Sunday, April 21, 2013

Brave New World Ch 1-6 Fishbowl

71 comments:

  1. What do you think that Huxley is saying about society?

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    1. He is basically satirizing how ridiculous their society has become. With all the mass production of the children and everything else, he is saying how America will soon go down that path of huge industrialism.

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    2. I think that he is saying that society is so corrupt even when he wrote this book, so even if we tried to change it like in this book then it will still be corrupt. So now that were corrupt we wont be able to change it.

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    3. huxley is pocking flaws about how we mass produce everything in society and just like sam said it can end up taking us down a path of industrialism

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    4. Huxley is satirizing the class system and how it seems like people are born, not made. He addresses the concept of mass production and challenges the thought of individualism saying that it does not exist. Brave New World is a world that could some day exist in his mind.

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  2. What is the meaning of the World State’s motto COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY?

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    1. I think it is the ruling order's vision for the society. I think they strive to be as close knit as possible while keeping a unique identity to themselves as a society; not as individuals. And with such a strict ruler, the stability of the society can be controlled quite easily

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    2. Those words represent what the society believes in, but do not necessarily follow them. They say identity, but in reality they are all the same person. There really is no true identity because everyone is the same.

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    3. The meaning of the motto is that it wants everyone and everything to be perfect,run smoothly, and for everyone to know what you do and what you were made to do because they are in a utopian society.

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    4. The motto is designed to create an identity that is intertwined with the idea of the community so that the individual does not rise up against the rest.

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  3. Eli- Overall I think Huxley saw the moral degradation of his society in the 1930's so he decided to write a warning for the world. He wrote a novel that showed a possibility for society if they don't change their ways.

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  4. I think that the leaders created that motto to control them into thinking they are important, but they can only function with others, therefore achieving social stability.

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  5. What is the importance of soma? How does their society utilize it?

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    1. They use soma as a sort of depressant. From what I've gathered, when they take the large amounts of soma that is given to them, they become very lackadaisical and erotic. Then they proceed to have sex with one another; either with one or multiple partners. It seems kind of like a drug that the rulers are giving them so the citizens aren't aware enough to notice what the rulers are doing.

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    2. I think soma represents two things. One, our own addiction to many different products relating to drugs and alcohol. And two, soma represents as a way for escape from the mundane boring everyday life.

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    3. Eli,
      I believe the society uses soma as a drug to further condition their people. The drug is called the "Perfect Drug" of their age because it reduces the peoples senses and emotions and makes them easier to control.

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    4. The World State wants their process of producing people to be perfect and they believe it is so they want everything they produce to be perfect as can be so they use soma to keep them young and not grow old so that their product looks good.

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    5. Soma is a way for the people to escape the reality of life and to numb the emotions they are feeling. Soma is a way out for people to greater follow the ideas of the society and reproduce.

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    6. The drug soma seems to be a depressant for the people who use it, and people seem to have less control of what they do when they are under the influence of it. It seems like soma shows how unnatural and controlling this society is.

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    7. Soma is a way of controlling the characters in the book. Soma takes away all stressful feelings so the characters are concerned with their feelings and rebelling against the leaders.

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  6. Community as defined by the book is one global community where everybody works for everybody else. Identity is the sense of community, where everybody has a purpose, and performing all the rituals that are required as a functioning member of their society. Stability, everything is stable because everybody is basically the same. The people who are being taken advantage of have been bred to be on a lower level intellectually, so they don't even realize that they are being taken advantage of. Everybody has been bred to like their social class, so nobody wants what anybody else has.

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  7. Why is each human put into one of the five classes, when a caste system is something the world is trying to evolve from?

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    1. They realized that the way of the world only ends in misery. Constructing caste systems and forcing people to be bred into how to live creates true stability and... "happiness"

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    2. because when they put a person into each caste system it becomes the most efficient way to produce goods.

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    3. They put them in these castes for efficiency. Once there caste is chosen, they are genetically engineered to best fit that caste. This makes the production of all there goods very efficient

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    4. The caste system allows those in control to continue being in control, if everybody is told what to think, all the time, then nobody will do what they want- leading to productivity to increase.

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    5. The caste system keeps efficiency and consumerism to be at it's peak. It makes everyone feel like they belong and everything is right in the world.

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  8. to me, the motto 'COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY' means
    1. community- to develop a well functioning, top line society in which everyone is close to each other and brought together by being a part of one common community.
    2. identity- to find each and everyone's individualistic identity, where they belong in society, and what is their purpose in life. In this book, it seems to me that everyone's identity is blinded by who society wants them to be.
    3. Stability- basically, to create an, as close to perfect, community where everything everyone says or does can not and will not affect the society for the worse. an always improving people.

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  9. What does the Central London Hatchery remind you of in todays society?

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    1. It kind of reminds me of a slaughterhouse for beef or poultry. Because it is very commonplace in our society and we don't usually think twice about it, but when we visit the actual factory, it terrifies us and we find it haunting

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  10. It seems to me that in 'Eutopia' books, the higher power of people is trying to make society perfect and make each person exactly the same. They think that a perfect community can only be made if every single person in the ideal eutopian society must be cloned. However, when classes are put into the whole equation, it couldn't be more different! If everyone is being pushed to act the same way, then why would there be 5 different classes? to me, that destroys the purpose of everything being the same.

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    1. The five different classes create the perfect society, not necessarily the perfect experience for the individual. It is suppose to be the perfect community, not the perfect life.

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  11. Can Mustapha Mond be considered hypocritical for his ideas? Considering he teaches the ideas of the society but yet still has banned books and banned items?

