Brave

New

World

It is one of those books you think  you know because you've read it well and you have also studied two or three related articles. But you still get surprised by the author's insight and the new elements you discover every time you read it. "Brave New World" by British intellectual Aldous Leonard Huxley is so multilayered and multi-thematic that it actually calls for a re-read not only for the pleasure of its literary narrative but also to review your opinions on most of the very-current affairs. 

London, 632 A.F. (After Forde, i.e. in 2540 AD). In the Central London Hatchening & Conditioning Centre, the Director and his assistant give a tour to a group of students on site, presenting and analyzing the various methods used to reproduce and condition the human species. Their aim is to create the perfect, almost identical humans to fit the global slogan - "Community, Identity, Stability". Thus, fetuses are placed into sterile bottles and, throughout the period of gestation, they are under constant and complete control – moving on conveyor belts, the bottles are gradually directed into five sectors of the factory-like building,  each one differentiated from the others by the corresponding decrease in oxygen supply. So, sector Alpha is for embryos destined to become great leaders and thinkers of the world while in the next ones (Beta, Gamma and Delta)  embryos would give less impressive people, both physically and intellectually. The bottom-last sector, Epsilon, is for embryos that have been seriously deprived of oxygen and so, they are destined to be fools, docile, non-skilled manual workers.

Students are guided through all chambers of the Centre and observe from up-close the technical procedures of planning and conditioning of the babies, which are always in accordance with the clear instructions the World Government dictates. In the Delta sector, for example, those are to hate books and flowers and to be the perfect consumers, while under hypnopaedia (sleep-learning) babies are conditioned to similar morals of the World State. Meanwhile, in the adult world, "everything belongs to everyone" thus, happiness and sexual pleasure are available to all - the very popular soma (a hallucinogenic drug that alleviates any strong emotion, desire or diverting thought) is for free.
 

At the Centre, there is a somewhat aloof and peculiar employee – Bernard Marx. Although he is an Alpha Plus, Bernard is a misfit because he is unusually short for an Alpha and he's got quite an independent mind - in discussions with his only friend, Helmholtz Watson, he expresses passions, concerns, fears and aspirations. His unconventional views on many key issues raise the interest of Lenina Crowne, an impressively beautiful young Beta nurse. So, when Bernard invites her on a trip to the New Mexico Savage Reservation, Lenina accepts with pleasure although she is in a relationship with Henry Ford, the assistant director of the Centre. A rather unpleasant turn for the director himself, as he intends to banish Bernard to Iceland and this trip spoils his plans.

 
In the Reservation, Bernard and Lenina come in contact with a primitive and decaying human culture. On arrival, they meet John, a young blond who tells them the story of his mother, Linda – an ex-World State citizen who was left stranded in the Reservation, twenty years ago, when her then-companion disappeared. The natives offered her a shelter but as Linda was used to the World State morals (i.e. being very willing to sleep with every man around the tribe) the villagers isolated her. John, who grew up with her, was also isolated - not accepted at school, he taught himself to read by reading the complete works of Shakespeare. John is, now, eager to see the world his mother has told him so much about, so Bernard invites him along. After official permission, they all fly back to London.

At the Centre, the director is waiting to announce his decision to send Bernard to exile. Bernard, however, spoils his plans once again as he introduces John and Linda. The latter turns out to be the once-beautiful woman the director had an affair with. Humiliated by his procreative nature and his extramarital affair being revealed in front of so many people, let alone his being a father to such an uneducated primitive, the director resigns.  

John and Bernard become extremely popular in London. Sleepless nights and wild fun are on a daily basis. However, John gets really confused as he is not at all accustomed to crowds and modern World State manners. Things become even more complicated as he falls in love, the old-fashioned way, with Lenina and keeps asking for something more than a soma session with her. His claim is incomprehensible to her and, thus, unacceptable. The same goes for any resident in After-Ford London, actually, making John's overall attitude nastier and nastier. In the end, the violent expression of his frustration  has a terrible impact on everyone.

 

Published in 1932, and then banned many times, for many years and in many countries around the world due to the author's provocative thoughts, the book was translated for the first time in Greek in 1971. As with the other, equally important, dystopian novels "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, "Brave New World" has had much impact on literature – fiction or not. Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" is the first  example that comes to mind. The effect of the novel is, however, more evident in movies – the wonderful "Gattaca" and Michael Winterbottom's "Code 46" are just two of a plethora of science fiction films that are influenced by Huxley's novel as well as by Orwell's "1984" – a book which "BNW" is usually compare to.

