Brave new disappointment

I’m usually not a fan of turning a novel into a book and this movie just proved why and then some. They strayed so far away from the book I couldn’t believe this movie was based on the book we read in class. It’s like they took the central ideas of the novel and then made something completely new. This new version is a total disappointment.

First off I’m disappointed in the characters of Bernard and Lenina. Let’s start off with Bernard. I’m upset that deviated away from the book and made Bernard Mr Popular. That took away one of the core plots and storyline from the novel. They didn’t give him none of the physical attributes that he had in the book which took away him being an outcast in the society which is a core point in the novel. It would be nice to see how he compared to all the other alpha plus males. Since Bernard is an outcast it drives him, I believe, to bring John and Linda back so he can seek his revenge on the director and which ultimately causes his downfall in the end. Bernard being popular leaves no need for one of the pivotal characters I believe, Helmholtz to be in the movie. They just completely removed him. Helmholtz is what keeps Bernard grounded and he shows that not everyone in the World State is perfect. That Bernard isn’t the only one with flaws. I don’t like that made him and Lenina the main characters in the movie. Unlike the movie in the novel it’s several different story-lines that are intertwined but yet separate and it makes the story that much better.

Lenina’s portrayal in the movie was another disappointment. I like the fact that in the novel she was weak minded and couldn’t understand nothing outside of the realm of her conditioning.  I like the fact that when free thinking people like Bernard and John tried to explain something to her, or get her to get in tap with her emotions she just couldn’t understand. It brought conflicts in the book and it made for a great read. In the movie she seemed so sassy and able and willing to convert to the free thinking ways of John. That made the scene with her altercation with John inside his apartment not necessary in the movie and I would have loved to see that scene played out on a film. I think that was good part in the book because it showed the love between John and Lenina but because they are from two different worlds they can’t understand each other and they can’t jump over that hurdle and it proves to be difficult to be with each other. They also just completely changed her job, they switched her from a nurse in the conditioning center to a teacher.

They also removed Henry Foster and all the people at the reservation. The controller was also a disappointment. He seemed so much wiser and worldlier in the book. He understood Bernard, Helmholtz and John. He knew they weren’t outsiders but they were just free thinkers who knew it was more out there than the conditioning and that made him appear to be more of a person of high regard. In the movie he just seemed to be the big boss, no one special. The fact that Bernard was popular and wasn’t an outcast took away from some many other characters.

essay draft

Psychological manipulation is defined as a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behavior of others through underhanded, deceptive, or even abusive tactics. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_manipulation‎). It’s being deceived, lied to, being led to believe in something or someone through false pretenses. No one likes being lied to. No one liked to be lead down the wrong path by someone whom they have put their trust in and in the worse of scenarios, by someone who they are in love with and who they believe to be equally in love with them. In the Store “We” D-503

Claim #1

I-330 tested D-503 vulnerability.

“ ‘But why impassable? [
] A bridge can be thrown across an abyss.’ [
] she spoke almost my own words that I had written down before our walk” (pages 6-7) I-330 is agreeing with D-503 and telling him exactly what he wants to hear. She is a creating a bond with him so she can involve herself into his life.

 

Claim #2

I-330 test her boundaries

I-330 breaks the rules and almost out right dares D-503 to report her to the office of the guardians. In the forty-eight hours he has to report he suddenly falls ill and has all these obstacles that prevents him from reporting her. “Certainly. I thought so. Something had to prevent you – no matter what” (page 53)

Claim #3

S was in the alliance with I-330

S possibly set D-503 for I-330. He’s D-503 guardian so he knows how he moves, acts, his emotional states. He knew he was ripe for the taken. “you named everyone you saw behind the wall but you forgotten one. […] Don’t you remember for a second you saw {…} me” (p 228-229). R is part of the revolution and knew that D-503 was the builder of in integral and is the main person they needed to corrupt for a successful revolution.

