Question+3

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Shaila Sundram Brave New World Question #3

For anyone reading the book “Brave New World” (especially a class of high school sophomores), the social norms regarding sexual relationships are a definite standout. Not only are they different from those of our society in every which way, but they end up contributing to a near perfect society. As a result, many of us question whether or not our morals are at the heart of the problem. However, I do not believe this is the idea that Huxley was trying to convey through his portrayal of sexual relationships.

My reasoning goes back to chapter three, in which the hypnopædic proverb “every one belongs to every on else” is first referenced. Throughout the story, the society and the people living in it always refer back to this one phrase as their golden rule. It stretches the idea of human equality from the rights of individuals to the relationships between them - which brings me back to their casual sex. I think that switching the views on sexuality was Huxley’s way of conveying, in a simple but effective way, the idea of everyone belonging to everyone else.

Looking back through the story, there wasn’t any other benefit of putting these sexual morals in the brave new world. He had already eliminated sexual reproduction. Sadness was eliminated with a pill, and he could have done the same thing with sexual desire. However, if we were to remove his ideas of sex, the story would lack a sense of social equality. Sure, everyone would be happy, but they would still have distinct social classes. In history and in our society today, so much of what have strived for is social equality for world peace. Therefore, if this portrayal of sex wasn’t included in the story, the equality would not have been as evident to the reader, and the society would seem more off-balance.

In terms of Huxeley’s opnions on this issue, I don’t think they match the morals in the story. Whenever the issue of casual sex came up, he seemed more sarcastic- like he was making fun of it. For example, in chapter thirteen, I found the scene between Lenina and John to be a bit silly. While describing Johns thoughts in the scene, Huxeley says, “He found himself thinking of the embraces in Three Weeks in a Helicopter. Ooh! Ooh! The stereoscopic blonde and ahh! the more than real blackamoor. Horror, horror, horror...” His word choice seemed more melodramatic than serious to me. However, I do think that his morals fall somewhere in between those of his society and those of the Brave New World. Although he was very sarcastic with the Brave New World morals, he must have been thinking in that direction to come up and write about the ideas he conveyed in the story.

Although Huxeley used these sexual morals to convey a bigger idea, casual sex has already become more normal in our society than it was eighty years ago. This may be another one of Huxeley’s predictions come true. However, it is not what will bring us our Utopia.

Sophia Karbowski // Brave New World // Paper Response to #3

The //Brave New World// is unlike any other book I have read. Huxley’s modern Utopia has completely different morals and different views on life that seem to us like silly, far-fetched ideas. Their technology has shot through the roof, babies are no longer born, but now decanted, and one never has to be in a bad mood due to the mood pill, //soma//. As stated in the question, one of the most striking and comical aspects of Huxley’s Utopia is the way our sexual views and assumptions have been turned around. In this new, modern society, monogamy is bad, passion is deviation, and meaningless, casual sex is accepted and approved as a normalcy. Huxley could really be going anywhere with this. Nobody knows for sure exactly what he is trying to convey. Maybe he’s being satirical, making fun of the Utopia’s way of life. Or there’s the option that he’s being serious; he could be adding this aspect to one of his predictions of the future. Huxley might actually think that in the future, not only will technology progress, but our whole moral system. I think Huxley is trying to say that, eventually, people will get annoyed with doing things they don’t want to do or things they don’t enjoy. People will finally come to their senses and start asking, “Why do I do this if I don’t want to?”. As time goes on, people will start doing more of the things they enjoy and drop old morals or habits that could get in the way of their happiness. The way all of this can happen depends on what society will accept or not accept. As society starts accepting the things people do for happiness, there will be less un-enjoyable factors of life and enjoyable ones will replace them. So, since, for the most part, people enjoy sex, they will do it. Just simply do it. The best part is, is that there will be no guilt, no regret, no scolding, no embarrassment. Sex is now an accepted factor of society. The morality of getting married before sex or being too young for sexual activity no longer exists in the future. All because people decided that living your life doing the things that make you happy is the //best// way to live your life. As it is difficult to interpret exactly what Huxley thinks, I feel like he finds some expressions of human sexuality acceptable, and some unacceptable. What Huxley is trying to say is that society’s morals should be in between the savage norm and the Utopian norm. We need to settle on some sort of medium. To me, it seems as if Huxley is almost making fun of the fact that, in the Utopia, toddlers are taught and encouraged to be promiscuous with as many other toddlers as they can. But, on the other hand, he also seems to be making fun of how strict John’s morals are. He makes John seem foolish and prude when Lenina Crowne makes her obnoxious attempt to “give herself to him”. So, in Huxley’s view of human nature, is sex at the heart of the problem? In my opinion, it is not. I think Huxley would agree with my views. I feel like Huxley doesn’t view sex as the main problem in the Utopia, he could even being saying the complete opposite. He could be trying to say that following morals so strictly could get one in trouble. That’s exactly what caused John’s problems. Maybe it’s even //bad// or //unethical// to follow such an extreme system of morals. It could prevent one from fitting in with their society or environment. John’s life ended early because he could not fit in with the new society, or even make the effort. And this was just because his personal morals clashed with the morals of everybody in the new world. Huxley explores the possibilities of the future unlike any other person, whom I know of, has. He see’s people as finally letting go and doing what they enjoy, doing what brings happiness to their lives. As there may be a few glitches in the Utopia’s system, I don’t think he views sex as the main problem. So, will sexual morality really change this much in the future? Well, there’s nothing we can do but wait, while listening to people like Huxley predict what they think may become of our future.

