Brave New World

A SQUAT GREY building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY.
 
So begins the story of Brave New World, introducing to us the idea of both the Conditioning Centre and the World State. The words of World State are interesting to me as they imply that the world the book is set in differs from our own, and is set in either an alternate contemporary world or a setting similar to the dystopian future of 1984 by George Orwell.

As we move further into the book it is made clear to us that it is the latter, we are in the future. The concept of Hatching and Conditioning is what the first part of the book is about. Having the reader follow a group of students being taught in the ways of conditioning, the professor explaining as much to the reader as to the students that in this future people are quite literally grown into the shape that society wants them to be (a commentary on how todays society pressures the individual, I should think), whether they be high up on the class scale or at the bottom of it. The idea of being born is ridiculous to each and every inhabitant of this Brave New World.
 
And what a Brave New World it is indeed! With ideals and technology impossible in the world today, such as music you experience by smell, having shallow and physical relationships without any commitment, and having a television in every room! (some Sci-Fi ideas age better than others, mind you) But most importantly of all, you exist for the society, you consume what it produces and you simply do what you were created to do.

As the book is working hard to expose you to all this, it also sneaks in some of the characters that we will keep seeing throughout the book. The main one being Bernard Marx. Grown and hatched a upper class citizen he has been granted a fair bit of intelligence compared to the worker class. Intelligence to be used for the good of the society. However our poor Marx' conditioning has not quite taken hold, and he is not completely like the other citizens. In combination with his intelligence this makes him question whether happiness can truly be found in consumption and working for society or if there is something else to life entirely.

I'll let it remain unsaid whether or not I relate to his position.