Books

[Carnage]

It's 30+ years since I read Brave New World, I can barely remember it. I read that and 1984 around the same time, much preferred the latter. Very different books I know but always seem to be mentioned as the definitive dystopia novels.

[Eoin McLove]

Long time since I've read 1984 but my impression from a distance is that it has more impact due to being darker in tone, and more gritty. Brave New World is about the dulling of the senses through gluttony and luxury, which is probably more true of modern western civilisation than the ultra bleak Stasi-esque grimness of 1984. It seems less harrowing in many ways. You get to chill out and fuck whoever you want but there are few, or no emotional highs to be experienced. But then, there is no obvious suffering either- if you're on Soma, at least. It's maybe harder to sell a future of being drug hazed and banging babes as an existential threat than it is having rats chew off your face 

[Necro Red]

Long time since I've read 1984 but my impression from a distance is that it has more impact due to being darker in tone, and more gritty. Brave New World is about the dulling of the senses through gluttony and luxury, which is probably more true of modern western civilisation than the ultra bleak Stasi-esque grimness of 1984. It seems less harrowing in many ways. You get to chill out and fuck whoever you want but there are few, or no emotional highs to be experienced. But then, there is no obvious suffering either- if you're on Soma, at least. It's maybe harder to sell a future of being drug hazed and banging babes as an existential threat than it is having rats chew off your face 

couldn't put it better myself man. It isn't as dark as I thought it would be like 1984.

[Eoin McLove]

Long time since I've read 1984 but my impression from a distance is that it has more impact due to being darker in tone, and more gritty. Brave New World is about the dulling of the senses through gluttony and luxury, which is probably more true of modern western civilisation than the ultra bleak Stasi-esque grimness of 1984. It seems less harrowing in many ways. You get to chill out and fuck whoever you want but there are few, or no emotional highs to be experienced. But then, there is no obvious suffering either- if you're on Soma, at least. It's maybe harder to sell a future of being drug hazed and banging babes as an existential threat than it is having rats chew off your face 

couldn't put it better myself man. It isn't as dark as I thought it would be like 1984.

And yet, BNW is potentially more of an accurate imagining of where much of humanity was headed. Between drugs, TV, and the ever encompassing reach of technology into our lives, that dulling of the senses, the dropping out of reality, becomes a much bigger threat. Again, that's dependent on where you happen to have been born,  but it was prescient none the less.

[ochoill]

Love 1984 but never read BNW even though it is on my shelf for years.  Might give it a shot this week if I finish The Plague.  (Enjoying that as it happens but sort of dropped out of reading from the ongoing go of life and just continued on the manga reads and re-reads instead since that is easier to deal with in short bursts).