Aldous Huxley: (1894-1963)
- English novelist (histories, poems, essays on sociology, etc)
- Was born in Godalming
- 1908-13: Studied in Berkshire
- Got a disease, he was blind for some months
- 1916: he received his B.A: in English in Oxford a became a writer
- First Novel: (1921) Crome Yellow , a criticism of society
- In the 1930s: Brave New World , it was a critical vision of the future because of the high technologies which were developed ; He got the idea to write a dystopian from the utopian novel “Men Like Gods” from H.G.Wells which gave a positive vision of the future
My own definition of dystopia: (opposite of Utopia)
Dystopia can be a history of a non-existing society which turned into bad. Characteristically for a dystopian society is authoritarian government. There is no personality for the individuals and the communication is limited. Moreover in Dystopia is no freedom for the human beings. They have no chance to enlarge their knockledge in topics like politics, culture or economic. They learn a simple structure and this is the only way how human beings can/ must live.
Summary of Chapter 1:
The novel “Brave New World” from Aldous Huxley is a dystopia. It takes place in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre in 632 years “after Ford”.(a new calculation of time begins)
The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning is giving some students a tour of a factory that produces human beings. He explains how the human beings were conditioned for their predestined roles in the World and that human beings no longer produce their own living offspring. Rather they surgically removed ovaries produce egg cells that are fertilized in artificial receptacles and incubated in special bottles in the Bottle Room. After that they go to the social predestination room, where they will get some oxygen, if they need it.
The Hatchery has a five cast system: The five castes are Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. And the fetus is destines for a particular caste.Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon undergo the Bokanovsky Process, which involves shocking an egg that it divides up to a certain number of embryos (average 72, max.96), which then develop into human beings. The Alpha and Beta embryos never undergo this dividing process, which can weaken the embryos. Alphas and Betas were the intelligence casts.
The Director explains that the Bokanovsky Process alleviate keeping the social stability because the clones it produces are predestined to perform identical tasks at identical machines.
After fertilization, the embryos travel on a conveyor belt in their bottles for 267 days, the gestation time period for a human fetus. On the last day, they were decanted in the Decanting Room.
The entire process is designed to mimic the conditions within a human womb, including shaking every few meters to familiarize the fetuses with movement. Seventy percent of the female fetuses are sterilized; they are known as “freemartins.”
The fetuses were treated in different ways depending on their castes. Oxygen deprivation and alcohol treatment ensure the lower intelligence and smaller size of members of the three lower castes. (Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon) Fetuses destined for work in the tropical climate are heat conditioned as embryos; during childhood, they undergo further conditioning to produce adults that are emotionally and physically suited to hot climates. The artificial process, says the Director, aims to make individuals accept and even like “their inescapable social destiny.”
Then the Director and Henry Foster introduce Lenina Crowne to the students. Her job is to immunize the fetuses destined for the tropics with vaccinations for sleeping sickness. Mr. Henry Foster goes on to explain that future rocket-plane engineers are conditioned to live in constant motion. And the future chemical workers are conditioned to tolerate toxic chemicals.
Function of the first Chapter:
I think the first Chapter with his sarcastic humor shows that the author mocks the technological society in the 1930s. He wants to state that a society which is only technological based is not a utopia. (a perfect world)
The calculation is named by an auto maker which shows the technological relationship. In some ways you can see Ford as a Religion because Fort replaced god. (anno domino)
Furthermore the cloning of human beings is technological managed and how many members of each caste will be needed, the Hatchery will produce that number of human beings.
The cloning process is one of the tools the World State uses to implement its following motto: “Community, Identity, Stability.”
Some parts seem to make clear that if there exist social stability(cast system), the individuals are not able to work in another function.(another cast) If they do not think, there will be no way out of this society. But if someone gets an idea it could turn into a bad future.
Beliefs of BNW:
- Community, identity, stability
- History is bunk
- Everyone is happy
- Conditioning, predestination
Identity:
Genetic and behavioral engineering achieves identical people in every strata of the BNW society. That’s why these people have no individuality.
Community: Bahavioral engineering, conditioning, manipulation => sharing the same values, no reflection and no critical thinking
Stability:
The social system in Brave New World depends on a stabil class system which is stabil as long as the people who live in that system. Furthermore, there are no rebellions but complete plannings for all processes in the future. Moreover, they keep the people who live there happy by giving them soma a special drug without any side-effects and the people were kept dumb because all books are forbidden. Only entertainment which is chosed by the government is allowed.
Consumption:
The consumption has a big role in BNW. The consumption of drugs is legal and everyone takes it. But they have also some entertainments which were completely normal. Movies and community singeries. Besides, they have free sex. And all theses entertainments should keep the people from critical thoughts.
Charakters:
John: (the Savage)
- Baptist, character growing and changing
- Not very intelligent
- Stands for humanism and represent the author’s values (I want freedom, danger, sin etc)
Lenina:
- “Was and will make me ill…”
- No monogamous relationships, wants to save the Savage
Bernard Marx:
- Some of the “intelligent”
- A puny physique => because of alcohol
- Happy with his life
Helmholtz Watson:
- Nearly achieves a heroic status as poet, loyal friend and rebel, manipulator with emotions and language
- Friendship with John with a lot of emotions and discussions
Mustapha Mond:
- World Controller of Western Europe
- Young scientist
- He collects forbidden literature: (Shakespeare)
Fanny Crowne:
- Conventional values of her caste and society
Henry Foster:
- Lenina’s lover, perfectly conventional Alpha male, his casual attitude about it, infuriate the jealous Bernard.
