Reading Log 1: Brave New World

The first three lines

”A squat grey building of only thirty-four storeys. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north.”

These are the first three lines of the novel Brave New World, written by Aldous Huxley. I believe that this is a fairly strong opening, which partially catches the reader’s attention. When I first read these lines it was, obviously, the words in capital letters that caught my attention, especially “HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE”. Not only did they interest me because they were written in capital letters, but because they did not make any sense. A lot of questions were raised: Firstly, what is a hatchery and conditioning centre? Secondly, what does hatchery have to do with conditioning? And so on. When questions like these are raised, they automatically make the reader want to continue reading, in order to receive some answers. So, in that sense the author has been very successful. However, since the reader does not fully understand the keywords of the opening lines it is very hard to form an idea of what will happen in the novel, only by reading these.

The Plot

The novel opens in London at the hatchery and conditioning centre in A.F. 632. The Director of the hatchery and one of his assistants, Mr Foster, are giving a group of boys, who are about to start their employment, a tour of the centre. During the tour the boys are taught how children are created, decanted (born) and raised. Firstly they learn how every child is assigned to one out of five different castes; Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Moreover they are taught how every child is designed to fulfil a predetermined destiny within the World State. Due to this the children are being manipulated and conditioned throughout their life at the centre, from early foetus-stage until they leave. An example of this is when Lenina Crowne describes how she vaccinates embryos destined for tropical climates, so that they will not suffer from common tropical deceases. Furthermore the group experiences how Delta infants are reprogrammed to dislike flowers and books and how hypnopaedia is used to teach children the morals of the World State. In the end they are joined by one of the World Controllers, Mustapha Mond, who explains how the World State has evolved, from a place where human feelings and desires were in control, to a society where no such thing even exists. While Mr Mond explains the history of the World State to the group; Henry Foster and Lenina Crowne are being presented more thoroughly to the reader and Bernard Marx, Fanny Crowne and Helmholtz Watson are introduced for the first time. 

The Characters

As I see it there are two characters that are being presented more thoroughly than the others in the first part of the novel, namely Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx. I am not yet sure how big of a role these characters will play in the continuation of the novel, if they are both going to be important, or if one of them is going to be more important for the story than the other.

Lenina Crowne

Lenina Crowne is a member of the Beta caste. She works at the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre with vaccinating the foetuses. When she is first presented she is described as uncommonly pretty. Already, at this point I believe that the author is trying to convey a trait of character of Lenina, which will be important later in the plot. That is; her being uncommon, going against the stream. As a member of the World State you are not supposed to be uncommonly anything, since that makes an individual. In the beginning of the novel there is an example of Lenina being uncommon: in the World State society you are not supposed be dating anyone exclusively, although that is exactly what Lenina has been doing with Henry Foster. However, in the end of the first part she agrees to accompany Bernard Marx to New Mexico.

Bernard Marx

Bernard Marx is an Alpha-Plus male, hence of the highest caste.  He works at the Psychology Bureau of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where he is a hypnopaedia specialist. He is described as a very small man in comparison to the other Alpha males. According to rumours at the centre this is due to the fact that someone mistook him for a Gamma while he was still in the bottle and therefore put alcohol in his blood-surrogate. It is made clear to the reader that Bernard Marx suffers from low self-esteem because of his length issue. He feels like an outsider, since he does not fit the ideal. Therefore he is really shy and prefers to be left alone. 

The title

The title Brave New World could have been chosen by the author, since he presented a vision of the future that was new and rather different from the other novels, describing the future. The majority of the novels written with a future-theme presented the future society as a utopia, whereas Huxley presented it as a dystopia. Seeing as his novel conveys a new vision of the future, it could be considered brave of Huxley to publish it, hence Brave New World. However, I have a feeling that this is not the reason why the author chose the title. Instead I have a feeling that Huxley refers to a change within the novel. Even though I cannot yet fully explain why the Huxley chose the title, if not because of what is mentioned above, I have a strong belief that the question of why Huxley chose this title will become clearer as I continue reading.