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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?

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English Language

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

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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