WHAT’S SO AWESOME ABOUT IT？此书妙在何处？

The power of the book comes from its brilliant portrayal of a society which seems to have everything, and yet is lacking what truly makes people human – free will. The cinematic style perfectly encapsulates a variety of views towards the society, and gives a panoptic vision of what might happen if capitalist interests were taken to the extreme, with no regard for human morality or ethics. As much as Huxley’s world appears idyllic, readers can always tell that there is something intrinsically wrong with the World State and its machinations.

这本书最震撼人心的地方在于它描绘了一个看起来无所不有的完美社会，但事实上它却泯灭了使人之所以为人的最宝贵的东西——自由意志。小说电影镜头式的描写风格完美地缩影了人们对于社会彼此不一的看法，并一阵见血地揭示了资本主义关系发展到极致时社会的全貌——在那样一个社会里，人类的道德和伦理将一文不值。尽管赫胥黎笔下的乌托邦世界美好到令人沉醉，读者们却能在阅读过程中发现存在于世界国及其运转机制中的那些根深蒂固的弊病。

THIS IS GREAT TO READ WHEN…

This is the kind of book that will change your entire outlook on life. In his exploration of happiness and free will, Huxley paints a disturbing picture of what the price can be for having what you want. This makes it a book that rewards reading at any time and at age, although you would probably benefit from it most during your rebellious years as a teenager. Pick it up whenever you next see it lying around in a bookshop.

这是一本能够彻底刷新你世界观的巨作。在对快乐和自由意志的探索中，赫胥黎揭示了当人类社会终于步入“要风得风、要雨得雨”的“理想”状态后，人们需要为此付出的惨痛代价。这一深邃的主旨使本书值得在任何时间和年龄段阅读，当然，如果能够在叛逆桀骜的青春期读到它，一定会使你受益更多。下次在书店里邂逅这本书的时候，就请你毫不犹豫地买下它吧！

IF YOU LIKED THIS, THEN YOU SHOULD TRY...其他推荐阅读

And Brave New World is just one of a number of dystopian novels that came out of the 20th century. The work of Orwell and Zamyatin has already been mentioned, but there are also novels like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go; for films, you should try out Battle Royale or Blade Runner, or closer to our own time you could read or see The Hunger Games. The desire to look into the future and predict what our society might be like is a constant fascination, and in these works we imagine just how bad it might get (if only to make us feel better about what it’s like now). Just don’t get too upset!

《美丽新世界》只是20世纪众多反乌托邦作品中的一部。奥威尔和扎米亚京的作品上文已经提及了。此外，还有加拿大女诗人玛格丽特·阿特伍德的《使女的故事》以及日本作家石黑一雄的《别让我走》。同题材的电影作品，推荐日本电影《大逃杀》或美国电影《银翼杀手》，如果想看更现代一些的作品，那么《饥饿游戏》就不可错过了。洞穿未来、预言人类社会的走向是文艺作品中永恒的主题。只不过在上面这些作品中，我们只是看到了未来最坏的一面(当然它们也让我们真切地感受到今天之美好)。也不要太悲观嘛！

喜欢的螃友们赶紧读起来啦！一书在手，天下我有。