Reading Log: Brave New World

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 1)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 1

Page 15, l. 7

Page 17, ll. 26 - 27

The Director of the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre shows a group of students around (who are going to work in the Centre in the future)
First room: Fertilizing room
→ We learn that there are no natural births, the process is controlled by the state
→ There are many different processes which ensure the system in the World State and the castes
→ Bokanovsky’s Process: a fertilized egg is split into identical genetic copies, so one egg can be split into 8 to 96 embryos → create a large working class of identical twins
→ Podsnap’s Technique: a method that accelarates the ripening of an egg to one hundred and fifty mature eggs in two years
Bottling Room → embryos are put into bottles with sow’s peritoneum (artificial “uterus“)
Embryo Store: embryo bottles on conveyor belts
→ create 5 castes of humans with decreasing intelligence by lowering the supply of oxygen of the embroys
→ they make them love their work by conditioning them (for example heat conditioning for steel workers etc.)
First thought: very, very strange and frightening but also interesting
Seems unbelievable: instead of months/days of pregnancy, there are metres or by exposing embryos to heat, the can only be truly happy when they work as miner etc.
Although the World State seems to be fully totalitarian system which manipulates its citizens, Alphas (and Betas?) appear very “normal”
→ students ask “stupid“ questions, sign of individuality
Relationship towards women very questionable: The director gives Lenina “two or three pads“ → objectification of women?
Allusions to Ford and glorification of him
→ maybe replacement for religion (AD – Anno Domini vs. a.f. – after Ford)
Confusion: World State seems to be really big (including London and Singapore)
b) Choose a character! c) x Henry Foster  new terms that are used
 D.H.C. in the World State
 Lenina Crowne  hypnopaedic slogans
 Bernard Marx  Shakespeare quotes you
 Helmholtz Watson consider important
 Mustapha Mond  names of people in the novel x John the Savage
 Linda

a)
Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre: Institution, where children are created and conditioned – from the egg until they are fully grown
Bokanovsky’s Process: A method for producing many identical eggs from a single egg which is the basis for producing identical human beings
Podsnap’s Technique: A method for speeding up the ripening of mature eggs

b) Henry Foster:

“fair-haired, ruddy young man”
Scientist, works as Fertilizer at Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre
→ likes figures
Any kind of relationship to Lenina (they want to meet after work)

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 2)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 2

Page 21, l. 21

Page 23,
l. 4 - 6

p. 25, ll. 31-32

p. 26, ll. 31-33
The Director leads the group to the nurseries where they observe an example of Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning
→ a Bokanovsy group of Delats is exposed to flowers and books and immediately treated with electric shocks
→ They hate books, so they stay stupid and conditioned
→ They hate nature for economic reasons (they are also conditioned to love country sports → they will consume transport and technical sports equipment without staying at the country too long and neglect work)
The Director leads the tour to a dormitory, where some Beta children are sleeping and “attending” a hypnopaedic lesson in Class Consciousness
→ They use hypnopaedia to teach the more complex courses of behaviour,
→ Sentences, repeated 120 times, three times a week, for thirty months
We slowly realise how complex the whole system is: not only conditioned to specific behaviour and ideologies
→ conditioning also used for economic advantages
The system seemed to be really unfamiliar and strange before, now the impression of cruelty is very present
→ children being tortured over and over again so that they hate books and nature
→ books and roses might not be the only aspects to be conditioned to This conditioning and hypnopaedia seems to be the base of the system
→ question: How did all start? Because first there were not any conditioned people, but they needed people to create a conditioned population.
a)
Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning
Hypnopaedia

c)
“Oh Ford”
→ maybe instead of “oh my god“ or “oh lord“: guess about admiration of Ford as replacement of religion supported
Children are “decanted” not born
Hypnopaedic slogans: “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas….”
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 3)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 3

p. 30, l.25 f.

p. 33, l. 25

p- 37, l. 16

p. 40, l. 23

Several plotlines parallel
First: students outside the building watching the children playing in the garden
→ Mustapha Mond, one of the 10 Controllers shows up and tells the history of the World State
Second: Lenina and her friend Fanny in the changing-room
→ talking about Lenina dating only Henry Foster and the inappropriateness of this
→ Lenina decides to go out with Bernard Marx who has asked her
Third: Henry Foster and the Assistant Predestinator talk about Lenina and her feminine charms
→ Bernard Marx hears this and gets angry about this superficial attitude towards women which is normal in the World State
The more I get to know about the World State, the more disturbing it gets: erotic plays between children, promiscuity etc. are forced → not open-minded concerning sex but insane and creepy
Fascination of the existence of Bernard Marx: appears rebellious and unadapted (as expert of hypnopaedia he considers everyone “idiots“ for repeating the same phrases, he does not see women as “flesh“, he does not like soma, he wants to hit Henry in the face, he spends lots of time alone…)
→ offence against the motto “Community“
→ Why in he not considered a threat to the system?
First read: very hard to understand because of the switching between different scenes
→ but while reading twice: I realized the great writing skills of Huxley (scenes are connected)
a)
Centrifugal Bumble-puppy: A complicated ball game played by children
Erotic plays: A play in which the children explore one another's bodies, so they will not feel any feelings of guilt concerning sex

b) Henry Foster:

“correct” and conventional: has dates and sleeps with other women next to Lenina
→ she calls him “the perfect gentleman“ because of this
According to Bernard, he sees women as “flesh” → reduces them to their physical appearence, recommends sex with her to his colleague
Regards Bernard as inferior, makes fun of him

c)

“Oh Freud” → next to Ford, they semm to admire Siegmund Freud (maybe because of the revolution in the society’s attitude to sexuality he has caused and his focus on the sexual urge)
→ diffencence to Ford not clear
“Pneumatic“ → unusual use describing the feminine charms , especially the bosom of a woman
“Ending is better than mending.“
“Everyone belongs to everyone else.

