(Blog note: I'm trying to write more meaningful posts from here on out for the following reasons: to force me to think more about what I'm reading, to get a little writing practice, and just in case anyone else reads this blog in the future. Considering this, posts may not be in order of finishing, and may get edited a bunch - I haven't written non-technical pieces in a long time!)
This classic by Huxley was published in 1931. It's made multiple "best novels" lists and judging by my experience working at a bookstore, it must be typical reading for some college courses (we always had this book in stock, in higher quantities than many others in the same category). Surely it's well-studied and excessively analyzed by experts. My goal here is not academic, but to give an outline of how this casual reader experienced the novel.
Brave New World falls into the genre of dystopian novels since it describes a future world which Huxley must have assumed the reader would find undesirable, if not alarming. People live in a drug-soaked haze of total comfort, with no unmet desires. Originality, individuality, emotional attachment, frugality, and nature itself are among the things vocally despised by the citizens of this future London. The pleasure of sex has been severed from emotion and reproduction (which is taken care of in giant factories), and people are encouraged to have sex frequently and swap partners frequently. The baby factories are just the beginning of a mass-produced life cycle; dozens of identical humans are bred to perform their function perfectly, then conditioned chemically and through sleep-learning to be happily conformist. Even though higher-level persons are well aware of this conditioning, they do not fight it but rather embrace it.
Into this world comes John the Savage, who is found in the uncivilized zone by slightly rebellious Bernard and brought back to London. John's reaction to the society around him is the main focus of the second half of the book.
I think the main point of this book is to show us the future setting that Huxley envisioned. We often imagine how a catastrophic war or environmental disaster could bring an end to happiness as we know it, but there is more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. Huxley shows us how the complete opposite - lack of any struggle whatsoever - could also bring about our downfall.
Personally I didn't particularly enjoy reading this, although I truly wanted to because I liked the premise. The writing style just didn't click with me, it really felt like I was reading something for english class. If you want to read about depressing things happening in the future (here I am lumping together dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels) then I can attest to more enjoyable options.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Cryptonomicon by Stephenson
World War II spy activity, modern-day (ok, ten-year-old) tech excitement, wacky characters and some wacky math thrown in for good measure. This pretty much sums up Cryptonomicon, written by Neal Stephenson in 1999.
I have to say that for the first 20% or so of the book I wasn't particularly interested in any of the characters or plotlines. The beginning is a bit tedious for my taste*, and quite honestly most of the characters aren't immediately likable. It's more of an ensemble cast but perhaps the main character is Randy Waterhouse, an educated computer guy who lives in California with an academic girlfriend, some really geeky friends, and the kind of "whatever" attitude so common to middle-class white dudes living in California, and I never really connected with him. However, the episodic nature of this book (it flips back and forth between WWII and 1990s) made it easy reading for public transport so I stuck with it.
Later on I found myself almost missing my stops and reading at other times too. The plot is really cool and some of the characters are a lot more interesting than they first seem. Of course some plot twists are a little ridiculous but on the whole I found this to be an exciting and interesting read.
This is the first Stephenson novel I've read, and I am surprised how much I liked it. Usually, I can't stand long-winded authors and this man definitely likes to write long books. I'm planning to check out others of his in the future.
*I must fess up to uncomfortability when authors try to sneak popularized mathematics into otherwise fine novels - and I am a mathematical cryptographer so it's not a matter of understanding.
I have to say that for the first 20% or so of the book I wasn't particularly interested in any of the characters or plotlines. The beginning is a bit tedious for my taste*, and quite honestly most of the characters aren't immediately likable. It's more of an ensemble cast but perhaps the main character is Randy Waterhouse, an educated computer guy who lives in California with an academic girlfriend, some really geeky friends, and the kind of "whatever" attitude so common to middle-class white dudes living in California, and I never really connected with him. However, the episodic nature of this book (it flips back and forth between WWII and 1990s) made it easy reading for public transport so I stuck with it.
Later on I found myself almost missing my stops and reading at other times too. The plot is really cool and some of the characters are a lot more interesting than they first seem. Of course some plot twists are a little ridiculous but on the whole I found this to be an exciting and interesting read.
This is the first Stephenson novel I've read, and I am surprised how much I liked it. Usually, I can't stand long-winded authors and this man definitely likes to write long books. I'm planning to check out others of his in the future.
*I must fess up to uncomfortability when authors try to sneak popularized mathematics into otherwise fine novels - and I am a mathematical cryptographer so it's not a matter of understanding.
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