In Brave New World is a main differents between the beliefs they have at 632 A.F. (after Ford) and today.
you just read over the main variation: Fordism.
Humanity in Brave New World (BNW) believes in Henry Ford an his Massproduction, the Massproduction offered new ways to the leadership. With it they can "produce" everything, from goods untill workers.
It is even said, that Fordism is a Parody to christianity, the bible got exchanged through Fords book of massproduction.
Different to that, the uncivilized people still believe in Jesus, but they also believe in Pookong, Lady of Azoma and Awonawilona.
To praise these gods, they have a certain ritual, the Sacrifice Walk (called it like that in a group work, with 2 classmates):
The Procedure of the Sacrifice Walk:
Masked dancers start to encourage the community to sing with them, then, when the time is right they bring snakes in the middle of a through the crowd formed circle. To the snakes, there are 2 pictures giving, one shows a to the cross nailed man, signifying Jesus. The other shows an eagle signifying Pooking.
After that, "the old man" presents the young boy who will do the Sacrifice Walk to bring Rain, so that the corn can grow.
The Boy starts to walk around the snakes in a circle, while the old men hits him with a whip every time he passes him.
When the Boy falls to the floor, the old man whipes a feather through his blood, caused by the whip, and sprinkles the snakes and the pictures with it.
The more blood the old man can sprinkle, the better the season will be for the people.
After the Ritual the Boy showed manhood and is officially accepted in the community.
The well described ritual should remind us of the worth of a real man, this value gets forgotten when we look at the society in BNW. Manhood once signified strenght, boltness, toughness, manner and was an idiology for everybody, in BNW it is just one individual who was produced during the Process of Artificial Gestation and the Bukanovsky Process.
Through The Leader´s Eyes
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Reservation
The Reservation is a fenced place, for the uncivilized people (for us they actually are civilized). The Reservation contains 4 Subreservations, in our novel they cover an area of about 560,000 km², and the fence is under high voltage, so that the 60,000 uncivilized people can´t escape.
In the Reservation Babies are still naturally born and grown up by their parents, in a family with love and care.
For the "civilized" people the Reservation is dirty and strange, like an attraction which they visit just like we visit a Zoo.
I think the Reservation should symbolise and metaphorise what we already do nowadays, and what we started to do when Aldous Huxley wrote his novel, it symbolizes the steps we take away from our root, from our ancestors and our beliefs and religions.
Because in the modern world we start to lose values and morality.
Every step we take towards progress, we take away from a world of values, a world we once used to know.
In the Reservation Babies are still naturally born and grown up by their parents, in a family with love and care.
For the "civilized" people the Reservation is dirty and strange, like an attraction which they visit just like we visit a Zoo.
I think the Reservation should symbolise and metaphorise what we already do nowadays, and what we started to do when Aldous Huxley wrote his novel, it symbolizes the steps we take away from our root, from our ancestors and our beliefs and religions.
Because in the modern world we start to lose values and morality.
Every step we take towards progress, we take away from a world of values, a world we once used to know.
Conditioning
All human in Brave New World are conditioned by Sleepteaching, Hypnopaedia, and conditioning through Stimulation.
Sleepteaching in first place tries to keep the balance between the different casts, the individuals are educated to be happy as what they are, to hate the lower casts and adore the higher casts.
The result of this is a total hierarchy.
The Hypnopaedia is really simple, it is basically repeating sentences and slogans (which define and form your opinion in life).
It´s the most efficient brain-washing process, because you will keep the effects of sleepteaching lifelong and omnipresent.
The Stimulating is just as simple as the Sleepteaching, certain things will be symbolised with electric shocks or sirens, so that the individual who is stimulated will hate these certain things. It can just be done the other way around too.
Stimulating is as effective as Hypnopaedia and achieves the same goal: persisting Stability.
Sleepteaching in first place tries to keep the balance between the different casts, the individuals are educated to be happy as what they are, to hate the lower casts and adore the higher casts.
The result of this is a total hierarchy.
