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Biography

Aldous Huxley, a prominent English writer and novelist, was born on July 26, 1894. He part of the Huxley family, a family which has several members that have done well in other areas including science, arts, literature, and medicine. For example, his older brother Sir Julian was a zoologist and went on to become the first Director General for UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). His younger brother Sir Andrew won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his research on the central nervous system. He eventually became the President of the Royal Society, the second Huxley to do so after his grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley. (Thody 1973) Aldous Huxley

Aldous began learning at a very early in his father’s botanical laboratory. His mother was supervised his education until she became terminally ill and died in 1908 when Aldous was 14. A few years later he suffered a major illness called keratitis which left him virtually blind in one eye for a few years. He had planned to volunteer for the army during World War I but he was rejected because of his health. His eyesight eventually recovered partially and he was able to study English literature at Oxford. After earning his degree, Huxley spent the next few years working in or to become financially independent. He went through a wide variety of jobs including teaching French, collecting provisions for the British Air Ministry, and working for a chemical plant. The introduction to the novel mentions the significance of this plant, called “Brunner and Mond”, for its advanced technology. The intro describes that his experience working there influenced his ideas for the novel and it was that of “an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence.” (Thody 1973)

Huxley began writing as early as in his teens but it wasn’t until his 20s that he became much more serious about it. Most of his earlier work was social satires. He published his first novel, Crome Yellow 1921. His writing also began to incorporate the ideas of pacifism and dehumanization through the use of science, both of which were themes in his 1932 release of Brave New World. (Thody 1973)

In his later life he became interested in psychic research and mysticism and began to experiment with psychedelic drugs, LSD in particular. He believed it to be a path towards enlightenment and wrote many articles about it. He died on November 22, 1963. (Stevens 1998)

Plot and setting of Brave New World

The first few chapters Brave New World are there to explain the very detailed fictional world including its history and culture. The fictional setting of the novel takes place in a dystopian futuristic London around the year 2540, although the book mentions the year to be A. F. 632. This refers to Henry Ford, whose Model T automobile began production in 1908, which popularized the assembly line and that year became the starting point of the new calendar system. Ford is seen as sort of a mythical god like figure and the people of that time frequently use phrases such as “Our Ford” instead of “Our Lord” and “His Fordship” in the place of “His Lordship”. (Huxley)

Most of the world and its people are under one government called “The World State” which had its precursor after the “Nine Years War” which is implied to have caused mass destruction around the world through the use air raids containing chemical and biological weapons. This was followed by a severe global economic collapse. Subsequently the new leaders of the world tried to impose a new world order by force which was met with heavy resistance, leading to large riots and carnage. Soon the realization came that the method of force would not work on the population. Thus The World State was formed on the promise of peace with the motto “Community, Identity, Stability.” The World State began to systematically destroy historical monuments or anything resembling the old world. They also aimed to suppress information by closing museums and banning all literature, past and future. By the time period the novel begins in, The World State has spanned nearly the entire world and most of the people are citizens of it. A few areas of the world known as “savage reservations” exist for people who don’t want to be part of the world state or do not fit in there. (Huxley)

The population of the world state is artificially kept at two billion people to ensure resources are plentiful. Natural reproduction no longer exists and has been replaced by “hatcheries and conditioning centres” with a system of five castes with a further distinction of “plus or minus” within each class. The higher castes, called “Alpha” and “Beta” are allowed to grow naturally while the lower castes, “Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon”, are subjected to chemicals to intentionally limit intelligence and physical growth. In addition, alphas and betas are unique in that each egg produces one person while the lower caste eggs can spawn up to 96 eggs, a process known as “Bokanovsky’s Process”. The lower castes make the majority of the population because of their ease to control as their similarities in abilities. The use of subconscious messaging is used to condition children to want to go in their predetermined fields. Nearly everyone takes the drug known as “soma” which is a hallucinogenic drug. People constantly self medicate with it when there is any remotely stressful situations or other form of discomfort. Because all of their grievances are solved with the drug, there is no need for religion at all or adherence to any other parties other than the World State who provides the drug to everyone. Sex for recreation is also an important part of the society and is encouraged at a very early age. Group sex is the most common form, which follows the motto “everyone belongs to everyone”. (Huxley)

In the introductory chapters some main characters are introduced, particularly Lenina Crowne and Bernard Marx. Lenina is a hatchery worker who is completely satisfied in her life while Bernard is a psychologist who struggles to adhere to the society he lives in. Although he is an “Alpha plus” he is an outcast due to his below average height. Because of his studies with sleep learning he comes to the conclusion that the beliefs that all of the other people hold are due to the conditioning they receive as children. He wants to be seen as an individual, something that is taboo in their society. Bernard’s only friend Helmholtz Watson is also an outcast but only because he viewed as too gifted and intelligent. They converse together and Helmholtz mentions how he wants to write poetry. (Huxley)

The novel shifts to Bernard and Lenina taking a vacation in a savage reservation in what is now New Mexico. It is here he encounters a woman named Linda who was a former citizen of the World State and became separated from her travelling group while pregnant. She had no way to get an abortion so she gave birth to John, who is now 18. The shame of her pregnancy means she can’t return to the World State even though she wanted to as she missed the soma drug. Linda and John additionally have been treated like outsiders but the “savage” people as well. John wants to explore the world of Bernard’s and develops a strong attraction to Lenina. (Huxley)

Upon Bernard returning with two new people, he is publicly ridiculed by the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning for his behavior. He explains that the woman he brought back was Linda who separated by the group that included the Director. At this point John reveals to be the Director’s son which humiliates the Director and causes him to resign. (Huxley)

