I know that some of you are wondering how you could get a 10/10 or a 5/5 on your posts and comments. I'm going to give you a chance to replace one of your scores with a new score by writing a final comment and reply. If you earn the perfect score, I will go back and replace one of your earlier scores with that perfect score. Does that make sense?
NOTE: This replacement post cannot be done instead of one of the other posts. It can only replace a low score, not a zero. You have to do all of the other posts (4 total) in order to earn the right to do this replacement post. (This is similar to the way that John has to suffer in order to earn the right to live in the Lighthouse!)
Assignment:
The final post requires you to select one quote from chapters 14-18 that you think captures a central idea. Start your post with the quote and the page number. Then, analyze the quote fully and integrate your own ideas on the benefits and dangers of technology/progress/or society.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Guiding Thought - Chapters 14-18
Just finished reading the book....wow. I can't help but feel that I've brushed some of the deep ideas, that I've been drawn out of my mundane daily life and shown a glimpse of the things we truly long for. I would venture to guess that Huxley wanted us to feel that way, he wanted us to wrestle with ourselves and hold to all things good that we can find.
The perspective has shifted in these chapters. We started the novel as birds on Bernard's shoulder, gradually shifted to include Lenina and then Linda's perspective. But in the last chapters we follow John the Savage exclusively. We see his sorrow and horror (the horror! the horror!) as he confronts the reality of death. We see his grief turn to anger and eventually rage. He tries to take a stand and convince a group of citizens to rebel against civilization in the name of liberty ("I'll make you be free whether you want to or not" (213). His conversation with Mustafa Mond is fascinating--I was shocked to see that the World Controller had a library of books and possessed a weath of knowledge about truth. His dislosure that islands exist full of "every one, in a word, who's any one" (227) is one of my favorite lines in the book becuase of the way it plays on the words "every one" and "any one"--separating them in order to place emphasis on the "one". It is an island of individuals!
It is curious to me, then, that the Savage chooses to retreat, not to these islands, but to a lighthouse relatively close to civilization. There is deep symbolism embedding in the choice of a lighthouse, which I'm sure you caught right away. I have so many questions to ask after reading, and more than anything would love to have you all in a circle so we could talk about it in person--but this venue will have to suffice.
Please choose from the following questions to respond to:
1. Chapters 16 and 17 reveal that art, science and religion have all been sacrificed for the sake of stability. Which do you think is the greater price to pay and why?
2. Mond explains that one the Brave New World is "only possible when there's no self-denial" (237). Do you feel that modern America is on this trajectery? Are we embracing the idea that we should deny ourselves nothing, and what are the consequences of living without self-denial?
3. At the end of the novel, the Savage whips himself relentlessly. A few chapters earlier he says, "Nothing costs enough here" and he even "claims the right to be unhappy." (239-240) Analyze your reactions to these ideas.
4. I really want to ask something about the connection between his need to punish himself and Lenina with almost religious fervor and the orgy-porgy that the crowd falls into simultaneously...but I can't decide how to ask it...
5. The novel ends with John's tragic suicide, and as his body slowly rotates on the rope, his feet oscillate from one end of the compass to the other....as if he is searching for something that he is unable to find. What do you think he is searching for and why is that thing the most important message in the novel?
The perspective has shifted in these chapters. We started the novel as birds on Bernard's shoulder, gradually shifted to include Lenina and then Linda's perspective. But in the last chapters we follow John the Savage exclusively. We see his sorrow and horror (the horror! the horror!) as he confronts the reality of death. We see his grief turn to anger and eventually rage. He tries to take a stand and convince a group of citizens to rebel against civilization in the name of liberty ("I'll make you be free whether you want to or not" (213). His conversation with Mustafa Mond is fascinating--I was shocked to see that the World Controller had a library of books and possessed a weath of knowledge about truth. His dislosure that islands exist full of "every one, in a word, who's any one" (227) is one of my favorite lines in the book becuase of the way it plays on the words "every one" and "any one"--separating them in order to place emphasis on the "one". It is an island of individuals!
It is curious to me, then, that the Savage chooses to retreat, not to these islands, but to a lighthouse relatively close to civilization. There is deep symbolism embedding in the choice of a lighthouse, which I'm sure you caught right away. I have so many questions to ask after reading, and more than anything would love to have you all in a circle so we could talk about it in person--but this venue will have to suffice.
Please choose from the following questions to respond to:
1. Chapters 16 and 17 reveal that art, science and religion have all been sacrificed for the sake of stability. Which do you think is the greater price to pay and why?
2. Mond explains that one the Brave New World is "only possible when there's no self-denial" (237). Do you feel that modern America is on this trajectery? Are we embracing the idea that we should deny ourselves nothing, and what are the consequences of living without self-denial?
3. At the end of the novel, the Savage whips himself relentlessly. A few chapters earlier he says, "Nothing costs enough here" and he even "claims the right to be unhappy." (239-240) Analyze your reactions to these ideas.
4. I really want to ask something about the connection between his need to punish himself and Lenina with almost religious fervor and the orgy-porgy that the crowd falls into simultaneously...but I can't decide how to ask it...
5. The novel ends with John's tragic suicide, and as his body slowly rotates on the rope, his feet oscillate from one end of the compass to the other....as if he is searching for something that he is unable to find. What do you think he is searching for and why is that thing the most important message in the novel?
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