Brave New World v. 1984

[flash9286]

Which one is better?

For me it has to be Brave New World. Its written better, creates a better world, and has a better plot than 1984. Plus its just more enjoyable to read.

[chequita guevara]

I've read neither, but between living in fear and misery and being doped up on Soma (was it?) I'll take the latter.

[flash9286]

soma

[Nostromo]

Never read Brave New World. I tried it once, and it made me really, really sleepy... I'll try it again one of these days.

1984 is a great satire of totalitarian regimes. And it seems to have more substance than Brave New World.

[Vesayen]

1984 wins because more people have read it and they feel smart if they contribute to this poll :/

Brave New World is far, far more clever and actually well written literature. 1984 gets a good point across, but is really not well written.

[Elok]

BNW. Orwell's depiction is clever enough, but it's still a distorted image of totalitarianism relying on a faulty understanding of how it all works. Plus some bunk theories about linguistics, etc. Its main contribution to society is to allow people to circumvent Godwin by proxy. Not that BNW was especially likely or realistic either, but it was a more interesting read for me, and speaks to much more fundamental concerns about human life.

[Zkribbler]

If you're talking about the book, 1984 is better. It's "predictions" [if you want to call them that] are much more on their way to becoming true.

For example: Currently, the secure the peace, we must wage a perpetual war against world terrorism; to remain free, we must sacrifice our civil rights, to remain strong, we must not create internal divisions or question the Bush Administation.

War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.

We're engaged in massive DoubleThink: To help the poor, we must set them free of the shackles of financial aid (but we must subsidized megacorporations to keep the strong). The create better public schools, we must make them more efficient by slashing their funding (but we need to create vounchers, so more public monies can go to private schools).

But as for the movies, "1984" was one of the worst ever made. If I were a centipede, I'd give it a hundred thumbs down. It was released in December 1984 "for Academy consideration. I'd have given it the Oscar for worst movie, worst set design, more boring nude scenes and a lifetime achievement for Richard Burton's only bad performance.

On the other hand, Brave New World was a great movie And the nude scenes were stupendous!

[flash9286]

I agree with Vesayen and Elok mostly, 1984 was a lot less enjoyable to read than BNW. Not to mention it had more intellectual substance to me than 1984.

As to whose predications are more likely to come true, I don't think either is very realistic, but I would think BNW utopia would be much more likely. I could see people giving up freedom and liberty for stability and happiness, when I was reading I even thought to myself is this world really that bad.

[Kuciwalker]

BNW was just a crapy book.

[Vesayen]

"... I don´t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you´re claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I´m claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You´re welcome," he said.

[CrONoS]

Brave New World.

Mean more things to me, than 1984.

I have a personnal link with BNR than 1984.

[Verto]

1984 was a good idea, but as a whole I thought it was a bit of a let down.

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by Vesayen
1984 wins because more people have read it and they feel smart if they contribute to this poll :/

Brave New World is far, far more clever and actually well written literature. 1984 gets a good point across, but is really not well written.

Vesayen is an excellent authority on what is well-written.

[chequita guevara]

Actually, aspects of both books are very present in modern life. TV = Soma, and spin = double speak.

[laurentius]

BNW

Its more ironic.