Lost and confused

I haven’t blogged about this story at all and as we finish this story I find it, as it was when we started, difficult to blog about it. This was a really confusing story to follow for me personally. As I read the last words in 40th entry two feelings ran over me. One was relief. I was elated that this story was finally over! The next feeling was pure confusions! What just happened? What did I Just read? The only clear thing was the book was finally over!

The final entry, which to me was the clearest entry, explained that D-503 under went the operation and confessed all his crimes to the Benefactor, and name everyone involved. It seemed to me that after the surgery he did not know who I-330 was, as if she was erased from his memory. He was returned to the same obedient, law abiding citizen he was in the beginning of the book. Which I for one was glad that he was. The new, corrupted, confused D-503 made no sense to me and it made for a difficult to read to follow his story.

I-330 was being, for a lack of better words, tortured, to tell the truth and admit her crimes but she refused too do so, she remained silent the entire time. For me I was glad she was finally brought to justice, because I think she was using D-503 from the beginning. I think it was mentioned that this was true when D-503 went to the Benefactor’s office. I have this whole conspiracy theory about her evil intentions with D-503.
I believe that D-503 Guardian, S, was in cahoots with I-330 from the beginning and set the whole thing up. I believe he knew that I-330 was planning this for lack of better terms again, “revolution”, and he also knew that D-503 was the builder of the integral. I also feel that he knew D-503 was weak minded and easy to manipulate. I feel he knew that I-330, as beautiful and cunning as she was could easily manipulate D-503 into do what she wanted. I think that he knew that D-503 would never turn in I-330 and if for some reason he was to turn her in he would turn her into himself, s, and therefore their secret would be safe.

The whole story to me, started off ok, then it became interesting once I-330 came in the picture then it just got weird, and confusing. There were several entries where I didn’t know if he was dreaming or if it was actually happening.  This book really made me appreciate Brave New World, and I’m kind of disappointed I took it for granted. It was a much simpler read and easier to follow along. The character plots were easier to follow and dissect and the storyline seemed to flow effortless. I found that We was way more challenging, which made me less enthused to read it and it became more of a task, something I had to do as appose to  something I wanted to do.

 

undesirable ending.

This week we reach the end of Brave New World.The last chapter in particular left me feeling that I usually get when I leave my chemistry class, what just happened? A lot of confusion in the last chapter.The two chapters proceeding the last one ties everything up very neatly and a lot, if not all, the answers about the civilized society were answered. Then that’s it, those are all the answers you get.

We don’t get answers as to what happen to the characters we have been following for so long. Sure they tell us that Bernard and Hemholtz are basically exiled to different islands but what happens to them once they get there? Are they coping with it? Are they better off on their perspective islands than they were in civilized society?

There’s one question that burns inside me about these islands full of exiled people. The controller says “If he had the smallest sense he’d understand that this punishment is really a reward. He’s being sent to an island. That’s to say, he’s being sent to a place where he’ll meet the most interesting set of men and women to be found anywhere in the world. All of the people who, for one reason or another, have got too self consciously individual to fit into community life. All the people who aren’t satisfied with orthodoxy. who’ve got independent ideas of their own. Every one, in a word who’s anyone” (Huxley page 204).

If these people are so against the grain why don’t they rebel against the world state? Since they are so unorthodox and they see the cracks in the system of the world state why don’t they expose these cracks and make a better society? Or is because they are so content with their current environment and they are surrounded by people of their own stature they that feel at home, at peace? That they finally feel accepted and are happy with the way their lives turned out? I wish we could have got more answers on the residents of these islands.

I’m more curious than anything as to what happened to Lennina? Was she the girl that John beat with the whip? ” “Strumpet!” The savage had rushed at her like a madman. “Fitchew!” Like a madman, he was slashing at her with the whip of small cords” ( Huxley page 229). Was this Lenina? I feel like she is the only female that would enrage John so bad that he would want cause physical harm to her. And Lennia was always around Henry Foster, so I think it would be safe to assume that this was Lennina who John beat with the whip. Did she die? After the beating did Lennina die? Another question that was left unanswered.

