Brave New World

Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2540 (632 A.F.—"After Ford"—in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that combine profoundly to change society. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with Island (1962), his final novel.

In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003, Robert McCrum writing for The Observer included Brave New World chronologically at number 53 in "the top 100 greatest novels of all time", and the novel was listed at number 87 on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Title

Brave New World's title derives from Miranda's speech in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:

This line itself is ironic; Miranda was raised for most of her life on an isolated island, and the only people she ever knew were her father and his servants, an enslaved savage, and spirits, notably Ariel. When she sees other people for the first time, she is overcome with excitement, and utters, among other praise, the famous line above. However, what she is actually observing is not men acting in a refined or civilized manner, but rather representatives of the worst of humanity, who betrayed or tried to betray their brothers or leaders to get ahead. Huxley employs the same irony when the "savage" John refers to what he sees as a "brave new world."

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas (including nearby islands such as those of the Caribbean and Bermuda).

The term originated in the early 16th century after Europeans made landfall in what would later be called the Americas in the age of discovery, expanding the geographical horizon of classical geographers, who had thought of the world as consisting of Africa, Europe, and Asia, collectively now referred to as the Old World (aka Afro-Eurasia).

The term was first coined by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The Americas were also referred to as the "fourth part of the world".

Usage

The terms "Old World" vs. "New World" are meaningful in historical context and for the purpose of distinguishing the world's major ecozones, and to classify plant and animal species that originated therein.

One can speak of the "New World" in a historical context, e.g., when discussing the voyages of Christopher Columbus, the Spanish conquest of Yucatán and other events of the colonial period. For lack of alternatives, the term is also still useful to those discussing issues which concern the Americas and the nearby oceanic islands, such as Bermuda and Clipperton Island, collectively. This usage is seen as problematic by many for its narrowness of perspective and implication that discovery by European explorers was the beginning of history for the Americas.

Throwbacks (The Naked Brothers Band album)

Throwbacks is the final album recorded by Nat & Alex Wolff under the name "The Naked Brothers Band" and the soundtrack to the third and final season of the show of the same name. Under the working title "Songs of Season 3," due to post-production problems, it was originally cancelled, until it was announced on September 19, 2013 to be released as a Nat & Alex Wolff album instead of a Naked Brothers Band album on October 15, 2013, under the title Throwbacks. One song that was recorded for the intended Season 3 soundtrack, "Face in the Hall", which later appeared in the iCarly soundtrack, will not be in the Throwbacks album.

Background

Writing

Nat Wolff developed a lot while writing the soundtrack. He had developed a lot as a song[-writer] since the band's second album, which was released earlier the same year. Many songs from the album had a sense that the writer(s) were inspired by old artists, such as the track "The World (As We Know It Today)" was a modern version of Billy Joel's song We Didn't Start the Fire. The song "Yes We Can" (which features Natasha Bedingfield and Leon Thomas III) was inspired by the presidency of Barack Obama.