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Description:
Brave New World is supposed be an exciting book about a negative utopia and the corrupt powers of authority. So where’s the big car chase? What's with all the talking?
Transcript
- 00:04
Brave New World, a la Shmoop. Car crashes, epic battles, cliffhangers, passionate
- 00:11
kisses...
- 00:11
...sounds like enough to keep us entertained for an afternoon.
- 00:14
But the last thing we'd want is a lull in the action.
- 00:17
So why does Aldous Huxley's boundary-pushing book, Brave New World, take two whole chapters
Full Transcript
- 00:23
off to... navel-gaze?
- 00:26
When John, AKA "The Savage,"...
- 00:29
...heads to the big city...
- 00:30
...he finds it full of identical clones controlled by drugs, sex, and genetic engineering.
- 00:36
And he isn't even in southern California.
- 00:40
The brains of this operation is "World Controller" Mustapha Mond, <Moose-toffa Mahnd> who likes
- 00:45
to exile people to islands.
- 00:50
Gotta have a gimmick, right? When John and Mustapha finally meet in Chapter
- 00:54
16, it's the perfect time for a showdown.
- 00:57
Will there be an arm-wrestling match, or... torture?
- 01:00
Nah. Instead, these two main characters have a no-holds-barred, knock-down, drag-out...chat.
- 01:08
Why does Huxley put the brakes on for the rambling conversations in Chapters 16 and
- 01:13
17?
- 01:13
Is he getting paid by the word?
- 01:16
Or was he influenced by multiple viewings of Spider-Man?
- 01:26
Here's one thought... Huxley could be advertising his own beliefs.
- 01:30
Brave New World predicts a future where knowledge is forgotten and replaced with slogans and
- 01:34
instant gratification.
- 01:36
Mustapha has well-reasoned arguments as to why independence should be suppressed...
- 01:41
...but is John right to desire freedom with all its flaws?
- 01:44
Or, maybe these chapters were a shout-out to the Bard. Brave New World references over
- 01:49
15 of Shakespeare's plays.
- 01:51
The Tempest gives the book its name, which comes to mean different things to John over
- 01:55
time.
- 02:03
The Tempest also helps John in matters of love, when he's trying to get rid of Lenina.
- 02:09
<Lennon-uh>
- 02:10
Chapters 16 and 17 may also be a shout-out to a technique that all the cool playwrights
- 02:15
use...the philosophical dialogue.
- 02:19
Philosophical dialogue breaks down a topic through a conversation between two characters.
- 02:24
Through Mustapha and John, Huxley can look at art, science and religion from totally
- 02:29
different viewpoints... kind of like playing yourself at chess.
- 02:33
Philosophical dialogue lets an author make two arguments at the same time—and in this
- 02:37
case, Huxley really wants John to win. So why does Huxley slow it down for chapters
- 02:42
16 and 17?
- 02:44
Is he using "Brave New World" as a billboard for his beliefs?
- 02:48
Or is he proving his status as Shakespeare's BFF?
- 02:52
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
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