I always tend to start a book and around half way into it, put it down for quite some time and attempt to pick up where I left off which usually results in just restarting the book from the beginning. After doing this several times with Brave New World, I’ve finally finished it. Now I wish I hadn’t put it off for an extended period of time. Phenomenal book, of course. Between 1984 and this, I find myself gravitating more so towards Brave New World.
“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears—that’s what soma is.”
