Brave New World (1932)
By Aldous Huxley
Cloning; Dystopia; Eugenics; Genetic engineering
Classic dystopia about a society that genetically engineers people to fit their social positions.
Aldous Huxley’s novel depicts a dystopian world where babies are mass-produced in assembly line fashion in government-regulated “hatchery and conditioning” centers that predetermine the genetic makeup and social position of every citizen, relegating each person to one of five classes, ranging from Alphas (highest) to Epsilons (lowest). Through a series of temperature, chemical, X-ray, and hormonal adjustments made during an embryos’ growth, children are now engineered from the (artificial) womb for their future social positions. This is reproduction based on Ford’s principles of mass production: through Bokanovsky’s Process, a single embryo can be manipulated into budding repeatedly, creating multiple clones who can become interchangeable employees at factories or in fields. In the Social Predestination room, embryos are assigned to castes, and in utero modifications – immunity to diseases, enhanced physical strength, inhibited intelligence – ultimately lead to satisfaction with these assignments. This fulfillment is the lynchpin of social stability, and it is maintained from birth with a program of conditioning that includes hynopaedia and regular doses of soma. Bernard Marx and Helmholtz Watson are both Alphas who are dissatisfied with their lives, Bernard because his physique does not match his social standing, and Helmholtz because he hates the limitations placed on his creativity. When Bernard brings John Savage back from the Reservation, a portion of the former U.S. not conforming to the new Fordian principles, John immediately becomes a curiosity for a society unused to unorthodoxy or dissension. Unwilling to take mind-altering substances or engage in random sex, John finds he must isolate himself from a society whose quest for stability means the eradication of individuality and emotional turmoil.
The use of X-rays alludes to the work conducted by Hermann Muller, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work first published in 1927 stating that the use of x-rays caused genetic point mutations and alterations in chromosomal structure. Huxley is prophesizing both the development of cloning when in 1952 Robert Briggs and Thomas King used a tadpole to produce the first animal clone and the development of test tube babies when in 1978 Louise Brown became the first baby born ectogenetically. JBS Haldane’s “Daedalus” (1923), like Huxley, makes similar dark predications, including the production of ectogenetic (test tube) babies, the development of a “race of super-man” in the form of a eugenics-based society, the use of genetic engineering for plants, animals and humans, and the inevitable eradication of disease and of death.
One of the tenets of the reproduction program is the “iceberg theory”: 1/9 of society represents the peak of intellectual and physical achievements, while the other 8/9 are engineered to occupy more menial but nonetheless significant positions in society. In this respect, Huxley’s vision of reproductive engineering is a more pragmatic approach to reproductive control than Galton’s eugenics, which aimed to encourage the proliferation of socially “superior” individuals. Here, people are engineered to be “better” only insofar as they are more perfectly fitted to their socially predestined roles. The premise of social organization is that individual happiness and social stability are interdependent, yet ironically that stability is based on more disposable individuals; when ninety-six clones can be created from one embryo, the loss of one individual signifies less. Like the social laws that promote consumption rather than reuse, the reproductive programs are based on expendability. According to the World Controller, unorthodoxy is worse than murder, since it leads to death of the society rather than death of the individual. Proper breeding cannot create the ideal society, however; the love of nature, for instance, must be conditioned out of the individual. Bernard and Helmholtz bond with John over their dissatisfaction with the limitations of this “stable” society, yet they have completed the full regiment of conditioning. This indicates that nature – or the pre-social individual – is at war with the dictates of society, and that individual desires cannot be fully suppressed with social intervention.
Evaluation: This is a masterpiece of dystopian and satirical fiction, and in spite of its age, this novel remains socially and politically relevant. Huxley weaves modern scientific developments with political critique to illustrate their interconnectedness and mutually problematic areas.
– Natalie Champ