for male gametes,” here he opened another door, “they must be stored at thirty-five. The temperature of the blood would render them infertile. (If you cover a sheep with cotton wool, you won’t get offspring.)

And, without leaving his place, he began a brief summary of the modern fertilization process - and the pencils kept running around, scribbling illegibly, on the paper; he began, of course, with a surgical overture to the process - with an operation “which is undertaken voluntarily, for the benefit of the Society, not to mention a reward equal to half a year’s salary”; then he touched upon the method by which the vitality of the excised ovary is preserved and the productivity developed; spoke about the optimal temperature, viscosity, salt content; about the nutrient liquid in which separated and matured eggs are stored; and, leading his charges to the work tables, he clearly introduced how this liquid is collected from test tubes; how they release drop after drop onto specially heated microscope slides; how the eggs in each drop are checked for defects, counted and placed in a porous egg receptacle; how (he took the students further and let them watch this too) the egg receiver is immersed in a warm broth with free-swimming sperm, the concentration of which, he emphasized, should be no lower than one hundred thousand per milliliter; and how after ten minutes the receiver is removed from the broth and the contents are examined again; how, if not all the eggs were fertilized, the vessel is immersed again, and if necessary, then a third time; how fertilized eggs are returned to the incubators, and there the alphas and betas remain until capping, and the gammas, deltas and epsilons, after thirty-six hours, travel again from the shelves for processing according to the Bokanovsky method.

“According to the Bokanovsky method,” the Director repeated, and the students underlined these words in their notebooks.

One egg, one embryo, one adult - this is the scheme of natural development. An egg subjected to bokanovskization will proliferate – budding. It will produce from eight to ninety-six buds, and each bud will develop into a fully formed embryo, and each embryo into an adult of normal size. And we get ninety-six people, where before only one grew up. Progress!

“The egg is budding,” the pencils scribbled.

He pointed to the right. A conveyor belt carrying a whole battery of test tubes moved very slowly into a large metal box, and from the other side of the box a battery, already processed, crawled out. The cars hummed quietly. Processing a rack with test tubes takes eight minutes, the Director said. Eight minutes of hard X-ray irradiation is, perhaps, the limit for eggs. Some cannot stand it and die; of the rest, the most persistent are divided in two; most produce four buds; some even eight; all eggs are then returned to incubators where the buds begin to develop; then, after two days, they are suddenly cooled, inhibiting growth. In response, they proliferate again - each kidney produces two, four, eight new buds - and then they are almost killed with alcohol; as a result, they bud again, for the third time, after which they are allowed to develop quietly, because further suppression of growth leads, as a rule, to death. So, from one initial egg we have anything from eight to ninety-six embryos - you must agree, the improvement of the natural process is fantastic. Moreover, these are identical, identical twins - and not pitiful twins or triplets, as in the old viviparous times, when an egg, by pure chance, occasionally divided, but dozens of twins.

“Dozens,” repeated the Director, opening his arms wide, as if bestowing grace. - Dozens and dozens.

“Brave New World” is a satirical, dystopian work by Aldous Huxley, written in 1932. The action of the novel takes place in a city of the distant future - in the 26th century of 2541. The world society lives in a single state and is a consumer society. Moreover, consumption has been elevated to a cult and, in principle, it can be called the very meaning of human existence.

In the world of Aldous Huxley, people are raised in special hatcheries using the method of biological unification (Bokanovskization method). During development, embryos are divided into five main castes, which make up society. Each caste has different mental and physical abilities. For example, for embryos of the most primitive caste, “Epsilons” at a certain point in development reduce the oxygen supply, as a result, their mental abilities and physical development are qualitatively lower than representatives of other castes. This was created for the purpose of forming strata () in society. People are physiologically and psychologically “programmed” in advance to perform a certain type of work. To prevent the caste system from falling apart, with the help of hypnopaedia (a method of learning while sleeping), people develop contempt for the lower caste, love for the higher caste, and pride for their own. The vast majority of emerging psychological problems of society are solved with the help of a narcotic drug, which in the novel is called soma.

