| Why was the Arch-Community Songster and other high ranking guests upset when the savage wouldnt visit with them? (173) | The men felt they were tricked into behaving nicely to the insignificant fellow with the unsavoury reputation and heretical opinions ( bernard) for nothing. The more important they were, the more they resented it |
| Why did Lenina feel a sense of dreadful emptiness and nausea when Bernard announce the savage wouldnt be attending the party with the Arch-Community Songster(174) | She felt like she was having a VPS treatment because she thought the savage didn’t like her. A new feeling for her. She didn’t “feel” |
| What did Bernard think was going to be the crowning moment of his career and how did it turn out?(176) | Arranging for the savage to meet the Arch-Community Songster- it turns into his greatest humiliation |
| What did the savage do instead of meeting the Arch-Community Songster? (176) | Read Romeo and Juliet |
| Why did the controller refuse to publish “a new theory of biology”?(177) | It might decondition the unsettled minds of the higher castes – they would lose faith in their happiness and realize that the purpose of life was not the maintenance of well being but perhaps the enlargement of knowledge. |
| After Bernard’s disappointing party, the savage actually liked him more. Why? (179) | He liked that when Bernard was unhappy, he was real ” I’d rather be unhappy than have the sort of false, lying happiness you have here ((in this world))” |
| Why did Bernard think it was okay to take his disappointment and anger out on the savage?(179) | The savage was accessible – one of the principle functions of a friend is to suffer ( symbolically) the punishments that we should like, but are unable) to inflict on our enemies |
| Why did Helmholtz Watson get in trouble when he was teaching his usual course of Advanced Emotional Engineering lectures? (181) | He read a rhyme he had written about being alone- solitude is against sleep teaching |
| How did Helmholtz and the savage achieve an intimacy that Bernard and the savage could not? How did Bernard feel? (182) | After Helmholtz wrote his poem about solitude, he felt he like he finally had something to write about- like words were important, latent (silent) power. He was happy with this discovery and the savage understood. Bernard was jealous |
| How did Bernard act out when he was jealous of the relationship between the savage and Helmholtz ?(183) | He would interrupt and defile their readings. This pained them because they loved the poetic readings |
| The most disgraceful interruption of the poetic reading (between the savage and Helmholtz) came from Helmholtz. Why?(184) | The concept of Romeo and Juliet was ridiculous to him ( forced marriages , choosing someone else but not speaking up, wanting only one person, love) but the final straw was the death scene. The body laying there , uncremated, wasting his phosphorus |
| Even though Helmholtz laughed at Romeo and Juliet , what did the story teach him? ( he liked about the story) (185) | It showed him that to be a “marvelous propaganda technician” aka writer you need ridiculous , mad situations to write well. You need to hurt and be upset to think of these things |
| Why was Lenina making mistakes at work? (187) | She kept thinking about John She liked him and didn’t understand why he didn’t want to sleep,with her |
| Lenina went to force herself upon John. What did he think of this?(194) | He thought she acted like a wh**e |
| When senility affected a person as they were dying, what part of the body was affected? (199) | The heart and brain |
| What caste were the twins that toured the hospital when Linda was dying?(201) | They wore khaki- therefore delta |
| How old was Linda when she died?(202) | 44 |
| Why did johns passion and grief for Linda’s passing turn to rage?(204) | She called him pope and still didn’t recognize him. He was looking for some form of love or emotion form a “mother” |
| How did John think Linda felt at the very end of her life?(205) | Terror and reproach (possibly pain) |
| What bed was Linda in at the hospital?(207) | Bed 20 |
| What did John think the delta bokanovsky’s twins at the park lane hospital for the dying seemed like? | Maggots, swarming over Linda’s death |
| At the hospital, after Linda’s death, John quoted brave new world again. How was it different than the first time he referenced the quote in the Malpais ?(210) | This time the words mocked him through his misery and remorse. They made him face the ugliness of this nightmare the words challenged him to find loveliness ;to transform this nightmare into something fine and noble |
| Why did the savage want to make the world beautiful after Linda’s death? How did he try to do this?(210 211) | Linda had been a slave; Linda had died; others should live in freedomHe tried to convince the deltas not to take the soma at the end of their shift. He threw the soma out |
