My thoughts on Brave New World (after the first reading assignment)

I promise I am not just repeating what was discussed last Wednesday. My schedule last week was extremely hectic and I never had a chance to post this. I wrote it BEFORE class on Wednesday, I promise.

I'm not going to lie, I have read Brave New World prior to this class. While I found it odd, I did find it intriguing. In no way would I wish to live in this world that is so label oriented and prejudiced – but that does not make it any less intriguing. This kind of plays into what I said on the first day of class when we went around and shared our ideal utopia. Mine included a lack of brands, so people could not judge others based on what they have or are wearing.

Already we know that in Brave New World the characters are labeled as Alphas, Betas, Epsilons, Gammas, Deltas, etc as their social class level based upon their PREDESTINED embryos. Each child is then trained to hypnopaedia to believe in the established prejudices. There are also specific colors that each class of character wears, and then dislikes and judges others if they are wearing a different classes color. This is the part that ties into my utopia. They are disliking someone based on the color they wear (similar to a brand) rather than the good quality that person (← notice I did not say individual) has or contributes to the society.

On to other topics of Brave New World...

The whole idea of everyone belonging to everyone, and how having a steady relationship with just one person is disgusting completely boggles my mind especially since I feel that this is a recurrent theme in almost all the utopian books we have read. What do these authors find so wrong with loving one person, belonging solely to them? I find this one of the best things in life...the search to find this person, the memories you've made along the way, the ability to know that you share something special with that person and they share something special with you. This is a large aspect of society. Finding that one person to spend forever with. Granted, marriage is not as sacred anymore nor are there as many couples getting married these days, yet they live together and share other responsibilities. Why, in most of the utopian novels we've read, is marriage and monogamy so heavily frowned upon?

Sex is everywhere in this novel, the naked playgrounds for children, how its wrong for a child to not want to engage in sexual activities, he was not conditioned well enough, etc. the sexophones, the orgies...I do not really know how to take this. We go from a land of Virgin Maries and now free love...kind of like the Oneida Community and how they had the big circular room with little alcoves to do the deed. Sex is also not used for procreation in this novel, but rather recreation and pleasure. Other societies and time periods did view sex as only for procreational uses and so this may come as novel to readers of that or earlier time periods. We know it is not for procreation from the first chapter. Every person is a test tube baby and all the females carry the 1-4 contraceptives (in fashionable cases too!). Then, when we meet Linda, we find that Lenina's reaction to her son and even Linda's own reaction were along the lines of disgust. Why is natural pregnancy and childbirth so disgusting?

Hypnopaedia. When they first brought up the idea, I was thought that this would be really useful for education! But then that was quickly shot down since they already tested that theory out. Either way, the idea itself is interesting, if not a little scary. Can you imagine having a machine playing in your consistently with the same messages over and over again until it basically becomes apart of you. You believe in something, but do not really know why you believe in it...that thought is terrifying. If this was used today, I do not feel that it would better society, but rather hinder it. It could be used in evil ways. I think the way it is used in Brave New World is in humane. In our society we learn from our family and peers and hypnopaedia takes away from this. We also learn from our mistakes – which this society seems to make few of (from their own perspective).

Soma. A pill to take whenever you feel distraught! How ingenious! Or is it? I feel that the harder emotions, stressful, confusing, etc. times are the times that help develop us: our character, strength, success...the list goes on! Soma appears to be an “antidepressant” or a knock out pill. Some to take to make you feel good, to leave the moment so you don't have to deal with the situation. While that may seem appealing at times, I feel that a person is missing out on so much personal development. You don't know how strong you are until you win the battle, whatever it may be.

I do enjoy this novel. It reminds me in some ways of the movie Gattaca, which I also enjoyed. It definitely makes me appreciate the life I have...and kind of makes me fear progress for the sake of progress. We shall see how the story progresses and how my thoughts may change.

Word Count: 874