i still am not feeling for any of the characters. Lenina's has had monogamous tendencies from the beginning of the book and it makes me not believe this "brave new world" that Huxley has created. how many other people have these tendencies for one lover? how effective is the conditioning? amazing premise to begin on for Huxly, but the development is not awesome.
John can go back anytime to the old world, so i don't feel too bad for him either.
I agree with your comment on character development for the most part. But, as I mentioned on a previous post, I think it is important to think of BNW as character. As the novel develops, BNW becomes a more and more complex place. One example being the effectiveness of the conditioning process. In the beginning of the novel, Huxley describes this beautiful, yet haunting, utopia that is systemically managed in order to keep everyone happy. But, as the novel progresses, we are encouraged more and more to consider the effectiveness of the system and its compatibility with human nature. As for conventional characters, I find John to be a fairly compelling character. I speculated in an earlier post that Huxley may have conceived John as a character living in the borderlands. Originally, I thought that I was over analyzing the novel. But, at this point in the novel, I think it is safe to say that Huxley did intend for John to represent this concept. Furthermore, I don't agree that John can go back when ever he wants. I guess he could physically go back, but he is not accepted by the people of Malpais. He finds beauty in Malpais, but is not accepted. On the other hand, he finds BNW to be a disturbing place , but they are fascinated by him (he is a celebrity in BNW).
funny, i got about 15 students myspaced from my first year of teaching and tonight i went randomly decided to go look at some of my kids pages. after seeing some of the junk they have on their pages (i know that are just middle schoolers) but it's just funny to think about how i wish i could steer some of these kids in a more fulfilling path. then i started thinking about what if i was in control of trying to give a nation of kids a fulfilling life, how would i do it (make a brave new world of my own, hmmmm). teaching is a powerful gig i wish people had a philosophy of "it takes a village to raise a child", but now people are so property driven with their kids like raising a child is a personal experiment rather than a unifying experience. after being a teacher i find myself confronting the youth about their actions in public quite often, i do not know if part of that comes with dealing with my own kids at home. all the luck in the world to you brother samson, i will never forget my students, they really feel like MY kids. i hope you find the joys of teaching to outweigh the stresses.
i think next blog should be longer reading assignments. i think some of the discussions got watered down because we covered the same ground many times. but overall, i had a very enjoyable read with everyone's comments.
i've been in hawaii. monsoon rains all week. beautiful.
I don't usually read anything that comes before the actual literature when I read a book, but when I started this one, I read the forward. Huxley says, "Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean." He then goes on to make amends for his "bad art" and points out that in order to fix the mistakes of BNW, he would have to start from scratch and write an entirely new book.
I realize this isn't from this (last) week's reading, but it is what I keep thinking about, especially as we talk about the defects of the book such as lack of character development. The book clearly had something going for it, or we probably wouldn't be reading it 70+ years after it was published, and yet I see poor Huxley looking back on his work and feeling that he failed us by not doing a good enough job.
we could read brave new world revisiting where he discusses all of these topics in more detail i believe. not right now neccessarily, or maybe not in the book club, but it might not be a bad idea to read that eventually.
I think so. I've been really busy finishing up with school. I haven't finished the book yet, but I plan to finish it up this weekend. If you want to have a final discuss, I would be interested. Otherwise, we can start thinking about our next book.
I just wanted to express my disappointment that there was no interest in a final reflective discussion of the book. I thought that the final chapters of the book were provocative and, in some cases, haunting. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
That being said, I do apologize for falling behind on the last few weeks of reading. I was finishing up my long term substitute assignment and was up to my knees in journals and essays.
If anyone is interested in putting together one last discussion thread on BNW, I'm in. Otherwise, I will be creating a post within the next few days to start discussing our next book.
i still am not feeling for any of the characters. Lenina's has had monogamous tendencies from the beginning of the book and it makes me not believe this "brave new world" that Huxley has created. how many other people have these tendencies for one lover? how effective is the conditioning? amazing premise to begin on for Huxly, but the development is not awesome.