Finally, John’s suicide. I understand why he had to die but why would the controller set him up like that? The Controller is a very intelligent person, he knew John couldn’t last in civilized society, so instead of granting him permission to be exiled like Bernard and Hemholtz he condemned him to this life of misery in this civilized world. The controller knew John was like a square peg trying to fit in a circular spot. He knew it wouldn’t last long or end pretty so that’s why I feel as if John was set up.

Very disappointing end to a very strange story.

Lenina’s insecurities

In these few chapters we read this week, it’s been overwhelmingly focused on Bernard and his rapid rise and fall from power, that we may overlook another character’s plight in these chapters. Lenina is extremely insecure and sad and dare I say not the happy go lucky soma can cure everything well conditioned model citizen that she has been portrayed to be in earlier chapters and I find it quite interesting.

After returning from the savage reservation she, along as Bernard becomes a celebrity of sorts. She’s been “had: by a number of important people The Resident world Controller’s second security, the Ford Chief Justice and the Deputy-Governor of the bank of Europe just to name a few. I would suspect that is very good company to be in, being that she is a Beta. A lot of people know who she is and her popularity has increased a great deal. “Lenina was lucky……..lucky in reflecting from her insignificant person the moment’s supremely fashionably glory………. Had she not already appeared in the Freelytone News- visibly, audibly, and tactually appeared to countless millions all over the planet?” ( Huxley page 152).

Even with all her new found celebrity and higher social standing, she is I believed deeply saddened because the Savage, John, rejects her. She’s used to being had by most guys, even Bernard had her, but John wont touch her. She has been in his company several times and been on a number of dates with her, but he won’t have her, he wont touch or at times even look at her. On page 152 she even states that he even goes as far as leaving the room when she walks in. I think his actions towards her are not only confusing but I think it’s really screwing with her psyche. She’s not emotionally equipped to handle the rejection.

Growing up through adolescence and early adulthood we learn through life lessons, the pain and struggles of heart ache and rejection. The sadness of having your crush be with someone else, not having a date for the dance, or even worse having your first love break your heart into a million pieces and thinking you’ll never get over it, but eventually we all do. Lenina never went through these trials and tribulations of romance, and she was conditioned and programmed to believe everyone belongs to everyone. This rejection is new to her and she doesn’t know how to handle it.

In chapter 12 Bernard throws a party and John refuses to attend and Lenina assumes it’s because of her. “‘Perhaps it’s because he doesn’t like me,’ she said to herself. And at once this possibility became an established certainty: John had refused to come because he didn’t like her. He didn’t like her” ( Huxley page 160). That is some deep, misguided, depressive thinking! I think she is so used to popping soma to not feel bad, that she doesn’t know to process her emotions and she is reaching to the most outlandish and far out conclusion about the situation, because as we read early one John not coming to the party has nothing to do with her. As we read later on the chapter she is so distraught she seems out of it, that she unwillingly and almost mechanically leaves the party with the Community- Songster. This is such a big deal, that this very important person wants her, but she is so distraught and so overcome with melancholy that she doesn’t recognize the importance of this invitation. She even in a sense drags her feet and is slow in coming with him to the lift gates. She even stares at the moon, which in earlier chapters  she refused to do and annoyed when Bernard wanted to do the same activity with her when they were alone in the helicopter.

The dynamic in Chapter 13 between John and Lenina is also very, very interesting and it’s the climax I feel between their relationship and I can write a whole blog just on that, so I will end my blog and with only commenting on the earlier chapters. I can’t wait to read the following chapters and see what happens next.

 

 

Lower caste?

Just a question I have regarding the reading. Is the lower caste groups people of color? I read in earlier chapters “The hangars were staffed by a single Bokanovsky group, and the men were twins, identically small, black and hideous” ( Huxley page 69),”the negro had a helicopter accident fell on his head…….. The conditioning knocked all the negro’s conditioning into a cocked hat” ( Huxley page 154-155).

