A Brave New World

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago when I completed the book. However for one reason or another it escaped me. But here we go. A Brave New World is set in the future where individuals are no longer, well, individuals. It's a time where a person is put into a group at birth and basically raised to like it. There is no fear of death, because no one ever looks old and death is something that is bred into them as a benefit to society. There are also no emotions. Sex is, more or less, required. Drugs are the norm. To keep people from getting pregnant everyone takes like five contraceptives. Oh, and people are bred in little jars with all sorts of medicinal miracles are pumped into their bodies as fetuses so no one ever gets sick.

On the one side, it paints the picture that everyone is happy. And most of the people seem happy with what they are. The lower class have been raised to not want to be any thing other than lower class. Yes, the downside is that no one is different. But hey, everyone is happy, right? And that's what's important.

Although things seem good for everyone, what about that person who doesn't fit in, even when they have spent their lives being conditionalized to fit in? What happens when a savage (someone who still procreates the "old fashion" way) comes into the new world? Well, thats when the story starts getting good.

Part of the problem with the novel was that Huxley spent so much time showing how the world was, the plot seemed lost amid the descriptions of the world and the way people lived. When the "Savage" finally comes to the new world to see how different and horrible things actually are, it seems almost a lost cause. There is a clash between the old way and the new way, each proposing that their way is the best way.

The book was good. It is always interesting to see how one person views the potential future. Huxley basically took everything that was taboo in his culture and made it compulsary in his new world. A world where everyone seems free, but no one really is.

In the end your left wanting more, left just a touch unsatisfied with what has unfolded through the pages. It's a sad new world, and I think that ultimately that is the point. Huxley wasn't creating a world where we have something to look forward to. He was painting a picture of what might come to be if the government, those in power, have too much power and too much say in our lives. It reminded me, in many ways, of V For Vendetta. A sad future where we've let ourselves become complacent in what is handed us.

A brave new world, indeed. A brave new world indeed.

Moral of the Story: Well, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm sure that it has to do with not letting the government do whatever it wants.

The Fan Man

Did you ever wonder what was going through the heads of really sick people? The people that you see screaming on the streets, on 20/20 living in their 300 bathrobes afraid to leave the house, the man dragging the hot dog stand umbrella for New York City blocks on end, obssesed with buying as many fans as he can in chinatown?

Meet Horse. Horse Badorties. The Fan Man.

William Kotzwinkle creates the character of Horse and then spend "The Fan Man" taking the reader through his inner monologue as Horse wanders the streets of New York City, paranoid, delusional, and in search of 15 year old girls to corrupt. The only problem is that Horse is so distracted and disorganized and high that he his own shortcomings render him harmless to the young ladies which he recruits to be in his Love Chorus, which he conducts at a church in preparation for the grand performance which will be televised.

This book isn't one that is going to have a mass appeal , but I can definately appreciate the character development, because as sick and high as Horse is, you can't but help feel some compassion for him, especially when he spends an entire day/chapter saying the word "Dorky". Although if you were to meet him on the street, you would probably wrinkle your nose and pretend to see right through him, in he novel Horse actually speaks to you. And as scary as it is, you find yourself wanting Horse to succeed in the face of everyday obstacles such as landlords that demand rent, junkyard owners, and a whole host of others.

Moral of the Story: Sometimes it's okay to be demented

For Whom The Bell Tolls

For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway was a shocking book. I saw say shocking, because I was shocked that I actually really enjoyed it. I've read A Sun Also Rises, and be the story or Hemingway's disgusting, blatant misogyny or his writing style, it was dreadful. But FWTBT was different, well, kind of. I had attempted to read it while in High School, still too young, and just couldn't get into it. So I was a little (read a lot) hesitant when I began my journey into FWTBT.

For Whom The Bell Tolls follows the story of Robert Jordan, an American college Spanish instructor, who has traveled to Spain to help the Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He is a dynamiter, and has been sent to blow up a bridge. He meets a group of guerrillas who are going to help accomplish his goal. During that time he meets, and falls in love with a member of the band (who does not fight and was once a prisoner of the Fascists) Maria. The story weaves between Jordan convincing the band to help him and his love for Maria.

Noted as one of the best war books written (Hemingway himself was a journalist in the Spanish Civil War), I can see why. There are multiple times where Hemingway's characters tell Jordan of their past and why they are fighting. Pilar, who is the ad-hoc leader of the band when her husband/partner wavers, tells a particularly graphic story of the flailing and murder of 20+ Fascists (and that story is not for the weak stomached).

By the end of the novel, we are left in a battle for the bridge, to ensure that it is blown properly. I found myself having favorite guerrillas who I wanted to succeed in their mission and walk away unscathed. But it is war, and without revealing too much, not everyone walks away. But, the last chapter was especially riveting and kept me glued to what was going on, which I was not expecting. I found myself having great concern for many of the characters and found myself cringing and biting my nails (quite literally) when things didn't necessarily go exactly as planned.

I have only two complaints, but they were issues that I figured I would have. The first is Hemingway's style of writing. He has a tendancy to repeat things over and over and over and over again. Hemingway likes to repeat things. Every once in a while, Hemingway will repeat his point, even if it is not the most important point. There is frequently a chance that Hemingway will repeat himself.

The second problem that I had was Hemingway's misogyny. He makes no attempt to hide his feelings towards how women should be in a relationship. I frequently found myself disgusted for no other reason than the way Maria would talk to Robert.

But all in all, those two points can be over looked, and For Whom The Bell Tolls can, in my opinion, but read as a truly beautiful novel.

Moral Of The Story: Even in war, beauty can arise from the ashes.