Today in AP Language Arts we were doing a discussion on the book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. The other day we were all given this sheet of paper that had 21 topics in BNW on it and we went through the entire class and each picked one topic to discuss (no person could have the same one). We started discussing yesterday, and we finished up today. One of the topics today was cloning. We were talking about it, blah, blah, blah, and in BNW, if you are familiar with it, it is the women who either are genetically sterile (which most of the people in the book are) or you arent, which is rare, usually for the upper castes.
Well, I raised my hand and asked the question why it is the women who are made to be sterile and not the men, considering it is much easier to make a man sterile than a women. Well, the class was silent for a few seconds, and then EVERYONE erupted into conversation. It honestly took 5 minutes for our teacher to quiet the class down because everyone thought it was such a great question and it was really something to think about. Some people were thinking Huxley was sexist, others were saying it was just the time and women were not thought of so highly when the book was written, or whatever the reason, I just thought it was an interesting topic.
I also brought up this question which NO ONE every thought of and which no one seemingly knows the answer to, maybe someone here who has read it can help me out: Why, if Lenina is a Beta-minus caste member, is she written wearing ALL green, which is a symbol of the lower Gamma caste group? Through the use of Hypnopaedia upper caste members are taught to dislike anything that has to do with lower caste members, so why is she wearing green? It just doesnt make sense to me. Maybe one of you can shed some light on it for me.
Anyways, sorry for the BNW spout today. I dont particularly like the book that much, but it when I really start to think about it's themes I get all these questions about life, society, and human nature. Like, in the book they talk about completely getting rid of family instinks. Family no longer exists, passion/love no longer exists, and people are descensitized to death. Well I believe that no matter what, you cannot stop people from feeling close to one another. Even in the book where they say they have ridden the world of family and feelings for other people, there are still subtle hints of it. For example, they talk about cloning and there is an instance that has to do with a set of 8 identical twins. In the book these 8 twins are a thought of as a group, there is no individual. They are going to be kept their whole life close together. Well no matter what, the longer you spend time with someone the more you feel towards them. It's undeniable. And later on in the book Lenina starts to get uncontrollable passion for the savage. This is proof that you cannot suppress human feelings. You cannot. So when we were talking in class today and the discussion of family was brought up, I couldnt help asking how it is possible that they believe what the book says about family and passion and love. I wasnt able to talk much though, and I was sort of shot down because I didnt have enough time to explain my thoughts. Tomorrow though, tomorrow.
Sarah and I are working on a project together for BNW. We are creating a website that is supposed to act like a cyber magazine for the year the book is set in. When we are finished I'll see if I cant post a screenshot or two of what we came up with. :)
ok, /end rant. :P