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 4)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 4
p. 50, ll. 14 - 24

p. 55, ll. 27 - 29
p. 52, ll. 15 - 17

p. 58, 11. 17 ff.

p. 60, ll. 6 ff.

Part 1:
Lenina tells Bernard that she will go to the reservation with him
→ Bernard is uncomfortable that she discusses this private topic publicly
He is disappointed that she is not different from everyone else
Lenina leaves with Henry to play Obstacle Golf

Part 2:
Bernard meets his friend Helmholtz whose mental excess and extremely high intelligence has separated him from his colleagues
He tells Bernard about his feeling of wanting to write and do something important, if only he knew what
Concerning Helmholtz, the novel implies that asceticism causes more intelligence
→ an interesting theory, considering the fact that the World State is an affluent society where the interval between a desire and consummation is supposed to be as minimal as possible
→ World State citizen: collectively stupid?
For me, Bernard is definitely the most appealing and likable character
→ seems to be the only “normal“ person
The scene with the “Epsilon-Minus-Semi-Moron” was totally disturbing and shocking
→ conditioning people into finding only happiness in the moment when an elevator gets to the roof and being more stupid than several animals
→ takes them all conditions of being human
a)

Helicopters (as replacement for cars?)
Bureaux of Propaganda (by Television, by Feeling Picture, by Synthetic Voice and Music…)
College of Emotional Engineering

b) Henry Foster:

Henry loves punctuality: comments on Lenina being only four minutes late and complains about the unpunctual Red Rocket from New York
Owns a helicopter and is able to fly it

c)

“I’m glad I’m not a Gamma.”
“What a hideous colour khaki is.”
Helmholtz Watson (allusion to H.L.F. von Helmholtz, a German physicist and J.B. Watson, a behaviourist psychologist
→ the mix of the names (physicist and psychologist) perfectly describes Helmholtz and what he does: his hypnopaedic slogans influence the people psychologically, but in fact, this conditioning is science
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 5)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 5
p. 65, ll. 13 ff.

p. 67, l. 3

p. 67, l. 11 ff.

p. 73

Part 1:
After having played Obstacle Golf, Lenina and Henry spend their night with consuming soma and dancing in a club
→ They end up in Henry’s apartment and probably have sex

Part 2:
Bernard takes part in his weekly “Solidary Service day”
→ Ritualistic ceremony of 12 people with pounding music, soma, signs of the T and singing songs
→ At the end, everybody (except Bernard) thinks Ford is coming
He participates in an “orgy.porgy”
Lenina’s and Henry’s stay at the club seems like a common Saturday night of partying (with little exceptions of the consuming of soma etc.)
The Solidary Service and, what I assume an orgy-porgy means, are more than upsetting
→ something that seems to be a kind of religion in the World State is used to control the people (by giving them soma and orchestrating the “arrival“ of Ford)
→ criticism of religion?!
Why is Bernard “resistant“ against soma?

a)

Obstacle Golf: a popular adult game
Slough Creamatorium → everyone is useful, even after death
The “sign of the T“: alteration of the sign of the cross
Solidary Service: A pseudo-religious and fraternal meeting for upper classes
Community sing
Orgy-porgy: A Solidary service hymn and also a ritualistic orgy that should produce solidary between the members

b) Henry Foster:

Intelligent: Concerning Lenina’s statement that she is glad she is not an Epsilon, he explains that if she were an Epsilon, she would not like to belong to a upper caste
→ ability to see and understand the system as a whole, not just his own perspective
Lives in a forty-story apartment house in Westminster

c)

“Everybody’s happy now.”
“Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without anyone. Even Epsilons are useful. We couldn’t do without Epsilons.”
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 6)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 6
p. 76, ll. 15 ff.

p. 77, ll. 1-3 ff.

p. 79, l. 24

p. 82, ll. 2 ff.

p. 85, ll. 20 ff.
p. 89, l. 7
Part 1
Lenina & Bernard have their first date
→ In contrast to Lenina who wants to go out, Bernard wants to be alone with her for taking a walk and talking
Although, she convinces him to watch a wrestling match in Amsterdam
→ On the flight home Bernard talks about him wanting to be free from the enslaving of social conditioning
→ Lenina does not understand him
Bernard takes soma and they have sex (which Bernard later regrets because he does not want to give in his desires immediately like an infant

Part 2
Bernard visits the Director’s office because he needs his signature for the permit to go to the reservation
→ Director talks about his visit in the reservation where he lost “his girl“
→ He is uncomfortable with having told Bernard the story
→ He reprimands Bernard because he heard of him not wanting to be infantile

Part 3
Bernard and Lenina fly to the Savage reservation in Mexico
→ Bernard gets to hear that the DHC wants somebody else for his job
After this catastrophal first date I wonder why Lenina and Bernard even date
→ He does not like the things she likes (Obstacle Golf, clubs, Feelies, being in a crowd…) and seems to be annoyed by her repeating constantly hypnopeadic slagans
→ She does not understand him, is frightened by his worldview and is passive-aggressively pointed out by Bernard that she is manipulated and stupid
Also my question is: How did the Director know about Bernard’s convictions towards desires, sexuality and being infantile?: Do other people report something like this (→ illoyalty) or are they monitored?
I think it is strange how there are allusions to people having deeper relationships and feeling, even a conventional man like the DHC
a)
Electro-magnetic Golf
Vibro-vacuum massages
Escalator-Squash-Racket

b) Henry Foster:

Lenina and him are still dating and having sex with each other
His nature is described as brief and vigorous

c)
“A gramme in time saves nine.”
→ it is also an allusion tot he saying “a stitch in time saves nine“: Huxley constantly mixes up our culture with the culture in Brave New World (“Big Henry“, “Charing-T Tower“)
→ Brave New World is not only dystopia, but a possibility for our world to change into
“One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments.”
“A gramme is always better than a damn.”
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 7)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 7

p. 94, l. 9; p. 95, ll. 23 ff.

p. 97, ll. 11 ff.

p. 98, ll. 21 ff.

p. 99, l. 31

p. 100, ll. 24 - 30
p. 101, ll.21 ff.

