Symposium Series: Brave New World, Fiction or Nonfiction
Symposium Series:
Brave New World, Fiction or Nonfiction
Format
This is a guided, peer-to-peer discussion for people who have read Brave New World and want to think seriously about its ideas together.
We’ll move past plot summaries and personal reactions and focus instead on the larger questions Huxley raises, especially comfort, control, pleasure, technology, and what happens when stability becomes a higher value than freedom.
The discussion will be moderated, open, and rigorous, with an emphasis on shared inquiry, intellectual honesty, and good-faith conversation.
The Book
Huxley’s novel asks what happens when a society no longer needs fear or force to maintain order, because people willingly trade autonomy for comfort, distraction, and ease. Power in Brave New World is not imposed through violence, but through pleasure, conditioning, and the quiet erosion of dissent.
Its lasting power comes from how attractive the world is, not how brutal it is.
Questions to consider while reading
In what ways does the world of the novel resemble our own?
Where does it differ in meaningful ways?
Where do comfort, convenience, and technological progress genuinely improve human life?
At what point do those same forces begin to hollow out freedom, depth, or individuality?
What aspects of Huxley’s world should we actively resist becoming normalized in our own?
Are there any elements of the novel’s society that modern life has already embraced without much resistance?
Your Hosts
Bradley Mankoff, who taught many political sciences courses and writes about digital censorship.
Anu Pandey, who has a weekly newsletter with thousands of readers, writing about feminization of society and how that affects our lived experiences.