Christine Shen Among the countless works of must-read literature, //Brave New World// is a book that will transport the reader to a future realm. Taking one to the land of the World State. Aldous Huxley creates a “utopia” in which the sexual morals, that are considered absolutely normal, are completely reversed from the attitudes towards sex from the present. Within the borders of the World State, there are no such things as lovers or monogamy. In addition, having sex with anyone is completely cool. Nobody would be regarded to his or her fellow peers as being a whore. Well, the only exception being Lenina, of course. While a handful of readers might feel disgust, Huxley’s proposal of the “open sexual morals” being one of the underlying qualities a perfect world possesses is fascinating. At the first glance at this book, I believed that Huxley’s intent in creating a Utopian civilization that smiles upon promiscuous sexual activities was to say that this is the way to go. With this idea, an utopia can be achieved. As seen in //Brave New World,// not one person in particular is happy but most of the people. They are content with their positions in society and with their lives. Whether he or she is an Alpha Plus or Epsilon Minus. As surprising as it is, people find satisfaction and pleasure through sex. I ask myself, “Is an utopia achieved when there is always happiness?” In my opinion, “Yes.” I believe that humans don’t look towards the positive side of things very often. They always search for a way to be unhappy. When the whole world is constantly unsatisfied, how can there be any joy? The Controller explains, “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” (Huxley, 221 – Brave New World). With a world where everybody belongs to one another, how can there possibly be any jealousy? There also would be no sadness or grief. Emotional tension would be absent from their lives. Instead, there would only be an united love. When a reader picks up //Brave New World//, the first remark of criticism that is usually said is that the citizens of the World State lack individuality; thus, lacking what it means to be human. Yet, I feel like the concept of being an individual and doing what one’s self believes in doing is only extremely significant in Western cultures. I have learned that Asian countries like China and Japan prefer to work together in order achieve a common goal. The people there do not value individuality as prominently as Westerners do. Lenina quoted, “When the individual feels, the community reels” (Huxley, 94 – Brave New World). Using this example, I think Huxley was proposing that society should stop focusing on what an individual feels, and more about how a group of people feel as a unit. Casual sex refers to the concept of “unity”. With the idea, Huxley is conveying how there shouldn’t be “individuals” in a society, which will, in turn, lead to a more stable community. After I did some research about the world Huxley lived in, my opinions about Huxley’s intent with these matters changed. For one thing, the main intention was not to suggest that meaningless sex was the passage to a perfect world. In fact, it was the exact opposite of what I first thought. Aldous Huxley’s purpose was to make fun the idea, thus creating a satire. A “…Oh really?... sarcastic story instead of a “Oh really? I didn’t know that” kind. Historically, Huxley witnessed the start of mass production and the misuse of the individual in the factories. He saw how people transformed into “one of the crowd.” Single snowflakes that melted together into one big puddle. So, Huxley choose to take this issue further by incorporating it with sex in //Brave New World.// (Huxley.net) “But then, why would this notion seem so ridiculous?” I wondered as I pictured a giant orgy in my head. Huxley is being sarcastic in order to exploit society’s way of showing what “peer pressure” can do. If society determines that whatever it may be is the approved norm, then people would take, what could be considered unbelievable, steps to try to fit in. Society is what determines right or wrong. I think that Huxley made this sex notion so far-fetched in order question the idea of love. What is love exactly? Actual love? Scientifically speaking, love would be a way to find the best mate in order to produce the best offspring. In the present day, love is created based off of ethnical morals, and it deals with the relationship between two people. However, in the case of the World State, its people love a whole lot more. Would “love” be deemed insignificant then? For example, John and Lenina were both in love, no doubt about it. However, their ideas about it were worlds away. John believes in chastity until marriage because love should be shared with one person only. Lenina, being raised in the World State all her life, believes that love should be divided up among everyone. Which one is right? Huxley is saying that there is no “right” answer to something. It would have to depend on the society in which one is raised. Sex is not at the heart of the problem in Huxley’s view of human nature. In actuality, lust is. My opinion is that humans are always trying to get more. They are never satisfied with what they have. In //Brave New World,// Aldous Huxley embodies this concept with the concept of having sex with whomever, soma, and mass consumption. All these examples show lead to instant gratification, in which Huxley criticizes of how it oftentimes leads to happiness. Then again I believe that Huxley thinks that stubbornness is a problem with human nature. With this radical sex idea//,// the author manufactures a shock value. When dealing with morality, humans tend to be stubborn to their beliefs. It is very hard to change what is considered right. Compared to the customs of the World State, where the man one sleeps with can shift daily, stubbornness comes with a great difficulty to be able to move on.

