Uzzer_lozer19 t1_j11j013 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 12:00 AM

NOTE: Apologies for the terminology as its been a while since I read the book.

It's a valid point but I would go one step further and say there is no option or ability for people in Huxleys book to fit in anywhere other than the "norms" of what society has become.

If someone came off the drugs then they would be different and punished, if they decided not to have sex they would be different, if they decided to procreate without science they would be different.

The female lead in the book sees this difference when she meets the son when he is brought back from the wastelands. She begins to question the life she lives although we are lead to believe she already feels there is something missing or more to be had before this happens.

SnooAdvice4813 OP t1_j11kkah wrote on December 21, 2022 at 12:12 AM

I think your argument is that, for the social stability and the Utopia to be maintained, the social norms would have to become extremely tyrannical. But are the norms truly tyrannical or are they merely practical. There will be norms in any human society, and not all behaviour would be socially acceptable. Thus if those norms work to create a utopia where everyone is happy and satisfied, perhaps they are fine. Though, i would say that the scene which you speak of does a good job describing the fragility of a utopia built on such norms, in observation of most people in the society who have not interacted with this person from the outside world (which is, in fact, an anomaly), they seem to be “all good”.

Uzzer_lozer19 t1_j136zw2 wrote on December 21, 2022 at 9:36 AM

Yeah that's a way of looking at it although I'm nit sure why you're being down voted because of it but maybe there is something I missed from the book.

It's a common theme in most sci fi books and movies where outsiders fight against the social norm. Pop culture examples would be 'Demolition Man', 'The Surrogates', '1984', 'Logans Run' are all the same basic premise