I am these days reading Huxley's "Brave New World", I found that there are unmistakable similarities with Orwell's 1984, in the sense of stark and futuristic London, where there is an all powerful and all knowing authority and everyone else is just a empty face walking down the street or working in the offices. But yet the two books are so so different in the way they showcase this alienation.. while 1984 had all its frugality, the Brave New World instead was full of unbridled excesses.. while 1984 was about rewriting the truth.. in Brave New World there was no truth, it's all make belief. in 1984 it is oppression that makes people forgo rights, in other it is pleasure that makes them do it. in 1984 there is an all engrossing pessimism, the other has a overwhelming consumerist nihilism.
This is from Wikipedia about the differences between these two seminal work of dystopian literature.
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What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. In 1984, people are controlled by inflicting pain.In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.
[...]
Just so that you know, 1984 is my favorite book.
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