We have a couple things on our plate to discuss today. I’m going to start with a little “The Classics Never Die” spotlighting “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley.
[Lengthy aside. When I was in 9th Grade I had a most excellent English teacher—Mrs. Steele. Mrs. Steele would retire after my freshman year. I don’t know how old she was then, but you know that anybody with gray hair is “ancient” in the eyes of a 9th grader. Mrs. Steele was “old school.” First, she taught writing from the ground up. We’re talking starting with simple paragraph structures. Second, she actually taught the lost art of grammar. I owe my goal of adhering to the rules of grammar to Mrs. Steele and my biological mother (who used to teach English herself). Anyway, one of the “big projects” in 9th Grade was doing a project on a “classic” book which Mrs. Steele selected for you. She strived to match a classic with its reader—including by trying to give each student a novel that would interest them. For me, she selected “Brave New World.” She somehow pegged me as a student who enjoyed science fiction. No, I don’t speak a word of Klingon (despite seeing every original Star Trek multiple times), and yes, I saw Star Wars three times in the theater (during its initial release in 1977, not the recent re-release). However, I’m not sure that Mrs. Steele knew any of that. I very much enjoyed “Brave New World.” We all look back on those “special” teachers that we had. Mrs. Steele was truly a special teacher.]
“Brave New World” is often grouped with “1984.” [You know why “1984” was titled, “1984,” don’t you? Orwell started writing “1984” in “1948” and simply reversed the last two digits.] This grouping does a disservice to both excellent novels. The only similarity is that both novels picture a world far in the future.
Suffice it to say that many of Huxley’s predictions for future technology proved eerily accurate. Others, well, let’s hope that they we don’t move in the direction of Huxley’s future vision. One of the main characters in the novel is Bernard Marx (an homage to Karl, of course), and the form of government in Huxley’s “Brave New World” is totalitarianism. I don’t want to get too much into the plot here, but many themes in the novel have surprisingly aged well since the novel was first published in 1931. I believe that “Brave New World’s” continued relevance is the true genius of Huxley’s novel. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Next up, my anticipated foray to the Kindle. That’s right, I’m considering converting to the dark side. Fact is that, in my opinion, this third generation of the Kindle is the perfect size to carry around. Plus, I’m decidedly NOT an “early adopter” and intended to wait until user gripes about the earliest Kindle editions had been considered. Finally, while I was waiting to be a non-“early adopter” of the iPad as my e-reader, my wife has the current iPad, and I don’t love it. I don’t love it as a “computer” and I don’t love it as an e-book reader.
I know that you are all dying to ask, “What was the tipping point that pushed me to the dark side?” I am reading this most excellent novel, and it’s almost 1,100 pages long. I’m lugging it all over the place, and it’s killing me. Irony of ironies, the book is NOT available on Kindle. So, even if I did have a Kindle, I’d either be lugging this monstrosity or forgoing the read unless/until a Kindle version comes out. By the way, I think that the novel may be brilliant, but it’s difficult to make such a statement roughly 440 pages in to an 1,100 page novel, so hold on tight.
I leave you with this quote, apropos of nothing except that I recently saw the hilarious movie for the 10th time or so:
“I crashed a funeral today. . . It wasn't my idea, I was basically dragged to it. . .I went with Chazz who you forgot to tell me is totally insane. He also might be a genius because it actually does work, he’s cleaning up.”
Live long, read and prosper. We’ll leave the lights on for you.
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