Linda:
- John’s mother, and a Beta, she became pregnant with the Director’s son, she got lost in a storm but a group of Indians found her and brought her to their village. Linda could not return to the World State with a baby. = a social outcast.
The Director:
- administrates the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre.
Popé:
- Popé was Linda’s lover on the New Mexico Savage Reservation
The Warden:
- the talkative chief administrator for the New Mexico Savage Reservation. He is an Alpha.
Function of the Reservation:
The Reservation in Brave New World is what is left of the old world after the Nine Years War. It is what life used to be like before everyone was "civilized." The Nine Years War was a global war that brought about the utopian society Brave New World. The citizens of this Brave New World are no longer "viviparous," they are now bred in factories. All these citizens are conditioned to be who and what the government wants them to be. The citizens of Brave New World also have no clue what a mother and father are, because they think it is normal to produce children like machines.The reservation, located in New Mexico, consists of a community named Malpais. ("bad country") The people were treated badly.
One of the only places left on earth where people remain in a state of nature. The Savages were not considered worth civilizing and were therefore placed in a fenced-off area which contained some of the worst land.
Glossary of Important Term which were mentioned in BNW:´
A.F.: Annum Ford, the year of our Ford. A dating term which plays on the modern system of naming years after the birth of Christ, by replacing A.D. with A.F.
Alpha: The highest caste in society
Asafetida: A gummy resin with an obnoxious odor
Beta:The second highest caste group. They are allowed to interact with Alphas, but not lower castes such as Epsilons or Gammas.
Bokanovsky Group:A group of identical twins created by dividing a single egg many times. This process is only used on Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons.
Boskage: A mass of trees or shrubs; a thicket
Bottling: The embryos and babies are grown in bottles for nine months rather than in a womb.
Caste System: The society exists as a five-tiered caste system consisting of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Alpha caste members are the ruling elite, with each respective caste becoming progressively less intelligent and smaller in stature.
Centrifugal Bumble-puppy: A game in which children fling a ball onto a platform. The ball then rolls down the interior and lands on a rotating disk that flings the ball in a random direction, at which point the ball must be caught.
Corporeal:Relating to the body
D.H.C. for Central London: The Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, the man who leads the students on a tour in the first few chapters
Decanting Room: The room in which the babies are removed from the bottles
Deltas: A mid-level caste of society. They are mostly factory workers and laborers.
Economic Collapse:Part of the period following the Nine Years' War is called the Economic Collapse.
Ectogenesis: something outside of the body rather than inside; in this case growing embryos in bottles rather than in a mother's womb
Epsilons:The lowest caste of the Utopian society. They are malformed and quite stupid.
Fretsawyer: Someone who creates ornamental works
Freud:Society believes that Ford and Freud are the same man, but that Freud is the name Ford used when writing about psychology. In reality Freud is considered the father of modern psychoanalysis.
Gamete: A cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization
Gammas: A low caste in society. They are mostly laborers and menial workers.
Hypnopaedia:Sleep learning, which is part of the conditioning process. Huxley pretends that it was discovered that people could learn ethics while sleeping, and it is used extensively to help teach lessons that ensure social stability.
Malthusian Belt:Thomas Malthus is famous for showing that the world population grows more rapidly than the supply of food. Huxley uses the word to mean a contraceptive, hence limiting the growth in population.
Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning: Pavlov showed that animals can be trained to do something through a system of rewards and punishments. This process is used on all babies to condition them to like or dislike certain objects. It is one of the main conditioning techniques which helps ensure social stability.
Nine Years' War: A war which led to almost total destruction. After a severe economic crisis the world submitted to the World Controllers, who took over and redefined the social order.
Obstacle Golf:One of the adult games
Orgy-porgy: A Solidarity Service hymn and dance which is used to signify the coming together of many people into a unified oneness. It is used during Bernard's Solidarity Service and later when the Savage confronts the crowd.
Phosphorous Recovery: The cremation factories are able to recover 99% of the phosphorous contained in each body, so that it can be reused as a raw material or in fertilizer.
pneumatic: Containing air; Huxley uses the term to mean buxom.
Technique: A way of ripening all the eggs of the ovary at once so that thousands of siblings can be made within a two year period.
Pregnancy Substitute: An intravenous injection that tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant and that balances the hormones
Red Rocket:The transatlantic jetliner
Reimann-surface tennis: An adult game
Soma: A narcotic used to create pleasant sensations without any after-effects. The word is actually taken from a drug that exists in India.
Viviparous:Bringing forth live young rather than eggs
Some Important Vocabulary:
Egg cells – ova
Predestined – vorherbestimmt
Offspring - nachkommen
To fertilize – jmf befruchten
Ovaries – Eierstöcke
To destine – bestimmen
Vaccination – die Impfung
