Brave New World Post 4: Truth or Happiness

Aldous Huxley's Brave New World utilizes a dystopian society, layered with complex symbols and motifs which Huxley uses to discuss the various topics of the book. One message is more dominant and  provocative than the rest: Are true peace and happiness worth the sacrifices they demand? Huxley's novel is set in a world that was almost nearly destroyed by a massive world war. Frightened by the prospect of extinction, the human race united under one World State, and handed over complete control to the government. Over time, this control began to reach farther and farther, until it reached a point at which free thinking human beings ceased to exist in the civilized world. Babies are hatched from bottles, love between two people is abolished while sex celebrated and socialized, genetic traits are predetermined, people are categorized into social castes based on the intelligence levels they are assigned, and children have their government's morals and values drilled into their head through sleep conditioning. Literature, religion, history, science, and art only exist in twisted or perverted forms, and have all been repurposed to meet the needs of the World State. All in the name of happiness. Mustapha Mond, one of the World Controllers, and one of the only characters in the book who can truly think for himself, explains, "Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And of course whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness  rather than truth and beauty that mattered" (228). Essentially, in order to prolong its existence into eternity, the human race eliminates all forms of higher thinking.

Huxley elaborates on this concept with an extended metaphor throughout the book, in which he compares this new society to a horde of insects. Much as ants and bees exist only as tools to serve for the good of their colony, the people of this civilization are "just a cell in the social body" (90). Nobody's life has any distinction from anyone else's. People work their jobs and mingle with one another until they die. Those who, for whatever reason, are unable to adjust, become outcast from the rest of the horde. What Huxley is saying through the use of this insect metaphor, is that without art, literature, science, and god, humans achieve nothing beyond their own survival. They remain fixed in a perpetual and unchanging state, where people live, work and die. No anthill ever became anything more than just an anthill, because insects don't have the capacity to think, create, or act beyond their natural instincts. So what does this mean Huxley is saying about truth, beauty, and happiness? Using John, who grew up outside of the World State and was raised by the ancient works of Shakespeare, as his mouthpiece, Huxley discusses what it means to be human. Disgusted by civilization's abundance of comfort and instant gratification, John protests that part of being human is being unhappy. It is "the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind" that make living worthwhile (240). Without these things, humans can't have aspirations beyond their primal urges to survive and reproduce. Truth and unhappiness, Huxley argues, are what set us apart from the insects. 

Brave New World is a book that I highly recommend everyone reading at least once. This is a book that has made me consider the fundamental roles of art and government from perspectives I never before considered. Huxley's writing style is incredibly eloquent while not at all overbearing, and while some portions of the book border on science fiction, I think this is a book that anyone can pick up. The story is rich with philosophical and moral questions that constantly provoke the thoughts of the reader. The book is also fascinating when one looks at the context in which it was written. It was first published in 1939, predating Adolf Hitler's rise to power by a year. In some ways Huxley foretold many of the dangers that could arise from a totalitarian government, an issue that would mold history from World War II all the way up to modern day.   

Brave New World Post 3: John Savage

The civilization that Aldous Huxley creates in his Brave New World is largely inhabited by a brainwashed population. Individuality is almost extinct, as many people have been genetically modified to have similar traits to the rest of their generation. The modern culture has no substance, no literature, philosophy, religion, or art. All activities are purposed for achieving immediate gratification. When they experience displeasing emotions such as boredom, pain, sorrow, or anger, they self induce mental 'holidays' through the use of a hallucinogen called soma. Society is engineered so that people aspire to achieve continuous pleasure and nothing else. "There isn't any need for civilized man to bear anything that's seriously unpleasant. And as for doing things–Ford forbid that he should get the idea into his head. It would upset the whole social order if men started doing things on their own" (236).

Contrasted with disturbing dystopia of Huxley's World State cities are the 'savage reservations,' places that, because of their lack of resources, were not worthwhile to civilize. Children are still born of their mothers rather than decanting bottles, people grow old, disease has not been eradicated. The natives, referred to as Indians, worship Jesus and Pookong. All of this is, of course, absurd and disgusting to the people of the modern world, and they only visit these reservations as one might visit a zoo.

It is from one of these reservations that one of the main characters comes. John, or Mr. Savage as he later comes to be called, was born and raised in the New Mexico reservation. But his mother, Linda, was originally from the civilized world, making John an outcast from the other native people. It was only after she was stranded there while on vacation that she came to give birth there. John's perspective on the world is almost entirely developed by a book containing the complete works of Shakespeare, which John was given as a child and frequently quotes from as a means of articulating himself. When John abandons the reservation for the World State, he finds that here too he is an outsider. His Shakespearean principles put him at odds with the values that 'civilization' embraces, by making him unable to reconcile with euphoric state of the new world. He becomes increasingly bitter as the story progresses and he finds himself unable to make anybody see the world as he does. "I don't want comfort," he tells the Mustapha Mond, the world controller, as they debate the merits of the new society, "I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness, I want sin." Mond argues that in wanting these things he is also choosing "the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat...the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." John responds, "I claim them all" (240).