This incident makes both Bernard and John more or less celebrities who are highly pursued and are surrounded by attention. Things began to take a turn for the worse when Linda decides to permanently remain on soma due to her loneliness. John realizes how empty this society really is and abandons Bernard who becomes an outcast again. Additionally, he is starting to lose his only friend Helmholtz who has connected more with John than he ever did with Bernard. (Huxley)

Lenina, who has been trying to pursue John, attempts to seduce him but John violently resists after being exposed to this society. He then receives the news of his mother’s impending death from too much soma and rushes to her. His grief is ridiculed by the other people in the hospital due to their conditioning and in an effort to reach anyone’s humanity he destroys soma rations which lead to a riot. Helmholtz and Bernard arrive at the scene, although only Helmholtz decides to help John. (Huxley)

Following this event John, Bernard and Helmholtz were brought to the “Regional Resident World Controller”, Mustapha Mond. Mond explains to John why the World State is the way it is. Bernard and Helmholtz are exiled for their disobedience which greatly troubles Bernard but is welcomed by Helmholtz who still seeks to write poetry. John isn’t exiled because the World State wants to keep him in civilization see how it turns out. John responds by moving to the outskirts and renouncing civilization. He is successful but he eventually finds pleasure by making a bow and publically punishes himself, which brings in many reporters and bystanders, including Lenina. When John sees her he immediately attacks which excites the crowd. As a result of a conditioning this leads to a mass orgy which John partakes in. Realizing that John himself had participated the day after, he decides to hang himself. (Huxley)

Types of Science featured the novel

The types of science featured in Brave New World covers a wide range of areas as well as predicting their development and roles in society. The sciences featured in this novel are reflective of the popular scientific ideas during the time period the book was released. These ideas include sleep teaching, classical conditioning and psychological manipulation, and reproductive technology methods.

Sleep teaching

Sleep learning, sometimes known as hypnopedia, is a process that attempts to deliver information to a person who is asleep. The most common method of this phenomenon is by playing a sound recording while the person is sleeping. The idea of sleep teaching existed in the 1920s and 1930s and it was thought to be a viable technique for people to learn. A device known as the “Psycho Phone” was invented by Alois Benjamin Saliger in 1927 which he claimed could receive messages that could be interpreted by a sleeping person (San Diego Paranormal). The novel shows how sleep learning is used in the futuristic society, where its function is to plant suggestions and ideas. Sleep learning was discovered by accident when a small Polish Boy named Reuben was able to recount a complete radio broadcast word for word in English (which he couldn’t normally speak). From that point it was decided that sleep learning would be used to influence people a certain way rather than to provide people with solely academic information. Specifically, the suggestions that sleep learning implements in children are meant to make them happy and productive citizens of the society with both a liking and an aptitude for the work they will do. (Huxley)

The 1956 studies of Electroencephalography by William H. Emmons and Charles W. Simon greatly diminished the idea that sleep learning is a useful method of learning. According to the researchers, learning during sleep was “impractical and probably impossible.” Their findings indicated that the information they subjected to the sleeping people could not be recalled after the subject was awake except only when the alpha wave activity of the brain was occurring at the same time the information was given to them. Because the alpha wave activity in the brain means that a person is about to wake up, the researchers concluded that any material that was learned was done so in an awaking state. (Kleitman)

In the novel, sleep learning could be used to teach either information or to condition people a certain way and the latter became the primary use for it. Conditioning is another scientific area that this novel heavily features and explores, including conditioning while asleep as well as when you are awake. While the idea of the use of sleep learning to teach new information has diminished over time, a recent body of research conducted by the Weizmann Institute of Science indicates that some forms of sleep learning may be possible. Ironically the research indicated that sleep learning may be used in classical conditioning through the use of odor recognition, rather than audio recognition. The research finds that “During sleep, humans can strengthen previously acquired memories, but whether they can acquire entirely new information remains unknown.” (Hennevin et.al)

Conditioning and Psychological manipulation

Psychological manipulation and by extension conditioning is a method of affecting one’s behavior through deceptive techniques. In particular, classical conditioning is when an unconditioned stimulus (US) is linked with a conditioned stimulus (CS) so that the CS triggers a response. The most famous example is Pavlov’s dog where he gave the dog meat (US) making the dog salivate and rang a bell (CS). This was repeated to the point where ringing the bell alone would make the dog salivate.(Pavlov)

Conditioning is present throughout the novel. For instance Delta children are taught to hate many things through the use of electrocution. All citizens are condition to constantly consume products which fuel the economy. Recreational sex is also conditioned to everyone at an early age. They are also taught that being an individual is taboo and the idea of a family is perverse.( Huxley)

Reproduction

Reproduction is also heavily featured in the novel. Natural births no longer exist in the World State and are now artificial in hatcheries and conditioning centers. The eggs of lower classes result from embryo’s that have been replicated while the upper classes have unique eggs. (Huxley)

Citations

Thody, Philipe (1973). Huxley: A Biographical Introduction. Scribner.

Stevens, Jay (1998). Storming heaven: LSD and the American dream. Grove Press.

San Diego Paranormal http://www.sdparanormal.com/psychophone_company.html

Hennevin, E., Huetz, C. & Edeline, J.M. Neural representations during sleep: from sensory processing to memory traces. Neurobiol. Learn. Mem. 87, 416–440 (2007). http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v15/n10/full/nn.3193.html

Pavlov, I. P. (1927/1960). Conditional Reflexes. New York: Dover Publications

Kleitman, Nathaniel. Sleep and wakefulness. Rev. and enl. ed. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1963. Print.

Huxley, Aldous. Brave new world. New York: Harper & Bros., 1946. Print.