Google Translate and Important Life Lessons

"Utopias appear to be much more feasible than was previously thought. And we are now faced with problems far more distressing: How to avoid their final completion? . . . Utopias are realizable. Life march towards utopias. And maybe a new century begins there, a century in which intellectuals and the educated class will dream how to avoid utopias and return to a non-utopian, less 'perfect' and free" (Nicolas Berdiaeff . . . is kind of scary looking).

For my last post about Brave New World (in your pants), I'm going to analyze the appropriateness of this French quote at the beginning of the novel. Technically, I stole this idea, but I typed it into Google Translate all by myself!

Overall, the sentiment fits the book nicely. Clearly, neither this quote nor the novel are pro-utopia. The quote does a good job of warning of the distinct possibility of the formation of a utopia in the modern world -- "life march towards utopias."

I don't necessarily agree with the last sentence -- "non-utopian, less 'perfect' and free" -- because the utopia in the book was not free at all. Unless, of course, the word "less" does not also modify the word "free." Google Translate was not very clear about that.

Sooo here's what I've learned from this book.

• Humans need to be willing to endure pain.
• Individualism is just as important as society.
• Just say no to soma.
• Life march towards utopias.
• Self-expression is difficult when one's environment is overly stable.
• If you sleep with too many men in New Mexico, their wives will get mad at you.

Math, Science, History, Unraveling the Mystery

"After those weeks of idleness in London, with nothing to do, whenever he wanted anything, but to press a switch or turn a handle, it was pure delight to be doing something that demanded skill and patience" (Brave New World, 247).

I was under the impression that John was never happy in his life until I went back and reread this excerpt. When he lived in New Mexico, he was never included in society and he always heard about how civilization was better than the Reservation. When he lived in England, he was constantly included in society and became upset with the systematic happiness of everybody. When John was alone in the lighthouse, he was at peace with himself.

This, I think, is the primary theme of Brave New World. Stability is not happiness. The civilization in Brave New World ended John's life because he couldn't be at peace among maggots who were hypnotized to be constantly happy. Occurrences of happiness are crests among many troughs of pain and trial. In order to be truly human, humans need to suffer. Then, we can fully appreciate our amazing consciousness through art, science, history, literature, and religion. Those things aren't obstacles to happiness -- they are gateways to achieving happiness. Also, those things remind me of part of a certain theme song . . .

I claim them all.

""'You can't have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices'" (Brave New World, 237).

Like "rap music," "pleasant vices" is an oxymoron. I feel like I need to defend that statement -- vices are evil, and evil is not pleasant. The "vices" to which the Controller is referring are the voids of things like science, art, religion, and passion in the civilized world.

This oxymoron showcases the opposite values of Mustapha Mond and John. Mustapha Mond is willing to sacrifice science/art/religion/passion for stability. On the other hand, John believes that that sacrifice is taking away from the humanity in humans. He would be willing to sacrifice everlasting comfort for religion/God/freedom/sin. As John Green said, "The point of life is to be able to engage as deeply as possible with the miracle of human consciousness," and the civilized world in this book doesn't allow for that engagement. It's at 1:00:

On a related note, here's my favorite part of the book:

"'Not to mention 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.' There was a long silence.

'I claim them all,' said the Savage at last" (240).

I liked that quote so much that I was sure I had heard the line "I claim them all" in another book, but I couldn't find it anywhere else. Hmm, so, really good quote.

I'm tired, but I want to finish this.

"'Beauty's attractive, and we don't want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones'" (Brave New World, 219).

The structure of this chapter was based on a lot of quotations. It reminded me of the time Harry and Dumbledore just talked for an entire chapter at the end of the fifth Harry Potter book. I should probably take a break from Harry Potter references.

The quote that I chose, along with the rest of the Controller's speech, helped me form a better idea of the setting. Chapter three kind of helped me understand the year A.F. 632 in England, but that was also the chapter with rapid shifts in point of view. I gained a better understanding of Huxley's theorized utopia. Ignorance is bliss, so the people are happy. Some minds, like those of Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are no longer ignorant, and they would be more happy on an island. I was wondering why the Director was going to send Bernard to Iceland earlier in the book because it seemed out of place, but it makes more sense now. By the way, Iceland is green:

I'm not really sure what's going to happen next. Maybe they'll all live happily ever after on the Falkland Islands, but probably not. I bet . . . something will disturb the stability of the utopia. Hopefully John will.

And All My Death Eaters

"The singing words mocked him derisively. 'How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world . . .'" (Brave New World, 209).

