“O, wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in’t!” I am rereading this for about the 10th time I think. I read it in high school and college, and then a few times since. I am also thinking about teaching it this year in replacement to another teacher teaching Never Let Me Go. This book has plenty of sex and drugs too, but it’s a little more indirect and the specific language […]

The first few chapters are exposition — a disjointed, opaque slog of a journey — but once that’s out of the way and the story picks up, it’s a quick, multi-layered read studded with expertly-placed philosophical questions. Heavy on plot and light on character development, it’s clear this novel was written around a thesis, more of a manifesto via story than the other way around, but it’s skillfully done. Little details, like Huxley’s consistent use of “pneumatic” and “sententous” as adjectives, and repeated plot features […]