Lenina and Bernard are in the pueblo in Malpais and looking around
→ Lenina is very whiny and frightend by old people, women breast-feading their children etc.)
In the Background they hear the sound of drums and they find the source of it: a ritualistic dancing ceremony
→ As a sacrifice to please Jesus and Pookong for more rain and a better harvest, a boy is beaten by a whip while he runs in circles
Lenina is desparate and unable to watch the scene, when John, the Savage shows up
→ Lenina and John seem to be interested in each other
He takes Lenina and Bernard to his home, where his mother Linda, a former World State citizen, is overwhelmed and happy to finally meet “civilized” people again
→ It turns out John is the son of the DHC and Linda the girl who got lost 25 years ago
When the “Savage reservation” was mentioned before I thought about a world more like our “normal environment”, not as modern as the World State, but relatively developed
→ but it turns out that the people there are really “unzivilized“ not just in comprehension of the World State citizens
→ Also I was slightly shocked what happens to Western standards and values (from nowadays) when there is no education, no government etc.
I also think it’s very confusing that Linda although she lives in “freedom” now and has the possibility to question the World State’s ideals, she still misses it
→ very strong conditioning, seems to be independent from the environment
Why did Linda get pregnant? How is this even possible?
b) John, the Savage

The son of Linda, a Beta-Minus and the Director of Hatchery And Conditioning
→ she got lost during a trip to the reservation the DHC invited her to
He is an outsider in the pueblo and gets discriminated because he has white skin
→ he wanted to participate in the ceremony (as sacrifice) but the Indians do not let him
He has straw-coloured hair and pale blue eyes and is able to speak English
In Leninas eyes, he has a beautiful body
Because his mother is from the World State, he knows about “the Other Place”
Linda claims that she was hardly unable to condition him
→ he does not like his mother having sex with many men in the pueblo

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 8)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 8
p. 106, l. 1-13

p. 106, ll. 20-21
p. 111, l. 16

p. 111, ll. 1 ff.
p. 113, ll. 16 ff.
p. 112, ll. 20-24

p. 114, ll. 15 ff.
p. 115, ll. 17 ff.
p. 117, ll. 4-10

p. 117, ll. 25-27
Bernard and John are outside the house and talk: Bernard cannot realize that these two worlds (the reservation and the World State) coexist
→ he asks John to tell him about his life
John and his mother were outsiders and (especially his mother) not respected → she had sex with many (married) men in the pueblo
Linda taught him to read and told him about the World State
He hated Popé, a men who had come over and over again
Popé gave him a book, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare → Reading Shakespeare made him understand the world around him better and better and the importance of feelings etc.
→ Inspired by a Shakespeare quote (presenting sexuality as obscene and filthy) he tried to kill Popé
Although John was not allowed to participate in many of the Savages’ rituals and he was discriminated because of his white skins, he learned about Indian mythology (how the world was created) and tradition (working with clay, making bows…)
Bernard identifies with John (who was always alone, just like him) and asks him and his mother to come to London
We get to know John’s life in details in this chapter and it definitely created the impression of John being pleasant
→ very different from any of the other characters, an emotional character with strong feelings and a strict attitude to morality (comparable to the standards in our present)
But what has made think about is his unability to differentiate
→ "Lying in bed, he would think of Heaven and London and Our Lady of Acoma and the rows and rows of babies in clean bottles and Jesus flying up and Linda flying up and the great Director of World Hatcheries and Awonawilona."
→ John can't draw a line between the indisputable reality of the World State and the various religious beliefs he has picked up
Does John only adopt the values conveyed by Shakespeare or does he really believe in it?
→ John - with a very low education – seems more like a person adopting things (moral, ethics..) everywhere he goes than a person who critically questions everything

b) John, the Savage:

He is able to read (in difference to the other citizens of Malpais)
Linda was not able to condition him → has not adapted the ethics oft he World State
→ He does not like promiscuity
He was influenced by Shakespeare in many ways
→ Built up his own worldviews (for example regarding Linda and Popé having sex as nasty: motivation for trying to kill Popé)
Because of the influence, the stories and traditions of the “savages”, John developed a belief consisting of Christianity and Indian mythology
He feels alone, because he does not really belong to his mother (who hates being in the reservation and still identifies with the values of the World State) or to the “savages” (who discriminate him and exclude him from certain activities because he is white)

c)

“Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew’d in corruption, honeying & making love
Over the nasty sty…”
“When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage
Or in the incestuous pleasure oh his bed…”
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 9)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 9
p. 121, l. 3-5
p. 121, l. 8

p. 121, l. 18 – p. 122, l. 6

p. 122, ll. 30 - 32

p. 123, ll. 2- 20

p. 124, ll. 1-19

p. 125, l. 1-5

p. 125, l. 9
Lenina takes six half-grammed tablets of soma, so she won’t be awake the next eighteen hours
Bernard makes up a plan to get John and Linda back to London and uses the time Lenina being on her “soma holiday” to put it into action
→ He flies to Santa Fé where he gets on the phone and goes through secretary and secretary until he finally speaks to Mustapha Mond and convinces him allow the entry of John and Linda
Meanwhile in Malpais, John cannot reach Bernard so he thinks they left without him and his mother
→ Then John notices Lenina’s suitcase, breaks in to the house and rummages around her luggage
→ He is totally in raptures about her scent, her clothes etc.
John finds Lenina “sleeping” in her bed and he holds a monologue about her beauty
→ He thinks about touching her and pulling the zipper of her onesey down, but is directly disgusted by his “detestable thought“
John hears a helicopter (the one with Bernard coming back) and leaves the house
John is strange because he is so very extreme in every emotion
→ When he thinks Bernard has left without hin (without having proved it) he cries
→ His feelings towards Lenina make him break in a house and invade her privacy (looking though her luggage)
I generally think that it is very confusing that he has these strong emotions towards a person like Lenina: she totally contradicts his principles
→ He is disgusted by himself for any kind of sexual desires (he does not want to touch her with his “unworthiest hand“) and regards sex as filthy
→ She has sex with as many men as she can and John does not even know her personality, just her appearance (→ so is John as superficial as all the others despite Shakespeare?!)

b) John, the Savage:

John seems to be in love with Lenina, although he does not really know her
→ But he is impressed by her beauty
For him, sex is despicable
→ Touching her cheek is too intimate for him and he hates himself for the desire to see her naked
He is very emotional and he acts out his feelings in an extreme way
→ When something negative happens it is like the end of the world for him and “the most terrible thing that had ever happend to him“ (p. 122, ll. 30-31)
→ When he likes something he ignores all the negative things (Lenina’s ideology)

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 10)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 10
p. 127, ll. 7-12
p. 127, ll. 15-25

p. 128, ll. 6-30

p. 129, ll. 1-2
p. 129, ll. 6-15

p. 130, ll. 19-21
p. 130, l. 27 – p. 131, l. 7
The Director and Henry Foster are in the Fertilizing Room and wait for Bernard
→ The DHC is in a bad mood, complaining about Bernard and how he is a threat for the society because of his “unorthodoxy” and the risk that he will “lead others astray”
Bernard shows up and the Director announces loudly (all the attendant workers listen to him) that Bernard will be transferred to Iceland because he ignored his social responsibilities (sports, sex, soma, Fordism…)
He asks Bernard if there are any reason why he should not be banished
→ Surprisingly, Bernard affirms it and brings Linda into the room
→ Everybody is disgusted by her overweight and old appearance, especially the DHC who denies to know her
→ John enters the room and claims that the DHC is his father
→ While the workers laugh and think it is a joke, the Director leaves the room with his hands over his ears
Bernard definitely loses his role of the victim
→ It gets clear that he acts very stategically and he seems also calculating and scheming
But next to my compassion he loses my affection
→ He was the the rebellious hero before, the reject everybody laughed about, the one who questioned the whole system, wanted to be free, did not regard women as “flesh“ and did not want to behave “like an infant“
→ We can assume that it is not about defining his individuality for him but to be respected (for example in Chapter 9: he wanted the Warden to think that it is no big deal for him to talk to Mustapha Mond and Bernard is an important person)
→ He did not really take John to the World State because he is sympathetic to him because John is as alone as is he is or not superficial and emotionless like everyone from his world
→ Everything belongs to his plan of not having to go to Iceland

a)

Hunt-the-zipper: A game for infants

b) Henry Foster:

He tries to defend Bernard by saying that he does his work very well, but it is described as “hypocritical generosity”
→ he wants to appear friendly and neutral and to save the appearance as an ideal citizen although he does not like Bernard
He seems to have an important role in the Centre
→ a confidential person of the Director

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 11)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 11
p. 132, l. 4
p. 133, ll. 2-26

p. 134, ll. 12 ff.

p. 135, ll. 3 - 12

p. 135, ll. 19 - 31

p. 137, ll. 5-10

p. 136, l. 20, p. 138, ll.13 – 15

p. 143, ll. 26 ff.
After the arrival of Linda and John, the Director resigns immediately and Linda starts to consume very, very large quantaties of soma
→ The Doctor says that she will die in a few months because of that and convinces John that soma actually lenghtens her life because a soma holiday is one eternity
Everyone is interested in John and so Bernard, “his accredited guardian” gains popularity and reputation
→ He sleeps with lots of women and brags about it (which Helmholtz does not like and their friendship ends)
→ But because he feels so very important now (“gigantic and at the same time lighter than air“) and critizises many things people just pretend to like him
→ Also Mustapha Mond is not pleased about his arrogance
Bernard shows John around: they visit the Charing-T Tower, a factory of the Electric Equipment Corporation and Eton, a school in London
→ Although John is not really amazed by the processes in the World State, he is shocked by the Bokanovsky groups, death conditioning etc.
John and Linda watch a film at the feely → after that she wants to sleep with him, but he leaves “gentlemanly“
Bernard’s character development really bothers me: now that he has everything he ever wanted - respect – he is a different, exchanged man
→ It seems he was only critical towards the World State and the principles, because he did not get what he wanted and he did not fit in
→ But when he is finally integrated and well-esteemed taking soma, treating women “as flesh“ and behaving “as an infant“ suddenly is perfectly okay
→ Additionally, Bernard ist not just like everyone else now, he is worse → he feels superior, braggs about his lifestyle and is so arrogant to such an extent that he offends Mustapha Mond
→ A few chapters before, he was uncomfortable that Lenina accepted his invitation in public because it was a private topic for him and now he flirts in public and aims for kisses and a “gentle pinch“ during a school lesson
Besides, I fear that my ideas about John and his unability to differenciate reality and fiction are true
→ When Bernard speaks about the Bombay Green Rocket flying “twelve hunderd and fifty kilometres an hour, John responds that “Ariel could put a girdle round the world in forty minutes“
→ He does not realise that Shakespeare is fictional
a)

Malthusian Drill: A routine for the sterilized females to prevent pregnancy
Death conditioning: Process of letting children spend time in the Hospital of the Dying so they will not be afraid of death and regard it as useful for the society

b) John, the Savage:

According to Bernard John “shows surprisingly little astonishment at civilized inventions“, because Linda told him about the system of the World Stare
Although he is shocked and disgusted by the lower-caste, partly mutilated Bokanovsky groups → he has to vomit because of the happenings inside the factory
He learns that “Savage reservations“ are places that were not worth the expense to civilize
John is very bashful around Lenina, he avoids her, but can not resist staring at her
→ after “Three Weeks in a Helicopter“, when she takes his arm, his desires for her come up again, but he is ashamed for them

c)
“Oh brave new world… oh brave new world that has such people in it.”
→ eponymous Shakespeare quote
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 12)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 12
p. 148, ll. 1-23

p. 149, ll. 2-5

p. 151, ll. 24-28

p. 153, ll. 15-18

p. 153, ll. 29-33

p. 154, ll. 7-20

p. 156,ll. 14 ff.

p. 158, ll. 12 ff.
One of Bernard’s parties takes place, but John does not want to leave his room and shouts something in Zuñi aggressively
→ all the guests, including the Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury, came to see the Savage and now are very angry about Bernard who apparently “played a joke on“ them → Bernard’s reputation is destroyed
Lenina can not stop thinking about John, she is kind of obsessed with him and even has to take some to sleep with the Arch-Community-Songster
The next morning, Bernard is very depressed and when John tells him, he likes him more this way, like the old Bernard in the reservation
→ Bernard knows that it is wrong but he can not stop blaming John for the lost of his reputation and he harbours a “secret grievance“ against John
Bernard wants to be friends with Helmholtz (who also was in trouble with Authority) again and Helmholtz forgives him
→ John and Helmholtz meet and they get along very well
→ He is fascinated by Shakespeare
→ During Romeo and Juliet, he busts out laughing because of the “absurd“ content: he realises that ge has to write some other kind of madness
John seems to realize that he has to behave like a conventional celebrity to ensure Bernard’s social success
→ Combined with the things he has seen in London and his disgust because of the superficial and immoral culture, he returns to his Malpais identity (he speaks Zuñi and reads Shakespeare a lot)
→ He expresses that he does not belong to the world he knew as “the beautiful Other Place“ that has disappointed him
Helmholtz laughing about Romeo and Juliet demonstrates the power of conditioning
→ Even though Helmholtz is fairly unorthodox, he is still a product of World State conditioning
→ He appreciates the artistic value of Shakespeare’s language, but he does not appreciate the drama of Juliet’s parents trying to convince her to marry Paris
b) John, the Savage:

John starts to hate the World State and the civilisation
→ He realizes, that for the people there, he is just “the Savage“, an attraction, just as an exotic and rare animal in a zoo
→ Everybody wants to take a look at him, fully uninterested in his person, but in his otherness
Unimpressed by Bernard’s new behaviour and status, he becomes closer frieds with Helmholtz
→ Helmholtz is very interested in Shakespeare and they share their opinion on the superficialty of the modern society
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 13)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 13
p. 160, l. 2 – p. 161, l. 3

p. 161, ll. 11-30

p. 162, l. 5-22

p. 162, ll. 25 ff.

p. 164, ll. 9-10

p. 165, l. 7 . p.. 166, l. 25

p. 167, ll. 7 ff.

p. 169, l. 11 ff.
Henry invites Lenina to a feely, but she declines → He is curious who she is having sex with, but she tells him to shut up → she is flustered about John so that she cannot concentrate on her work
She complains to Fanny that she is obsessed over John and other men cannot satisfy or distract her
→ Fanny tells her to “go and take him, whether he wants it or no“
Because she is scared, Lenina takes soma and visits John, intending to sleep with him
→ John falls to his knees and begins quoting Shakespeare to express his adoration
→ He speaks about marriage and declares his love for her
→ She asks why he had not said anything if he had wanted her
With the knowledge that he loves her, Lenina presses her body against his and begins to remove her clothes
→ John becomes furious, calls her a whore and slaps her
→ She locks herself in the bathroom while John quotes Shakespeare
The phone rings and he rushs out the apartment, so Lenina also leaves
The condradiction between John’s perception of Lenina as a pure, virginal woman and the reality, is finally destroyed
→ His imagination of Lenina as a symbol of all the virtuous women he read about in Shakespeareis replaced by Lenina as a “whore“
→ These two categories are the only ones he knows, so he is unable to face the whole reality
→ He cannot understand that Lenina is unaware of the moral code she broke in his eyes and that she is not a “whore“ in his understanding, because she is conditioned to act like this without any self-responsibility
The fact that he quotes Othello as reaction reflects that:
→ the different cultures of Othello and Desdemona did not lead to the murder, but Othello’s misperception (changing between regarding his woman as holy and as a “whore”)
a)

Feelies: An elaborate motion picture in which the audience takes hold of two knobs on the seat and feels the action taking place in the screen

b) John, the Savage:

When actually confronted with his desires (seeing Lenina naked, having the chance to sleep with her…), he is really angry and loses control
→ He calls the woman he desires loves “a whore“ (because she wants the same as him) and starts beating her
His feeling are very ambivalent: Only secords before he physically hurt her on purpose, he declared his endless love for her and that he wants to spend the rest of his life with her

c)
“Admired Lenina, indeed the top of admiration, worth what’s dearest in the world”
→ quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest
→ An extrem contradiction to his reaction a few minutes later:
“Impudent strumpet!“ (quote from Othello)
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 14)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 14
p. 171, l. 1 ff.

p. 173, ll.11 – 29p.

