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Huxley said that ''Brave New World'' was inspired by the [[utopia]]n novels of [[H. G. Wells]], including ''[[A Modern Utopia]]'' (1905), and as a parody<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wickes |first1=George |last2=Fraser |first2=Raymond |title=Aldous Huxley, The Art of Fiction No. 24 |journal=[[Paris Review]] |date=1960 |volume=Spring 1960 |issue=23 |url=https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4698/the-art-of-fiction-no-24-aldous-huxley |access-date=24 August 2022 |language=en |issn=0031-2037 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922002704/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4698/the-art-of-fiction-no-24-aldous-huxley |archive-date=22 September 2010}}</ref> of ''[[Men Like Gods]]'' (1923).<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Aldous Huxley |first=Aldous |last=Huxley |title=Letters of Aldous Huxley |chapter=letter to Mrs. Kethevan Roberts, 18 May 1931 |editor-first=Grover |editor-last=Smith |place=New York and Evanston |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1969 |page=348 |quote=I am writing a novel about the future – on the horror of the Wellsian Utopia and a revolt against it. Very difficult. I have hardly enough imagination to deal with such a subject. But it is none the less interesting work.}}</ref> Wells' hopeful vision of the future's possibilities gave Huxley the idea to begin writing a parody of the novels, which became ''Brave New World''. He wrote in a letter to Mrs. Arthur Goldsmith, an American acquaintance, that he had "been having a little fun pulling the leg of H. G. Wells", but then he "got caught up in the excitement of [his] own ideas."<ref>{{cite book |last=Heje |first=Johan |chapter=Aldous Huxley |editor-last=Harris-Fain |editor-first=Darren |title=British Fantasy and Science-Fiction Writers, 1918–1960 |location=Detroit |publisher=Gale Group |year=2002 |page=100 |isbn=0-7876-5249-0}}</ref> Unlike the most popular optimistic utopian novels of the time, Huxley sought to provide a frightening vision of the future. Huxley referred to ''Brave New World'' as a "negative utopia", somewhat influenced by Wells's own ''[[The Sleeper Awakes]]'' (dealing with subjects like corporate tyranny and behavioural conditioning) and the works of [[D. H. Lawrence]].<ref>Lawrence biographer [[Frances Wilson (writer)|Frances Wilson]] writes that "the entire novel is saturated in Lawrence" and cites "Lawrence's New Mexico" in particular. Wilson, Frances (2021). ''Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence'', New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 404-405.</ref>
For his part Wells published, two years after ''Brave New World'', his own Utopian ''[[The Shape of Things to Come|Shape of Things to Come]]''. Seeking to refute the argument of Huxley's
The scientific futurism in ''Brave New World'' is believed to be appropriated from ''[[Daedalus; or, Science and the Future|Daedalus]]''<ref>{{cite book |author-link=J. B. S. Haldane |first=J.B.S. |last=Haldane |title=Daedalus; or, Science and the Future |title-link=Daedalus; or, Science and the Future |year=1924}}</ref> by [[J. B. S. Haldane]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Disturbing the Universe |at=Chapter 15 |first=Freeman |last=Dyson |publisher=Basic Books |year=1976}}</ref>
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