The Hypnopaedia is really simple, it is basically repeating sentences and slogans (which define and form your opinion in life).
It´s the most efficient brain-washing process, because you will keep the effects of sleepteaching lifelong and omnipresent.
The Stimulating is just as simple as the Sleepteaching, certain things will be symbolised with electric shocks or sirens, so that the individual who is stimulated will hate these certain things. It can just be done the other way around too.
Stimulating is as effective as Hypnopaedia and achieves the same goal: persisting Stability.
The Bukanovsky Process
The Bukanovsky Process (BP) is described in the first chapter of "Brave New World", this process is reserved to the Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. BP is the following step of The Process Of Artificial Gestation.
Where now is born one Baby, the BP is "producing" a maximum of 96 human and an average of 80 human.
Alphas and Betas
kept in incubators to mature individually
1 egg —> 1 embryo —> 1 individual
Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons
after 36 hrs, undergo Bokanovsky's Process
1 egg —> 8-96 embryos —> 8-96 identical individuals
In the highly-controlled world, the ability for the government (World Controllers) to control the number of humans is important, as is the ability to control the function of those humans.
BP, combined with Podsnap's Technique (for speeding up the maturation of fertilized eggs from an ovary) is used to produce massive numbers of a genetic group: "Fertilize and bokanovskify ... and you get an average of nearly eleven thousand brothers and sisters, all within two years of the same age."
The record number of twins from a single ovary at the London Hatchery is 16,012 . Centers in tropical climates can get better numbers: Singapore created over 16,500, and Mombasa has touched 17,000.
The order of events during The BP:
1. 36 hrs after fertilization, embryos given 8 mins exposure to x-rays
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
2. 2 days later, embryos are chilled
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
3. Embryos exposed to near-lethal dose of alcohol
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
4. Embryos finally allowed to develop
As Dr. Barbara J. Becker said: "The principle of mass production at last applied to biology."
Where now is born one Baby, the BP is "producing" a maximum of 96 human and an average of 80 human.
Alphas and Betas
kept in incubators to mature individually
1 egg —> 1 embryo —> 1 individual
Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons
after 36 hrs, undergo Bokanovsky's Process
1 egg —> 8-96 embryos —> 8-96 identical individuals
In the highly-controlled world, the ability for the government (World Controllers) to control the number of humans is important, as is the ability to control the function of those humans.
BP, combined with Podsnap's Technique (for speeding up the maturation of fertilized eggs from an ovary) is used to produce massive numbers of a genetic group: "Fertilize and bokanovskify ... and you get an average of nearly eleven thousand brothers and sisters, all within two years of the same age."
The record number of twins from a single ovary at the London Hatchery is 16,012 . Centers in tropical climates can get better numbers: Singapore created over 16,500, and Mombasa has touched 17,000.
The order of events during The BP:
1. 36 hrs after fertilization, embryos given 8 mins exposure to x-rays
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
2. 2 days later, embryos are chilled
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
3. Embryos exposed to near-lethal dose of alcohol
a few die
a few divide in two
most divide in four
some divide in eight
4. Embryos finally allowed to develop
As Dr. Barbara J. Becker said: "The principle of mass production at last applied to biology."
The World State
In this utopian literature, it happens to be a World State(WS)(which was built on the ruins after the 9 Year´s War, which destroyed civilization as we know it), which is seperated into 10 pieces, each of these parts has it´s own Controller (the 10 pieces are only linked through their motto and their structure), in our story the Controller is Mustapha Mond.
The WS is well structured, every human has an employment he is made for. The structure of the WS is based on the motto: "Community, Identity, Stability".
The Community consist of 5 classes: beginning with the Alpha Pluses (the highest class, with the most intelligence and knowledge) inbetween are the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas, and ending with the Epsilons (working class, does the work nobody else would do). The lower you are, the less personality you have.
Your Personality is determined by the Predestination and the Conditioning.
