Brave New World Science Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)

Quote #22

"No, we can't rejuvenate. But I'm very glad," Dr. Shaw had concluded, "to have had this opportunity to see an example of senility in a human being. Thank you so much for calling me in." He shook Bernard warmly by the hand. (11.13)

Notice how casually Dr. Shaw treats Linda's impending death, even to John's face; his interest in "science" trumps any concern for human life.

Quote #23

"Twelve hundred and fifty kilometres an hour," said the Station Master impressively. "What do you think of that, Mr. Savage?"

John thought it very nice. "Still," he said, "Ariel could put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes."

"The Savage," wrote Bernard in his report to Mustapha Mond, "shows surprisingly little astonishment at, or awe of, civilized inventions. This is partly due, no doubt, to the fact that he has heard them talked about by the woman Linda." (11.30-2)

Bernard misses the point; John can't distinguish between the fantastic (but very real) science of the civilized world and the fantastic, fictional world of Shakespeare. That is why he "shows surprisingly little astonishment."

Quote #24

The completed mechanisms were inspected by eighteen identical curly auburn girls in Gamma green, packed in crates by thirty-four short-legged, left-handed male Delta-Minuses, and loaded into the waiting trucks and lorries by sixty-three blue-eyed, flaxen and freckled Epsilon Semi-Morons.

[…]

But the Savage had suddenly broken away from his companions and was violently retching, behind a clump of laurels, as though the solid earth had been a helicopter in an air pocket. (11.39-42)

John's reaction here is fitting. On a surface level, he is disgusted by the dehumanization in the civilized world, so he throws up. On the other hand, he is purging himselfas he will later do intentionallyof the nastiness of science by which he feels corrupted.