Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Brave New Worldby Aldous Huxley A satirical piece of fiction, not scientific prophecy

“O wonder!How many goodly creatures are there here!How beautious mankind is!O brave new worldThat has such people in’t!”-- William Shakespeare, The Tempest (V, ii)

A piece of literature designed to ridicule the subject of the work. • While satire can be funny, its aim is not to amuse, but to arouse contempt. • Ridicule, irony, exaggeration, and several other techniques are almost always present. What is satire?

Utopian and Dystopian Literature ELF 40S Ms. Van Den Bussche

A Utopia is a place or society that appears perfect in every way. • The government is perfect, working to improve societies standards of living rather then their own, social aspects of the community run perfectly. • There is no war or disease, only peace and happiness. Everyone outside this Utopian society looks to this place in wonder and awe, believing it is completely perfect in every such way. What is Utopia?

Dystopia came from the term Utopia. • It defines a place or society which is in complete chaos. • The citizens are all suffering and are miserable. • Often times in novels what appears to be a Utopian society it first by the visiting protagonist is actually revealed to be a dystopian society. • The citizens are often revealed to live in terror, under complete control by the government, unaware of corrupt world in which they actually live in, or suppressed by the society as a whole. What is Dystopia?

Some Famous/Important Dystopian Novels

“Utopias appear to be much easier torealize than one formerly believed.We currently face a question thatwould otherwise fill us withanguish: How to avoid their becomingdefinitively real ?The utopias are attainable. Life marches towards the utopias. And it can be that a new century begins, a century where the intellectuals and the educated class will dream means to avoid the utopias and to return a non-utopian society, less ‘perfect’ and ‘more free’.” Nicolas Berdiaeff Epigraph of Brave New World – translated from French

HISTORICAL TIMELINE Historical Context • 1879: The first psychological laboratory opens in Germany • 1886: Freud opens his psychology practice in Austria, experimenting with techniques such as hypnosis, free association, and dream analysis. From 1900-1905, he publishes his major works on psychoanalysis, also known as the "talking cure." Freud argued that awareness of the unconscious mindis essential to understanding conscious thought and behavior.. These phenomena include unconscious feelings, unconscious or automatic skills, unnoticed perceptions, unconscious thoughts, unconscious habits and automatic reactions, complexes, hidden phobias and concealed desires.

Historical Context Continued… • 1900: Gregor Mendel’s scientific work on genetic inheritance is rediscovered: The biological techniques used to control the populace in Brave New World do not include genetic engineering; Huxley wrote the book before the structure of DNA was known. However, Gregor Mendel's work with inheritance patterns in peas had been re-discovered in 1900 and the eugenics movement, based on artificial selection, was well established. Huxley emphasizes conditioning; as science writer Matt Ridley put it, Brave New World describes an “environmental not a genetic hell.” Human embryos and fetuses are conditioned via a carefully designed regimen of chemical (such as exposure to hormones and toxins), thermal (exposure to intense heat or cold, as one's future career would dictate), and other environmental stimuli.

1930's-40's: Rise of Fascism and Communism: the dictatorships of Hitler (German head of state from 1934-1945), Stalin (in power in the Soviet Union from 1924-1953), and Mussolini (Italian head of state from 1943-45). Stalin launched a command economy, replacing the New Economic Policy of the 1920s with Five-Year Plans and launching a period of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization. The upheaval in the agricultural sector disrupted food production, resulting in widespread famine, including the catastrophic Soviet famine of 1932–1933. • 1931--Brave New World written: Huxley is inspired by travels to America and a visit to the newly opened and technologically advanced Brunner and Mond plant, part of Imperial Chemical Industries, or ICI, Billingham, and gives a fine and detailed account of the processes he saw. 1932--Brave New World published: Brave New World was inspired by the H. G. Wells's utopian novel Men Like Gods. Wells' optimistic vision of the future gave Huxley the idea to begin writing a parody of the novel, which became Brave New World. Contrary to the most popular optimist 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.” Historical Context Continued…

THE MODEL-T AND THE ASSEMBLY LINE

Setting: 2540 AD; referred to in the novel as 632 years AF (“After Ford”), meaning 632 years after production of the first Model T car • Narration: Third-person omniscient • Point-of-View: Narrated in the third person from the point of view of Bernard or John, but also from the point of view of Lenina, Helmholtz Watson, and Mustapha Mond

Terms and Concepts: • Soma – an anti-depressant, semi-hallucinogenic drug introduced by the World State • Orgy Porgy – group sexual experience to unify all people (sex is not the focus, unity is) • Solidarity Service – group of men and women who gather to take Soma and have a spiritual experience

What is the Brave New World ? • Religion of the World State based on the life and philosophies of Henry Ford. • American car manufacturer, inventor of the assembly line • Invented the Model T car – designed to be affordable to everyone; only available in black • Mass production & mass consumption • Assembly line = improved efficiency • Vertical structure = self sufficient “Our Ford”

What is the Brave New World ? Caste System: • Alphas (Α)– highest, grey • Betas (Β)- mulberry, bottle green • Gammas (Γ)- leaf green • Deltas (Δ)- khaki • Epsilons (Ε)– lowest, black • There are also plusses and minuses, so one can be an Alpha Plus or a Gamma Minus. • Differentiation achieved through oxygen deprivation

What is the Brave New World? Some individuals are created using the Bokanovsky Process • Fertilization process used to create Deltas & Epsilons • Divide fertilized eggs to produce identical twins • Produces up to 96 embryos, but 72 is the average • Primary instrument of social stability

What is the Brave New World ? Government organization “conditions” the lower caste children using Hypnopaedia “The greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time” (28). • Sleep teaching • Moral education • Class conditioning “The child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind” (28-29).

What is the Brave New World ? • A society where all aspects of an individual's life are determined by the state, beginning with conception and conveyor-belt reproduction. • A government bureau, the Predestinators, decides all roles in the hierarchy. • Children are raised and conditioned by the state bureaucracy, not brought up by natural families. • Citizens must not fall in love, marry, or have their own children.

Huxley on advertising, the media, and propaganda "This is rather alarming that you're being persuaded below the level of choice and reason... Advertisement plays a necessary role but the danger of it to a democracy is this: a democracy depends on the individual voter making a rational choice for enlightened self-interest. What these people are doing [advertisers] when their purpose is selling goods, what the dictatorial propagandists are doing, is to try to bypass the rational side of humanity and to appeal directly to these unconscious forces below the surface--so that you are in a way making nonsense of the democratic procedure which is based on conscious choice on rational grounds... Today's children walk around singing beer commercials and toothpaste commercials."

“Manmade utopia is an oxymoron.”- Mike Duran

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley