Orwell and Huxley

The future is hard to predict. In fact, the weather channel rarely gets it right. When a believable prediction is made, it is hard to come to a different conclusion, especially without reasonable evidence. So the statement made on the comparison between Huxley and Orwell’s novels makes perfect sense.

Although they are tow completely different extremes, as a comparison article had stated, there are endless connections. Whether it be though characters, slogans, or even basic plot, "it conducts a kind of dialogue between the lines with Huxley’s novel" (121). This quote is in reference to Orwell’s 1984. Many people believe that after reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Orwell was inspired to right his own prediction of the future. However, while I think that there are hundreds of connections between the two, Orwell saw past Huxley’s world, into a world far past A.F. 632.

When Huxley wrote Brave New World in the 1930s, he could not have been more accurate of the times to come. In the 70s, his prediction of soma resembled greatly the hippie generation and their slogan of "do what feels good." However, this generation has now quieted and has moved into a new generation. The generation of today is much more resembled to Orwell’s 1984. Today, parents can track their children by their coats, online companies can track previous purchases, and emails can even display ads related to your email topic. It seems as if our world has shifted between the minds of Huxley and Orwell. As Huxley stated in regards to this, "Mr. Orwell’s forecast in Nineteen Eighty-Four was made from a vantage point considerably farther down the descending spiral of modern history than mine, and is nearly correct" (119). In this line from Huxley himself, he acknowledges that while both him and Orwell were on different paths to the future, it as if Orwell has seen past him.

I found it very interesting that as both of these mens’ careers continued, they seemed to continue justifying their works in regards to each other’s opinions. While reading this article it caught my eye that in 1959 Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited. This new novel "is so shot through with references to Orwell’s novel that it might almost be called a justification of Brave New World in terms of Nineteen Eighty-Four" (120). It seems as though although Orwell was partially influenced by Huxley’s work, Huxley felt that Orwell made good enough points that he changed some of his own opinions. In my opinion, this marks both Huxley and Orwell as two of the most intelligent authors of their time.