Brave New World 1

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.

With these lines, Aldous Huxley introduces his fictional work Brave New World. Immediately, different thoughts are invoked, mainly those of confusion and uneasyness. Why is there a Hatchery in a World State building? And even worse, what kind of hatchery is it? I start thinking about possible reasons for why this might be the case, but to little success. After continuing to read, it dawns upon me that these facilities are being used to breed humans, and that this process of breeding will be described thoroughly.

As I suspected, this was correct. The first part of the book follows students being given a tour inside the center, with the Director explaining the hatchery and the conditioning centre and its purpose: to breed humans and predetermine their function in society. This is done by altering their conditions during incubation period by, for example, restricting oxygen access, among other things. The reason for this is to create castes: namely the Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons, all in ranking order, where the superior Alphas would be bred without interaction during the incubation period and the Epsilons would have several limitations in regards to physical and mental function. Those who belong to the lower castes would only live to serve the higher

‘And that,’ put in the Director sententiously, ‘that is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you’ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny.’

In other words, the Alphas control the society and allows for no freedom for the lower caste. They are however manipulative towards every member of their society in order to ensure stability. During sleep, sentences are repeated to them up to several hundred times a night. This way, their mind embeds these words not only as the truth, but as utterly undisputable facts.

Following the description of this facility’s function, the main character Bernard Marx joins the fray and plays a more central role. Although he is an Alpha he has some physical defects. He behaves differently and his height is lower than that of the average Alpha. As a result, he feels like an outsider to the other Alpha males; for instance he does not get to look down on those of the lower castes when spekaing to them, something which exacerbates his self-doubt. This in turn makes for a vicious cycle where he, feeling like an insecure outsider, acts like one, which increases the prejudice against him. Coupled with his physical defects, the contempt and hostility which he arouses is aggrevated, and he is ultimately insecure and isolated in the Alpha society.

I believe that Bernard is not suited for the society in which he lives. Something that was heavily emphasized in the beginning of the book was that the World State had constructed a society that had left all things related to desire behind. Bernard, however, had not. He was resentful and jealous towards other Alphas and desired things he could not obtain, and this makes for a rather interesting character development possibility.

Regarding the title, it is apparent to me that Brave New World takes a jab at the possibility of a future where humans are controlled in every way. In this society, women are not even allowed to conceive. Instead, they are bred in regulated facilities where every human's destiny is already laid out for them. As of now I have not found any direct proof of this theory in the book. As for the brave part, it could very well relate to a happening within the book during which somebody has the courage to stand against society, hoping for change.

Brave New World

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.
 
So begins the story of Brave New World, introducing to us the idea of both the Conditioning Centre and the World State. The words of World State are interesting to me as they imply that the world the book is set in differs from our own, and is set in either an alternate contemporary world or a setting similar to the dystopian future of 1984 by George Orwell.

As we move further into the book it is made clear to us that it is the latter, we are in the future. The concept of Hatching and Conditioning is what the first part of the book is about. Having the reader follow a group of students being taught in the ways of conditioning, the professor explaining as much to the reader as to the students that in this future people are quite literally grown into the shape that society wants them to be (a commentary on how todays society pressures the individual, I should think), whether they be high up on the class scale or at the bottom of it. The idea of being born is ridiculous to each and every inhabitant of this Brave New World.
 
And what a Brave New World it is indeed! With ideals and technology impossible in the world today, such as music you experience by smell, having shallow and physical relationships without any commitment, and having a television in every room! (some Sci-Fi ideas age better than others, mind you) But most importantly of all, you exist for the society, you consume what it produces and you simply do what you were created to do.

As the book is working hard to expose you to all this, it also sneaks in some of the characters that we will keep seeing throughout the book. The main one being Bernard Marx. Grown and hatched a upper class citizen he has been granted a fair bit of intelligence compared to the worker class. Intelligence to be used for the good of the society. However our poor Marx' conditioning has not quite taken hold, and he is not completely like the other citizens. In combination with his intelligence this makes him question whether happiness can truly be found in consumption and working for society or if there is something else to life entirely.

I'll let it remain unsaid whether or not I relate to his position.

Brave new world – reading log 1, the exposition

 The first three sentences

A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. 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.

I have not found these lines particularly catching, or at least not more than the average novel. However the words written in the capital letters are somewhat catching to me. This because I believe they say quite a lot about the novel, maybe not the plot, but the society.

I believe that, what the building described is a place for some animals, or people are hatched and conditioned to be and act in a certain way. The state motto may tell us about a society, which is based upon the beliefs that they are part of the community and that’s their identity, and stability comes through that. This makes me believe the novel will be about the society, and perhaps some people trying to defy the norms of the society.