There is no family or marriage in such a society. Moreover, the terminology and behavior inherent in these institutions are considered indecent and condemned. For example, the words “mother” and “father” are interpreted as one of the dirtiest curses. In a consumer society, the cult of sex prevails, there are no sublime feelings, and having a permanent partner is considered extremely indecent...

We will not touch on the artistic component of the work. A sane person would have a negative attitude towards the society described by Aldous Huxley. Why? This system ignores the natural component of man. In essence, a herd of ultra-modern slaves is described, moving according to the program and desire of the shepherd, who, moreover, intervened in genetics. From a long-term perspective, such a society has no future, not to mention the prospects for evolutionary development. More likely is the accumulation of genetic errors and, as a result, complete degeneration after just a few generations. After all, human life has at least one goal - the development of genetically determined potential. What is the potential of a slave pre-programmed at the genetic level?

Is it possible to draw parallels between the destructive society from the book “Brave New World” and a real-life society? Undoubtedly! If you carefully study modern ones and apply them to real-life systems (cinema, television, media, etc.), you will come to not very rosy conclusions. Society has a vector of direction. And what does it stem from? The same “entertainment factory” is not neutral. Cinema, music, television, information on the Internet, etc. show how society should work, offering the viewer (primarily the younger generation) a model of behavior in it...

Shortly before his death, on March 20, 1962, Aldous Huxley spoke in Berkeley and admitted that his best-selling book, Brave New World, was based not on fiction, but on what the “elite” actually planned to accomplish:

...And here I would like to make a brief comparison of the parable “Brave New World” with another parable, published much later - a book by George Orwell called “1984”. I am inclined to think that scientific dictatorships of the future will take place in many parts of the world and will most likely be closer to the model of my book than to the model of Orwell's “1984” and will be closer not because of the humanitarian considerations of scientific dictators, but simply because The Brave New World model is much more rational than the other. But if you can get people to agree to a state of affairs, to the circumstances of their lives, to a state of slavery... In general, it seems to me that the root cause of the fundamental changes that we are facing today is precisely the fact that we are in the process of developing a whole range of methods , which will allow the controlling oligarchy, which has always existed and presumably will exist, to make people, in fact, love their slavery. People can be made to enjoy states of affairs that, by the most modest standard, they should not enjoy. And these methods, in my understanding, are simply a detailed refinement of the older methods of terror, because they already combine the methods of terror with the methods of approval. In general, there are a large number of different methods. There is, for example, a pharmacological method and this is what I talked about in my book. And as a result, you can imagine a euphoria that makes people completely happy, even in the most disgusting circumstances that surround them. And I am sure that such things are possible...

“Brave New World.” Review of Aldous Huxley's book

PREFACE.

Prolonged self-reproach, according to the consensus of all moralists, is the most undesirable activity. Having acted badly, repent, make amends as much as you can, and aim yourself to do better next time. Under no circumstances should you indulge in endless grief over your sin. Floundering in shit is not the best way to cleanse yourself.

Art also has its own ethical rules, and many of them are identical or, in any case, similar to the rules of everyday morality. For example, endlessly repenting of both behavioral sins and literary sins is equally of little use. Omissions should be looked for and, having found and acknowledged, if possible, not repeat them in the future. But endlessly poring over the flaws of twenty years ago, using patches to bring old work to perfection that was not achieved initially, in adulthood trying to correct the mistakes made and bequeathed to you by the other person you were in your youth is, of course, an empty and vain undertaking. That is why this newly published Brave New World is no different from the previous one. Its defects as a work of art are significant; but in order to correct them, I would have to rewrite the thing again - and in the process of this correspondence, as a person who has aged and become Other, I would probably have rid the book not only of some of its shortcomings, but also of the advantages that the book has . And therefore, having overcome the temptation to wallow in literary sorrows, I prefer to leave everything as it was and focus my thoughts on something else.

