西方文化必读书籍之《美丽新世界》

准备去英国留学或者对西方文化感兴趣的童鞋们，今天推荐的这本小说可以列入书目表了~~

WHAT’S THE BOOK ABOUT？内容概览

Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World is among the greatest novels of the 20th century, combining sharp social commentary with a terrifying vision of the future. The book follows a number of characters as they navigate a seemingly utopian world in which everyone is always happy but has no real control over their own lives. Through a combination of genetic engineering, sleep-hypnosis, and a wonder-drug, the World State extends their power over every aspect of a global society, and it seems unlikely that any of our protagonists will make it out alive.

奥尔德斯·赫胥黎(译者注：英国著名作家)的这部反乌托邦小说《美丽新世界》无疑是上个世纪最伟大的作品之一，对现实的辛辣讽刺和关于人类社会未来的骇人预言贯穿全篇。小说中，主人公们意外闯入了一个乌托邦的世界，由此开始了一段惊心动魄的漫游。他们发现，虽然这个世界里的每个人都看似永无烦恼，但他们却无法真正掌控自己的生活。通过使用基因工程、催眠疗法、迷幻制剂等控制手段，世界国将其权力触角伸向了社会的方方面面。我们的主人公似乎是很难逃离这个“美丽新世界”了。

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND IT？小说背后的故事

Huxley was deeply affected by the events of the depression on Britain in 1931, which brought massive unemployment and social difficulties. Inspired by the utopian novels of H.G. Wells, he decided to explore what it would be like to live in an apparently perfect world, where mass production was applied to every part of society, making financial problems a thing of the past. Although George Orwell, author of the equally popular dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, accused Huxley of deriving his work from the Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin’s workWe, Huxley denied the link. Many of his characters were derived from real people in the economic landscape of the time, such as Mustapha Mond, who is inspired by Sir Alfred Mond, the head of a technologically advanced power plant that Huxley visited shortly before starting Brave New World.

赫胥黎本人曾深受1931年英国经济危机的影响，这场前所未有的大萧条引致了居高不下的失业率和无数社会问题。受到赫伯特·乔治·威尔斯描绘乌托邦的小说的启发，他也打算用笔探索一下在一个表面上看起来完美无瑕的世界里生活是怎样的一番体验。在这样的一个世界里，大规模生产已经渗透到了社会的每个环节，财政经济问题似乎已经彻底变成了过去式。虽然乔治·奥威尔，一位同样以其反乌托邦小说《1984》闻名于世的作家，批评赫胥黎的小说完全取材于叶夫根尼·扎米亚京的《我们》，但赫胥黎否认了二者间的联系。事实上，《美丽新世界》的许多人物都来源于当时英国社会中的真实人物，比如穆斯塔法·蒙德的原型就是一位现实中存在的阿尔弗雷德·蒙德先生，他是赫胥黎在开始写作《美丽新世界》前所参观的一家工艺先进的能源工厂的主管。

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。