The Sunday Book Report: Dystopian Double Bill: Brave New World v. 1984

 

Hello bookish friends! 

I'm linking up with: 

The Sunday Post

And I'ts Monday, What Are YOU Reading? 

In June I joined Benjamin McEvoy's Hardcore Literature Book Club via Patreon. I was having a lot of trouble getting interested in reading just about anything. Even my favorite genre, thrillers, wasn't holding my attention. I decided to do something crazy - read some classics. 

I'd watched some of McEvoy's YouTube videos previously over the past couple of years, and I just loved the way he gets into a classic. He discusses the author, the theme, the history, other works by the author, similar works, books that inspired the author, and of course he breaks down the book, chapter by chapter. 

For June, we read what he entitled a "Dystopian Double Bill." Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," and George Orwell's "1984." I honestly couldn't remember reading BNW, but knew that I was assigned 1984 in highschool. (Not that I remembered any of it!) 

I enjoyed Brave New World more than I expected that I would. The bright and shiny world of ease didn't appeal to me much, however. I feel like we've missed out on something monumental by not having the opportunity to read it when it was first published. The story, characters, world building, and politics that went into the book would have been far more internally shocking and disturbing than read now with a 21st century mindset. Of course you can see areas of life that have taken shape the way that Huxley penned it. 

As I mentioned above, I remember almost nothing of "1984" from school. The Big Brother posters, maybe. 

I have to admit that I enjoyed encountering Orwell's world better than Huxley's. It was more painful, gritty, and realistic. I was more involved with the main characters and wanted so badly for them to have some hope. It's easy to see areas of Orwellian imagination in today's world. I feel like we could slip into that culture rather easily. Parts of the world already have. The ability to monitor us is readily available, if not as obvious as a telescreen. How far would Americans/Canadians go to keep their current freedoms? 

I'm glad I read both of these novels - and there is no way I would have picked them up on my own!  They both made me think - and in the end, isn't that what a good book is supposed to do?