Brave New World

For English, I’ve been reading this book by Aldous Huxley.  It’s called Brave New World and it’s apparently a classic (though I’d never heard of it up until this year…which actually isn’t such a good way to determine its literary merit).  Anyways, it’s about this society whose morals are total polar opposites to those of the society in the time when it was written, around the 1930s.  Everyone sleeps around, no one has children or families—the concept of a mother or father is completely taboo.  And everyone in the society is controlled by early life stage conditioning, which is put in place by the World Controllers.  The whole aim of the society is to ensure the happiness of the individuals who exist within it.  Everyone is happy because everyone is conditioned to be happy with their place in society pretty much from birth and also because of the encouragement of instant gratification.  I’m curious as to whether or not Huxley knew the direction societal morals were headed in, because quite a few of the ideas he presents in his book are strikingly parallel to the emerging moral standards of this time period—especially regarding sex.  Except perhaps not to the same degree in the novel.  It’s not my favorite book, but it was certainly an interesting read.