CostasNarrativeXP 2026 New Year feature
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
Published in February 1932
In a genetically-engineered utopia where comfort is mandatory and individuality is extinct, the World State maintains total stability at the cost of the human soul.
Chapter 1-18
00:27 1 The Hatchery mass-produces citizens via an assembly line, biologically predestining Alphas and Betas for intellect and leadership, while conditioning the rest for manual labor.
30:33 2 The state uses hypnopaedia and shocks to condition citizens to hate nature but crave expensive sports, ensuring constant consumption and social stability via manufactured "morals."
48:50 3 Mustapha Mond, Lenina, and Bernard, contrasts the World State’s sexual freedom with past prudishness, presents soma, critiques conditioning, and foreshadows tension through Bernard’s discontent and the Savage Reservation.
1:30:05 4 Lenina agrees to spend a week with Bernard; he and Helmholtz, both dissatisfied Alpha-plus men, discuss their emptiness and frustration with the World State’s shallow society.
1:55:29 5 Lenina and Henry enjoy drug-fueled, mindless sex. Meanwhile, Bernard’s mandatory group orgy fails to cure his loneliness, leaving him more alienated from society than before.
2:22:15 6 Bernard’s rebellion collapses into conformity with Lenina; he faces exile after the Director’s slip, panics over punishment, and travels with Lenina to Savage Reservation, soma-induced.
2:55:42 7 Bernard realizes John is the Director’s son; John introduces Linda, who explains her promiscuous life on the Reservation and the hostility it provoked among other women.
3:25:37 8 As outcast, John finds solace in literature. Bernard deceptively offers him escape to expose the Director, while John mistakenly expects a glorious paradise: “O brave new world!”
3:57:06 9 Bernard gets permission to bring Linda and John to London; meanwhile, John secretly enters Lenina’s room, contemplates her lustfully, then panics and leaves when a helicopter arrives.
4:06:03 10 The Director plans to exile Bernard, but bringing Linda and John exposes the Director as John’s father, humiliating him and forcing him to flee in front of the crowd.
4:17:09 11 Bernard gains fame from John and Linda; Linda escapes into soma, John is showcased, but rejects Lenina’s sexual advances after a feelie, retreating instead to Shakespeare.
4:51:25 12 Bernard’s party collapses when John refuses to appear, ruining Bernard’s popularity. Helmholtz faces censure for a poem on solitude and is inspired when John reads Shakespeare to him.
5:14:01 13 Lenina pursues John, arrives determined, he professes idealized love but rejects sex, insults her, she hides, then an urgent call sends him away.
5:33:28 14 John visits his dying mother, Linda, but her drug-induced confusion and "death-conditioned" children haunt him. Linda dies in traumatic distress.
5:51:25 15 Distraught by Linda’s death, John incites a "Soma Riot," throwing the drug away. Bernard cowers while Helmholtz joins the rebellion. Police restore order with soma-gas and arrest all three men.
6:06:14 16 Mond explains that stability requires sacrificing art and science. He exiles Bernard and Helmholtz to an island; Bernard collapses in terror, while Helmholtz welcomes the challenge. Mond reveals his own past choice.
6:29:08 17 John rejects the World State’s artificial stability, choosing the "right to be unhappy." He embraces suffering, disease, and fear over a shallow existence devoid of God, nobility, and soul.
6:48:35 18 John retreats to a lighthouse to purify himself, is rediscovered, dragged into a soma-fueled orgy, awakens in horror at his moral collapse.
Characters
Director of D.H.C - The authoritative figure who leads the student tour and explains the technical "birth" process
Henry Foster - The Director's assistant and a high-caste Alpha who is obsessed with statistics and the efficiency of the hatchery
Lenina Crowne - A Beta-minus worker on the assembly line, specifically the "Embryo Store", who is described as uncommonly pretty
Mustapha Mond - Resident World Controller for Western Europe, sophisticated superior leader who enforces social stability through censorship while secretly possessing forbidden knowledge
Bernard Marx - An Alpha-Plus specialist in Hypnopaedia whose physical stuntedness causes him to feel like a social outcast
Fanny Crowne - A Beta technician in the Bottling Room who acts as a strictly orthodox representative of the World State’s social rules
Helmholtz Watson - Alpha-plus lecturer and writer, is admired and impressive but secretly frustrated by the emptiness of his work and the World State
Linda - John’s mother, originally from the World State, whose inability to adapt back exposes the cruelty and emptiness beneath its comforts
John (the Savage) - Born on the Reservation and raised outside the World State, shaped by isolation and Shakespeare, he embodies moral seriousness and conflict with "civilized” values
Costa's Wordbook
Vitaminized adj (of food or drink) having added vitamins (Vit tim min nysed)
Pare v trim (something) by cutting away its outer edges (Pear)
Whittle v carve (wood) into an object by repeatedly cutting small slices from it
Stave n a vertical wooden post or plank in a building or other structure (Stayve like save)
Weal n a red, swollen mark left on flesh by a blow or pressure (wheel)
Coccyx n a small triangular bone at the base of the spinal column in humans and some apes, formed of fused vestigial vertebrae (Cock six)
Benighted adj in a state of pitiful or contemptible intellectual or moral ignorance (be Nighted)
Perchance adv arch. by some chance, perhaps
Shantung n a dress fabric spun from tussore silk with random irregularities in the surface texture, primarily to a durable silk fabric from China's Shandong province 山東 (shen Tongue)
petit beurre n fr a sweet butter biscuit (petty burr)
Unanimity n agreement by all people involved; consensus (u nen Nim mity)
Ineradicably adv in a way that cannot be changed or removed (in eRa dic cably)
Turpitude n depraved or wicked behaviour or character (Tur pit tude)
Complete Features
Count of Monte Cristo, Songs of Dead Dreamer, Last Unicorn, Brothers Karamazov, Fellowship of the Ring, Winnie the Pooh, Jane Eyre, Angels & Demons, Perfume, Great Gatsby, Jekyll & Hyde, Maigret, 1984, Metamorphosis, Dracula, Don Quixote, Dorian Gray, Anne Frank, Lord of the Flies, Liar's Poker, Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, Great Expectations
Milestone
2021: 0 Full soundtrack, no editing, wife commentary, summary outline, irregular release
2022: 2.0 DaVinci editing, wordbook, book intro, AI host + illustration, chapter summary, scheduled release
2023: 2.1 Descript, CapCut, Suno score, character intro, weekly release
2024: 2.2 Standard condenser mic, Audacity, ChatGPT annotation + illustration, timestamp, 1-hour content
Patreon: costasaudiobook
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