It is worth mentioning, however, at least the most serious defect of the book, which is the following. The savage is offered only a choice between a crazy life in Utopia and a primitive life in an Indian village, more human in some respects, but in others hardly less strange and abnormal. When I wrote this book, the idea that people are given free will to choose between two types of madness - this idea seemed funny to me and, quite possibly, true. To enhance the effect, however, I allowed the Savage’s speeches to often sound more reasonable than what fits with his upbringing among adherents of a religion that is a cult of fertility mixed with a ferocious cult of penitente. Even the Savage’s acquaintance with the works of Shakespeare is incapable of justifying such reasonableness of speech in real life. In the finale, he throws my sanity away; the Indian cult takes possession of him again, and he, in despair, ends in frenzied self-flagellation and suicide. Such was the deplorable end of this parable - as it was necessary to prove to the mocking skeptic-aesthete, which was then the author of the book.

Today I no longer strive to prove the unattainability of sanity. On the contrary, although I am now sadly aware that in the past it was very rare, I am convinced that it can be achieved, and I would like to see more sanity around. For this conviction and desire, expressed in several recent books, and most importantly, for the fact that I compiled an anthology of statements by sensible people about sanity and about the ways to achieve it, I received an award: a famous scientific critic assessed me as a sad symptom of the collapse of the intelligentsia in this time crisis. This should apparently be understood in such a way that the professor himself and his colleagues are a joyful symptom of success. The benefactors of humanity should be honored and immortalized. Let us erect a Pantheon for the professoriate. Let’s build it on the ashes of one of the bombed cities of Europe or Japan, and above the entrance to the tomb I would inscribe simple words in two-meter letters: “Dedicated to the memory of the learned educators of the planet. Si monumentum requiris circumspice.

But let's return to the topic of the future... If I were to rewrite the book now, I would offer the Savage a third option.

Between the utopian and primitive extremes would lie the possibility of sanity for me - a possibility, partly already realized in the community of exiles and fugitives from the Brave New World living within the boundaries of the Reservation. In this community, the economy would be conducted in the spirit of decentralism and Henry George, politics - in the spirit of Kropotkin and cooperativism. Science and technology would be applied according to the principle of “the Sabbath for man, and not man for the Sabbath,” that is, they would adapt to man, and not adapt and enslave him (as in the current world, and even more so in the Brave New World). Religion would be a conscious and intelligent striving towards the Ultimate Goal of humanity, towards the unifying knowledge of the immanent Tao or Logos, the transcendental Deity or Brahman. And the dominant philosophy would be a version of Higher Utilitarianism, in which the principle of Greatest Happiness would recede into the background before the principle of the Ultimate Goal - so that in every life situation the first question would be posed and decided: “How will this consideration or action help (or hinder) to me and the greatest possible number of other individuals in achieving the Ultimate Goal of humanity?

Raised among primitive people, the Savage (in this hypothetical new version of the novel), before being transported to Utopia, would have the opportunity to become directly acquainted with the nature of a society consisting of freely cooperating individuals dedicated to the implementation of sanity. Remade in this way, Brave New World would have acquired artistic and (if I may use such a lofty word in relation to the novel) philosophical completeness, which in its current form it clearly lacks.

But Brave New World is a book about the future, and, whatever its artistic or philosophical qualities, a book about the future can interest us only if the predictions it contains are likely to come true. From the current point in modern history - after fifteen years of our further sliding down its inclined plane - do those predictions look justified? Are the predictions made in 1931 confirmed or refuted by the bitter events that have occurred since then?

One major omission immediately stands out. Brave New World never mentions the fission of the atomic nucleus. And this, in essence, is quite strange, because the possibilities of atomic energy became a popular topic of conversation long before the book was written. My old friend, Robert Nichols, even wrote a successful play about it, and I remember that I myself mentioned it briefly in a novel published in the late twenties. So, I repeat, it seems very strange that in the seventh century of the Ford era, rockets and helicopters do not run on nuclear fuel. Although this omission is unforgivable, it is, in any case, easily explainable. The theme of the book is not the progress of science itself, but how this progress affects human personality. The victories of physics, chemistry, and technology are silently accepted there as a matter of course. Only those scientific successes, those future research in the field of biology, physiology and psychology, the results of which are directly applied to people, are specifically depicted. Life can be radically changed in its quality only through the life sciences. The sciences of matter, used in a certain way, are capable of destroying life or making it extremely complex and painful; but only as tools in the hands of biologists and psychologists can they modify the natural forms and manifestations of life. The liberation of atomic energy means a great revolution in the history of mankind, but not the deepest and final one (unless we blow ourselves up, blow ourselves to pieces, thereby putting an end to history).

