
Next week is Banned Book Week, so hey I figured I'd read
Brave New World next. Usually the book is challenged because it has sex, drugs, anti-religious viewpoints and suicide. I'm guessing that whoever challenges this book never actually reads it since the author's point is that he's against drug use, promiscuity and is pro-religion. I remember reading this back in high school but I'm not sure if it was assigned or not.

The book is set in a future in which everyone is genetically modified and gestated in a laboratory. As the children are raised they receive subliminal suggestions in their sleep to make them all think alike. And everyone takes the drug
soma whenever they're stressed out or need to get away from their problems. There is no marriage or religion anymore either. The plot gets going when Bernard Marx, an Alpha male that gets some grief for not being as physically perfect as most Alpha males, takes a female coworker, Lenina, to visit a "Savage Reservation". This is a small area of the world where the world government decided not to incorporate into all of its future goodness. While there they discover a young man, John, that was actually born to a woman from the "brave new world" society that was accidentally stuck on the reservation. They bring John, "the Savage", back to their society. What follows is total culture shock for the Savage.
I enjoyed the book and there's a lot to think about in it. Like... if in this future society everyone is so happy most of the time can it really be all that bad? A.
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