Currently we live in a world where neither book became completely true. However, bits and pieces from both did. Nowadays there’s all sorts of enjoyment and distraction easily available, and it seems to partially take the role soma has in BNW.
Not just soma,
the censorship of the different,
the unavailability of inconvenient history or information is a direct parallel to the echo chamber bubbles of social media,
then constant advertising,
that anything new must be more expansive, complex, and require more equipment that the pre-existing alternative.
I think we worried too much about one book and not enough about the other. 1984 seems to be coming now that the BNW prepared the population into distracted acquiesence but where does that then lead? Do we become the eloi after that?
I find the psychosocial parallels fascinating. Sorry if it seems a bit tinfoil…
There are indeed many eerie similarities. Both books got many themes correct, even though the exact details were wrong. BNW isn’t as popular and well known as 1984, and that’s why the latter still gets all the attention. If people knew BNW, they would be referencing it all the time, since modern life is pretty messed up even by BNW standards.
Currently we live in a world where neither book became completely true. However, bits and pieces from both did. Nowadays there’s all sorts of enjoyment and distraction easily available, and it seems to partially take the role soma has in BNW.
Not just soma, the censorship of the different, the unavailability of inconvenient history or information is a direct parallel to the echo chamber bubbles of social media, then constant advertising, that anything new must be more expansive, complex, and require more equipment that the pre-existing alternative.
I think we worried too much about one book and not enough about the other. 1984 seems to be coming now that the BNW prepared the population into distracted acquiesence but where does that then lead? Do we become the eloi after that?
I find the psychosocial parallels fascinating. Sorry if it seems a bit tinfoil…
There are indeed many eerie similarities. Both books got many themes correct, even though the exact details were wrong. BNW isn’t as popular and well known as 1984, and that’s why the latter still gets all the attention. If people knew BNW, they would be referencing it all the time, since modern life is pretty messed up even by BNW standards.
You are probably right, though it is depressing to consider the lack of common recognition for Huxley