Journal # 1
“Ubiquitous Assimilation” Clip from the film Detachment by Tony Kaye
This clip asks us to reflect on the mainstream media (news, entertainment, advertising) and the coarsening of our culture. The teacher, Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody), tells his students that “reading” can combat the “dumbing down” that takes place because of the “ubiquity” of this material.
Respond:
- Do you agree or disagree with Barthes’s idea of Ubiquitous Assimilation?
- Are we “dumbed down” by the mainstream culture?
- Why or why not?
- What do you believe the importance of reading is?
- Is it important to you or not?
- Why or why not?
Journal # 2 BNW Pre-reading
Think of an ideal society.
Where would it be?
What would you be allowed to do?
What would you have to do?
Would you have any limitations?
Would there be government?
What type of government would it be?
Journal # 3:CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE and Genetic Engineering
In Chapter 1 of BNW, students tour an institution that reproduces human beings in a highly controlled and artificial environment, seeking to control and standardize their “human product.”
Within the last few years, a groundbreaking discovery was made in the field of Genetic Engineering: The CRISPR/Cas prokaryotic immune system, which has the potential to vastly simplify the process of gene editing!
What do you think of BNW’s Hatchery and Conditioning Centre? Could you see our society moving towards such practices?
What do you think about our experiments with Genetic Manipulation so far as described in the video?
Do you agree with the point of view in the video? Do you think use of CRISPR technology as described is inevitable? Is right? Is it progress?
Where do you see the future going with this technology?
Journal # 4
“Are we more than meat?”
Chapters 6 and 7 are concerned with the relationship between Bernard and Lenina, exploring their differing attitudes towards sex and intimacy. Bernard laments that Lenina sees herself as a “piece of meat.”
The reader also is introduced to Malpais, a “Savage Reservation” in New Mexico, where ideas about sex, romance, and the family are much different than the World State’s.
What messages do we receive about sex and relationships from our parents/family, our cultural/religious heritage, our education system, our media?
Is there a right and wrong between promiscuity and monogamy? Are their Pros and Cons for each?
Why does the World State encourage promiscuity?
Why does the Savage Reservation discourage promiscuity?
What do you think?
Journal #5 Chapter 12…12 Minutes
Solitude and/or Happiness
On page 177, we see Mustapha Mond read a paper that is “heretical” to the World State, because it might make people “lose their faith in happiness.” What does Mustapha Mond mean by happiness and purpose in this section?
What do you think of when you think of happiness? How would you define it?
Is Happiness the most important thing in your life?
What beliefs, principles, purposes, and goals support you in life? What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Reread Helmholtz’s poem on page 181…
What is Helmholtz talking about when he says an “absence” “form[s] a presence”?
How can “silences…speak”?
Can you identify with Helmholtz’s perspective in this poem?
How much time do you make for silence and solitude in your life?
Do you think it is important to have time to yourself and time in silence?
Why or why not?
Journal # 6 Freedom
At the end of Chapter 15, John is enraged that the Deltas at the hospital do not want to be liberated…
"Don't you want to be free and men? Don't you even understand what manhood and freedom are?"
What do you think John means by freedom?
How are the Deltas and others in the World State not free?
Why does freedom conflict with the goals of the World State?
How would you define Freedom?
Is freedom important to you?
What type of freedoms do we enjoy in the United States?
What types of different freedoms are there…?
(hint: freedom from or freedom to)?
Can freedoms interfere with each other?
Does freedom conflict with other societal values?
Journal 7: Art, Science, Religion, Faith
Mustapha Mond delivers a powerful message concerning the censorship of art, science, reliogion, and faith in the World State during chapters 16-17.
What do you make of his arguments?
What do you believe the importance of each of these is? (Both personally and for society as a whole…)
Journal # 8 Brave New World Reflection
Write about your reactions to studying this book and the issues it has raised for you…
What thoughts and feelings did this book evoke in you?
What lessons will you take away from it?
What do you think Huxley wanted readers to get out of it?
Was he successful? Why or why not?