Goodday my fellow Steemians!
I’m back with new Key Points. My “Key Points Dystopian Novel” series are not book reports but a presentation of important key points for you as a guideline for thought processes. A Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 and published in 1932. This novel is so rich in content, it would take many webpages to describe the entire novel. However, I’m going to analyze the novel by presenting the various themes. In these Key Points I address the use of sexuality in the novel. Yes, let’s talk about sex! This is the sixth in the “Key Points Dystopian Novel” series.
First occurrence of sex
The subject matter of procreation with the use of science I’ll mention in the Key Points about family relations in the novel. The first occurrence of actual sexuality in the novel is this paragraph from chapter two.
“That’s a charming little group,” he said, pointing. In a little grassy bay between tall clumps of Mediterranean heather, two children, a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older, were playing, very gravely and with all the focused attention of scientists intent on a labour of discovery, a rudimentary sexual game. “Charming, charming!” the D.H.C. repeated sentimentally. “Charming,” the boys politely agreed. But their smile was rather patronizing. They had put aside similar childish amusements too recently to be able to watch them now without a touch of contempt. Charming? but it was just a pair of kids fooling about; that was all. Just kids."
Symbols
World State
The authoritarian governmental center of control in the Brave New World society. This government exerts not just political but also social, economic, religious, technological, scientific and educational powers over its population. Within the social realm they dictate the sexual etiquette and procreative protocols. Sexuality is mandated only for creative purposes and has also been given a religious fervor. Sexuality is decoupled from emotional attachment and commitment towards one another, and promiscuous consciousness is part of the set of social norms and standards of behaviour.
The World state has sterilized most of the women and those who are still able to procreate are required to use contraceptives. For the greater good of the societal paradigm of course.
Solidarity Service
Religious service modelled after a conventional Christian church meeting. During these services their focus of worship is upon their version of “God”, Henry Ford, who created the assembly line. Encouraging unity and connectiveness through socializing, taking the soma for ‘happiness’ (read corresponding Key Points) singing and have consensual group sex called Orgy-porgy.
The Chant (about group sex, sexuality as a religious, spiritual exercise)
“The solidarity circle chants, Orgy-porgy, Ford and fun,
Kiss the girls and make them One.
Boys at One with girls at peace;
Orgy-porgy gives release”
Malthusian Belt
Mentioned several times in relation to Lenina, part of the birth control policy and is used alongside several contraceptive ‘formalities’. This belt is carried to keep the sexual activities devoid from emotional attachments, responsibilities and rationale. The name is derived from Thomas Robert Malthus (1766 – 1834), a scholar and Anglican cleric. His worldview was stained with his perception of over-population. Malthus was an advocate for decreasing the population and developed his theory, the Malthusian theory.
In his treatise “An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798) he wrote the following:
“The increase of population should be necessarily limited by the means of subsistence. Population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase, and the power of population is repressed by moral restraint, vice and misery.”
Freemartin
Nickname for infertile females with non-functioning ovaries.
Aphorisms
“Community, Identity, Stability”
“Everyone works for everyone else. We can’t do without any one.”
“Orgy-porgy”
“Who are you going out with tonight?” (meaning ‘with who are you going to be sexually involved’?)
Interesting quotes
“Pilkington, at Mombasa, had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full-grown at six and a half. A scientific triumph.” “What I’m going to tell you now,” he said,“ may sound incredible. But then, when you’re not accustomed to history, most facts about the past do sound incredible. He let out the amazing truth. For a very long period before the time of Our Ford, and even for some generations afterwards, erotic play between children had been regarded as abnormal (there was a roar of laughter); and not only abnormal, actually immoral (no!): and had therefore been rigorously suppressed.
A look of astonished incredulity appeared on the faces of his listeners. Poor little kids not allowed to amuse themselves? They could not believe it. Even adolescents,” the D.H.C. was saying, “even adolescents like yourselves. “Not possible!”
“Then suddenly somebody started singing “Orgy-porgy” and, in a moment, they had all caught up the refrain and, singing, had begun to dance. Orgy-porgy, round and round and round, beating one another in six-eight time. Orgy- porgy.”
“And yet, bottled as she was, and in spite of that second gram of soma, Lenina did not forget to take all the contraceptive precautions prescribed by the regulations. Years of intensive hypnopædia and, from twelve to seventeen, Malthusian drill three times a week had made the taking of these precautions almost as automatic and inevitable as blinking.”
Critique
- Aldous Huxley presents his critique about a pornographic state of mind and its development in society. In other words, the sexualization of mankind. This echoes various movements and developments in today’s world. Thus I state we already live in this type of A Brave New World paradigm. At least in most Western countries.
- Sexuality decoupled from commitment with one another and starting a family, perceived as the new type of altruism and a great fad to keep one occupied.
- Evanescent conventional family structure
- Mob mentality
- Government regulations even in the most intimate areas of human existence.
- People who question the by the World State desired sexual conduct are perceived as misanthropic. Alongside with this comes the conformity pressures placed on citizens to behave according to the attitudes the government dictates.
- Child abuse by promoting sexual activities from childhood.
- Perhaps the area of pedophilia is a silent presence within the novel as well!?
Last occurrence of sex
“That evening the swarm of helicopters that came buzzing across the Hog’s Back was a dark cloud ten kilometers long. The description of last night’s orgy of atonement had been in all the papers.”
//END OF KEY POINTS//
KEY POINTS DYSTOPIAN NOVEL SERIES BY @FOOD-FOR-THOUGHT
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Part 2: Sex https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-a-brave-new-world-by-aldous-huxley-or-part-2-sex
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Part 1: Conditioning and Soma https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-a-brave-new-world-by-aldous-huxley-or-part-1-conditioning-and-soma
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-fahrenheit-451-by-ray-bradbury
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | The Time Machine by H.G. Wells https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-the-time-machine-by-h-g-wells
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Animal Farm by George Orwell https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-animal-farm-by-george-orwell
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut https://steemit.com/freedom/@food-for-thought/key-points-dystopian-novel-or-harrison-bergeron-by-kurt-vonnegut
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Part 3: Family
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Part 4: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley | Part 5: Separation
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | 1984 by George Orwell
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Logan's Run by William F. Nolan & George Clayton Johnson Key Points Dystopian Novel | The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Key Points Dystopian Novel | Demons by Dostoyevsky
Would I be wrong if I said the world is overpopulated?
It seems to me that the part of Genesis that says be fruitful and multiply is taken too literally. I think people stop reading at that point and miss the following sentence saying, "and replenish" which to me says replace what was destroyed. There is no limit to the "multiply."
No I don't believe the world is overpopulated. There is enough room for everyone if resources are distributed fairly. "Be fruitful and multiply" to me also constitutes procreation because it is simply in our nature to anticipate the next generation of our family line. It is a natural, organic flow of life. Those who want to cut of this organic flow of life seem to be indeed against life itself!