Today is the birthday of Aldous Huxley, author of the classic dystopian novel Brave New World (1923). Comparing Brave New World to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948), cultural critic Neil Postman said: "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism."