strongbravestrong new world - overview - george woodcock：strongbravestrong新世界-概述-乔治伍德科克.pdf

OVERVIEW OVERVIEW OVERVIEWOVERVIEW CRITIC CRITIC:: George Woodcock George Woodcock CRITICCRITIC:: George WoodcockGeorge Woodcock Brave New World Brave New World Brave New WorldBrave New World Aldous Huxley was fascinated throughout his career by the idea of Utopia, the society in which change has settled down into a stasis of perfection. In his last novel, Island, he saw it as a benign perfection in a peaceful ecologically aware society guided by mystics. However, in his much better-known Brave New World , published 3 decades before in 1932, he saw it as a malign society controlled by technocrats whose aim is complete happiness, but in whose hands happiness is equated with the total absence of freedom. Brave New World is both a fantasy about the future a satire on present trends. In both roles, it carries conviction because of the expert convincing handling of detail to create a plausible world. It is England 600 years ahead, Huxley has been wise enough not to change it beyond recognition. It is the country we know a different world, this paradox sustains our attention. The society of the future is a parody of Plato’s republic, with a small group of World Controllers ruling 5 castes of subjects, divided not merely socially but biologically, since they have been conditioned to their future tasks in the bottles where they were bred. To preserve happiness, the World Controllers discard everything that might provoke either thought or passion. The world’s stable now [says Mustapha Mond, Controller for England]. People are happy; they get what they want, they never want what they can’t get. They’re well off; they’re sa