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    1. even though he banned books he did so to make sure no one was learning something he didn't want them to learn.

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    2. At this point I don't think that Mustapha Mond is a hypocrite, just because he has the banned items, doesn't mean he necessarily reads or uses the items from his safe.

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    3. Mustapha Mond is a very interesting character. He is a Controller, he makes the rules and teaches the ideals of society. In an equal society he is at the top. From what we have herd from him,Mond is very smart. It would not surprise me if he known that he is being hypocritical banning books.

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  12. MY COMPUTER IS GONNA DIE MRS. SMITH!!!!

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  13. Whats seems to be better in this book, freedom or happiness?

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Well the characters in this book seem to be more happy than free because they have almost zero freedom whatsoever, but don't seem very distraught about it. They have been taught and conditioned to feel happy with the lives they live even though by our standards they are oppressed

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    3. That is just completely wrong Matt, all the people in the society seem to be very happy. All they are taught to do is to have fun by playing games, going on dates, and having sex. Everyone in the society is happy except Bernard who tends to have more freedom and think differently, but yet is very sad.

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    4. There is on freedom in the book. Happiness for the people in Brave New World is different then what we would determine as happiness.

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    5. In this book (as same in all books about a 'perfect society') I think freedom and happiness play a huge role simultaneously. At the beginning of any eutopian book, there isn't freedom and it seems as though there is a lack of true happiness as well. But most everyone in the society seems like robots with no emotions. They've become so used to their surroundings and their position that they don't have a feeling for or against where they are in society. Overall, when all hell breaks lose, the result always comes back to an 'unhappy' people as a result of the lack of freedom.

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    6. Through the use of soma and conditioning, they have given people a false sense of happiness, they are given a safe, consequence-free, haven to live in. They are made mindless and now have no need for freedom, because they think they are truly happ

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    7. In this book happiness is more important. With freedom, you can start rebellions and take away everyone's happiness. By mass producing happiness you can control the people inside. Happiness keeps everyone blind.

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  14. Is the society in the new world built around science?

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    1. yes because without science they wouldnt be able to mass produce children

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    2. Some what, every single person is made through science, no people are naturally made, so the society depends heavily on science to keep on going.

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    3. I think that in the society they use science to help manufacture there population but I don't think its built around science because it doesn't seem that they are trying to find new things out about their process they are just using science to do the process.

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    4. Completely, they have supressed all literature and no one believes in anything but science. And like matt said, its how they produce dem babies

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    5. Yes, they are all about efficiency of their lives which is made easier by science. They have machines to breed people and the way the people are bred make it easier and more efficient to produce

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    6. Yes, this society would not work without its technology. Its ironic that they use advanced technology yet they don't teach people about the technology that created them. It's amazing that their society has not fallen apart with out an education.

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    7. Brave New World is based around creating a perfect society and their futuristic science development is what drives the goal of a eutopic community. Their scientific advancements provides them hope to create what they feel a perfect society has to consist of. Science is their excuse to keep doing what their doing and keep striving to make better of what they already discovered.

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  15. If Huxley is satirizing the new rights of women in the 1920's and their new choices, did he satire women in an effective way to show their newly gained freedom during that time in the early 20's? How else could he satire a women's choices?

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  16. What is the point of Bernard and Helmholtz? What do they add to the novel?

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    1. I think that they add the factor that even though they are run by higher rules and such in their society they can still do what they want because they are their own person and they are learning they don't have to necessarily follow those rules and they are pushing the boundaries.

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    2. Bernard and Helmholtz are both very intelligent and think differently than most everyone else. Since they are so smart they are able to question the ideas of the society. They really provide a voice of reason for all the ridiculous actions of the society.

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  17. Do you think that the people are truly happy?

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    1. I do not think that they truly are because they are being forced to follow rules of new world and being forced to do something all you can do is fake emotion to make it look like you like what they are doing because if they think you don't like it they will punish you.

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    2. I think that most of the people take enough soma to feel happy.

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    3. Truthfully, I don't think people are happy. They may think they are happy but they have never felt true sadness. So how can they be happy. They spend all their time either working or taking soma which deadens their emotions.

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    4. I think they are happy, they do not know what is right or wrong, they always are seeking pleasure so that must make them happy. They don't understand that making people like this is a bad way, they just see it as "normal".

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    5. I don't think people know if they are truly happy at this point. With many 'Eutopian' books, it seems as though the people of society haven't exactly realized that they are unhappy. It's like society today; we focus more on whether we are happy or not emotionally in the moment. But do we ever stop to think thoroughly whether or not we are happy with where we are or in the cages of society itself? and even if you have thought about your happiness in society's corruption, have you thought to rebel against it? Probably not. We are all living in the regulations of our communities and not thinking twice about the things we could change.

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    6. But if they grow up being told what happiness is, aren't they achieveing what they think is happiness? Their society also encourages getting high and having sex all the time! Do they not live in pure pleasure?

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    7. I do not think that the people are truly happy. Each person is given a purpose, and they are all conditioned to act a certain way. I think that they are completely capable of finding their own destiny, and they would be happier if they were not under such control.

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  18. Do you think that attempting to create a perfect society is somewhat counterproductive considering all of the flaws it brings out?

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    1. I think there is way to much work put into trying to create a perfect society, when in reality there couldn't be any more errors with the actions.

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    2. Yes, despite all the things that are absent from society in Brave New World, but they are basically morally dead.

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    3. I think creating a perfect society is a great thing. But i also think it is impossible for man to do. If Brave New World shows us one thing, it shows persute of Utopian society could easily result in a government controlling world where everyone seeks to fulfill their own desires.

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