Here, I believe John may be stuck with a case of situational irony. The civilized world Linda described to him isn't as appealing as he thought it would be. This quote is an effective representation of how important and powerful words are to John. Even if words aren't necessarily true, they can apply to any situation. Also, it helps accentuate John's hatred of the civilized world and segues nicely into his failed attempt to reform the world.

I applaud John for his initiative in this chapter. Usually, when people start a movement, they get followers -- you know, it would have been pretty tough for Voldemort without any Death Eaters. (Not that Voldemort succeeded in the end. He had a really good chance; only, he couldn't love.) But John knew that he couldn't get anyone to latch on to his ideas. He put himself out there, which was really the only thing he could do.

Big D!

"They met his eyes and simultaneously grinned. One of them pointed with his eclair butt.

'Is she dead?' he asked" (Brave New World, 207).

This vividly reminded me of the time in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the movie, I don't think the book) where Dudley taunts Harry about his mom. "Where is your mum, Potter? She dead? Is she dead?"

There are some good parallels, I think. John shoved the little kid who said it, and Harry stood up and got angsty. Actually, John and Order-of-the-Phoenix-Harry are both very angsty. Additionally, in most cases, it's probably not fun to be asked "Is she dead?" repeatedly when it refers to someone you care about.

Before John became a character, the result of the weird description of the "civilized world" was a clash between things that the book said and my brain. Now that John's a character, it's a clash between things that the book says and him. So that's a pretty cool shift in perspective.

Aaand I totally called this death three posts ago. Which, I suppose, is the point of foreshadowing.

Bokanovskified Zippicamiknicks

"'Oh, for Ford's sake,' said Lenina, breaking her stubborn silence, 'shut up!'" (Brave New World, 187).

Lenina and Fanny have had arguments in the book, but the whole silent treatment followed by "shut up" was new. This quote kind of made me want to take back what I said about Lenina earlier. Sorry, Lenina, you're not a total dope. You're only a little bit dopey because society forced it upon you.

I suppose we could call Lenina a dynamic character at this point. She, like few others in the civilized world, fell in love with one person. The connection between Lenina and John lacks what I would call a reasonable foundation, but it makes her stand out among her peers.

Also, I really liked when John thought to himself, "The murkiest den, the most opportune place, the strongest suggestion our worser genius can, shall never melt mine honour into lust" (192). It's hard to explain why I like that quote so much. Overall, it's just a very good sentence.

Even though this book can be stressful, I really like the words Huxley invented. So . . . that's the title of this post.

Recurring Motifs

"'But what were your rhymes?' Bernard asked.

'They were about being alone'" (Brave New World, 181).

1. Individualism: I've mentioned this one several times, but a new aspect of it in chapter twelve is solitude. Helmholtz got into trouble because he recited a poem about being alone. Solitude is important for people, especially for introverts, and it's not an option for people in this book because the civilized world is all about "everyone belongs to everyone else," or something.

2. Language: Helmholtz and John are both very interested in the power of words. Shakespeare is a master of this, so I'm glad Huxley used him as his prime example. Words are what made Mustapha Mond think Bernard's paper was too dangerous, and they are what made Helmholtz start "guffawing" (184) after the third act of Romeo and Juliet. Also, I want to know the meaning of what John was shouting at Bernard at the beginning of chapter twelve.

3. Utopias: They never work. I mean, it's debatable, but usually authors are against them. One thing that's interesting in utopias is that they typically avoid money. Laborers in the civilized world are paid with "four half-gramme tablets" (164) of soma. I think facilitating the exchange of goods with money is important, but I understand how it raises complications like greed and theft. Also, I hate pennies.

That's juuuust what I'm thinking right now. Watch the book completely shift its main ideas -- I wouldn't put it past Huxley.

"Now can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is? Yes, Miss Granger?"

"The remedy was to make the holiday continuous. Greedily she clamoured for ever larger, ever more frequent doses" (Brave New World, 154).

In chapters eleven and twelve, I found two examples of what I think could be foreshadowing. This first quote refers to Linda overdosing on soma, which I feel is probably going to end her. Being super greedy usually does not end well. Huxley probably wants to convey that instant gratification is dangerous. That's why I'm reading this book instead of playing Tetris!

"'No,' he concluded, with a sigh, 'it won't do. We need some other kind of madness and violence. But what? What? Where can we find it?'" (185).

If I had to guess, Helmholtz, we can probably find it within the next few chapters. Helmholtz and John are compatible because they both believe in the power of words, which I'll talk about more in my next post. To form beautiful words, though, something out of the ordinary has to happen. I think Huxley is trying to get me excited for the climax, and it's sort of working, but in all honesty, I'm more excited for this whole thing to be over.

I made it to my favorite integeeer!

"But the Director's face, as he entered the Fertilizing Room with Henry Foster, was grave, wooden with severity" (Brave New World, 147).

