1984 vs. Brave New World

ok i've read Brave New World by Adlous Huxley and had to study it for school. i absolutely loved it. all the intricacies, all the strange things in the society and the characters i could totally imagine. i adored the book.
however, i've just started reading 1984 by George Orwell, and to me, it just isnt the same. both books have the same theme, which is why i compare the two. i find that 1984 is a little more depressing and the society isnt so intricate. it isnt written as well, and Winston isnt as intriguing. and i cant help but compare the two when i'm reading it, i cant get myself into the book without thinking about Brave New World.

what do you guys think??

 

I Agree that brave new World is an awesome book and Really enjoyed reading it ,though i would probably have to read it again at this point as it's been a while since i read it and my memory Resembles a block of Swiss Cheese...that said you should judge 1984 on it's own merit's! ,i have a tendency to Compare Writer's aswell Especially one's i find particularly interesting and have ended up ruining the experience for myself with a new book sometime's.

 

bleh. i had to write an english report once comparing the two and i think i found it actually quite hard to do. 1984 is - imo - the more believable, or more likely to happen then bnw. and i think in that sense i take orwell more seriously then huxley. plus if u read some of huxley's other stuff u have to wonder whether the man wasn't completely insane

have read them both a few times now but i think bnw was generally a more enjoyable read.

oh and another good one to read alongside is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

 

Well, I just finished 1984, and I thought the same as you in the beginning. Just so you know, the beginning of the book is rather slow and boring, but it gets better as the book progresses. Anyway, I personally like bnw better because to me, its more believable. It also, imo, proves why anarchy will never work. I also liked the sort of psychoanalysis it did of what it means to be human. 1984 was much more political.

-Kate

 

1984 WAS more political, and that's why I actually prefer it over BNW (We read that for a Humanities class a month ago, and I read 1984 in 5th or 6th grade.) They're both great books, though. The ending of 1984 was really, really creepy, though.

I found it interesting, though, how Huxley included characters named Lenina, Marx, Trotsky, and Engels...

 

I'm reading Brave New World right now and I'm on like...page 22 and I don't really understand it, I just can't get into it which is really frustrating! Is it just about people in a lab far far off into the future recreating babies?!

 

i prefer brave new world to 1984. i think i just prefer huxley as a author...not that i don't like orwell as well...they're just different. i'm looking forward to reading 'island' (by huxley). my friend just got it for me for my birthday.

 

No no no...trust me, by the end of the second chapter or so a plot will arise. Patience is a virtue...

 

Brave New World is better in my opinion.

 

OH OH OH!!!!! Island is the best book i have ever read, and believe it or not, i enjoyed it MORE than Brave New World and 1984 combined! Yay! I cant wait for you to read it. But you will have to bear the whole "getting to know the characters thing". Besides that, the best book EVER. Island.

1984 was more satisfying for me because i empathise with the characters in it more. I feel like i am being tortured all the time. But the issues in the book........i live them. It was very real for me.

Brave New World. It was a good book. I loved it, BUT i dont know why, but i just didnt get THAT much out of it. Whereas, 1984, i got plenty, but BNW, not much. In fact, it wasnt so striking as to leave any sort of impression on me at all. Just not THE best in the Huxley tradition. Orwell was a different kind of writer. You cant compare the two. It is not fair, because they focus on different things, and their characters face different battles......Theyre different, they cant be compared.

BUT, they are my three favourite books, no joke.

Island
1984
Brave New World

 

surfhipE keep on it. BNW is really good.

its interesting 'Island' was mentioned in this thread i think. when Huxley wrote BNW he became obsessed with the idea of writing a perfect society into existence - creating a little world in a book. most of the books preceding it actually had the same sort of idea. Island being one of them.

even tho BNW and Island are completely different societies you can see how in both books he tried to create a place where everything was "perfect" and he could use it as a satire to preach his political and philosophical ideas. Huxley, in my opinion, is a genius. he also had a very interesting life.

hehe i got the opposite (im still only halfway through 1984 tho so perhaps that will change). but i found huxley's philosophical and political conversations in the end of BNW enthralling. i thought the book just rolled out and ended so well. i was intellectually numb for hours afterwards.

 

I've never read Brave New World but have read 1984 several times. The first time in 1994 for English class the second time last spring. Its very chilling to read it again in modern times. "Victory Gin" Victory Cigarettes" kinda like " Freedom Fries" and "Freedom Toast".

 

I can't remember either book in great detail, but I often find myself thinking about both books. You can see how personal privacy is on the decline. The government and businesses have more information on us now than ever before, and the whole idea of being watched 24/7 that is in 1984 is really quite scary when it seems to be happening. This is coupled with the consistent and contradictory lies that we are being told by the government and the media.

But I prefer BNW, and find it much more scary in its predictions. Genetic cloning is one worry, but I see the increasing disenfranchisement of the working classes, regardless of how much we are told than democracy is on the increase, as the primary concern raised by Huxley. The 'American dream', by which I mean the rags-to-riches dream, is simply one of ceasing to be the oppressed and becomming the oppressor. (That's not in the book, is it?) Ceasing to be the common man, because the common man is losing his rights. There will always be those who are able to opt out, but for most of us, we are simply seen as human resources.

 

hey :0)

i havent read either of those books, altho i have read summaries of them , but i think u guys who ejoyed them should check out Margaret Atwood's 'The Hnadmaid's Tale'.

It seems to be pretty similar, but its cool coz it sheds a new light on everything, takes into account the environment, sexual politics, religion and its not just a feminist dystopia, its a failed utopia for everyone, check it out!

xx

 

Heh...yeah, I will keep up with it.


Has anyone read Utopia? Is that a good one?

 

I read Utopia. I thought it sounded like a crappy place to live. No civil liberties at all.

 

Of the two, which do you prefer more?

 

Brave New World... A Classic Dystopia.

I have found that although many people dislike the world protrayed in BNW, One can always argue that it is a better world. And those arguments are often hard to tear down.

 

The gut impact of 1984 is more direct in its power, and you can smell the fear of guilt.
In Winston Smith's world, coersion is the path to redemption.
Winston Smith's struggle is futile, he is inadequate and all too human.
All too much like George Orwell.


Huxley is a Huxley, he can't breath-in the stink of his Brave New World, because his world is too removed.
But what you can't feel through the distant nature of his writing, Huxley goes out of his way to explain in detail.
An intricate story whose utopian scenario seems both more probable and more familiar, too familiar.
John Savage is Huxley if Huxley could.

 

This is a very tough choice for me. I hold both of these books and there respected authors in high regard. Although the plot of these books vary widely from one another, they are very much the same. They show us a world that we do not wish to see. We are able to see things from the point of view of Winston Smith and John Savage, but the rest of the world (for the most part), is blissfully ignorant to the atrocities going on around them. The characters in both books who are not ignorant to the situation either run the risk of being eliminated from society, or hold a position of power. Much like I view the world today. There are those of us who see the world as a horribly cruel and impersonal place, and those who think everything is peachy. I don't think that I can really choose one book or the other.