One of my favorite assignments in high school (2007) was after reading 1984 and Brave New World. The teacher of our Dystopian Literature class prompted us to elaborate on who we thought was right overall, Huxley or Orwell.

It was a sobering exercise realizing that there's a fair amount of Orwellian and Huxleyan prophecies in our modern world, but we tend to focus more on the 'scarier' Orwellian ideas.

Something that beautifully summarises the Orwell/Huxley discussion for me is this quote by Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.

Your high school had a specific class called Dystopian Literature? Now that's an awesome elective to specialize in.

Yeah, as an English elective. It was great; I loved it.

Interesting use of semicolon.

Brave New World doesn't seem like a dystopia at all to me. You're always having fun and if you want to intellectualize you can also do that among your peers.

I tried reading Brave New World. It was atrocious. It was such a heavy-handed, corny, poorly written caricature of the left. I'm baffled by its enduring popularity among intellectuals.

I'm curious as to how you got this impression of the book. The book was quite critical of a lot of different systems from both the political left and right, which makes sense given when the book was written (1930s UK).

The world in the book is a strange blend between pure decadence, socialism and consumerism. The society is atheist, but worships Henry Ford. There is a communist equality, but it is enforced through strong castes. Everyone is happy and free, but the world controllers act as an oligarchy of dictators. Science is valued, but only the right kinds.

I believe the book is popular among intellectuals because, like Fahrenheit 451, the society shown has an anti-intellectual and anti-knowledge streak.

It's fascinating that you see it as a caricature of the left, given that Huxley was a left-leaning pacifist who even today would be far to the left of at least the last 4 Democratic presidential candidates on quite a few issues.

Sadly, the entire western world is just a lot more authoritarian than it was during Huxley and Orwell's time.

There's nothing about sympathizing with or even being on the left that prevents criticism of the left. The left is infamous for the amount of internal bickering, denunciations, and recriminations that go on.

That said, Huxley's critique of the left (if it can even be called that) didn't seem like one based on any left-wing principles or ideas. I really don't know where he was coming from on that. It really felt like it could have been written by some cheap right-wing tabloid. Maybe that's why it was so popular.

This is sadder still. You're saying you feel pacifism and anti-war sentiments are no longer a part of the left?

Huxley was critiquing Hitler and especially Stalin. Is that your idea of "the left"?

No. Not in the least.

I wish I had I had a copy in front of me, so I could give you specific examples. It's been a long time since I read it.

Brave New World was a prophecy of modern-day Western materialism and social control, and Aldous Huxley was the architect of left-wing counterculture. You need to turn-off your modern-day trigger-word trip-wires and read it again.

(2015)