Brave New World Chapter 3

       In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley's reveals a whole new world with a society that has been manipulated through human inventions. Pretty much everyone is made from scientific processes. From the moment they are made, the embryos are manipulated to fit society. They are then taught to feel or desire certain things. They got rid of unnecessary feelings because “feeling lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation. Shorten the interval, break down all those old unnecessary barriers.” Also, the word "family" does not exist like it does today. To be a parent is just asking to be an outcast.  To me, this is just plain weird! To think that people are no long made by mommies and daddies (you know what I mean) is just crazy!

The people in Huxley’s world are taught no history. This is because the Controllers believe this will keep the citizens focused on consumption. The Controllers are a group of ten people that control different classes of people and they keep to their motto,  "the machine turns, turns and must keep on turning - forever."

They don’t want the people to have “a moment to sit down and think.” People are even encouraged to act impulsively. They believe that, “Impulse arrested spills over, and the flood is feeling, the flood is passion, the flood is even madness: it depends on the force of the current, the height and strength of the barrier. The unchecked stream flows smoothly down its appointed channels into a calm well-being.“  

This book somewhat reminds me of 1984. For example, like how the government dehumanized all mankind and made people have no sense of feelings, and families rarely even existed. Both books display how Humanity is now under the control of the government and manipulated for their own means.

Writing About Tempest

In this weeks blog we were asked to discuss what we think would be interesting to write about for The Tempest along with other works that offer different points of view and different ways to interepret the play due to history and events from the past. For me, I think that William Shakespears The Tempest relates most clearly with the points discussed in Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism, African-American Criticism, And Queer Theory. One of the controversial issues between these two writings is whether or not Shakespear wrote the tempest in favor of colonialism or in favor of the natives otherwise known as "the others". In my opinion I think that Shakespear wrote The Tempest in favor of colonialism and the British Empire that are discussed in Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism, African-American Criticism, And Queer Theory. Shakespear portrays these issues through the main characters of his play, Caliban and Prospero, Caliban being the native or "the other" and Prospero being the British Empire. The reason I believe that Shakespear wrote The Tempest in favor of colonialism is because of the way he portrays these two characters and what they represent. Caliban is portrayed as an uneducated savage that doesn't have any self control. While Shakespear portrays Prospero as being the wise and powerful man who controls Caliban. On the other hand, I believe that Aime Cesaire's adaptation of The Tempest was portrayed in a more humurous and comical way compared to Shakespear's original play which is more on the serious side of things. Although Shakespear did intend this play to come off on a more serious note I don't think that Aime Cesaire's version of The Tempest could necessarily be considered wrong or disgraceful. I think that Aime Cesaire's take on The Tempest is more practical and modern which is easier for people to relate to now a days. This is only my opinion on these two issues and I'm sure there are many more ways to interepret them as well.