A truly revolutionary revolution can be carried out not in the external world, but only in the soul and body of a person. Living during the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade, as might be expected, used this theory of revolutions to give an outward rationality to his brand of madness. Robespierre carried out the most superficial revolution - political. Going somewhat deeper, Babeuf tried to bring about an economic revolution. Sade considered himself the apostle of a truly revolutionary revolution, going beyond politics and economics, - a revolution within every man, every woman and every child, whose bodies would henceforth become common sexual property, and whose souls would be purged of all natural decency, of all the prohibitions of traditional civilization learned so hard. It is clear that there is no indispensable or inevitable connection between Sade's teachings and a truly revolutionary revolution. Sade was mad, and the revolution he conceived had as its conscious or semi-conscious goal universal chaos and destruction. Even if those who control the Brave New World cannot be called reasonable (in the absolute, so to speak, sense of the word); but they are not madmen, and their goal is not anarchy, but social stability. It is precisely in order to achieve stability that they carry out by scientific means the last, intrapersonal, truly revolutionary revolution.

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

The English writer Aldous Huxley was one of the first to ask the question of paying for his happy life. What price can a person pay for happiness? Professionals have been thinking about the conclusions brought by the writer and the interpretations of these conclusions for more than 70 years.

Is it possible to build a society without freedom of choice and action? In the world that Huxley depicts, for well-being it is necessary to eliminate all conceivable troubles - social injustice, wars, poverty, envy and jealousy, unhappy love, illness, drama of parents and children, old age and fear of death, creativity and art. In general, everything that is commonly called life. In exchange, you will have to give up “a mere trifle” - freedom: freedom to dispose of yourself, freedom of choice, freedom to love, freedom of creative, social and intellectual activity.

The state created by Huxley is ruled by a technocracy. And we are not just talking about the world of modern fifty-story buildings, flying cars and high technology. After a brutal and bloody nine-year war between the new and old worlds, the Ford Era began. It is no coincidence that the writer named his world after the famous American engineer, founder of the Ford Motor Company - Henry Ford. He is known to many for being the first to use an industrial conveyor for the continuous production of cars. In addition, his successes in the economic sphere gave birth to such a complex political economic trend as Fordism.

In Huxley's world, chronology is calculated from the year of production of the Ford T car model. There is both a respectful address, “his fordishness,” and abuse—“ford with him,” “ford knows him.” Ford is the name of the God of this utopia. It is no coincidence that after the war, the tops of crosses in churches were sawed off to form the letter “T”. It is also customary to be baptized in a “T” shape.

From the words of one of the chief rulers of this world, Mustafa Mond, we learn that Ford and Freud for the inhabitants are one and the same person. The German psychologist, the founder of Huxley's psychoanalysis, also turns out to be “to blame” for the structure of the new world. First of all, development in utopia was achieved by his identification of specific phases of psychosexual personality development and the creation of the theory of the Oedipus complex. The destruction of the institution of the family is the merit of Freud's teachings, the production of clones is the “work of the hands” of Ford.

The future is a place where all living things are prohibited. In the future, everything is created artificially, and people are no longer viviparous. Or rather, such a possibility remains, but is strictly prohibited. Eggs fertilized artificially are grown in special hatcheries. This process is called "ectogenesis" Aldous Huxley "Brave New World" Ed. AST, 2006, p. 157. Previously, the technology invented by certain Pfitzner and Kawaguchi was impossible to apply, because morality and religion interfered, in particular, the book talks about Christian prohibitions. But now there are no restraining circumstances, people are produced according to plan: how many individuals of one type or another are needed by society at a given moment, that many will be created. First, the embryos are kept in certain conditions, then they are born from glass bottles - this is called Uncorking. However, they cannot be called completely identical: their appearance is slightly different, there are names, not serial numbers of the embryos.

