A Dystopian Connection: George Orwell's Journey as Aldous Huxley's Student
🎥 Watch the video on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok.
What two books come to mind when you think about a dystopian future? let me guess…
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell.
The two are always mentioned together, so I found it really interesting that Orwell was a student of Huxley’s in college.
In 1932, Huxley published Brave New World to great acclaim: a dystopian novel where the state controls its citizens through unrestricted pleasure.
But before becoming a famous author, Huxley taught French in England, and one of his students was Eric Blair, who later adopted George Orwell as his pen name.
Nearly 3 decades after graduating, Orwell published 1984 to great success. His take on the future was a bit different than his old teachers’ though - the state still oppressed its citizens, only this time by the use of pain and constant monitoring.
Even after all that time and success, the two authors still had respect for each other.
Orwell sent Huxley a copy, and got a letter back that celebrated 1984, saying “how profoundly important” of a book it was.
Which view of the future do you think was right?
