Hmmm . . . that could never happen in real life!

The Chronicle of Higher Education has one of those . . . life is stranger than fiction essays . . .

No outlet here for anything approaching a normal biological urge; in fact, the use of the words "father" and "mother" is cause for scandal. The human need for affection is denied, and with it, much of human nature itself. The Director of Hatcheries describes any "emotional" and "long-drawn" interactions with the opposite sex as "indecorous," his lack of interest in romance contrasting with the novel's title, which was inspired by the rapturous words of Miranda in Shakespeare's The Tempest, after she falls head-over-heels, humanly in love: "Oh brave new world, that has such people in't!"

It is precisely this exultant, hormonally charged intoxication that is anathema in Huxley's Brave New World, where there are no parents to love children, or sons and daughters to return the sentiment. Indeed, there is no genuine love at all. In what many might perceive as a positive departure from human nature, sexual jealousy is also abolished, since "everyone belongs to everyone else." Yet love, sex, and jealousy are primal aspects of the human psyche; to deny them is to deny our biological selves.