Jake Silhavy, Period 3 5/3/11 Question 3 Final Draft

After reading //Brave New World,// I couldn’t help but think that Aldous Huxley was being sarcastic when describing the “Utopia.” Much of the book is the exact opposite of what anyone would expect from a peaceful, Utopian world: a caste system is biologically defined & people are taken advantage of from the moment they are “conceived;” being introspective and creative is frowned upon; the word “mother” is a swear. It all seems a little bit too ridiculous to be taken seriously. Instead, I think Huxley is proposing the idea of a //Dystopia—//basically a seemingly perfect society that actually is repressive and has much wrong with it. Central to this dystopia is the idea of engaging in meaningless sex. Huxley created a perfect world, one in which people “get what they want and never want what they can’t get” (220). Sex is just the culmination of that—what I mean is that Huxley erased desires & passion and replaced it with instant gratification. If there wasn’t meaningless sex there would be //passion//, and of course, passion is unlawful because it represents a feeling that no one (not even the person feeling the passion) can control. So in a world where control is everything, passion has no place—like Lenina says, “when the individual feels, the community reels” (94). So in my opinion, part of why Huxley included meaningless sex in the book is simply out of necessity—it is the most extreme way he can get across the idea of instant gratification & the death of the idea of struggle and patience. I think it would be hard for him to describe a society where everyone “gets what they want” while having to deal with the issue of sexual desires. Desire poses a threat to this idea simply because of its definition; if people had desire, they //wouldn’t// be “getting what they want.” So Huxley eliminated this problem just by making everyone have sex openly, regularly, and (generally) with whomever they would like… However, the whole idea of open, carefree sex strikes me as an idea so absurd that I think Huxley was being sarcastic to get a point across. He could just as easily have incorporated dislike of sex into the children’s conditioning practices (it’s not like they need sex to survive at this point); instead, he chooses to allow carnal pleasures (soma, sex) to play a central role in his book. Why? I think it is to cynically make a point. He mockingly shows that complete breakdown of our values in favor of indulgence is characteristic of a //Utopia.// In other words, I think he is pessimistically implying that for there to be any perfect society at all, people need to instantly get what they want. Otherwise, there would be //unrest// (a world in which he was living in when publishing the book). He, in many ways, equates adults to infants, throwing “temper tantrums” when they don’t receive that instant satisfaction— “A great shout suddenly went up from the mob; a wave of movement drove it menacingly towards the Savage” (213). And again on page ninety-four, when Bernard vents, “And that’s why we went to bed together yesterday—like infants—instead of being adults and waiting.” However, with this quote by Bernard, Huxley might be expressing his own voice & opinions. While I don’t think that he is speaking through Bernard for the entire book, I think this might be how Huxley himself views the expression of sexuality: through patience and getting to know your partner (“like //adults//”). This isn’t the only book dealing with the expression of sexuality. George Orwell’s //Nineteen Eighty-Four// (published in 1949) incorporates the issue of sex & desire and their consequences. In his book, however, sexual impulses are //repressed.// I like Huxley’s idea much more… not just for the idea of unrestricted sex, but because I think Huxley has a more creative response to the threat to control that sexual impulse poses. Rather than squash desire & passion, Huxley creates a world in which there is no need for either. He tries to erase a negative part of human nature (lust & desire) by creating an atmosphere where there cannot be either of them. And by doing so, he creates a “perfect” world, in my opinion, implying that we as humans are unable of achieving a middle ground—one in which people can be happy while still being patient and willing to struggle to achieve our wants & desires.  Humanity’s Biggest Problem  Nick Petrus  Period 3  Sex! If that doesn’t get your attention, then I honestly don’t know what will. Seriously speaking though, sex is perhaps one of mankind’s favorite indulgences. Now, what if we could live in a world where sex was a normal activity to do daily – wouldn’t it be perfect if everyone could indulge in sex and all of our //other// existing desires? There would be no war, hatred, or suffering.  By now, you’re probably thinking that such a world is simply too good to be true – and you’re right – it is.  Aldous Huxley uses his Brave New World to show how //desire//, not just sex, is the major problem with human nature. In the Brave New World, everybody’s desires, which are usually sexual or chemical (//soma//), are fulfilled. But even though the inhabitants of this Brave New World get what they want and are genuinely happy with what they get, their world is //tainted.//  Towards the end of chapter 16, John has a very important discussion with Mustapha Mond. From that conversation, we learn that the widespread happiness in the Brave New World exists without truth, beauty, or knowledge – a //price// had to be paid in order for everyone to be happy.  What this means is that desire exists within the individuals of this world, and they typically get what they want, but their lives have a lack of meaning.  Now let’s take a look at John. It’s safe to say that John can act as a representative of morals and values – he was raised on the Savage Reservation, where he learned about what love //should// be like, and how a righteous individual should act (which he learned from “Jesus and Pookong.”). When Bernard immerses John into the Brave New World, a //violent// reaction occurs – his relationship with Lenina shatters, the //soma//-seeking Deltas try to kill him because of his actions, and he eventually commits suicide because he succumbs to the ways of the Brave New World. The Brave New World – which is //drenched// with desire, can't support morals or values.  In Huxley’s Brave New World, people want sex, they want //soma// – they want a good time. But what they don’t know is that they don’t live healthy lives. They have no //love//, no //art// – they really just live to die.