Additionally, there are five different castes: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. In this classification, alphas are first-class people, mental workers, and epsilons are people of the lower caste, capable only of monotonous physical labor. Each class has its own uniform: Alphas wear gray, Betas wear red, Gammas wear green, Deltas wear khaki, and Epsilons wear black.

Babies are raised and trained differently, but each is necessarily instilled with reverence for the higher caste and contempt for the lower castes. They grow up in state training centers, like some kind of experimental rodents: “The nannies ran to carry out the order and returned two minutes later; each wheeled a tall cart, four mesh stories high, loaded with eight-month-old babies, like two peas in a pod.” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006, p. 163.

Infants are also trained using hypnopaedia. While sleeping, they are played recordings with the dogmas of a brave new world and the norms of behavior of a particular caste. Therefore, everyone knows the hypopedic sayings from childhood: “Everyone belongs to everyone,” “Somy grams - and there are no dramas,” “Cleanliness is the key to grace.” Also, little “creatures” are taught sexual promiscuity from childhood. In Huxley's world, it is shameful and wrong to date just one person. This is condemnable. Both men and women change partners all the time. Thus, they try to avoid any manifestations of feelings of affection and love.

“Stability, resilience, strength. Without a stable society, civilization is unthinkable. And a stable society is unthinkable without a stable member of society” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006 p. 178, says CEO Mond.

The main thing, according to the builders of utopia, is guaranteed happiness, in this case, the comfort that science can create.

The secret of an eternal utopia is simple - a person is prepared for it in an embryonic state. The personnel forge is a system of incubators where representatives of different strata of society are raised and taught social roles. And most importantly, no one will ever express dissatisfaction with their position in society. In addition, any unpleasant situation, any stress can be solved by taking a special drug - soma - which, depending on the dosage, allows you to forget any problems.

It must be said that in Huxley’s dystopian world, all “happy babies” are far from equal in their slavery. If the “brave new world” cannot provide everyone with jobs of equal qualifications, then “harmony” between man and society is achieved through the deliberate destruction in man of all those intellectual and emotional predispositions: this means drying out the brains of future workers and instilling in them a hatred of flowers and books through electric shock. To one degree or another, all the inhabitants of the “brave new world” are not free from “adaptation” - from “alpha” to “epsilon”, and the meaning of this hierarchy is contained in the words of the Chief, which he says at the end of the novel: “ A society entirely consisting of alphas will certainly be unstable and unhappy. Imagine a factory staffed by alphas, that is, different and varied individuals who have good heredity and, by their nature, are capable - within certain limits - of free choice and responsible decisions. Alphas can be quite good members of society, but only on the condition that they do the work of alphas. Only from epsilon can one demand sacrifices associated with the work of epsilon - for the simple reason that for him these are not sacrifices, but the line of least resistance, the usual path of life... Of course, each of us spends his life in a bottle. But if we happen to be alphas, then our bottles are enormous in size compared to the bottles of the lower castes.” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006 293-294.

Alphas do not rule this world, they are happy in their lack of freedom. True, genetic failures make it possible to think “beyond the boundaries.” Like, for example, the main character - Bernard Marx. Let us remember that he does not fully understand what he is striving for, but his striving is already an impulse, this is the desire of a free person. And if there were no such aspiration, there would be no hero.

In the brave new world, there are certain people who understand what is happening, the so-called “rulers of the world.” The novel introduces one of them - Mustapha Mond. Naturally, he knows much more than his subjects. He is able to appreciate a subtle thought, a bold idea or a revolutionary project.

Another layer of people who are free but do not understand what is happening are savages. They live on reservations, and their morals, their gods, their understanding of the world have remained at the same level. They are free to think, but not free physically. This is the conflict of dystopia - the “savage” sees this new, marvelous world and cannot accept its cliches, its monotony, its flow. Passions are not alien to him, feelings are not alien to him, but he does not need progress.

