Because it wasn’t used as state propaganda during the cold war

1984 was a dystopia that had impact because of eerie parallels with an emerging political reality of totalitarianism in many parts of the world, evident from what happened in and up to ww2 - and then during the cold war with reports of the kind oppression that was going on behind the iron curtain.

Brave new world was looking further into the future, toward our days of happy-pills, ubiquitous pornography, endless distractions, emerging bio technological possibilities. So it was prescient to some degree but also premature and hence it’s not referenced quite as often.

1984 connected with reality from the get go, it hit home with what people were beginning to fear in the 20th century. Brave New World is only now in the 21st century connecting in a similar way with what people are apprehensive about in what the world is like in our days. Though I’d say with the last 5-10 years, especially the path that Russia and China have treaded, the 1984 type dystopia suddenly competes again in relevance with that of Brave New World, trumps it even.

This is all to offer an answer to the question - that with two great books of equal merit, the one published more timelier, more connected and relevant to the state of the world at the time of publication and following few decades, will be the one more known and referenced.

Too much sex to be marketed or taught to teens.

i LOVE brave new world! i think about it all the time

It’s very well known. One of the most famous in the genre, easily top 5 if not the 2nd most famous.

How much more famous do you expect it to be?

Why do you think it’s not?

I mean, it’s one of the 2 most famous dystopian novels on the planet. Brave New World and 1984. Hunger Games? Hunger Games doesn’t even get to be in the running, it gets to fuck off to YA flavor of the month land with the rest of it’s ilk.

We read it in class and it’s the only time an entire class has hated a book. Maybe that’s why? It’s definitely still overhyped though. 1984 and clockwork orange are much better dystopians.

It is…in high school it and 1984 are often taught one after the other. Not your experience I take it?

If anyone reading this is still not convinced of the relevance in Brave New World’s social critique you should consider reading Neil Postman’s classic “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, in which Postman builds an entire criticism of modern media (pre socialmedia) with his premise centered around Brave New World. In the text Huxley is right and Orwell wrong. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the Huxley fans commenting here have probably read it. Postman is pretty standard college reading, too.

I can’t say I’m a big fan of Huxley’s writing style but his critique in Brave New World left a big impact on me after reading it in a high school lit class. Huxley’s habbit of veering off into drawn out philosophical diatribe always takes me out of the story. He does the same thing in Chrome Yellow. I guess a good story and strong philosophical leanings aren’t always compatible, or maybe I’d rather read Asimov?

Hunger games is derivative trash. Who’s talking about it outside of, like, YA circles?

Feel like Orwell was taking the violence and use of brutal power and reality control of changing the narrative so much that you never knew what was real Totalinitariasm route. While Huxley was more about a more subtle gentler, take the Soma and overindulge your every whim and nothing ever happened or is happening route. Another Great take would be
Bradbury’s Farenheight 451. Of the 3 I think at the time of publishing 1984 was the most believable, especially to anyone who had any experience with Communism and it probably still resonates today. But if we look at the West today it appears that it’s much more like Brave New World. Hunger Games though I’m sure great doesn’t strike me as something original and as profound as these earlier works with 1984 at times being seriously terrifying.

I think they’re both talked about. Possibly 1984 is more discussed because for a while it seemed like if FB or Twitter shut down someone’s account conservatives would screech about how, “This is just like 1984.”

One of the most well known and influential dystopian novels versus a silly kids book series, and OP thinks BNW is the loser?

Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Animal Farm were all standard reading at my high school; the four dystopian standards really.

A lot of people dismissing OP, but I think Brave New World isn’t as well known as 1984, Hunger Games, or even, I don’t know, the Handmaid’s Tale. I think it’s worth wondering why.