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A prophecy
Brave New World has been seen as a prophetic vision of both the near and the far future. As regards
to the near future, Brave New World was written before Hitler came to power in Germany (1933) and
before Stalin started the purges in Soviet Union. As a matter of fact Huxley decided to focus on human selection (from a genetic point of view) and obsessive conditioning as the major topics of
the story. Therefore it seems to be prophetic. In 1958 Huxley himself said: 'The future dictatorship of
my imaginary world was a good deal less brutal than the future dictatorship so brilliantly portrayed
by Orwell'. But in the novel there are also many parallels between 'the new world' and the present
society, elements that are present in nowadays world like: the increased surveillance, the power of
advertising, the growing importance of the role played by technology in our lives, the development of
genetic engineering, the use of drugs to give a fake state of happiness. Under this point of view the novel represents still nowadays a significant warning.
Issues of the time
The novel also contains many issues of the time in which Huxley lived, the early 20th century. The
society had been transformed by the Industrial Revolution, mass production had started making cars
and radios available to most people. The world had changed a lot since the beginning of the century
and these changes were brought about by progress on whose advantages and disadvantages he
encourages the reader to reflect on.
1984 and Brave New World
Brave New World has become one of the classical science-fiction novels along with Orwell's 1984.
1984 also describes a world of the future, and it is a terrible one, of total control and perpetual
warfare. Brave New World describes a world in which all human beings, created artificially and
conditioned, seem to be happy. Apparently a much better world than the one depicted in 1984 but as
much as 1984 a loveless and sinister place.