| Why did Helmholtz help the savage as he tried to get stop the deltas from getting their soma? (213) | He realized ” ford helps those who help themselves” he wanted to experience and think for himself |
| How did Bernard feel while John was fighting the deltas over soma?(213) | Agony of humiliated indecision |
| What stopped the delta/savage/Helmholtz riot?(215) | The voice and soma vapour and water pistols charged with a powerful anasthetic |
| What did Helmholtz think about being taken to the controller after the riot?(217) | More like a caffeine-solution party than a trial |
| Why was Shakespeare prohibited ?(219) | Because it’s old. They don’t want people attracted to old things;?they want them to like new |
| Why was Bernard upset with the savage and Helmholtz during their “trial” with the controller?(230) | He felt they kept forgetting the unpleasant realities of the situation |
| Why did the controller think no one would understand Othello?(220) | The worlds are different you can’t make tragedies without social instability the new world is stable with happiness and people getting what they want If anything go wrong there is soma |
| What is the price paid for stability? (220) why? | You have to choose between happiness and high art Too many emotions- misery , instability, struggle with temptation or passion |
| What is foundation on which everything is built in this new world?(222) | The bokanovsky groups |
| What did the controller mean when he said everyone goes through life in a bottle? (222-223) | The conditioning has laid a path and each person can’t help themselves; they are foredoomed |
| What is the Cyprus experiment? (223) | A.f. 473. Alphas on an island trying to do all jobs- six years until a civil war After 19 put of 22 thousand had been killed , the survivors asked to be put back under the controllers rule |
| The optimum population is modeled after what?(223) | An iceberg -8/9ths below the water line and 1/9 above |
| Why is science dangerous? | It’s keeps you searching for the truth never ending- it undoes its own good work- knowledge was the highest good and everything else secondary |
| Who started to change society by taking the emphasis away from truth and beauty and place it on comfort and happiness? Why?(228) | Ford- universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can’t |
| Why did mond think Bernard should be happy going to the island?(227) | He will meet interesting men and women who have independent ideas of their own |
| How did the controller have to pay for being interested in too much truth?(229) | He paid by choosing to serve other people’s happiness and have to stay |
| What are the three things the new world gave up to have happiness? ( as in the price they paid) (230) | Art, science and religion ( art make you feel, science makes you think and religion gives you a reality, everlasting truth to seek instead of work and material goods) religion compensates us for loss- but the new world takes away pain and loss-mond said people believe in God because they were condoned too |
| The savage suffers in both worlds- explain how?(235) | At Malpais he suffered because he was shut out from the communal activities , in London he suffered because he can never escape those communal activities He can never be quietly alone |
| Why does mond think society has no place for nobility or heroism?(237) | Because those are symptoms of political inefficiency not godly qualities- conditions have to be unstable for these qualities to arise |
| Why does the controller call soma Christianity without tears?(238) | Soma helps you be virtuous. Morality in a bottle- calms your anger instantly No tears |
| What did the savage mean when he said ” nothing costs enough here” (239) | No emotion, no tears, no pain, no appreciation |
| Why are VPS treatments necessary (239) | Humans need to have their adrenals stimulated – the physical equivalent of fear and rage |
| When the savage claims he wants comfort , God , poetry , danger, freedom, goodness and sin the controller says he actually wants what? (240) | He is actually claiming the right to be unhappy – along with aging, sickness and fear |
| Why did John say he was sick ? What did he do? (241) | He ate civilization. He purified himself by drinking mustard and water to make himself sick |
| What was the savages guardian animal? (244) | The eagle |
| Why did John get upset when he caught himself singing at the lighthouse?(247) | He swore to himself that he would constantly remember Linda, always stay purified and make amends for the contamination and filth from the civilized world. By singing and being happy he felt he had forgotten this important act |
| What did the wild crowd cheer the savage into doing? | An orgy- with soma |
| What triggered the savages intense rage? | Seeing Lenina – |
| Why did John kill himself? | For John, sleeping with Lenina is submitting to the slavery of happiness. He’s lost his battle with the world state, so he kills himself. |
Brave New World – question ch 12 – 18
June 8, 2020