p. 173, l. 32 – p. 175, l. 14

p. 175, l. 17 – 33

p. 176, ll.20 – 30

p. 177, ll. 5 – 12
p. 179, l. 2 – 9
After the call about his dying mother, John enters the Hospital of the Dying
→ Next to Linda, he starts singing the songs she used to sing and recalling happy memories and her stories about the “beautiful, beautiful Other Place“
→ Despite his experiences, it remains a place “whole and undefiled“ and seperate from the reality
A Delta Bokanovsky group enters the room and the children are shocked at the sight of the over-weight and old woman
→ John hits one kind, because he thinks it is “disgraceful“
→ The nurse gets angry because John’s behaviour might decondition the children and she sents them to play “Hunt-the-zipper“
Linda slowly wakes up and John again tries to think of pleasant memories, but all he can think of is bad: Popé or the boys calling Linda names
Linda mumbles Popé’s name
→ John is in a rage because now his nice memories are definitely gone and he wants her to recognize him
→ he shakes her awake and on a soma holiday, John is “intruding“ for her
→ She dies in mid-sentence of “Every one belongs to everyone else“
→ John breaks down crying and slaps an éclair-eating child
The death-conditioning is “the icing on the cake” of the curiosities
→ While John desperately sits next to his dying mother and cries, the kids around are playing erotic games, having fun and eating sweets
→ a ward full of music, scents, telescreens etc.
To the end, Linda remains the well-conditioned Fordian rather than John's mother
→ her last words are not "my son," or "I love you," but the broken-off hypnopaedic suggestion for recreational sex: "Every one belongs to every . . . ."
Linda was not really conscious about her mortality, so her last look is “charged with terror”
→ to John, it seems to reproach him, so in fact he thinks that he has killed her
→ maybe the reason why he is more appealing to violence: he pushes away a curious child roughly enough to force him to the floor
Two concepts of individual death:
→ John: each individual represents a whole unto itself and deserves to be mourned upon death.
→ World State: children learn to view death in a social context: individual has no meaning and death does not harm society, the people do not need to fear it
a)

Hospital of the Dying

b) John, the Savage:

John blames himself for the death of his mother (because he shook her before she died)
→ seems to makehim more “radical“ and extreme in his reactions (he beats two children during his visit in the hospital)
Any tolerance he might once have felt for the practices and people of the World State disappears
→ He thinks of the Bokanovsky twins as maggots who bother his grieving process.
→ Drugged on soma, Linda mistakes him for Popé: that reflects that he is not recognized in the World State
→ they name him “the Savage,” associating him with stereotypical characteristics
→ Bernard uses John as a curious specimen of “savagery” to attract important people into his own social circle → Helmholtz laughs about Romeo and Juliet: John recognizes that his struggle with his physical attraction for Lenina is comedic, even for one of the World State’s few nonconformists
→ John acknowledges that he is either forced to be a stereotyped representative of “the savage” or to submit to the morals of the World State: no existance as individual
NAME: Chapter 15 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 15)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 15
p. 180, ll. 8 – 22

p. 181, ll. 23 – 27

p. 182, l. 11 – p. 183, l. 2

p. 183, ll. 3 – 23

p. 183, l. 24 – p. 184, l. 11

p. 184, l. 17

p. 184, ll. 27 – 33
p. 185, l. 1 – p. 186, l.10

p. 186, l.13 – 14
In the hospital, John comes across two Bokanovsky groups of Delta twins waiting for their soma rations after their shift
He realizes how much he detests this “Brave New World“ with its disgusting people
But he remembers Miranda in “The Tempest“ and how she proclaimed the possibility to change “the nightmare into something fine and noble“
→ John begs them for stop taking the soma rations, because it is a poison
→ He wants to bring them freedom
The man who hands out the soma calls Bernard at home to inform
→ Helmholtz answers the phone and they go to the hospital together
The fact that the Deltas are too stupid to understand him makes John angry
→ He throws the soma out a window
→ The Deltas start to attack him
Helmholtz, who has just arrived jumps into the crowd to help defend John
Bernard is too afraid to help them, because does not want to be killed
The police arrives: they spray soma gas and a Music Box, playing an Anti-Riot Speech tells them to be happy
→ the Deltas are crying, kissing one another and apologizing Helmholtz, John and Bernard are brought to Mustapha Mond’s office
The fact that John is unable to stand the superficial, infantile and “immoral” circumstances in the World State anymore was long overdue
→ His image of the “Brave New World“ based on Linda’s storys had to collapse and also lead to a revolutionary attempt: John is so strong in and convinced of his believes and principles that he thinks they have the power to change the world
John’s attempt to encourage the Delta workers into rebellion by throwing away their soma reminds me of his struggle against happiness as the ultimate goal
→ he would rather see truth and real human relationships - even painful ones - than the slavery of soma
Linda‘s death by soma also supports this
→ Linda and the Deltas use soma to escape all pain and responsibility
→ This makes them become infantile, something that John points out when he asks the Deltas why they want to be “babies . . . mewling and puking.”
a)

The Police and their weapons: the “Voice of Reason”, soma vapour, water pistols with anaesthetic…
→ Soma is obviously also used for “Anti-Riot“ issues, so to end protests

b) John, the Savage:
He finally acts out his hatred towards the World State by starting a protest
→ He wants to revoltutionize the society
But by he reactions of the Delta workers who do not understand him and only aim for their soma, John realizes, that the conditioning is too strong
→ He as a person will never get through tot hem, there has to be something more powerful

