A newer Brave New World.
by Matt
Ridley Scott has confirmed that he’s on board with a new film adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. This is tremendous news, not only because Scott is one of my favourite directors (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator), but because Brave New World was such a prescient novel, describing a dystopic future where society is controlled through drugs, casual sex, and vapid mass culture. Sound familiar?
Huxley’s novel is often juxtaposed against Orwell’s 1984, in which Big Brother uses fear, censorship, and constant surveillance to keep the masses in check. Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves To Death contends that it was Huxley, not Orwell, who was closer to the truth when it came to describing the future and this comic by Stuart McMillen puts the argument in an easy, graphical form for those who think books are icky.
Anything Ridley Scott touches seems to turn to gold. I’m excited for this one. Stuart McMillan is a genius, as were both Huxley and Orwell. I’m reading 1984 right now, nice coincidence.
Give the Postman book a shot, once you’re done with Orwell.