Reading Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World is a memorable
experience and a great trip into the future. I am very happy that I chose this
novel for my first quarter project. The author introduces a very mysterious,
but organized future, “in this year of stability, A. F. 632”, measured the time
after “the introduction of Our Ford’s first T-Model” (4, 52). Huxley begins the
novel in an unclear almost mysterious way. He doesn't introduce the names of
the characters until the third chapter and never describes the true identity of
the Director (the head of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre),
only giving the unclear physical description “Tall and rather thin but upright,
the Director advanced into the room. He had a long chin and big rather
prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking, by his full, floridly
curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty? Fifty-five? It was hard to say.” (4)
The Director is never fully introduced by name or what his position is. From
the beginning he is treated with great respect and seems to be a role-model for
many of the young students following him.
The novel continues
with a mysterious and unclear tone, only revealing specific methods or
procedures in great detail. When the Director speaks of the Bonkanovsky’s
Process, he includes great detail about the results and the social stability
that it creates, “Essentially bokanovskification consists of a series of
arrests of development” (6). It is clear that with the description of these
specific processes the reader is meant to become aware of the certain developments
of society and how they affect everyday life. The Director goes in a very long speech
about the describing the processes in which the population is produced or more accurately
incubated, “the lower the caste the shorter the oxygen” (14). By revealing
small bits of information about the society and explaining in detail the
process of human growth, the author shows how the society is balanced in a very
weird and unusual way. This slowly introduces the different concepts of the new
society to the reader. The mysterious way is a result of the author only
wanting to reveal to the reader the parts of the novel that are important as
the difference in the lives of humans in the future.
Every time the Director
explains the process of growth he leaves out simple details that make it hard
for the reader to see the big picture and to analyze why everything is done in
the way that it is. When speaking of the great change in society, the Director
mentions, “then the Nine Years’ War began A. F. 141. Phosgene, chloropicrin,
ethyl iodoacetate …” and later he mentions the true purpose and outcome of the
war, “there was a choice between World Control and destruction. Between
stability and liberalism, of course” (46, 47, 48). The author does not reveal
more information about the war, which mystifies the society and the basis that
it was built upon. The Director introduces only small parts of the entire
history of the creation of the new system adding mystery. It will be very interesting
to look for more clues about the past or how the society was founded and if
there are any exceptions to the rule.
There are many places where the author chooses to leave out information about the government. I found it very interesting that the actual form of government was not revealed. The only hints or clues left for the reader to interpret led me to believe that the society is actually in some form of a dictatorship. “’future World controllers,’ but correcting himself, said ‘future Directors of Hatcheries’” (13). When I first read this I started to think that these Directors have become controllers and that the system seems to be a dictatorship with the Directors being the leaders and the controllers of the society. This seems to be a very interesting concept and I really want to see how it comes to play in the later parts of the novel. The war seems to be a shifting point in the history of the world, but what was the great significance of that event and what actually happened is simply omitted creating mystery and lack of information around the creation of the society. It will be very interesting to keep track of how the author decides to reveal the events that shaped the society.
Maceij does a good job on these blog posts. I am thoroughly convinced that he read and enjoyed Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and I am fairly likely to do so myself having read his blog posts. I was particularly impressed by his use of the text. He appears to avoid generalizations (better than I did at least) and relies on that which Huxley has stated explicitly.
ReplyDeleteThough difficult to criticize, I think that Maceij could have gone bigger picture. In “Keeping a Clear Mind Creates Perfection” he limits his analysis of the message of the novel to the soma with a few details surrounding it, whereas I thought it would have been interesting to see how and why Huxley creates an alternate reality. In addition, “Strong and Obvious Medium” does a great job of tracing soma in the text, but there is no further articulation of the connections between the different ways that soma is presented. This criticism extends to “The True Purpose of Greek Letters,” where Maceij discusses the literal interpretation of what the different classes of people are like, but doesn’t explain the true purpose of the letters. Finally, my favorite of the posts, is “Information is Overrated,” which is biased because I like the idea that the author leaves out information about the government because this has a clear relationship to my novel, The Trial, in which Kafka gives the reader barely any information.
On the whole Maceij did a great job showing his growth over this quarter, and keeping me interested (perhaps a harder task). I hope he can take my criticism constructively.
-Kevin Klyman