Aldoux Huxley “Brave New World” Annotated Bibliography

Aeschliman, M.D. “Why Shakespeare Was Not a Relativist and Why It Matters Now.” _Journal of Education_ (Boston University) 180.3 (1998): 57-66. In “Brave New World”, Aldous Huxley’s increasingly significant orgy satire, he depicted the works of Shakespeare as the last repository of humanity (Aeschliman 57). Today self-reliance in the world of market capitalism has made human decency weaken (59). For Shakespeare this world of ‘self-reliant’ relativism and antinomian ‘enlightenment’ was lethal. As Aldous Huxley discerned, and showed in “Brave New World”, Shakespeare hated the world of liberated impulse for which Whitman would later evangelize (66).”

_Aldous Huxley Interview_. 2007, Film. .

Huxley talks how to control people by hypnotics and the future of man kind. Huxley also talks about controlling people by providing him or her with propaganda and then brainwashing him or her.

Aliprandini, Michael. “Aldous Huxley: Early Life and Works.” _Biography_ 2006. 1-2. Web. 19 Oct 2010. _Literary Reference Center._ EBSCO. 2010. Retrieved at Georgia Perimeter College. .

Aldous Huxley was born into a renowned English family in 1894. Huxley works were creative and in all he published 47 books during his career. But his single most famous book remains “Brave New World,” a combination of science fiction, politics, and satire that depicts a negative vision of what the future could hold. He set out to write about the social and intellectual climate change between the two world wars that were marked by major changes on an international scale. H.G. Wells, a contemporary man of Huxley’s time, wrote novels that explored the future from an optimistic viewpoint. Wells found Huxley’s negative view of science and technology to be troubling because of his writing’s about experiments in genetic engineering (Aliprandini 1-2).

Bloom, Harold, and Peter Firchow. “Satirical versus Futuristic Readings.” _Infobase Publishing_ 2004. Web. 18 Oct 2010. _Literary Reference Center_. EBSCO. 2010. Retrieved at Georgia Perimeter College. .

This article is intended to show that Huxley had no intention for this novel to be a satire of the future. The present is what matters most in “Brave New World”. Huxley only uses the lens of future time in order to discover the common failures of the present day. “Huxley once suggested that the theme of the novel is not the progression of new technology; it is the advancement of science as it affects human individuals and the possibilities it presents both small scope community and national government (Bloom).”

Bowering, Peter. Aldous Huxley: A Study of the Major Novels. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.

Peter Bowering devotes a chapter to “Brave New World” intended particularly to its themes of slavery and the limits of ones freedom. Any breaking of the societal motto of “Community, Identity, Stability” is regarded as a heinous offense (Bowering). Bowering also examines the future world- state which has complete control of people and the government claims to provide happiness to everyone.

Firchow, Peter. Aldous Huxley: Satirist and Novelist. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972.

Peter Firchow discusses “Brave New World” as a “dystopian” novel and considers it as a mocking parable model. Firchow talks about how extreme a persons’ utopia turns out which has caused society to lose all concept of “art, honor, religious beliefs, or anything that often defines culture.” The “utopia” has people with no “sympathy, no empathy, and this vision of a future is as chilling as any other on this list (Firchow).”

Huxley, Aldous. _Brave New World_. 1st ed. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1932. 1-259. Print.

Aldous Huxley warns the reader of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies as well as how bleak and dark ones future may perhaps hold. “Brave New World” portrays a futuristic society in which the individuals sacrificed for the state, science is used to control and subjugate, and all forms of art and history are outlawed. Huxley wrote the book as a dark satire. Furthermore, he sought to mock the concept people portrayed as a perfect society. At the end of the book, it features a “P.S., Insights, interviews & More…*”. One article talks about how the book is “too far ahead of its time!?” and a “majority of reviewers dismissed the novel when the book had first been published in 1932 (Huxley 1-259).”

Joyce, Michael, Prod. _Brave New World_. Dir. Libman, Leslie and Larry Williams.” Perf. Gallagher, Peter , Tim Guinee, Rya Kihlstedt, Sally Kirkland, and Leonard Nimoy. USA Networks Studios: 1988, Film. .

The movie tries to illustrate the problem of totalitarian control of Aldous Huxley’s book “Brave New World”. The movie is a about a society of people who have been bred in specific ways ranging from the “Alphas” to the “Deltas”. It’s a caste system of sorts, where the citizens of the Brave New World are also addicted to an intoxicating drug, “Soma”, which keeps him or her in a constant state of happiness. Audience of work can possibly indicate the need for one to a watch government control of people one day (Joyce).

Meckier, Jerome. “Debunking Our Ford: My Life and Work and _Brave New World_.” South Atlantic Quarterly 78, no. 2 (Autumn, 1979): 448-459.

Examines the relationship between Henry Ford’s autobiography and Huxley’s dystopia. Huxley was alarmed by the parts of the American culture that he thought Ford represented. Article was written so that the reader can distinguish a society that worships Henry Ford’s mass production (Meckier).

Murray, Nicholas. Aldous Huxley: A Biography. New York: St. Martin’s, 2003.

Murray’s biography is a wide-ranging survey of Huxley’s writing, his social, personal, and political life. The book is from Huxley’s early writings to his peace activism, from his close relations and friendships with Hollywood filmmakers and other intellectuals, to his fascination with spirituality and mysticism. Illustrations, bibliography, and index are listed as well. Murray also writes a summary and evaluation of the novel in chapter 3. He writes about the purpose of its themes and gives attention to the moral implications of the Savage (Murray). He is civilized in comparison to the brave new worlders, but he is also still the primitive being.