Aldous Huxley -Brave New World

I start reading this text now. I read it (for various reasons) in Spanish. Maybe I’m wrong but I found this version under my hands.

I had never heard of this author in my past as a reader. I found it first mentioned thanks to the philosopher Katherine Hayles.

I had noticed it somewhere. Now is the time to get to know him.

“Un mundo feliz” looks to have an interesting story (see in Wikipedia):

According to American Library Association, Brave New World has frequently been banned and challenged in the United States due to insensitivity, offensive language, nudity, racism, conflict with a religious viewpoint, and being sexually explicit.

The text is descriptive. The director’s visit to the institute from the moment of conception to the suggestive phases becomes not only a description of spaces and environments but also of the adopted vision of the future.

The past is ridiculed.
Mental conditioning is brought to levels of planned control. Sexuality and drugs are forms of crowd control…

The reality we currently live in seems like the beginning of reading the book….which describes the upcoming future.

The introduction to the II edition of the book becomes an excellent source for interpreting the possibilities we still have: either letting the future flow mechanically -as expected - or acting for a creative and saving detour.

Either sleep or wake up.

How scary these sentences are! It suggests accepting reality as it is. I hope my students never will believe me but try to verify for themselves.

Here are some citations:

“Los estudiantes volvieron a asentir, con énfasis, aprobando una afirmación que sesenta y dos mil repeticiones en la oscuridad les habían obligado a aceptar, no sólo como cierta sino como axiomático, evidente, absolutamente indiscutible”.

“«Cien repeticiones tres noches por semana, durante cuatro años — pensó Bernard Marx, que era especialista en hipnopedia — . Sesenta y dos mil cuatrocientas repeticiones crean una verdad. ¡Idiotas!».

“Sí, «hoy día todo el mundo el feliz». Eso es lo que ya les decimos a los niños a los cinco años. Pero ¿no te gustaría tener la libertad de ser feliz… de otra manera? A tu modo, por ejemplo; no a la manera de todos”.

Continuing reading the text, I have a suspicion or taste of Westworld that comes to my mouth….