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 16)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 16
p. 187, ll. 7 – 13

p. 188, ll. 1 – 19

p. 188, l. 25 – p. 190, l.29

p. 190, l. 30 – p. 193, l. 20

p. 193, ll. 22 – 24

p. 194, ll. 2 – 16

p. 194, l. 18 – p. 195, l. 16

p. 195, l. 23 – p. 196, l. 26

p. 197, ll. 3 – 11

Helmholtz sits down at the most comfortable chair in Mustapha’s office
→ Bernard chooses the worst, because he hopes that this punishment will “deprecate the wrath of the higher powers“
Mustapha arrives and after making small talk it is made clear that he has also read Shakespeare
→ John asks him why he censors old things like Shakespeare
→ Mustapha answers that society no longer needs them: People are happy now and would not even understand the old things
→ He explains that art needs tragic elements and social instability, so art cannot exist in their civilization of happiness
→ Mustapha admits sure Othello is better than the feelies, but art is the "price you have to pay for stability" and for "happiness" and that happiness is a poor substitute for passion
They discuss the Bokanovsky groups
→ Mustapha points out that an entire society of Alphas would create social chaos, because none of them would want to do the “easy“ Epsilon and Delta work
Mustapha also argues that he cannot allow science to make progress without strict controls by the government
→ Science hast he power to lead into social instability
→ The others protest that science is everything and Mustapha agrees with them, but we have to make a difference between the science that ensures the social stability and the science that would thread it
After that, Mustapha tells Helmholtz and Bernard that he will send them to an island where all “rebellious“ people who “have got too self-consciously individual to fit into community-life“ go
Bernard protests, kneels before the World Controller and Mustapha has him removed from the room
Mustapha admits he himself would have gone to an island too but received the choice of becoming the next Controller
He explains that his job is to promote the maximum happiness of society but not of his own
To achieve this, he must act as an individual to decide what is best for the society
Helmholtz chooses to go to the Falkland Islands to write
→ Reason: bad weather promotes better writing
He then leaves to make sure Bernard is safe

It seems like the circumstances and practices described in the rest of the novel are questioned and discussed in an abstract form in this chapter
The topics that are discussed, the lack of art, freedom in science and pain, passion and deep emotions in general draws my attention to the consumerism in Brave New World
The novel does not simply show us a world that is different from our own
→ it shows us a world that is a mirror of ours, with the worst features of our world drawn out and exaggerated
→ Criticism on the ever-increasing value of consumption and production in our world that – according to Mustapha Mond – is not compatible with the other values that are sacred in our world (love, relationships, equality, freedom, art…)
Mustapha Mond become more and more a mystery for me the more I get to know about him:
→ Why is he so intelligent?
→ Why does he know so much about the society and the reason why it is stable?
→ Why does he understand that there is no freedom in this world?
→ Why does he also think that Shakespeare is better than the feelies?
→ Why does he admit that “happiness is never grand“ and although dedicates himself to the happiness of the society and not to the truth and his scientific talent?
→ Why does he “break the rules“ (reading Shakespeare, the Bible…) of the social system he believes in?
→ Why does he seem to be unconditioned?
Bernard is finally pathetic
→ while Helmholtz is pleased by the chance to live at a place with people like him, with individuals and even Mustapha envies him, the “real“ Bernard is shown
→ Bernard just aimed for respect, prestige, acceptance and also for feeling superior once in his life
→ his actions were the desperate cry for attention of a broken man
The statement of Mustapha Mond, that people are not slaves if they love being slaves made me thoughtful:
→ The first reaction to the confrontation with a society that superficial, emotionally indifferent, unequal and unfree is: “Oh my god, that is disgusting, how can they do that?“
→ But we will never know for sure what is the meaning of life and the aim worth striving for: happiness or individuality
→ So are we even able to criticise a society out of a society?
b) John, the Savage:

John is very curious about the reasons why the World State exists in the the way it exists
Although Mustapha Mond explains why there for example is no Shakespeare, no freedom of science or why there are Bokanovsky groups
→ John thinks that happiness should not be the highest priority in a society and so all these measures do not have the right to be implemented
He regards Mustapha as a person in the World State worth discussing with
→ the fact that he has also read Shakespeare makes him respect Mustapha
→ He acknowledges that Mond does not deny the losses that are a necessary part of gaining stability and even admits that beautiful works of art like Shakespeare and even basic understanding of profound human emotions are entirely eliminated
But the contradiction between John’s beliefs and Mustapha’s, is that Mustapha, at least, thinks that the gain of happiness and stability compensate the losses

c)
“Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.“
→ quote of Mustapha Mond, one of the most impressive speeches in to novel (in my eyes)
→ It perfectly sums up the contradiction between the two convictions of a society worth striving for
→ It made me realize that the world described in “Brave New World“ is not absurd like it first appeared: the people who control it know that it is disturbing and against human nature and although decided that it ist he only possibility for a peaceful society
→ So although it is passion, freedom and individualty that makes the value of a human, it seems that we cannot be a peaceful society with them

NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 17)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 17
p. 198, l. 3 – p. 200, l. 32

p. 201, ll. 2 – 13

p. 201, ll. 29 – 30
p. 202, ll. 1 – 4

p. 203, l. 1 – 204, l. 31

p. 203, ll. 7 – 11

p. 204, l. 9 – p. 206, l. 30

John and Mustapha Mond continue their philosophical argument, now the topic of religion
→ Mond shows John his collection of banned religious books, and reads out passages from Cardinal Newman, a Catholic theologian, and from Maine de Biran, a French philosopher
→ They both claim that religious sentiment is a response to the threat of loss, old age, and death
Mond argues that in their happy and youthful society, there are no losses and therefore no need for religion
John asks Mond if it is natural to feel the existence of God
→ Mustapha responds that people believe what they have been conditioned to believe
John protests that if the people of the World State believed in God, they would have a reason for self-denial and chastity and not behaving immoral
Mond says that no one in the society is behaving “immoral“; they just live by a different set of values than John
In the World State there are no unpleasant things and so no need for God: they have V.P.S. for physical fear → Soma is there to take deal with a negative situation: Soma is “Christianity without tears.”
Chapter 16 and 17 are definitely the most appealing and fascinating chapters for me:
→ the topics that are discussed are still modern and relevant in our society
→ especially the very controversal line by Mustapha Mond, “As if one believed anything by instict! One believes things, because he has been conditioned to believe them.“
→ Personally, I do not agree with that, but it gives us a totally different view on the whole book: As readers, we rebel against the notion of hypnopaedia because it seems to us like brainwashing; but from this point of view, religious doctrine is not too different
It somehow makes us unable to criticize the morals of “Brave New World“
→ The novel argues with cultural relativism: One cannot judge something as “wrong“, just because it is contradictory to his own culture
→ you judge with a completely different set of values
b) John, the Savage:

John is still very interested in how the World State works and why the Controllers chose this social system
He is convinced that a belief in God would give the inhabitants a reason for chastity and moralty
→ But he realizes that the society attitude towards suffering (just taking some when something unpleassant happens) prevents them from behaving “fine and noble“
→ “What you need is something with tears for a change.“
John understands that it is impossible for him to change the world, he now focusses on himself, the fact that ”he wants God, he wants poetry, he wants real danger, he wants freedom, he wants goodness, he wants sin.”
→ So he claims the right to be unhappy in a state whose only rule is to ensure happiness
→ This insight causes “John’s suffering“
NAME: Alina Ehrl Aldous Huxley, Brave New World - READING LOG (page 18)

Chapter/ page/line Important facts

Personal impressions
a) Institutions and practices of the World State
b) New information about a character
c) Striking language items
Chapter 18
p. 207, l. 1 – p. 208, l. 25

p. 209, ll. 6 – 10

p. 211, l. 20 – p. 212, l. 22

p. 211, ll. 23 ff.

p. 214, l. 27 – p. 215, l. 20
p. 216, l. 1 – p. 217, l. 27

p. 219, l. 7 ff.
p. 221, ll. 11 – 24

p. 221, l. 25 – p. 222, l. 7

p. 222, l. 7 – 11

p. 222, ll. 9 – 11
p. 222, ll. 12 – 28

Bernard and Helmholtz say good-bye to John who ate mustard and warm water to puke and be cleaned from civilization
→ Bernard apologizes for the scene in Mond’s office
John asks Mond if he can go with them to the islands, but Mond refuses because he wants to continue “the experiment.”
Later, John chooses to leave the society and live alone an abandoned lighthouse
→ He plants his own garden, whips himself, imitates Jesus‘ crucifixion (holding his arms in the position of a cross), so he will be purged of the contamination of civilization
One day, some Delta-Minus workers see John whipping himself → reporters come to interview him, but kicks one reporter and wants to be alone
→ the more reporters come the more increases his violence against them
One day he thinks longingly of Lenina and rushes to whip himself → A man films the scene and makes a popular feely out of it
Fans of the feely soon visit John
→ They chant “We want the whip.”
→ Lenina steps out of a helicopter and walks toward him with open arms
→ John calls her a strumpet and attacks her with his whip
Fascinated by the spectacle, the crowd mimes his gestures, dances, and and starts to sing the orgy-porgy song
After midnight, the helicopters leave and John collapses, “stupefied by soma” and the extended “frenzy of sensuality”
When he awakes in the morning, he remembers everything with horror
Having read about the “orgy of atonement” in the papers, people visit John’s lighthouse, discovering that he has hanged himself

Knowing John’s personality, his choice to distance himself from London for self-punishment and “being cleaned from civilization” is understandable
→ He's disgusted by the methods of the World State, horrified by its lack of humanity and generelly angry when they try to restrict him to their rules
→ He knows he is just an “experiment“ for them, so he is unable to establish his identity as a human being and not a creature
→ So he starts a rebellion against the state and because the basic rule in the World State is "Be happy all the time", the only way to break these rules is to be miserable
(“I claim the right to be unhappy.“)
→ So he makes himself suffer to prove that he's not under the yoke of the World Controllers
What seems really strange to me is John‘s mixing of love and violence, for example when he is so angry over his sexual desires for Lenina and he starts to whip himself
→ The original meaning of the whipping - to turn the mind away from thoughts of sexual pleasure - is lost in rage and lust as he imagines whipping Lenina
→ That was a very disturbing images, but looks forward to the end of the chapter
Although we do not know for sure what happened during the “orgy of atonement”, it seems to be kind of a S&M orgy
→ John whips Lenina what makes the crowd imitate him ecstaticly and soon everyone is chanting “orgy-porgy“
→ The two worlds descibed in the novel are combined (John’s attempt to resist his urges and the sex-obsessed World State) into a mass orgy
→ In the end, John cannot control his sexual desires and is carried away with the crowd
→ Waking up the next morning, he hates himself for his weakness: He has lost his battle with the World State, so he kills himself
On the one hand, I see his death in an optimistic way: He has finally reached the freedom, he would never have reached in the World State
But on the other hand, all hope for the society, hope for a revolution, has died with him
b) John, the Savage:

John does not want to do anything with the immoral civilization anymore that has killed his mother
→ He aims at solitude, self-supply, independence, self-discipline, piety and purification in general
→ Even the luxury of living in a well-preserved lighthouse makes him feel guilty
Because he has to think about Lenina instead of the death of Linda, he also punishes himself with a whip, a juniper and eating mustard and warm water
He shows himself very aggressive and violent when people disturbe his solitude
When Lenina visits him he is out of control and totally overchallenged concerning his feelings
→ Ambivalence: On the one hand, he attacks her because she is an “impudent strumpet“ for him, but on the other hand, he attacks her because he hates himself fort he feelings and urges she causes to him
→ This leads to the fact that finally he is unable to resist his feelings and participates to an orgy-porgy, the reason why he commits suicide
John experiences a huge character development in the novel:
→ his naïve optimism about the World State, expressed in the words “Oh brave new world“ from The Tempest, is crushed when he comes into direct contact with the civilization
→ The phrase “Brave new world” takes on an increasingly bitter, ironic, and pessimistic tone as he knows more and more about the State
He, as the only one in the novel knowing true emotions, love and hate, always seems too extreme in his convictions
→ John associates sex with humiliation and pain and character with suffering
→ This destructive view gains further power in John's response to the poetry of Shakespeare
His suicide can be seen as a result of an insanity created by the conflict between his values and the reality of the world around him