The WS clears itself (through the command of the World Controllers) of Threats, they are sent to Islands (e.g. Iceland, Falkland Islands...), because their ravolutionairy thoughts would break the balance of the WS.
The WS is well structured, every human has an employment he is made for. The structure of the WS is based on the motto: "Community, Identity, Stability".
The Community consist of 5 classes: beginning with the Alpha Pluses (the highest class, with the most intelligence and knowledge) inbetween are the Betas, the Gammas, the Deltas, and ending with the Epsilons (working class, does the work nobody else would do). The lower you are, the less personality you have.
Your Personality is determined by the Predestination and the Conditioning.
The WS clears itself (through the command of the World Controllers) of Threats, they are sent to Islands (e.g. Iceland, Falkland Islands...), because their ravolutionairy thoughts would break the balance of the WS.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
The Main Characters
• Bernard Marx - a highly intelligent but introverted Alpha plus scientist. The popular theory is that too much alcohol was accidentally put into his blood-surrogate when he was a fetus.
• Lenina Crowne - a typical alpha girl - very pretty, superficial and promiscous-, who works in the London Hatchery and Conditioning Center.
• Fanny Crowne - Lenina`s colleague, friend and confidante, a very sensible girl
• Henry Foster - an enthusiastic scientist who Lenina has an affair with.
• The DHC - the pomopus Director of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in London.
• Mustapha Mond - formerly a physicist, now one of the ten World Controllers
• John - a young "savage" discovered in an Indian reservation who quotes Shakespeare all the time.
• Linda - John`s mother, a sloppy and ugly middle-aged woman,brought to the reservation years ago by the DHC
• Helmholtz Watson - an alpha writer and Emotional Engineer and friend of Bernard and John
• Lenina Crowne - a typical alpha girl - very pretty, superficial and promiscous-, who works in the London Hatchery and Conditioning Center.
• Fanny Crowne - Lenina`s colleague, friend and confidante, a very sensible girl
• Henry Foster - an enthusiastic scientist who Lenina has an affair with.
• The DHC - the pomopus Director of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in London.
• Mustapha Mond - formerly a physicist, now one of the ten World Controllers
• John - a young "savage" discovered in an Indian reservation who quotes Shakespeare all the time.
• Linda - John`s mother, a sloppy and ugly middle-aged woman,brought to the reservation years ago by the DHC
• Helmholtz Watson - an alpha writer and Emotional Engineer and friend of Bernard and John
The Plot of Brave New World
The first three chapters present most of the important ideas or themes of the novel. The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning explains that this Utopia breeds people to order, artificially fertilizing a mother's eggs to create babies that grow in bottles. They are not born, but decanted. Everyone belongs to one of five classes, from the Alphas, the most intelligent, to the Epsilons, morons bred to do the dirty jobs that nobody else wants to do. The lower classes are multiplied by a budding process that can create up to 96 identical clones and produce over 15,000 brothers and sisters from a single ovary.
All the babies are conditioned, physically and chemically in the bottle, and psychologically after birth, to make them happy citizens of the society with both a liking and an aptitude for the work they will do. One psychological conditioning technique is hypnopaedia, or teaching people while they sleep- not teaching facts or analysis, but planting suggestions that will make people behave in certain ways. The Director also makes plain that sex is a source of happiness, a game people play with anyone who pleases them.
The Controller, one of the ten men who rule the world, explains some of the more profound principles on which the Utopia is based. One is that: "history is bunk"; the society limits people's knowledge of the past so they will not be able to compare the present with anything that might make them want to change the present. Another principle is that people should have no emotions, particularly no painful emotions; blind happiness is necessary for stability. One of the things that guarantees happiness is a drug called soma, which calms you down and gets you high but never gives you a hangover. Another is the "feelies", movies that reach your sense of touch as well as your sight and hearing.
