Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Did i read this for the plot? Absolutely not. The premise is literally "a guy is stranded on an island and while recoving, he gets a full tour of their lives, economy and, philosophies."
Is the writing great? Not really. Brave New World was definitely better.
But then why did I read it? I don't know.
I wanted to see what else Huxley has up his sleeves - and I was surprised. So while I struggled through a lot of this and kept checking my pages to see if I was finished yet. There are a few things this book discusses I want to add my two cents to, so there are now SPOILERS coming.
(view spoiler)[First of all, for being written in the 60's, I was surprised to see that Pala, who is the utopia Will Farnaby finds, is in the far east and most certainly not a White Island. There are several eastern influences (Sanskrit, Buddhism, Taoism, clothing, etc.) and there are several instances where Western society is named as a bad example. I found no racist tropes. (I might have missed some, but it has an overall positive view.)
My favourite part was probably the Mutual Adoption Club (MAC). In Pala, every person has their biological parents and then several more, including their children and so on. Everyone knows that saying "it takes a village to raise a child" and I absolutely believe this is true. The idea of having several parents a child can confer to and live with is ingenious. It means that the importance of parenting is not weighed down by a single person (usually the woman) and depending on the circumstances, they can turn to the person who is most likely to help them. And if there are troubles at home, everyone can cool off by keeping one's distance for a time.
Talking about children, this story has ACTUAL FREE BIRTH CONTROL. And it's not just free but also readily available for everyone. So they have fewer children in general (and fewer child deaths) and everyone is responsible when it comes to sex. Honestly, I was amazed.
And who knew that artificial insemination existed in 1962? I certainly didn't. This plays partly into the MAC, that family is not just genetics, and that parents sometimes decide to find a sperm donor for their next child. (What I was not much of a fan of the implication that they are "improving their genetics" and their IQs. Also, with most of them being half-siblings, they should seriously check their family trees.)
There is quite a bit of talk about the "mind-body" and the importance of doing things with both your body and your mind focused. I am not a very spiritual person but I agree that there is a psychological component when it comes to such things as healing, for example.
They also include this in their school system which was very focused on keeping in mind that people are diverse and there are very different ways of learning. I am unsure if their classes would actually be feasible but I enjoyed their philosophy on them and their general idea.
When it comes to putting people into classification and boxes (e.g. Peter Pans and Muscle People), I feel conflicted. I understand the reasoning behind it and all but in the end, I am unsure if you can always classify every single person. But with such a fluent system that they have, I am sure they can work around that.
When it comes to their work ethic, they have a very different stance than most countries. Basically, they say, the satisfaction of the people is worth more than maximum efficiency. This may sound like a wild concept but honestly, I wholeheartedly agree with it. (hide spoiler)]