ReplyDeleteJohn can go back anytime to the old world, so i don't feel too bad for him either.
I agree with your comment on character development for the most part. But, as I mentioned on a previous post, I think it is important to think of BNW as character. As the novel develops, BNW becomes a more and more complex place. One example being the effectiveness of the conditioning process. In the beginning of the novel, Huxley describes this beautiful, yet haunting, utopia that is systemically managed in order to keep everyone happy. But, as the novel progresses, we are encouraged more and more to consider the effectiveness of the system and its compatibility with human nature. As for conventional characters, I find John to be a fairly compelling character. I speculated in an earlier post that Huxley may have conceived John as a character living in the borderlands. Originally, I thought that I was over analyzing the novel. But, at this point in the novel, I think it is safe to say that Huxley did intend for John to represent this concept. Furthermore, I don't agree that John can go back when ever he wants. I guess he could physically go back, but he is not accepted by the people of Malpais. He finds beauty in Malpais, but is not accepted. On the other hand, he finds BNW to be a disturbing place , but they are fascinated by him (he is a celebrity in BNW).
ReplyDeletefunny, i got about 15 students myspaced from my first year of teaching and tonight i went randomly decided to go look at some of my kids pages. after seeing some of the junk they have on their pages (i know that are just middle schoolers) but it's just funny to think about how i wish i could steer some of these kids in a more fulfilling path. then i started thinking about what if i was in control of trying to give a nation of kids a fulfilling life, how would i do it (make a brave new world of my own, hmmmm). teaching is a powerful gig i wish people had a philosophy of "it takes a village to raise a child", but now people are so property driven with their kids like raising a child is a personal experiment rather than a unifying experience. after being a teacher i find myself confronting the youth about their actions in public quite often, i do not know if part of that comes with dealing with my own kids at home. all the luck in the world to you brother samson, i will never forget my students, they really feel like MY kids. i hope you find the joys of teaching to outweigh the stresses.
ReplyDeletei think next blog should be longer reading assignments. i think some of the discussions got watered down because we covered the same ground many times. but overall, i had a very enjoyable read with everyone's comments.
Yeah. I agree. Let's have longer assignments. More to talk about....
ReplyDeleteGreat book though...and I like this club.
i've been in hawaii. monsoon rains all week. beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI don't usually read anything that comes before the actual literature when I read a book, but when I started this one, I read the forward. Huxley says,
"Chronic remorse, as all the moralists are agreed, is a most undesirable sentiment. If you have behaved badly, repent, make amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean."
He then goes on to make amends for his "bad art" and points out that in order to fix the mistakes of BNW, he would have to start from scratch and write an entirely new book.
I realize this isn't from this (last) week's reading, but it is what I keep thinking about, especially as we talk about the defects of the book such as lack of character development. The book clearly had something going for it, or we probably wouldn't be reading it 70+ years after it was published, and yet I see poor Huxley looking back on his work and feeling that he failed us by not doing a good enough job.
we could read brave new world revisiting where he discusses all of these topics in more detail i believe. not right now neccessarily, or maybe not in the book club, but it might not be a bad idea to read that eventually.
ReplyDeleteNEW BOOK PLEASE. DON'T LOSE THE STEAM HERE...COME ONE...SNAP TO IT.
ReplyDeleteare we done with BNW?
ReplyDeleteI think so. I've been really busy finishing up with school. I haven't finished the book yet, but I plan to finish it up this weekend. If you want to have a final discuss, I would be interested. Otherwise, we can start thinking about our next book.
ReplyDeleteI miss the book blogging....we need to do something!!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to express my disappointment that there was no interest in a final reflective discussion of the book. I thought that the final chapters of the book were provocative and, in some cases, haunting. I'm interested to hear your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I do apologize for falling behind on the last few weeks of reading. I was finishing up my long term substitute assignment and was up to my knees in journals and essays.
If anyone is interested in putting together one last discussion thread on BNW, I'm in. Otherwise, I will be creating a post within the next few days to start discussing our next book.
I thought there was going to be a final discussion post for the last few chapters.
ReplyDelete