I should clarify: When I say that Brave New World is a dystopia, I'm talking about a kind of story, not necessarily what I think about the scenario. Brave New World's in the genre.
As to the content: From the standpoint of 2010, Huxley's going to come off as kind of a crank to many readers. Others may actually still entertain fears about sex, drugs, genetic engineering, etc. Brave New World seems like a great place to get that conversation going: To what extent should we really be worried about any of those things? In what ways?
But I think that you're actually getting at the most interesting part: How "totalitarian" or "coercive" is a system most people don't really mind all that much? If they were bred this way, that's the way they are. Fait accompli. The rest is arguably just, well, their culture. (Hello, multiculturalism ...) I honestly don't think Huxley thought through the coercion/consent paradox in the scenario he was creating--the reader ought to, though.
You could do a lot with the above in a classroom: not just "Where are we going?" and "What do we think about that?", but "What's coercion and what's not?"
no subject
As to the content: From the standpoint of 2010, Huxley's going to come off as kind of a crank to many readers. Others may actually still entertain fears about sex, drugs, genetic engineering, etc. Brave New World seems like a great place to get that conversation going: To what extent should we really be worried about any of those things? In what ways?
But I think that you're actually getting at the most interesting part: How "totalitarian" or "coercive" is a system most people don't really mind all that much? If they were bred this way, that's the way they are. Fait accompli. The rest is arguably just, well, their culture. (Hello, multiculturalism ...) I honestly don't think Huxley thought through the coercion/consent paradox in the scenario he was creating--the reader ought to, though.
You could do a lot with the above in a classroom: not just "Where are we going?" and "What do we think about that?", but "What's coercion and what's not?"