Brave New World Chapters 6- 9

This week’s reading was in chapters 6 – 9. The first few chapters was like a roller coaster ride to me first I didn’t like it then I liked it, but now after reading these few chapters I’m still suck in limbo. Lenina and Bernard went to visit a savage reservation and I must admit I believe these people to be savages. Not because of the way Lenina and Bernard may think of them of savages, but because of the way they treat Linda and John. The beginning of chapter eight and all throughout the chapter the natives treat Linda and John so horribly because they are different. “Linda was on the bed. One of the women was holding her wrists. Another was lying across her legs so she couldn’t kick. The third was hitting her with a whip. Once, twice, three times; each time Linda screamed……. He caught hold of the woman’s enormous brown hand between his own and bit with all his might. She cried out wrenched her hand free, and gave him such a push that he fell down. While he was lying on the ground she hit him two or three times with the whip” ( Huxley page 118) That to me is disgusting, savage behavior. Whatever the reason, there is no excuse for three grown women to hold down another and physically assault her like an animal. Then to hit her child who was only defending his mother from their physical assault, is even more appalling. I find them to be savage creatures, I couldn’t even call them human beings. On page 127 they throw rocks at John making him to bleed very bad all because he wanted to participate in the ritual and they wouldn’t let him because he was different. These men criticize him because they think of his mother as whore, but these are the same men who go to his mother night after night. I find their behavior as well as their wives to unacceptable and savage and in the context of this story I’m glad that they live on reservations away from civilized people.

Chapter nine is very short chapter. Bernard has something cooking up his sleeve. He’s making arrangement for John and Linda to come back to London with them, and he’s on the phone with Mustapha Mond and he tells him ” I venture to think that your fordship might find the matter of sufficient scientific interest….” (Huxley page 132). The questions I have is, is Bernard bringing both Linda and John back to be studied like some specimens?  Is he playing a social experiment with them? For example can they assimilate back into civilized culture after bing around savages for so long? The beginning chapters I liked Bernard but the more and more I find out about him, I find him to be a rather sneaky person and I don’t that at all.  Towards the end of the chapter I’m curious to know what exactly was John plans with the sleeping Lenina? Was he planning on sexually assaulting her?

thoughts on chapters 1 – 5 Brave New World

For me I think the three person conversation in chapter three was a bit of a conflict. You have the world director saying how bad the past was and how horrible familial relations are and you have Bernard and Lenina, in a sense, saying how they want these relationships. She says on page 46 no there hasn’t been anyone else and I jolly dont see why there should have been. Then when she agrees that she should see someone else she isn’t talking about seeing multiple other people just one other person Bernard. As the director then talks about how they produced the perfect drug soma page 59 and sixty you have Bernard a few sentences later on turning down the perfect drug and he is described as fending it off. So it makes you think is this society really as perfect as it appears to be? And was the past really that bad? Another topic I wanted to discuss was the whole hedonism, promiscuity value, idea this society has. Coming from a social stand point I guess you can say,  sex is a pleasurable it releases all these great chemicals in your brain that make you feel good. But on the other hand it is a way to build bonds, connect with people, create emotionally attachments to people, it can go so much deeper than hey this feels good I wonder why they promote it? Yes if you have sex with multiple people you can diminish the emotional part but you can’t totally eliminate it I think. Maybe Lenina enjoyed sex with Henry so much that’s why she stayed with him for four months and by staying with him that’s where the emotional attachments starts to form etc. I guess this puzzles me because to me sex is way more than yes this feels good, it can lead to so many other more feelings that can be adverse to what the state values.

