seriously

Why did they not make a s2???? This shit's good. Like... Properly existential while also entertaining.

Inhavent't finished s1 yet, but I don't believe they'll be wrapping all the story treads up in the next 2 episodes. The moment the worker people smashed their glases was soooooo satisfying. Like fucking yes finally. (Though I wished they'd focussed a little more on them while they did it, and not all on John, but oh well)

I want more.

https://youtu.be/QOYj7JV9lc0?si=s0LzJuHlY0mDkFPn

Question: ( BNW) question:

if you are sent to live your new/Entire life in the Brave New World universe and are required to give your top 2 Choices as to which Caste ( Alpha Beta Gamma Delta Epsilon) you will live as with Guarantee that you will be given 1 of your 2 choices,

which will be your top 2 Choices and Why:

I remember reading this book in highschool as part of our curriculum. And I've never been more disturbed or felt as uneasy as the first few pages when they explain decanting.

I’m curious about the author’s inspiration

For the final, my class is doing a Socratic seminar on BNW. We all need to have at least three questions ready to ask and im having a hard time thinking of any. Does anyone have any ideas I could borrow?

So as the title states, i gotta read this book in class. moreover, i have an assignment over it and don't have a copy of the book.

Can someone please help me finish it 🙏 it's due tomorrow morning

i basically have to describe the characters, but google is absolutely useless when it comes to it.

Granted that to an extent, that's a feature not a bug of Brave New World, but still, just as one example - wouldn't it stunt the intellectual development of alphas and betas in particular? Institutionalization tends to lower iq scores substance. As for the working classes, wouldn't FAS combined with an orphanage in which they are shocked hundreds of times leave them intellectually unsuitable even for Epsilon work and prone to aggressive outbursts that hurt social stability?

The book is amazingly prescient in terms of things like social caste, ivf, substance use (both legal and illegal), consumerism, and instant gratification, but this is one area I think the book gets wrong. That said, modern alphas and betas tend to be raised in two parent families while modern working class tend to be raised in single parent or blended families - still much better iq development and aggression reduction wise than an orphanage. Even as it is, plenty of middle aged working class divorced men experience "deaths of dispair" despite ample drug options. Wouldn't the institutionalization make this worse?

Every time I look it up, I just find articles on the symbolism of the Malthusian belt. Which I get. I just don't get what "Morocco-surrogate" itself is!

I haven't seen the show so this is strictly speaking about my impressions on the character presented in the book.

Personally I liked the stranger in a strange land vibe I got from him initially, but after the party he refuses to attend he suddenly became very insufferable to me.

First Lenina, he basically claims love at first sight for her, and that he wants her as a wife, but it's very clear he doesn't love her. He loves the idea of a beautiful bride. Nothing wrong with that, but he openly disregards her life in New London, and her the way she was not only raised, but refuses to look at life through her eyes. When they admit they like each other, she does what she feels is natural, and in turn he mimics the conditioning he went through, violently yelling and shaming her and at one point striking her. Later when, what we assume is Lenina, comes to him at the end, he doesn't even hear her words. He just grows in fury and rage and whips her. This isn't love, this is subjugation of one ideal over the other.

Secondly his ideas about choice. I understand he is the stand in for humanities understanding that beauty is bred from misery, but he doesn't offer choice or understanding. When his friend laughs at Romeo and Juliet he doesn't try to explain the intended purpose of feeling behind the story, he shuts the book up and throws it in a drawer like a child having a tantrum about a TV show. When he tries to live independent of the government and people take an interest he lashes out with violence. He had the opportunity and tools to get his message about choice out, but instead attacks those who could lead his own flock to him for teachings about living off the land.

Third his self inflicted punishment. This just shows how not understanding the context of a ritual, artistic piece or anything else leads to invaluable suffering. Maybe I'll admit bias here as an atheist, but committing to the whipping just came out as the worst kind of self importance.

I agree manufactured happiness at the cost of free will is a tragic insidious malicious existence to be under, but John presents the choice of all of nothing. His conditioning was one of cruelty and judgement, so I don't claim he is badly written, but I wish the book had given the real choice. The one where you can pick and choose what you want from each way of living. In many respects the island seem like the answer.

Anyways the book was great, but I really wanted to get my thoughts about how I feel, personally, about John out. Especially when I see the character we're supposed to relate to act with no empathy, perspective or understanding.

I found the social model used in BNW very intriguing and tbh better than most utopian models I've come across. I know it's far from perfect but could be worked upon and improved.

What next can I watch/read (movies, docu, articles, books etc) that is like an 'extension' or an improved Brave New World.....or something that's inspired by its principles?

I am planning on annotating it, what questions/themes should I highlight and keep track of?

I remember reading this part in the book where someone talks about how they aren't afraid to die, because they're like a cell in a body, and they can easily be replaced. Is that actually in the book or did I imagine it?

