Brave New World

Brave New World asks readers existential questions such as “Is it enough to be happy?”, “What is more important, individual freedom or social stability?”, “Would you rather live as a full pig or as a hungry Socrates?”, etc. to make them think about how to live a good life. In order to pose existential questions, the author has prepared various structural devices such as the hatchery, the barbarian zone, and the 3S policy, which are described below. These structural elements allow the reader to have a more colorful reading experience.

The hatchery is socialistic in that it has a slogan of “sharing, equality, and stability,” and it is capitalistic in that it believes in “pods” and calls consumption a virtue. Therefore, it would be correct to see this world as a worldview that is a mixture of socialism and capitalism. In this world, hatcheries represent the pinnacle of biological technology. In fact, given the advances in biological technology today, it won’t take long for the technologies in the book to be realized. The error rate of crisper technology is approaching zero, and creatures like Dolly the cloned sheep have been created. Now, once we know which human-specific genes express which traits (which is currently difficult because embryo cloning is legally prohibited in all countries due to ethical concerns), it seems like cloning an actual human being is not out of the question.

In order to emphasize the dystopian elements within the utopia of the wonderful new world, the savage zone is set up to shock the reader. John is skeptical about the inequality and control of freedom in the new world, and he demands the right to freedom. This makes readers think about things like happiness, freedom, and society. The relationship between John and Lenina also symbolizes the unbridgeable gap between the wonderful new world and the savage section. Perhaps it is structurally natural that John does not belong to both the Old and New Worlds.

To emphasize social stability, the author uses the 3S policy and the keyword Soma. 3S stands for Sports, Screen, and Sex, and it was a type of uminization policy used to control people by eliminating their interest in the economy and society. Of course, the author could not have known about the 3S policy that was implemented after World War II in Korea and Japan, but it seems that the author had great insight in many ways. This is where the author’s genius lies.

The wonderful new world made me reflect on my own scientific universalism, where I thought science was the most important thing, and I personally don’t like the wonderful new world. Influenced by existentialist philosophers such as Nietzsche and Sartre, I believe that individual subjectivity is the most important thing in life. Therefore, a wonderful new world that lacks individual freedom and subjectivity is not worth living in. (Of course, if I were born in a wonderful new world, I would be happy to live without knowing anything.)