Brave New World

Brave new world I find somewhat interesting. The concept as a whole I’m not to found of. A society that is decanted and raised and conditioned  by the “state” separated by a caste system. I think the conditioning part, which I think is based on Pavlov’s classical conditioning I find t be the most disturbing. To think the world is controlled by just a few individuals and what every hey think or believe is to be right is that is law, that’s the way it should be!  “Till at last the child’s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child’s mind……. But al these suggestions are our suggestions!….. The suggestions from the state!” ( Huxley page 36). This I find to be troubling. What I find troubling and also in a way disturbing is the processes of decanting humans and treating humans as machines! The whole process to me, seems so sterile “Pilkington, at Mombasa, had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full grown at six and a half. A scientific triumph. But socially useless. Six year old men and women were too stupid to do even Epsilon work” ( Huxley page 25). They are talking about humans as if they were machines, robots, just a piece of flesh to do work. Besides  My social and moral outrage and disgust about the concept of this story what I find really interesting in the later chapters, is the introduction of the characters, two in particular Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx. I find them intriguing because they appear to have some difficulty accepting the status quo, Bernard more so than Lenina. Bernard is a character I would love to find out more about. He should be one of the happiest people in the world. He’s an Alpha Plus male, which is the highest ranking caste and he is a psychologist. Through some defect ( I don’t know if that is the right word) he is “created” shorter than what an Alpha Plus male should be. Eight centimeters shorter! Which makes him feel like an outcast among is alpha cast, which I believe makes him question the whole process! ” One hundred repetitions three nights a week for four years, thought Bernard Marx who was a specialist on hypnopaedia. Sixty two thousand four hundred repetitions make on truth. Idiots!” ( Huxley page 52). That paragraphs intrigued me about his character. He is by profession a psychologist and I believe a expert on hypnopaedia, and for him to have a thought like this! It appears to me the author is setting us up for some big event involving him. I’m not quite sure what it is. The obvious thought would be a rebellion against the state, but as I read on and discover more about his character I doubt that would be the case. Another line that struck out to me “What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals” ( Huxley page 71).  For a society as this one, to me, I would think this would be an horrible thought! To be an individual? It’s like having leprosy! This has to be the worst imaginable thing that can happen to a person! I’m curious to know what is going to happen with these characters!

Dystopia!!!

This is my first experience reading about a dystopia and I must I say wow! It goes against human nature and everything it means to be a human! “The Machine Stops” was the name of the story we read this week. I say that dystopia goes against human nature because they shun at human to human contact! As human beings we are social animals, we love to be connected, to be in social groups, to touch to feel, to have emotions, and these concepts seem so foreign and so disgusting to them. “When Vashti swerved away from the sunbeams with a cry……. – she put out her hand to steady her. How dare you! exclaimed the passenger.  You forget yourself…….. People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete…” ( Forester 8-9) The fact that the passenger, to me, sounded so disgusted because attendant touched her! Never mind she had to touch her to keep Vashti from falling! They rather let someone fall on the ground and possibly her themselves then to touch them, to me I find that incomprehensible! In this particular story, we see the protagonist Vashti, so depended on the machine. We soon find out that everyone in the world is depended on this machine, no one is self sufficient. As Human beings we are intellectual creatures, we crave knowledge, we like to explore the unknown, to make the impossible possible, in this story all of this disappears and everyone is solely depended on this machine. ” The man in front dropped his book……. if the book was dropped, the floor raised it mechanically……. They stopped- the thing was unforeseen – and the man, instead of picking up his property, felt the muscles of his arm to see how they failed him” ( Forster 7). They are so depended on this machine they can’t even do a single task like picking a book up off the floor. The simple act of a book dropping leaves them dumb founded. The fact that this man is in a public place and no one knows what to do, no one knows how to pick up a book, I find astonishing. Kuno, who is Vashti son and who I believe is the antagonist, he’s the only person we come in contact with in this story he knows this isn’t the way they should be living life. My favorite quote in this store comes from Kuno on page 15 he say “We created the machine, to do out will, but we cannot make it do our wills. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed love to a carnal act”. This quote sums up the entire story for me. The built this machine to make their lives easier but now they have become so depended on this machine, the machine has all the power and they are just mindless souls, and the only act they have on their own is breathing! They aren’t even allowed to have kids without permission. They can’t even choose to live where they want. Everything is controlled by this machine! The machine has absolute control, and because Kuno dares to think for himself, dares to explore the outside world, dares to go against the status quo, he’s threatened with homelessness. People like Kuno threaten the machine and he must be kept under control and if he can’t be then he must destroyed. I like his character because he goes against grain. He sees the machine for what it is and he doesn’t like it!