Aldous Huxley

40 Years Ago, Apple Got Our Current Tech Dystopia Dead Wrong

The 1984 commercial based on 1984 is like taking a sledgehammer to Orwell's memory, but big tech has proved itself an entirely different kind of big brother.

Ridley Scott Says He ‘Should Have’ Directed Blade Runner 2049

In a new interview, Scott reveals that he regrets bowing out of the Blade Runner sequel due to scheduling.

An Immigration Advisory for Fictional Dystopias

The author of The City Inside takes us on an educational tour of the near future, pointing out some not-so-bad-really options.

The Showrunner for Peacock’s Brave New World Discusses the Challenges of Adapting the Classic Dystopia

One of Peacock’s flagship premieres, as it launched this past week, was Brave New World, a TV adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel, one of the oldest and most iconic takes on the science fiction dystopia. But it’s hard to adapt a future made with the knowledge of 1932 without making a few modifications. Talking…

The First Brave New World Trailer Suggests a Land of Sex and Drugs Is Maybe Kinda Bad?

Alden Ehrenreich has moved from that galaxy far, far away to a “brave new world.” NBC’s streaming platform Peacock has revealed the first teaser trailer for Brave New World, the dystopian tale of a society driven by sex, controlled by drugs, and trapped in a caste system that punishes choice. Brave New World stars Ehrenreich…

Solo‘s Alden Ehrenreich Will Star in the Brave New World TV Series

The much-shuffled Brave New World TV series just got a big boost with some major casting news: Alden Ehrenreich, last seen piloting the Millennium Falcon in Solo: A Star Wars Story, will play lead character John the Savage, the outsider who upsets the status quo in the latest take on Aldous Huxley’s classic dystopian novel.…

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Is Finally Getting a Modern TV Adaptation

Hollywood’s been trying to get a new live-action adaptation of Aldous Huxley’sBrave New World off the ground for years, and it’s finally about to happen thanks to the USA Network, surprisingly. Today, The Hollywood Reporter says the network announced that Fear the Walking Dead producer David Wiener has signed on to write and showrun the…

Why Brave New World is No Longer the Terrifying Dystopia it Used to Be

Brave New World used to be one of the most terrifying stories about a false utopia. It gave us the concept of “test tube babies,” and its name became synonymous with technological progress run wild. But many of the things Aldous Huxley predicted are coming true, and it turns out they’re not so scary. Ranked…

Economists Who Study Science Fiction Will See Science More Realistically

There are definitely plenty of economists who love science fiction — Paul Krugman comes to mind immediately. But economics could still benefit from more attention to the genre, argues economist Ha-Joon Chang from Cambridge University. But Chang’s reasons for recommending SF might be a bit surprising. Rather than promote SF as a way to make…

Vintage Zine Art Is Like Staring Into The Dreams Of A Lost Subculture

Lenny Kaye, the long-time guitarist for the Patti Smith Group, amassed a collection of 1500 mimeographed science fiction zines from the 1940s to the 1970s, and they’re on display this weekend at the New York Art Book Fair. These zine covers are wild and in some cases kind of alarming. Writing in Thought Catalog, Mark…

“In 2000 the younger readers of this article, who will then be in their seventies, will probably be inhabiting a world in which the old are provided with opportunities for using their experience and remaining strength in ways satisfactory to themselves, and valuable to the community.” — Aldous Huxley in the January 1950 issue of…

The Most Frequently Banned Book of 2012: Captain Underpants?

Yep. Self-appointed guardians of morality aren’t trying to protect our kids from To Kill a Mockingbird nearly as often as the Captain Underpants books, which to be fair have “underpants” in their title. That’s the shocking revelation from this year’s Banned Books Week. The American Library Association released its list of the most challenged books…

Aldous Huxley’s Predictions for 2000 A.D.

There seems to be two occasions when people most enjoy making predictions: anniversaries (think the American Bicentennial, New Year’s, etc) and dates that include round numbers (any year ending in zero). Such was the case in 1950 when many people halfway through the 20th century enjoyed predicting what life would be like in the year…

The ‘Banned Books’ list is a hilariously depressing history of people missing the point

Educators thought Orwell’s 1984 was promoting Communism. They thought Huxley’s Brave New World made promiscuous sex “look like fun,” and the book is “centered around negative activity.” They thought the point of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-5 was to promote “deviant sexual behavior.” People burned Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings outside a church because they thought it was…

Speculating about future science isn’t irresponsible — if anything, it’s the reverse

We tend to think there’s a hard-line division between science (which is based on hard evidence and empiricism) and science fiction (which is more speculative and often somewhat fanciful.) But over in Wales Online, Cardiff University’s Joan Haran argues that the boundary between science and science fiction is always changing. Top image: Charles Sturt University…

Read Aldous Huxley’s review of 1984 he sent to George Orwell

Several months after George Orwell’s dystopian classic 1984 was published in 1949, Aldous Huxley sent a letter to his former French pupil. The Brave New World author had received a copy of 1984 from the publisher at Orwell’s behest, but his poor eyesight prevented him from finishing the book for several months. In his letter…

“Better Book Titles” has been rocking the hell out of science fiction classics lately

The “Better Book Titles” blog is one of the internet’s great treasures — and if you haven’t checked it out lately, you’ve missed some total gems. The blog is just what it sounds like — people post their versions of books with more appropriate titles. Above are Twilight as reimagined by Liz Lay, Dune as…

The Most Frequently Banned or Challenged Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2010

It’s Banned Books Week, and the American Library Association has a list of the most frequently “banned or challenged” books of each year, from 2001 to 2010. And the list is pretty interesting reading — the Harry Potter books were on top of the list in 2001 and 2002, then dropped to number two in…

10 Science Fiction Books That Changed the Course of History

Many science fiction books imagine strange new worlds — but only a few science fiction books have actually changed the world we live in. A few visionary authors have managed to make such an impression that they left the world a vastly different place. Here are 10 seminal science fiction novels that changed the world…

10 Classic SF and Fantasy Books That Were Originally Considered Failures

Some of science fiction/fantasy’s classic books failed to win over readers at first. And the publishers of some of SF’s most beloved works were convinced they had a disaster on their hands. Here are 10 masterpieces that were deemed failures. Top image: Lord of the Rings watercolor by David T. Wenzel Little, Big by John…