In Brave New World, you will be happy whether you like it or not

Brave New World immediately calls for a philosophical debate about utopian and dystopian fiction. On Wikipedia, Huxley’s book is categorised as dystopian, while the entry for the series is described as utopian.

The terms are opposite; utopian has “various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to readers” – or viewers, in this case; dystopian “relates to or denotes an imagined state or society where there is great suffering or injustice”. In Brave New World, it would seem that both apply.

In the futuristic New London, the social body comprises nothing but beautiful people, much like the “norms” our own society projects on us, which we are encouraged to pursue or be shamed, which is psychologically damaging but that’s another story for another day. How the society is sustained is a mystery (because when I’m suspending my disbelief I want it to be strongly supported) but these endlessly gorgeous, lissome creatures, who have been conditioned since their artificial birth, spend most of their time having sex (with everyone – monogamy is strongly discouraged) and going to parties.

They also all have click dispensers filled with Soma, a drug to be taken freely to alleviate any potentially negative thoughts, feelings or emotions. In New London, happiness is the only goal, achieved through the above mentioned means. For some this could be utopia.

(Fun fact: Soma is a real drug, registered in 1959, a muscle relaxer that blocks pain sensations between the nerves and the brain. Make of that what you will.)

Outside of New London is the rest of the world, and in particular the Savage Lands. It appears to be the USA, reached by rocket ship from New London because who wants to bother with normal aeroplanes anymore when you can experience zero gravity, and marketed as a theme park filled with savages and amusement attractions from a quaint past. For the citizens of New London who come to gawk, and where they send their teens as a rite of passage, this would be their dystopia.

Naturally, these two worlds must collide to create the initial conflict in the story. This has a ripple effect when one savage is brought to New London. He refuses to become connected to the social body – with an ocular camera that allows everyone to see everyone else, and everyone able to see through your eyes, which is pure horror – but as something of a freakish sideshow novelty, he roams New London freely.

In doing so, he connects with the lower castes (the Brave New World society is based on a caste system, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons), unintentionally sowing the seeds of anarchy by simply speaking his mind, and expressing his distaste for the inequality. He doesn’t seem to have a problem with his Gamma manservant though, who makes a great chicken pot pie.

“Alphas make decisions, Betas bring the fun, Gammas provide the catering, and lowly Epsilons clean up the mess. It’s a neat dystopian order that is thrown into disarray when alpha Bernard (Harry Lloyd) and beta Lenina (Jessica Brown Findlay, Lady Sybil in Downton Abbey) return from an ill-fated trip to the exotic Savage Lands with a refugee ‘savage’ John (Alden Ehrenreich) in tow,” says Empire.

Add a love triangle – although this is an unknown concept for New Londoners – and all this free will and thinking for oneself threaten to bring a carefully constructed society crumbling down.

“The setup of both worlds, as well as their denizens’ lives, provides a fantastic hook, but it’s the consequence-filled convergence of the characters’ paths that’ll ultimately reel you in. While it leans more toward late-night guilty pleasure viewing than thought-provoking art, Brave New World still offers a satisfying binge that fans will eat up,” says Common Sense Media.

Also in the cast are Demi Moore, as John’s mother with a secret, and Joseph Morgan (vampire Klaus in The Originals).

Another fun fact: Brave New World is one of the most-banned books in the US. In this very old article in The Guardian, we learn “Huxley’s vision of a totalitarian future comes third on American Library Association’s list of 2010’s ‘most challenged’ books.” It was more than a decade ago, but the banning of books continues today.

“Be it the removal of the Holocaust graphic novel Maus from a Tennessee school district’s eighth-grade curriculum or attempts to yank classics like The Handmaid’s Tale from library shelves, incidents of grassroots (and mostly conservative) pressure against schools to control the materials children can access have seemingly grown in frequency and intensity,” says Vox in an article dated February 2022.

The Handmaid’s Tale is on Showmax, considered to be dystopian. You decide.