During a propaganda conversation with a savage, the manager explains that he can break the rules, because he sets the laws. Economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek once said: “The higher the mental abilities and level of education of individuals, the more sharply their tastes and views differ and the less likely they are to unanimously accept any particular hierarchy of values.” Freedom Institute Moscow Libertarium, Chapter VII "Who wins?" http://www.libertarium.ru/l_lib_road_viii. Thus, for the society of the future, a program is needed, a plan is needed, but not individuality. This is confirmed by the main ideas presented in utopia. That's why you need to create cliches, not individuals (we're talking about children).

First of all, it is a view of history as an unnecessary legacy. Everything that was achieved before Ford (the new God) has been crossed out. This doesn't exist. In Orwell's 1984, history was also mercilessly destroyed. A person does not need to know the mistakes of the past in order to build a utopia.

The second point is the rejection of the social institution of the family. In this world, the words “mother” and “father” have become synonymous with obscenities: “our Lord Freud (Ford) was the first to reveal the disastrous dangers of family life...” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006, p. 175. It is the family, it is the close environment that shapes a person as a person. But she is no longer there, so the goal has been achieved and there are clones.

And third, the destruction of art and science: “We have to pay this price for stability. I had to choose between happiness and what was once called high art. We sacrificed high art. We keep science in blinders. Of course, the truth suffers from this. But happiness flourishes. And nothing is given for free. You have to pay for happiness” Aldous Huxley “Brave New World” Ed. AST, 2006, pp.

Huxley's path to utopia is this. Society will be forced to be happy, but will not know about it. Their “happiness in vitro” is unshakable. And the last dumbfounded savages are left to vegetate in their reservations, because even a not very educated, but sensible person is simply not able to accept such a world.

dystopian novel Huxley Orwell

The title contains a line from the tragicomedy:

Oh miracle! What a multitude of beautiful faces! How beautiful the human race is! And how good
That new world where there are such people!

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Plot

The novel takes place in London in the distant future (in the 26th century of the Christian era, namely in 2541). People all over the Earth live in a single state, whose society is a consumer society. A new chronology begins - the T era - with the advent of the Ford T. Consumption has been elevated to a cult, the symbol of the consumer god is Henry Ford, and instead of the sign of the cross, people “sign themselves with the sign T.”

According to the plot, people are not born naturally, but are raised in bottles in special factories - hatcheries. At the stage of embryonic development, they are divided into five castes, differing in mental and physical abilities - from the “alphas”, which have maximum development, to the most primitive “epsilons”. People of lower castes are raised using the Bokanovskization method (budding a zygote with the aim of dividing it multiple times and producing identical twins). To maintain the caste system of society, through hypnopaedia, people are instilled with pride in belonging to their caste, respect for the higher caste and contempt for the lower castes, as well as the values of society and the basis of behavior in it. Due to the technological development of society, a significant part of the work can be performed by machines and is transferred to people only to occupy their free time. People solve most psychological problems with the help of a harmless drug - soma. Also, people often express themselves with advertising slogans and hypnopedic attitudes, for example: “Sam gram - and no drama!”, “Better to repair the old, it’s better to buy new,” “Cleanliness is the key to prosperity,” “A, be, tse, vitamin D is fat.” in cod liver, and cod in water.”

The institution of marriage in the society described in the novel does not exist, and, moreover, the very presence of a permanent sexual partner is considered indecent, and the words “father” and “mother” are considered rude curses (and if a shade of humor and condescension is mixed with the word “father”, then “mother”, in connection with artificial cultivation in flasks, is perhaps the dirtiest curse). The book describes the lives of various people who cannot fit into this society.

The heroine of the novel, Lenina Crown, is a nurse working on a human production line, a member of the beta caste (plus or minus, not said). She is related to Henry Foster. But friend Fanny Crown insists that Lenina stick to the order of things and be with other men. Lenina admits that she liked Bernard Marx.

