Seemingly every book list of great books has Brave New World on it. The Random House Board’s list here shows it on slot #5. Since I just reviewed that list, I thought I’d give it another chance. I don’t remember how many times in my life I have tried to read this book. This time I downloaded the audiobook version. I got to about 20% and decided – again – that I couldn’t do it any longer. I am giving up. I can’t read this book.

The book was published in 1932 as dystopian fiction and science fiction. It plays in a technologically advanced future, approximately 600 years after Henry Ford’s era.

The novel takes place in the World State, centered in London. It is a global society in which human beings are no longer born naturally. Instead, they are manufactured in laboratories, genetically engineered, and conditioned from childhood to accept predetermined social roles. People are divided into castes, from the highly intelligent Alphas, who occupy leadership positions, to the less capable Betas, Gammas all the way down to the Epsilons, who perform menial labor. Everyone is taught and indoctrinated to be satisfied with their place in society.

Society maintains stability through several methods:

• Conditioning: Citizens are programmed from infancy and indoctrinated through hypnotherapy to accept the values of the World State.

• Soma: A pleasure-inducing drug eliminates unpleasant emotions and provides an escape from unhappiness.

• Casual sex and entertainment: Personal relationships are discouraged from becoming exclusive or emotionally demanding. Long-term relationships are frowned upon. One-night stands are encouraged and glamorized.

• Consumerism: People are encouraged to buy new products and avoid activities that do not contribute to economic production. Mending clothes and fixing machines is discouraged.

The society appears peaceful and prosperous, but its citizens have little freedom to think independently, experience deep emotions, or pursue meaningful individual lives.

As always, when I do not finish reading a book I refrain from rating it or listing it in my review list. I have learned that I often do not enjoy reading “the classics.”