After Huxley presents these themes in the first three chapters, the STORY BEGINS: Bernard Marx, an Alpha of the top class, is on the way of falling in love with Lenina Crowne, a woman who works in the Embryo Room of the Hatchery. Lenina has been dating Henry Foster, a Hatchery scientist. Lenina likes Bernard but doesn't fall in love with him. Falling in love is a sin in this world in which one has sex with everyone else, and she is a happy, conforming citizen of the Utopia.
Bernard is neither happy nor conforming. He's a bit odd; for one thing, he's small for an Alpha, in a world where every member of the same caste is alike. He likes to treasure his differences from his fellows, but he lacks the courage to fight for his right to be an individual. In contrast is his friend Helmholtz Watson, successful in sports, sex, and community activities, but openly dissatisfied because instead of writing something beautiful and powerful, his job is to turn out propaganda.
Bernard attends a solidarity service of the Fordian religion, a parody of Christianity as practiced in England in the 1920s. It culminates in a sexual orgy, but he doesn't feel the true rapture experienced by the other 11 members of his group.
Bernard then takes Lenina to visit a Savage Reservation in North America. While signing his permit to go, the Director tells Bernard how he visited the same Reservation as a young man, taking a young woman from London who disappeared and was presumed dead. He then threatens Bernard with exile to Iceland because Bernard is a nonconformist: he doesn't gobble up pleasure in his leisure time like an infant.
At the Reservation, Bernard and Lenina meet John, a handsome young Savage who, Bernard soon realizes, it´s the son of the Director. Clearly, the woman the Director had taken to the Reservation long ago had become pregnant as the result of an accident that the citizens of Utopia would consider obscene. John has a fantasy picture of the Utopia from his mother's tales and a knowledge of Shakespeare that he mistakes for a guide to reality.
Bernard gets permission from the Controller to bring John and Linda, his mother, back to London. The Director had called a public meeting to announce Bernard's exile, but by greeting the Director as lover and father, respectively, Linda and John turn him into an obscene joke. Bernard stays and becomes the center of attention of all London because he is, in effect, John's guardian, and everybody wants to meet the Savage. Linda goes into a permanent soma trance after her years of exile on the Reservation. John is taken to see all the attractions of new world society and doesn't like them. But he enjoys arguing with Helmholtz about them, and about Shakespeare.
Lenina has become popular because she is thought to be sleeping with the Savage. Everyone envies her and wants to know what it's like. But, in fact, while she wants to sleep with John, he refuses because he, too, has fallen in love with her- and he has taken from Shakespeare the old-fashioned idea that lovers should be pure. Not understanding this, she finally comes to his apartment and takes her clothes off. He throws her out, calling her a prostitute because he thinks she's immoral, even though he wants her.
John then knows that his mother is dying. The hospital illustrates the Utopia's approach to death, which includes trying to completely eliminate grief and pain. When John goes to visit Linda he is shocked; his display of grief frightens children being taught that death is a pleasant and natural process. John grows so angry that he tries to bring the Utopia back to what he considers sanity and morality by disrupting the daily distribution of soma to lower-caste Delta workers. That leads to a riot; John, Bernard, and Helmholtz are arrested.
The three then confront the Controller, who explains more of the Utopia's principles. Their conversation reveals that the Utopia achieves its happiness by giving up science, art, religion, and other things that we prize in the real world. The Controller sends Bernard to Iceland, after all, and Helmholtz to the Falkland Islands. He keeps John in England, but John finds a place where he can live a lonely life, complete with suffering. His solitude is invaded by Utopians who want to see him suffer, as though it was a spectacle; when Lenina joins the mob, he kills himself.
All the babies are conditioned, physically and chemically in the bottle, and psychologically after birth, to make them happy citizens of the society with both a liking and an aptitude for the work they will do. One psychological conditioning technique is hypnopaedia, or teaching people while they sleep- not teaching facts or analysis, but planting suggestions that will make people behave in certain ways. The Director also makes plain that sex is a source of happiness, a game people play with anyone who pleases them.