Brave New World Post 2: The Hive of Industry

The society that Aldous Huxley creates in his Brave New World is one that focuses only on prolonging its own existence. At birth, conditioning is used to predetermine every individual's class, intelligence, job, and values. People are hatched in labs, and genetic traits are regulated to make everyone healthy and attractive. Books are taught to be feared, and individualism is frowned upon. People are taught to ignore anything old and always embrace the new. And while the people of the higher classes have a limited ability to think freely, everyone is essentially alive to only perform their daily tasks and socialize with other people. Nothing is ever created, because of the potential upset it could bring to this delicately balanced world. As Mustapha Mond, one of the World Controllers, explains it, "We don't want change. Every change is a menace to stability. That's another reason why we're so chary of applying new inventions. Every discovery in pure science is potentially subversive; even science must sometimes be treated as a possible enemy" (225). Not only science is restricted for the purpose of stability, but art as well. "You've got to choose between happiness and what people used to call art," says Mond, "We sacrificed high art" (220). Religion too, is altered to fit this new world's needs. Because "God is not compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness," this society instead worships Henry Ford for his advancements in mass production, which ultimately enabled this world to function. But without art, science and religion, what remains of real-world humanity?

Throughout the book, Huxley uses a metaphorically compares this society to insects. The higher caste people fly around in helicopters are frequently described as wasps or hornets (61), while the lower caste, for which the trivial and simple minded tasks are saved, is described as "ant-like" (73). Much like bees in a hive or ants in a hill, the people in this world survive only for the good of the rest of the colony. Huxley's metaphor illustrates the stationary nature of civilization in this dystopia he creates. No advancements or discoveries are ever made, nobody is able to do anything meaningful. People simply live, work, and then die. "Youth unimpaired until sixty, and then crack! the end" (111). Everything is done in the name of happiness and comfort, and anything else is superfluous. Those who can't adjust to the restrictions in this society are outcast and even feared. Any individuals who prove to have overcome their conditioning and cause trouble, are sent to an island where they live together in isolation. Effectively, by abolishing art and religion restricting science, and dumbing down the species, mankind has altogether rid the world of pain, war, and suffering altogether. The question of whether or not it was worth it serves as the driving conflict for the book's main characters, and as the essential question in Huxley's argument.

Brave New World Post 1: Outsiders

The book I chose for my independent reading is Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Written in 1932, Huxley's novel depicts a dystopian society in which the world has been united under one society, and is maintained by a controlling, one minded system. Humans are produced in laboratories, grown in bottles so that they can be shaped and conditioned to have exact genetic makeups. Size, physical appearance, intelligence, and social class are all predetermined. One of the overseers of this process describes how the castes are created: "The lower the caste, the shorter the oxygen. The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton. At seventy per cent of normal oxygen, you got dwarfs. At less than seventy eyeless monsters" (14). After people are 'hatched,' they are conditioned from birth to have the values of this society instilled in their mind. These values primarily consist of the hatred of solidarity, the encouragement of recreational sex and drugs, and the idea that "everyone belongs to everyone else."

One of the prominent motifs in Huxley's book is the examination of how outsiders function in this society. He uses one of his characters, Lenina Crowne, to be representative of the average, well conditioned citizens of this dystopia. She frequently demonstrates the impact that this new form of society has had on her, by regurgitating phrases that are played for all children as they sleep as a form of conditioning. "'Yes, everybody's happy now,' echoed Lenina. They had heard the words repeated a hundred and fifty times every night for twelve years" (75). Like all the people around her, Lenina is sexually promiscuous, and an avid user of soma, a popular hallucinogen that is used to suppress unpleasant feelings. Huxley frequently contrasts Lenina's blind acceptance of these values with another of his characters, Bernard Marx. Bernard, who is an outcast due to his stunted stature and unusual appearance, grapples with the confines that limit acceptable behavior. Like Lenina, Bernard is of the highest caste level, Alpha, which enables him to have a slightly higher capacity for free thinking. In one instance, Bernard takes Lenina to look out over the sea at night, in the hopes of articulating his struggles with individuality to her. He explains to her, "It makes me feel as though I were more me if you see what I'm saying. More on my own, not so completely part of something else. Not just a cell in the social body. Doesn't it make you feel that, Lenina?" (90). Lenina finds the vast, dark scene horrifying and pleads with Bernard to take soma when he has such "dreadful ideas" (92). It will be interesting to see where Bernard's unconventional ideals lead him, and how Huxley continues to use outsiders in his story.