The next Book Group meeting will be by Zoom on March 12, 2025, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.
Back again in our rotation is a Popular Classic pick; this time it’s “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley.
“One of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century” (Wall Street Journal), that must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our “brave new world”.
Huxley’s profoundly important classic of world literature is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order – all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls.
“A genius who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of
readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as a thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature.
Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites.
More reviews:
- “One of the 20th century’s greatest writers.” — Washington Post
- “Chilling. . . . That he gave us the dark side of genetic engineering in 1932 is amazing.” — Providence Journal-Bulletin
- “It is a frightening experience, indeed, to discover how much of his satirical prediction of a distant future became reality in so short a time.” — New York Times Book Review
If you are interested in attending, please contact John Campbell to receive the Zoom link, which will be published about a week ahead of the meeting.