this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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[–] BanjoShepard 16 points 2 weeks ago

I didn't read "A Brave New World" until I was an adult and I found it disturbing in ways, many of which are showcased in this comic, that I think would have been lost on me in my adolescence. That said, I think an important part of the world building that is left out in this comic is that all people are born in a laboratory and their access to oxygen is deprived in calculated ways to limit their intellectual ability and ability to achieve societal success. Then repeatedly told over a loudspeaker during their infancy what class they belong to instil a deeply engrained knowledge of their place in the world.

[–] Dogiedog64 11 points 1 week ago

The horrific, hilarious irony is that both are true simultaneously. There's no point in debating which kind of dystopia we're in, because both apply, and I hate it here.

[–] supernicepojo 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

WE by Russian writer [Yevgeny Zamyatin] Published in 1921, ten years before Huxley’s Brave New World. We tracks almost 1:1 to BNW in themes and concepts. I wish Zamyatin got the credit he deserved for Huxleys obvious ripoff Edit: bad typo

[–] Spaniard 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

So it's both and it sucks.

[–] Mostly_Gristle 6 points 1 week ago

As Cory Doctorow puts it, "We've Huxleyed ourselves into the full Orwell."

I suspect we're going to find out there'll still be room to cram in some Kafka around the edges.

[–] EvilHankVenture 1 points 2 weeks ago

Huxley isn't fast enough so it's Orwell to get us the rest of the way

[–] DarkCloud 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Meh, they didn't fear these things, they saw them as present in their own time/society... Because you can make these types of statements/stories at any time:

"I think grug enjoys staring into the forest too much, I do not understand what he sees out there."

"I wish someone other than me would disagree with the tribal elders. I will still disagree, but I will hide it."

Neither of them particularly capture what's going on today.