Reviews

Nueva Visita a Un Mundo Feliz by Aldous Huxley

authorjbr's review against another edition

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4.0

The first half is good and the "so what" ending, even if the latter half is a little dated. Still, the fact that people were worried about these things in the '50s makes the present all the more worrying. How do we overcome propaganda and overpopulation? I don't know. I guess it warrants more thought.

matthew_zorich's review against another edition

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4.0

Just getting started on the introduction.

itsjxssica's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

andre1's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious medium-paced

3.0

bsod's review against another edition

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2.0

Les longues lamentations d un auteur pour défendre l idée qu il a écrit le meilleur des livres. Ce qui est vrai, cette autocritique était dispensable

and_camp_89's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

jarichan's review against another edition

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3.0

Bevor mensch sich auf dieses Werk stürzt, sollte mensch sich bewusst sein, dass es sich hierbei nicht um eine Fortsetzung von Brave New World im herkömmlichen Sinn handelt. Es ist auch kein Roman, sondern ein politisches und gesellschaftliches Sachbuch.

Etwa 30 Jahre nach Veröffentlichung von BNW schaut Aldous Huxley auf sein Werk zurück und zieht Stellung, wie und wohin sich die Gesellschaft unterdessen entwickelt hat. Trotz des Alters des Buches sollte man Revisited nicht vorschnell beiseite legen.

Denn die Themen, die Huxlex hier anspricht, sind noch immer aktuell. Und wahrscheinlich noch brennender als beim Erscheinen des Buches. Noch immer suchen wir nach Lösungen für unser Energieproblem, gegen die Umweltverschmutzung, den weltweiten Hunger und wenn der Autor über das Thema der Überwachung sprach, hatte ich u.a. Russland und seine Internettrolle im Kopf.

Was Huxley wohl zu Facebook, Insta & Co. sagen würde?

Natürlich sind unterdessen viele Quellen und Daten, auf die der Autor sich bezieht, unterdessen überholt, aber die grundlegenden Beobachtungen und Gedanken Huxleys sind noch immer brisant und lesenswert.

Was ist aus der Schönen Neuen Welt geworden? Oder ist sie bereits geworden?

hberg95's review against another edition

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4.0

Huxley seems to present a nascent criticism of neoliberal politics that resonates with the thoughts of later thinkers like Foucault, Agamben, and Postman (most explicitly). I think he, and these others, adequately address (and even predict) the crises we're facing today and have ahead of us when it comes to things like propaganda, surveillance, and the construction of unquestionable truths that repress free thought (I'm thinking about Zizek/Jameson's claim that "It's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism").

The curious thing, though, is that I could see alt-right thinkers reading BNW and BNWR and believing them to contain a tacit endorsement of anti-vax policy and COVID denialism. This weird overlap between far leftist and alt-right politics is such a fascinating one, and I feel like reading Huxley complicates things even more for me. I think he's right about the way that media functions as a propaganda machine, I think he's right that we're becoming numb to our own oppression, and I do think that "Big Business" and "Elites" are, in part, to blame for that (i.e. neoliberal politicians, both Democratic and Republican). But I struggle more with his anti-Communist rhetoric (though, they make sense given the context and time period of his writing) and ideas that veer toward the kind of critical theory that looks a lot like alt-right conspiracy thinking. I don't want to dismiss these ideas though, I think a lot of them are valuable critiques and interesting questions. I guess I'm just not sure what to do with some of these ideas.

I love the way Huxley writes though, and I'm sure I'll be revisiting this one.

yvan_noir's review against another edition

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4.0

Mejor que la novela.
Los puntos que trata este ensayo demuestran la lucidez que tenía Huxley como critico de la sociedad. Pero no se limitó a criticarla, sino que también hizo propuestas para resolver los problemas que él veía.

barbaramanatee's review against another edition

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4.0

I really liked this book. Many people told me that it was disgusting and that they didn't like it because it was all about sex. The thing is, the whole point of the book is how the government was using sex as a distraction. It was necessary for the overall message to include sex as a main topic. Everything was done very tastefully, and I think the book had a great message about how we need to be involved in our government and pay attention to what is happening around us