Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time

Brave New World - Sex, Drugs, and Dystopia

Episode Summary

Aldous Huxley's classic is one of the greatest dystopian books of all time. How much would you trade for happiness? What makes life worth living? And is an orgy still sexy if you call it an orgy porgy?

Episode Notes

Set in a futuristic, unified World State, Brave New World tells the story of a very different kind of dystopia. The population is not tightly controlled in the traditional sense - instead they are free to do what they choose, and live phenomenally happy lives. However, people are born in test tubes and modified in-vitro to fulfill their role in the caste system, to love their work, and to love the hedonistic lifestyle that the World State provides. 

Bernard Marx is not perfectly happy though. He arranges a trip to a reservation to see a different way of living, and there meets someone born outside the system - The Savage - who begins to question the social order and chafe against the World Controllers who mastermind the system.