Brave New World*

Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act 5, Scene 1)

Mirianda:

 

O wonder!

How many goodly creatures are there here!

How beautious mankind is!

O brave new world,

That has such people in't!"

- concept of a dystopia.

-Irony:  What Huxley praises in BNW, he is really condemning; what

he condemns (through the characters) he praises.

-Huxley wants to warn us about what our society might turn into by

showing us the values implicit in BNW.

-The core of the discussion focused on the value of efficiency: more

for less (time and money).   Sweatshops in the third world

as a possible example of efficiency elevated to a supreme value.

-Why Ford is a good example related to efficiency:  assembly line: how in

BNW time is measured from the time of Henry Ford (say the 1920s):  we

dealing with a society about 600 years after Ford (AF).  Ford replaces

Jesus.

-We then ask what values is Huxley implicitly praising and wanting to

see fostered as a counterbalance to efficiency:  human rights and

imagination and individuality.

-The importance of art and artists as the sources

of imagination.

TWO