Arti Patel While I was reading //Brave New World,// I thought that by creating the utopian society, Aldous Huxley was being extremely sarcastic and the whole book was supposed to be satirical. I think that through the Utopia in Brave New World, Aldous Huxley was trying to highlight certain details in our society instead of using the Utopia to show what a perfect world would be like. The Utopia is actually a society that is basically the opposite of our society. This can be seen easily through the concept of meaningless sex that Huxley creates in the Utopia. In the Utopia, the socially approved norm is to have meaningless sex. Whereas in our society this concept is taboo, or not as widely accepted.  Huxley pointed out the difference between the society of that time versus the meaningless sex of the utopian society. Even though Aldous Huxley was being satirical through this idea, he still probably believes that to human sexuality is acceptable to a limit. This may have been because of his surroundings while writing the book. When Aldous Huxley wrote this book, in the 1930’s in America people wore very conservative and modest clothing. In addition to this, it was uncommon for people to openly have meaningless sex. In the book, when Lenina and John are together, John gets angry with Lenina when she tries to have sex with him. John does this because he thinks that he has to prove himself to Lenina in order to be worthy and he wants to get to know her more first. I think that through John, Aldous Huxley may have been portraying his views as well as what was the societal norm. Through this I think that he is trying to express that there is a limit to human sexuality that he finds acceptable, however he does not think that having meaningless sex was a good thing. Also, I do not think that Huxley believed that sex is the heart of the problem; however he does believe that it might be a part of it. This may be because in the Utopia everyone is everyone so they are free to be with anyone they wish to be with. However in society when Huxley was writing this book and in society today the norm is to date until you find the one special person and be with them for the rest of your life. In our society meaningless sex is often looked down upon. If one were to sleep with someone else’s partner human tend to become jealous and bitter. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 90%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline;">By creating this utopia, and the concept of meaningless sex, the author is also trying to eliminate the sense of personality, or “I-ness” or the concept of mine/individuality. Aldous Huxley wrote the quote that “everyone is everyone’s” showing the loss of individuality of the people. The children are made from test tubes/ decanted also portray this individuality. Sex/sexuality is a desire, a temptation, by eliminating the individuality part of it, he is getting rid of the individuality we have in our society today, and creating everyone to be equal. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 90%; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline;">All in all I think that through the morality in the Utopia that meaningless sex is ok, he is trying to pull out the differences in our society. In addition to this, I believe that he thinks that there is a limit of human sexuality he finds acceptable and that sex may lead to some problems in human nature.