The Controller, one of the ten men who rule the world, explains some of the more profound principles on which the Utopia is based. One is that: "history is bunk"; the society limits people's knowledge of the past so they will not be able to compare the present with anything that might make them want to change the present. Another principle is that people should have no emotions, particularly no painful emotions; blind happiness is necessary for stability. One of the things that guarantees happiness is a drug called soma, which calms you down and gets you high but never gives you a hangover. Another is the "feelies", movies that reach your sense of touch as well as your sight and hearing.
After Huxley presents these themes in the first three chapters, the STORY BEGINS: Bernard Marx, an Alpha of the top class, is on the way of falling in love with Lenina Crowne, a woman who works in the Embryo Room of the Hatchery. Lenina has been dating Henry Foster, a Hatchery scientist. Lenina likes Bernard but doesn't fall in love with him. Falling in love is a sin in this world in which one has sex with everyone else, and she is a happy, conforming citizen of the Utopia.
Bernard is neither happy nor conforming. He's a bit odd; for one thing, he's small for an Alpha, in a world where every member of the same caste is alike. He likes to treasure his differences from his fellows, but he lacks the courage to fight for his right to be an individual. In contrast is his friend Helmholtz Watson, successful in sports, sex, and community activities, but openly dissatisfied because instead of writing something beautiful and powerful, his job is to turn out propaganda.
Bernard attends a solidarity service of the Fordian religion, a parody of Christianity as practiced in England in the 1920s. It culminates in a sexual orgy, but he doesn't feel the true rapture experienced by the other 11 members of his group.
Bernard then takes Lenina to visit a Savage Reservation in North America. While signing his permit to go, the Director tells Bernard how he visited the same Reservation as a young man, taking a young woman from London who disappeared and was presumed dead. He then threatens Bernard with exile to Iceland because Bernard is a nonconformist: he doesn't gobble up pleasure in his leisure time like an infant.
At the Reservation, Bernard and Lenina meet John, a handsome young Savage who, Bernard soon realizes, it´s the son of the Director. Clearly, the woman the Director had taken to the Reservation long ago had become pregnant as the result of an accident that the citizens of Utopia would consider obscene. John has a fantasy picture of the Utopia from his mother's tales and a knowledge of Shakespeare that he mistakes for a guide to reality.
Bernard gets permission from the Controller to bring John and Linda, his mother, back to London. The Director had called a public meeting to announce Bernard's exile, but by greeting the Director as lover and father, respectively, Linda and John turn him into an obscene joke. Bernard stays and becomes the center of attention of all London because he is, in effect, John's guardian, and everybody wants to meet the Savage. Linda goes into a permanent soma trance after her years of exile on the Reservation. John is taken to see all the attractions of new world society and doesn't like them. But he enjoys arguing with Helmholtz about them, and about Shakespeare.
Lenina has become popular because she is thought to be sleeping with the Savage. Everyone envies her and wants to know what it's like. But, in fact, while she wants to sleep with John, he refuses because he, too, has fallen in love with her- and he has taken from Shakespeare the old-fashioned idea that lovers should be pure. Not understanding this, she finally comes to his apartment and takes her clothes off. He throws her out, calling her a prostitute because he thinks she's immoral, even though he wants her.
John then knows that his mother is dying. The hospital illustrates the Utopia's approach to death, which includes trying to completely eliminate grief and pain. When John goes to visit Linda he is shocked; his display of grief frightens children being taught that death is a pleasant and natural process. John grows so angry that he tries to bring the Utopia back to what he considers sanity and morality by disrupting the daily distribution of soma to lower-caste Delta workers. That leads to a riot; John, Bernard, and Helmholtz are arrested.
The three then confront the Controller, who explains more of the Utopia's principles. Their conversation reveals that the Utopia achieves its happiness by giving up science, art, religion, and other things that we prize in the real world. The Controller sends Bernard to Iceland, after all, and Helmholtz to the Falkland Islands. He keeps John in England, but John finds a place where he can live a lonely life, complete with suffering. His solitude is invaded by Utopians who want to see him suffer, as though it was a spectacle; when Lenina joins the mob, he kills himself.
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