Banned Books: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece, has long struggled with attempted censorship. The novel, scribed in the 1930s, takes the time honoured science-fiction approach of using an exaggerated possible future to comment on the author’s fears at the time.
So we have the death of natural reproduction and the rise of sex as purely recreational, children being basically farmed rather than born, regular brain-washing, all viewed first from the inside and later from the perspective of an outsider.
Reaching a middling #36 on the American Library Association’s chart of the last decade’s most frequently banned and challenged books, Brave New World has mostly been targeted for the values of its “World State”, which portrays promiscuity without consequence. Apparently it makes this repugnant activity “look like fun,” and shows “contempt towards marriage”.
Of course, the book doesn’t really suggest that Huxley approves of such things; he is depicting a nightmare scenario, the direction in which he feared society was headed. The idea of losing our traditional family ties, of sex without consequence and minimal individuality, is not portrayed as aspirational.
But apparently we shouldn’t experience incorrect behaviour, even through the pages of books, lest we emulate it. One would think explaining why these things are bad is a more effective deterrent than hiding them behind the curtain. Indeed, this kind of censorship and mass manipulation seems to be one of Huxley’s fears.
But never mind. Happily, the book has escaped censorship and remains free in the wild. You can buy it from Amazon for £7.36.
Post by Nick Bryan
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Banned? That book was required reading in my High School / Secondary School. And well worth every page!
I wish it had been required reading at my school! It’s a common misconception with dystopian fiction that the writer is commending or encouraging a certain mode of behaviour simply by writing about it. I guess the clue would be in the word ‘dystopian’… but then censors and critics have a conveniently myopic view when it comes to such things.
There’s school a while ago which took the book out of the reading curriculum, because a Native American student was offended by the treatment of Native Americans in the book. But the Native Americans were the only ones who escaped the nightmarish civilized society and still possessed traditional values. So… what sort of school failed to explain to the kid that the portrayal of Native Americans was intended to be positive, and then went along with banning it? I wish critics would try to understand the point of the book before throwing it out.
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