Bernard Marx is an alpha plus, a specialist in hypnopedia, different from people of his caste both externally and psychologically: short in stature, withdrawn and spends most of his time alone, which is why he has a bad reputation. There are rumors about him that “when he was in the bottle, someone made a mistake - they thought he was a gamma and poured alcohol into his blood substitute. That’s why he looks frail.” He is friends with Helmholtz Watson, a lecturer-teacher at the institute’s department of creativity, with whom they shared a common trait - awareness of their individuality.

Lenina and Bernard fly to an Indian reservation for the weekend, where they meet John, nicknamed the Savage, a white youth born naturally; He is the son of the director of the educational center where they both work, and Linda, now a degraded alcoholic, despised by everyone among the Indians, and once the “beta minus” from the educational center. Linda and John are transported to London, where John becomes a sensation among high society, and Linda is hospitalized, where she spends the rest of her life in solitary rest and subsequently dies.

John, in love with Lenina, has a hard time taking the death of his mother. The young man loves Lenina with a sublime love that is inappropriate in society, not daring to confess to her, “submissive to vows that were never spoken.” She is sincerely perplexed - especially since her friends ask her which of the Savages is her lover. Lenina tries to seduce John, but he calls her a whore and runs away.

John's mental breakdown is further intensified by the death of his mother; he tries to explain concepts such as beauty, death, and freedom to workers from the lower Delta caste. Helmholtz and Bernard try to help him, as a result of which all three are arrested.

In the office of the Chief Executive of Western Europe, Mustapha Mond - one of the ten who represent real power in the world - a long conversation takes place. Mond openly admits his doubts about the “universal happiness society,” especially since he himself was once a gifted physicist. In this society, science, art, and religion are actually banned. One of the defenders and heralds of dystopia becomes, in fact, a mouthpiece for presenting the author’s views on religion and the economic structure of society.

As a result, Bernard is sent into exile in Iceland, and Helmholtz is sent to the Falkland Islands. Mond adds: “I almost envy you, you will be among the most interesting people whose individuality has developed to the point that they have become unsuitable for life in society.” And John becomes a hermit in an abandoned tower. In order to forget Lenina, he behaves unacceptable by the standards of a hedonistic society, where “upbringing makes everyone not only compassionate, but extremely disgusted.” For example, he arranges self-flagellation, which the reporter unwittingly witnesses. John becomes a sensation - for the second time. Seeing Lenina arrive, he breaks down, beats her with a whip, shouting about a harlot, as a result of which a mass orgy of sensuality begins among the crowd of onlookers, under the influence of the constant soma. Having come to his senses, John, unable to “choose between two types of madness,” commits suicide.

Caste system of society

The division into castes occurs even before birth. The Hatchery is responsible for raising people. Already in bottles, the embryos are divided into castes and instilled with certain inclinations towards one type of activity and, conversely, an aversion to another. Chemists develop resistance to lead, caustic soda, resins, and chlorine. Miners are instilled with a love of warmth. The lower castes are instilled with an aversion to books and a dislike for nature (while walking in nature, people do not consume anything - instead, it was decided to instill a love for country sports).

In the process of upbringing, people are instilled with love for their own caste, admiration for their superiors, and disdain for lower castes.

Higher castes:

Alpha - wear gray clothes. The most intellectually developed, taller than representatives of other castes. They perform the most highly qualified work. Managers, doctors, teachers.
Beta - wear red. Nurses, junior staff of the Hatchery.

The genetic material of the lower castes is taken from their own kind. After fertilization, the embryos undergo special treatment, as a result of which one zygote buds up to 96 times. This creates standard people. "Ninety-six identical twins working on ninety-six identical machines." Then the oxygen supply to the embryos is significantly reduced, causing the mental-physical level to decrease. Lower castes are shorter and have lower intelligence.

Gamma - wear green. Blue-collar jobs that require little intelligence.
Delta - wear khakis.
Epsilons wear black. Monkey-like half-cretins, as the author himself describes them. They don't know how to read and write. Elevator operators, unskilled workers.

Names and allusions

A number of names in the World State belonging to bottle-grown citizens can be associated with political and cultural figures who made major contributions to the bureaucratic, economic and technological systems of Huxley's time, and presumably also to those same systems in Brave New World: