1. The life of Huxley
Born into a wealthy,
intellectual family

2. Was left partially blind after an illness in college…
…so he couldn’t become a doctor

3. Huxley formed a lifelong friendship with D. H
Huxley formed a lifelong friendship with D.H. Lawrence, and gained literary prominence with his first novel

4. 1937- Huxley moves to California, writes film scripts, essays, utopian novel Island

5. Experiments with drugs, writes The Doors of Perception, which gives Jim Morrison a name for his band

6. Dies of cancer on November 22, 1963

7. Brave New World
Huxley’s 5th novel was published in 1932, after he traveled extensively. Often seen as his response to the American lifestyle and a response to H.G. Well’s utopian Men Like Gods

8. The World State:
Community,
Identity,
Stability
How are these values implemented?....

9. Children are not born through sex but through genetic engineering in test tubes. Women no longer give birth and are on strict birth control.

10. The Caste System
Fetuses are reared in accordance with a caste system of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Alphas are conceived individually, while lower castes are created through Bokanovsky’s Process, which splits one egg many times.

11. Children learn about the world through a hypnopaedic process, meaning that they listen to phrases and principles during sleep, which conditions them to feel and act according to the World State.

12. ‘Everybody belongs to everyone”
Sex is rampant; there are no monogamous relationships. The characters regularly engage in “orgy-porgies”

13. Time is no longer measured according to the life of Christ but according to the life of Henry Ford; it is currently 632 AF. Consumption is all-important; nothing is used twice and everything is made on the assembly line
Why do you think Ford is considered a deity in The World State?

14. Soma: “Everybody’s Happy Nowadays”
To make sure that everyone is in a constant state of contentment, the characters have been conditioned to take the drug soma whenever they might feel unhappy. This drug keeps them in a state of pleasure.
- Is there a modern-day equivalent of soma? What could be its downsides?