The beginning

The novel starts with a director giving students, of the caste Alfas, a tour around the factory where people are made. From the earliest stages to the final product, which will be taught in its sleep about what is socially acceptable in the society. They are being taught about the five castes, Alfas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons. They will learn to which caste they belong and why they are happy to be that caste and do not want to be any other.

The tour ends with a World Controller, one of only ten of these, comes and teaches the group of Alfas about how the world came to be as it is. From the earlier days when feelings and desires controlled the world to the present (in the novel) where such distractions no longer exists. During the stories told by the World Controller, some characters are presented, Lenina Crowne, Henry Foster and Bernard Marx.

The Characters.

I believe the two main characters will be Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx. That because though the first third the point of view alternates between looking at Lenina and looking at Bernard, and the group being taught about the making of people.

Lenina

Lenina is a woman from the Beta caste. Even tough the people are taught to have sexual relationships with more than one person. Lenina seems very unwilling to have that kind of relationship with any other than a man by the name of Henry Foster. After being lectured by fellow Beta, and friend, Fanny, she decides she will begin a relationship with Bernard and asks him to go to New Mexico with her.

Bernard

Bernard is a male Alpha-plus, however he is described as slightly smaller than the rest of the Alphas. Being an Alpha-plus, he is part of the highest caste. Since he is slightly smaller than the rest of the Alphas and has very little company by other people, it is rumoured that he was mistaken for a gamma during when he was made, and thus injected with alcohol and thereby did not become as develop as the others. I feel like he has a free mind unlike Lenina, and that makes me like him.

The Title

I have not seen any clear signs of why the novel is titled “Brave New World”. However I am fairly certain, that the part “new world” comes from the fact that the novel is about the future and humanity has gone through a transformation in their look on life. Brave, on the other hand, may come from the people being brave in the way they live or the transformation, however that seems not quite right to me. I believe there is a better chance Brave comes from them doing something brave latter part of the novel.

Reading log 1- Brave New World

The first three lines in my book are: A SQUATCH 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. I do not feel anything particular regarding these thee lines, however they do catch my interest. Firstly, since I would like to now the meaning of the World State´s motto. Secondly, I’m considering what purpose this building serves. The novel will probably both answer my reflections and also introduce the main characters.

The plot

It is the year of stability, A.F. 632 and the world´s society has entirely altered. Not only are languages such as Polish, German and French dead, but also our civilizations major customs, of what is right or wrong, are no longer the same ever since the Ford´s revelations of the appalling dangers of family life. He points out that, The world was full of fathers-was therefore full of misery; full of mothers- therefore of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity; full of brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts-full of madness and suicide (p.33). Consequently, no childbirths are given in the nations, but incubators (eggs) in test tubes, are currently decanted (Incubators). On the contrary, to how it was previously (in Ford´s days) before the big societal change, children are now brought up in “civilization´s” State Conditioning centres. However, parental upbringing and mothers that give birth to their own children do still exist, but in only in the Indian reservations. One of the State Conditioning centres is located in London and this building is entitled: The central London hatchery and conditioning centre and consists of different departments. Two examples of these are the Fertilizing room and the infant nurseries, Neo-pavlovian conditioning rooms. In the World State (civilization) are controllers those in power, who set the society’s rules after Fords believes-No civilization without social stability. Brainwashing begins already in the modern fertilizing process, as embryos are for instance exposed with cold weather in order to make their mind endorse the judgement of the body. Hence, the later developed children will be predestined to loathe cold weather. From that time one, the brainwashing continues. For instance during classes such as Elementary Class Consciousness the youngsters are “learned” the significance of belonging to a particular cast, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don´t want to play with Delta children (p.22), this is of course repeated a lot of times. Although Bernard Marx is living in this absurd society, his views separate from the other people´s. The novel seems to be about a mad new world that might perhaps become normal once again with Bernard Marx´s support.

Setting

The workers of this residence wear white overalls and their hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber(p.1). There are different casts namely: Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons; but Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons will additionally go trough a Bokanovsk´s Process. One bokanovskified egg develops to an embryo and thereafter into an adult. This method is used in order to make ninety-six human beings grow instead of creating one human being. It is not abnormal for Children both play naked and preoccupies themselves with erotic games. Books such as bibles, poetry, or other books written before the Ford´s days (how the world was previously) are forbidden. I reckon that Ford is almost treated as a God, on account of that not only are different celebrations held in his honour, but they also have different rites. During these rites they for example “Thank Ford” and the twelve participants feel that they will be one and lose their twelve separate identities in a larger being. What is more, the president stood up, made the sign of the T (p.69) and everyone drinks from a cup. Then says out loud Oh Fodrd, Oh Ford (p.71)-compare with Oh Lord, which some people use to express themselves today. Everybody consumes soma (tablets), which makes eyes shone, cheek flush (p.70) and everybody is joyful. General believes among people are: Everyone works for everyone else, We can´t to without anyone (p.64) and Smallness typically low-cast!