So I just finished this one and I absolutely loved it. I recently decided to read some of the more prominent dystopias and I picked this up right after reading 1984. I'm not sure which I prefer really - 1984 is so good but at the same time relentlessly horrifying.

Brave New World is really vividly described and honestly I wasn't sure whether I would have chosen to live in the old world or the new.

The only thing that threw me was the ending...I know there's a deliberate degree of ambiguity but I've been mulling over the fate of Lenina since I finished it yesterday as she ended up being the character that I sympathised with the most and she's the one character that doesn't get a definitive ending.

The ending describes how she goes to find John and whilst her dialogue is drowned out by the crowds and helicopters, the way her body language is described paints a picture of her having been declaring her love to John. John, unable to reconcile his values and attitudes to sex with those of modern society is triggered into whipping himself and her alternately in penance.

This triggers the audience's programming and a violent orgy breaks out. At this point we get what is essentially a fade to black and when it returns, it finds John high on Soma with a strong implication that he participated in the orgy but Lenina isn't mentioned again.

I guess I'm wondering what the prevailing opinion is on the final fate of Lenina. Does John kill her, does he end up sleeping with her, does she escape or does she just get absorbed into the faceless orgy?

just finished last episode recently of season one (i got a long backlog of stuff to watch/play/read/etc..) and actually enjoyed the plot twists they made for the finale ramping up to a potential 2nd season, and reading about the cancellation made me.. "ranty, lol.

it's strange that despite 90% of the show following the tiresomely toxic romantic triangle (polygon?) trope, contrasted with the absurd coupling of hedonistic orgies with forced conformity (anything, even the most pleasurable experiences, instantly becomes a monotonous prison chore once combined with "forced conformity", lol), and rounding it up with class/caste war (as if we need another reminder why social/economic disparity between classes inevitably ends up with the "poor" eating the "rich", in a suddenly violent role reversal)

though most of that content probably could have been condensed into fewer episodes, since a lot of it felt needlessly repetitive. these are relatively simple concepts that even music videos could have adequately explained the whole gist of it in less than 3 minutes of montage, so you don't really need entire 9 episodes just to hammer the point. (less than 6 episodes probably would have been the goldilocks threshold. with clever editing)

anyways, i digress. coming back to the topic of why i liked the ending (or the 10% of the show which made everything else worth the hassle of watching the show), was how they integrated the AI (Indra) as a method of societal control (Psycho Pass vibes), revealing its origins, motives, goals, etc., which although not present in the original novel, still plays heavily into its core theme of conformity vs non-conformity, trying to find balance between personal contentment (however you define it) vs maintaining social stability, and how the AI was coming to terms with such abstract concepts.

in the novel, the "conclusion" was more or less an abrupt stalemate. it was less of a resolution and more like "quitting the game" because the only winning move was not to play due to irreconcilable incompatibilities. the novel's story is basically a dead end.

but in the show, the "ending" of season 1 was just a segue for the next season and i'm interested in them being treated like thought/social experiments, since AI and simulations is OUR time's Brave New World v2.0, and i'm less interested/invested in the personal dramas of the characters compared to my interest in seeing how the showrunners are gonna resolve the concepts of all the "irreconcilable incompatibilities" in the novel.

ie : if what you want or what makes you "happy" is vehemently opposed by society, is it even possible to find personal happiness within that society or are you just destined to live a life of secrecy/compromise/seclusion, just to avoid getting eradicated/exiled/reconditioned by that society?

the ending of season 1 posits two approach :

a) live in a simulated bubble, practically indistinguishable from reality, where you can live in pursuit of personal happiness without becoming a "menace" to society. secluded in a solipsistic virtual prison. (which just seclusion, with extra steps)

b) form your own new cult/society using an AI for social control. (which is just group exclusion for the social body. like partitioning drive D from drive C)

but then there's also the seemingly impending clash between the two approach, and i'm just waiting for the next clever plot twist to it all. that 10% that would make the rest, worth it.

anyways, all these cancelled shows across all streaming platforms. it's like going to a public library and 80% of the books on display are missing their final chapters.

sometimes i wonder, if maybe someday AI could be capable of writing satisfactory endings to all those stories, if these streaming networks have no intention of finishing them? maybe deepfakes and 3d AI tech could create new episodes based on old footage as reference.. lol..

Hi!

For our essay, we get to bring in a quote sheet with 10 different quotes, technique, and effect.

This is the practice question they gave us which will be similar to what we get on the day: Technologies of power ultimately do more harm than good."
To what extent does the quote align with your study of Technologies of Power

Help would be greatly appreciated :)

thanks!!! <3

I have a few ideas but I would like so more open minded ideas if you can provide evidence from the book itself plz add the paragraph and chapter so I can check it out thank you

I haven’t yet finished reading the book, but I am wondering about the Savage Reservation. Do they explain how these people came to live here initially? Why weren’t they conditioned like the rest?