Literature Review Feedback
I had to write a literature review on Brave New World a couple of days ago, and would just like some general feedback on the ideals in my paper. Since most of it is obviously from other literary sources (that I've cited, so don't go all copyright-crazy on me :D), the main part that I'd like feedback on is the conclusion, which contains my own ideas on the novel based on the criticisms I evaluated.
Any feedback would be great! Thanks! :p
Brave New World: Satirical Foolery or Armageddon Predilection?
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is a grim and disturbing view into a hypothetical future of the human race. In the novel, Huxley paints a world in which humanity is governed by machines, a world in which reproduction, education, and death are all handled with millisecond accuracy. An ordinary person in the form of a “savage” Indian is thrust into this society, and ultimately chooses to commit suicide rather than endure in a materialistic and mechanical dystopia. Many opinions exist regarding Brave New World; some critics claim that Huxley has unconsciously created overly sober dystopian novels instead of true satires, while others affirm that Brave New World is a great success and an intellectual and psychological masterpiece.
Joseph Bentley, in his analytical feature, The Later Novels of Aldous Huxley, firmly states that Brave New World was the end point of Huxley's satiric streak. His main points involve Huxley's transition from a humorous, dry, and sarcastic writer to a responsible and overly sober author. This trend, according to Bentley, forced Huxley to “[outgrow] his own technique” (507); instead of writing in the witty ironic manner of his past, Huxley attempted to address important and morbid public problems and fears. As a result, Brave New World is too “morally affirmative” (Bentley, 509) and not “outrageous” (Bentley, 509) enough to be qualified as a true satirical novel. Because of this noble, almost desperately appealing attitude, Huxley's novel strikes as much too serious and foreboding to have any significant amount of humor and drollness (Bentley, 507-509). Rudolf B. Schmerl, in his “Fantasy as Technique,” agrees partly with Bentley's analysis that Brave New World is not a purely satirical novel. However, the causes for Bentley's and Schmerl's analyses are different. While Bentley states that the source of Huxley's soberness is his own writing style, Schmerl believes that it is impossible to write a purely satirical work on something as onerous and severe as humanity's eventual mechanization.
Other so-called critics believe that Brave New World is a wonderful work of art. Peter Bowering, in his Aldous Huxley: A Study of the Major Novels, asserts that Huxley's novel is very satirical. Bowering also praises Huxley's use of the savage to provide “dialectical opposition.” In addition, Bowering asserts that Brave New World's content never loses its liveliness and vivacious qualities. Bowering states in his summary that Huxley has “revived an outmoded form, to which only one major English novelist had previously aspired, and [has] blessed it with the touch of his genius. Under Huxley, the 'novel of ideas' has approached the status of a major art form.” Harold H. Watts, in his Aldous Huxley, agrees with Bowering's classification of Brave New World as a wonderful satire. Watts states that Huxley's novel has “a great esthetic success” (72) and “fuses what one presently recognizes as the dangerous incompatibles of [utopian fiction] into a telling unity” (72). Watts regards Brave New World as not only a successful utopian fiction but also as an expression of Huxley's developing opinions of the world and its future (72). Apart from purely creative success, Watts also believes that Huxley's novel is a good indicator of his contemporary public's ideals and issues, and is highly useful to researchers or other fact-finders who do not depend on creativity and fiction for scholarly evidence.
Brave New World is undoubtedly a masterpiece, both in a creative sense, and in the sense that it provides a chilling outlook into the mindset of the average American citizen living in the early twentieth century. Although many critics believe that Huxley's novel is pure satire, others believe Brave New World is a reminder and a warning of the dangers of technological dependence to contemporary and future generations alike. Realistically, however, Brave New World should not be classified as either one of these two extremes; rather, the novel belongs in a happy medium. While satire is most certainly present in the book, most notably in the portrayals of New World inhabitants as promiscuous animals completely devoid of sexual inhibition, elements of severity and portent also exist. For example, “death conditioning,” as mentioned in the book, bears no significant relation to any twentieth-century ideals or social taboo; instead, death conditioning is one of several aspects of Huxley's novel that serve as chilling warnings of the dangers of uncontrolled ambition. For these reasons, Brave New World is neither “A Modest Proposal” nor a liberal global warming propaganda film. It is, instead, a humorous rambling meant to arouse a humorously helpless dissatisfaction with the modern world.
Works Cited
Bentley, Joseph. “The Later Novels of Aldous Huxley.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Riley, Carolyn. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1973. 152.
Bowering, Peter. “Aldous Huxley: A Study of the Major Novels.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Riley, Carolyn. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1975. 237-39.
Schmerl, Rudolf B. “Fantasy as Technique.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Riley, Carolyn. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1975. 255-56.
Watts, Harold H. “Aldous Huxley.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Riley, Carolyn. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1973. 151-52.