The characters, which are introduced to us are: The Director; Mr Foster, a ruddy young man; Lenina; the controller, his fordship, Mustapha Mond; Henry Foster;Fanny; Ford, Freud;Bernard Marx; Benito Hoover;Helmholtz Watson; Linda and John. Fanny and Lenina are friends, while Lenina goes out with Henry Foster. Bernard Marx associates himself with Benito Hoover. Linda is John´s mother, at the same time is the Director John´s father.

The Director is the DHC for Central London and named Ford. He is tall and upright. Moreover, he has a long chin and big, rather prominent teeth. However, it is hard to estimate how old he is. For students it was a rare privilege to be conducted by him in the centres different departments. Furthermore, he reckons that the Bokanovsky´s Process is the major instrument of social stability (p.5), since then more people will be able to work. The purpose of his business it to stabilize the population at this moment, here and now (p.5). He also believes that the secret of happiness and virtue is to like what you´ve got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny(p.12). Mothers and fathers are unpleasant fact. DHC objects to stable relationships. I am in favour of his believes of wanting people to be happy and to enjoy their profession, with this he shows that he is a thoughtful man. However I overrule the way he wants to receive this.  

The book has perhaps obtained its title, whereas the life of the plot is wholly different from ours today. You could say that people are brave, since they for instance have the “courage” of disobeying our conventionalism. Additionally, the world is indeed new in the book.

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.

Reading log 1: Brave New World

“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 three first lines of the novel Brave new world by Aldous Huxley. They invoke a feeling of dread and insecurity in me. Furthermore, the words conjure pictures of huge, dark factories where thousand of workers spend all their waking hours under deplorable conditions. However, I do not know if this place described in these lines is a factory as my intuition says, and even less what kind it could be. Even thought it sounds as it has something to do with hatching things. Could it be as simple as hatching eggs or is it something more abstract as hatching new ideas? I believe that the novel will proceed with entering this building and then to discover what is hiding inside. Moreover I believe that the main characters of the book will be found in this particular building and will be introduced to us along the way. Reading these lines awakes an interest; I begin to wonder if my speculations are correct and how the novel will develop from here.

    The world the book is enacted in is both radical and unique in comparison with other similar books. The writer Aldous Huxley wrote something new as well as different. Along with creating a world that was rather revolutionary, when regarding what you were allowed to say and do during the time the novel was written, resulting in that he did something brave. Therefor I believe the author chose the title Brave new world.

    The novel begins with that you follow a group of students who are guided through the manufactory of an embryo to a full grown human. Firstly the manufactory of humans and how they are divided into different casts is explained. It continues with explaining the benefits of brainwashing the children to create the needs and opinions the authority want them to have. Lastly you are introduced to two of the novels main characters this far in the book, Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx.

    Lenina Crowne belongs to the cast Beta, the second best cast after Alfa. The lower casts characteristics concerns her and she often raises the subject of her superiority over them. She is called pretty and is quite popular. Moreover a lot of men want to have sex with her, but Lenina differ from the majority of the people in this world at this point; she keeps to one person at a time. During the beginning of the novel it is Henry Foster, who she also goes out on a date with after that she has told Bernard Marx in public that she would love to accompany him to New Mexico.

    Bernard Marx is a relatively shy person, someone who usually keeps to himself and do not want to attract too much attention. He feels that he does not fit in the society and due to this he does not regard everything the same way as everyone else. For example he does not take the drug Soma, which all the others happily consumes, and he does not enjoy solidarity services. Moreover he differs from the other people from his cast Alfa due to his height, he is unusually short and rumour says it is because of an accident during the manufactory of his embryo. Furthermore he has strong feelings for Lenina, as a result of this he also diverges from the others who only sees Lenina as a trophy you could brag about that you have had. Bernard’s feelings for her are deeper than just dreaming of having sex with her. Of course he thinks she is pretty, but he feels that there is something else about her that appeals to him, I yet have to figure out what. Even though he is really happy that she lastly accepted his invitation, he still wishes that they would have had the conversation at a less public location. Lastly Bernard is different in one other aspect in comparison with the rest of the population; he does not live in an imaginary paradise where he always is cheerful. Bernard, on the other hand, is occasionally overwhelmed of feelings, as anger and jealously, a burden the rest do not have to handle.

Isabel Vinterbladh, NA11A