Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1. Brave New Worldby Aldous Huxley "Where is the life we have lost in living?Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"T.S. Eliot

2. Aldous Huxley • Born July 26, 1894 • Grew up in the English intellectual elite • At 16 an eye illness left him nearly blind • Lived in England, Europe, and the U.S. • Wrote 47 books, many essays, screen-plays, etc • Died November 22, 1963

3. How would you feel if we had a dress code based on IQ, so that we’d be identified by a certain colored clothing? And you could only hang out with people who wore the same color?

4. How would you feel if the government told you what job you would be allowed to hold, based on your IQ?

5. What if the government gave you free birth control (encouraging sexual promiscuity) and free drugs (to combat your feelings of anxiety and/or depression)?

6. What would you be giving up to go along with these new “rules” of society?

7. Read the first two paragraphs. ANSWER: • What do you think the motto means? • List all of the descriptive words in the 2nd paragraph that set the mood.

8. UPTOPIA vs. DYSTOPIA Utopia: “an imaginary place … a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions”

9. BNW is a DYSTOPIA Dystopia: “an imaginary place which is depressingly wretched and whose people live a fearful existence”

10. What is the theme of BNW? In Huxley’s own words . . . “the advancement of science as it affects human individuals.”

11. Huxley is seeking to warn us against scientific utopianism.

12. BNW is a SATIRE Huxley is satirizing the social and scientific developments of the first few decades of the 20th century.

13. Economic Context • Written in 1931, published in 1932, after • World War I (1914-1918) • The stock market crash (1929)

14. Economic Context (cont’d) • Henry Ford/Mass Production • Production of Model T began in 1908 • Standard interchangeable parts and assembly-line production (1913)

15. The Model “T” Ford E:\Henry_Ford__The_Model_T_and_the_Model_A.asf

16. Scientific Context • Biology • cloning • genetic manipulation

18. Scientific Context (cont’d) • Psychology • classical conditioning (Pavlov) • behavior modification (reward & punishment ) • sleep teaching (hypnopaedia) • use of propaganda

19. Classical Conditioning • A form of learning in which a reflexive or automatic response transfers from one stimulus to another. • “Pavlov’s Dog”

22. Using the New Science for Social Control • Controlling reproduction • ectogenesis • eugenics (cloning) • chemical conditioning

23. Using the New Science for Social Control • Controlling behavior • Classical conditioning • Hypnopaedia • Psychopharmacology – “soma”

24. What is soma? • A hangover-less tranquilizer—like an opiate combined with Prozac. • Provides a mindless, “imbecile happiness”—an escapism which makes people comfortable with their lack of freedom.

25. Do We Have a BNW Today? • Controlling behavior • public education • nationalism • Controlling reproduction • Sex without kids • Kids without sex

26. Conditioning in Advertising

28. Moral Concerns on Genetic Engineering… • Genetic engineering treats children as products. • Does the ability to control the characteristics of future generations limit their freedom? • Genetic engineering will reduce genetic diversity.