From what I have read from this novel has already disturbed me greatly. This whole idea of "progress" is what gives me the most trouble. After reading about the typical day in this society I was completely and utterly disgusted. The whole "decanting" process is just wrong. How can taking away individuality and uniqueness be qualified as progress? It can't be. It seems to me that this new society has "progressed" in the wrong ways. I suppose that technically speaking, the society has become more technologically and intellectually enhanced, but they are using it the wrong way. They use it to strip the humans (I use that term loosely, for how can they be qualified as human beings when they have no individual conscious?) of any chance of deviation from the structured social classes that they set for them.
Furthermore, I was bothered by the whole concept of the words mother and father as "smut". I especially found it amusing how the director said,"...in those days of gross viviparous reproduction, children were always brought up by their parents and not in State Conditioning Centres." If you ask me, the children are better off without these State Conditioning places. What they do at these centers is cruel and wrong. They electricute babies for crying out loud! How can any mother or father-oops I mean "crash" "crash"- be raising a child worse than that!? Okay, I understand that the whole concept for the electricuting is to keep these children from developing any individual mind frame in which they may acquire traits that are not beneficial to the society as a whole, but honestly this concept is ridiculous. Also, I was really disturbed when I read about these kids already involved in "erotic behavior"! This was seriously twisted, I literraly laughed when the director was explaining how in the old days children didn't start erotic behavior until their twenties and the D.H.C. was stunned about this crazy concept. This whole concept of early sexual behavior was just perverted and wrong, I was kind of disgusted with Huxley for including this.
Lastly, I was amused by the fact that in this society they relate averything to Henry Ford. To me, they seem to take him as their God. I also realized that Christianity no longer is existent in this new world. Once Ford came along, he seemed to have taken that place. Also, it was interesting when the Director used the phrase: "Oh Ford!" I related it to how people in today's society say "Oh my God". This quotation made me realize that God no longer has a place in this new world.
As I have said about twenty times within this blog, this new world that Huxley creates for us really disturbs me. I'm really both interested and a little bit scared to read on.
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Yeah Al, I completely agree with you here on The whole "Oh Ford!" thing. I know I'm not exactly a religious figure here, nor do I even go to church, but I do know that faith and hope and individuality is a central focus and revolving point in every functioning society. It almost seems like this book was written to portray a world on standby, completely frozen communal qualities that helps exhibit progress in such a way that means life is going nowhere very quickly for these people, nowhere explaining my standby point.
ReplyDeleteTrue, this is disturbing, the electricutions and the erotic tendencies children possess at such a young age I mean, but it only shows how much of a contradiction this book has become. If we were to discard of all the color and zest that makes life so vibrant, I believe we would be left with a Brave New World society. They have nothing to enjoy or really feel the meaning of, so why not speed up the process of every aspect of their lives?
Great read Ali :) " for how can they be qualified as human beings when they have no individual conscious" I especially loved that from your blog! But as it says later on in your post, how the children are engaging in erotic behavior, which in the "horrible past" has been happening in the 20s but now we see it happening in the late teens. How do you not see our world turning into Brave New World? Are we not slowly turning into this society of constant happiness? Where we are being condition as young children to believe certain things, are we really individuals or conditioned "tubes" of what our parents have created us into? Also if you are within this society the only reason you would see this as immoral is as you are seeing it now. The immoral acts are done to have the childern become eternally happy in later years. Is that not what we strive for now?
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with your comments on the book so far. The idea of a world like this is disturbing and wrong. One thing I have to remember while I’m reading that this book is describing a dystopia and is kind of mean as a warning for the future. One of your points that caught my attention was the whole “Oh Ford!” thing and how they replaced God with Henry Ford. This goes along with the quote, “There was a thing called Christianity. The new and happier era. All crosses had their tops sawn off and became Ts” This quote really caught my attention and I thought the idea crazy. I also talked about the concept of “mother and father” and idea of family in my blog. I believe that children should come from a man and a women and should be raised as such. But good job on the blog I thought it was very entertaining to read.
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