Obviously, at this point, the Director was not happy with Bernard. I'm wondering right now if there's a word for the opposite of personification, because that's basically what this is. Huxley took a non-human characteristic ("wooden") and endowed it upon a human. Antianthropomorphism, probably. Or maybe it's one of those implied metaphors. The Director is being implicitly compared to . . . a log. Whatever we want to call it, the Director was effectively portrayed as motionless and stern.

Also in chapter ten, there were multiple times when Bernard spoke either "absurdly too loud" or "ridiculously soft" (148). I can sympathize with this completely. Speaking volume is extremely complicated for some people. Anyway, this was consistent with Bernard's character -- awkward.

Synaesthesia and Anagrams

"He wiped them on his chest, on his shoulders, on his bare arms. Delicious perfume!" (Brave New World, 143).

As John dug through Lenina's suitcase and later creepily watched her sleep, I found lots of imagery! In chapter nine, these images primarily illustrated the attraction John felt toward Lenina. On page 143, I found . . . "touch of smooth skin against his face," "scent in his nostrils of musky dust," and "curls, so touchingly childish." And you know what? I would be fine if they ended up together because, as I've pointed out many times, Bernard is obviously not her soul mate. Not that soul mates exist in the "civilized" world of this book.

The synaesthesia I quoted in the beginning of this post accentuated John's feeling of Lenina's presence as he stalked her and her belongings. I have a vague memory of reading The Tempest sophomore year, and there was something about smelling music, which is the same idea. I'm probably only thinking about that because John quoted Miranda for about half a page in the previous chapter.

On another note, at the beginning of chapter nine, John was standing among the "agaves." I had to look up what those are, and I learned that they're a group of American plants. Interestingly to me, "agaves" anagrams to "savage," and John was also standing among a lot of those in Malpais. I don't know if that was intentional, but I thought that was worth noting.

Speaking of anagrams . . . it starts at 1:25.

Past the Halfway Point

"'As far back as I can remember.' John frowned. There was a long silence" (Brave New World, 123).

What would have been nice right after that sentence is an extra line break. It took me a page to understand that at that moment, I had entered a flashback. The flashback gave an excellent characterization of John and mostly dealt with his tragic background. There are two primary observations that I made.

First, as I was reading, I noticed a lot of stress on how much of an outcast John was during his childhood, and it reminded me of how Bernard is also an outsider in "the Other Place" (127). I was going to make a really impressive connection between the two characters in this blog, but then it got less impressive when Bernard commented about how similar they are -- "terribly alone" (137). So that's disappointing, but I suppose it's good that I caught on to their connection before that moment.

Also, I mentioned in my last post that I thought the theme would concern individualism, and I'm sticking with that, but I have another idea. This quote is back from chapter four:

"'Words can be like X-rays, if you use them properly -- they'll go through anything'" (70).

I held on to that quote because I liked it, and now I think it resonates well with John's past. Whenever John read something, he was in total awe by the "magic" (132) of words. I think the fashioning of words could also be an integral theme; additionally, words are a powerful way to express individualism, so that's pretty great.

I need . . . a picture . . . hmm . . . words are like X-rays.

Almost Halfway Assessment

"Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun,
Kiss the girls and make them One.
Boys at one with girls at peace;
Orgy-porgy gives release" (Brave New World, 84).

No rhetorical analysis in this post -- I'm just going to reflect upon what's happened so far, and if I decide to be bold, maybe make some predictions. I think this will be good for me after two weeks of being gone (to be clear, not on SFS).

And I'm not going backward in the book; I just chose a quote from the first almost-half that sums up one of the main issues I have with this book. It's really weird and confusing. The way that the words and sentences are arranged (there's a word for that -- syntax) just doesn't make for an easy read.

That being said, I think there are a lot of interesting ideas in the book even if I don't really enjoy the weird manner in which they are presented. Predestination, utopias, and social cohesion are things upon which I can gladly reflect. The plot always leaves me with a lot of questions. Which I guess is good. But, like, a lot of questions. I've expressed some of those questions in my recent posts. I like Max's answer as to why Bernard is dating Lenina (to preserve his reputation), but still -- he's being sent to Iceland, anyway, and she's a total dope. So even now, I don't really understand that.

Predictions? I think that individualism is going to be an important theme. Bernard said something about being "not just a cell in the social body" (90), and this world doesn't really allow for individual expression, which is not so great.

But now I'm at the part where they're all stuck in New Mexico (I think). The collision of two completely different societies might be fun. And funny because Lenina is an extreme misfit. See, I understand why Huxley has Lenina as a character, but . . . why with Bernard? Bah, it's probably not important.