In "Brave New World Revisited", an essay collection published after almost 30 years, (i.e. in 1958), Huxley notes that the real world resembled the dystopian universe he envisioned in his novel in a much faster pace than he had originally anticipated. I wonder, thus, what he would have been thinking now that technology has evolved so much (see Artificial intelligence, artificial insemination, bionic body parts, etc.) that already defines our life – the pursuit of endless happiness and perfection is the norm (with the aid of psychotropic drugs and plastic surgery) while the uniformity in appearance covers almost perfectly inequality and injustice. As far as eugenics is concerned, I cannot even think about what his reaction as Huxley was known to be a pacifist and a humanist, not to mention his addiction to hallucinogens. On the other hand, he also had a distinctive sense of satire and it would be a delight to hear his comments on the transmutation of society in arena terms and conditions - this is dystopia, too, you know. In the populist manner.

While writing this post, I was thinking that "Brave New World" was indeed our very own real life habitat (mutatis mutandis, of course) and lasted for almost 15 years: from the artificial bliss of the period between 1985 and 2000, we find ourselves, today, living in a deeply miserable and impoverished society (mutatis mutandis, always). In that sense, I do not consider George Orwell's "1984" as contradictory to "BNW" but only as its continuation.

Complex and pervasive, "Brave New World" is a novel that you can not easily forget. And despite its unpleasant theme, you cannot but enjoy Huxley's lucid writing style and the way he makes you wonder about human beings, totalitarianism and utopia. And besides all, which novel we are going to live through next. 

 

Notes: The Greek edition of the book contains an informative foreword as well as an extensive report on the writer's life and career that are both a great key to the understanding of the novel. // The first photo is an advertising poster drawn at random from the internet. In the second photograph you can see Daniel Brühl  as a robotics researcher at the low-key sci-fi thriller "Eva". The last photograph is a detail from a Gelah Penn installation, the "Clash by Night" (2009).

Li

A common acquaintance between a sailor and a young she-beggar that evolves into a touching friendship and paternal-love story - this is the story of  Li, one of the very few pieces of prose Greek poet Nikos Kavvadias wrote. 

The subdued atmosphere of the anchored ship and the port, the destitute life of the girl in her floating home, their walk around the city, the customary way of life and mentality of the Chinese, the unconventionality, courtesy and imagination of little Li – everything is depicted in such a picturesque and eloquent manner.  Aleksandr Grin would definitely call it fairy-tale fiction.

However, Li is a short –only 51 small sized pages– episode of the poet's real, adventurous life which is given with great sensitivity –to the point of introversion– and excellent demotic language. The writing of Nikos Kavvadias is experiential and very rich in sentiment and this is what makes his "poor" prose particularly noticeable. The dialect of the seafarers does not weigh on the text – contrary to what one would expect from a poet, it is absolutely minimal and balanced.  

Precious.



 


Note: The short story book is translated only in French. The Greek edition is adorned with the Chinese ideogram of the name Li, which appears on the front cover and is hand-written specifically for this edition by actor and painter Tielin Zhang. // "Li" was adapted into a film which entered the 1995 Cannes Film Festival. // In the photo, a string puppet by prominent Michael Meschke.

These boots 

are made  for walkin'

Reading the synopsis on the back cover of Something will happen, you'll see you immediately realize that this is not a pleasant reading. Quite the opposite, actually.

There is a nameless father who has no money to buy a piece of bread for his child. And Ellie, who eats a semolina effigy of her former boyfriend. John, using a self-made placard, goes into the most unsuccessful picket ever to honor his friend that was killed at work. A young man has Hans Christian Andersen's Steadfast Tin Soldier as a role model. Michael dreams of travelling to Spain and living there under the influence of the blazing sun and the lyrics of Hernandez, his favourite poet; but until that moment comes he settles for work in an ice-shop, making ice cubes. An immigrant and his Greek girlfriend glue their hands with an ordinary logo stick to prevent the expulsion of the youngest and thus, stay together.

Sixteen stories about people living in Maniatika, Drapetsona, Nikaia, Kaminia – urban areas in Pireaus that I only know of through the verses of old popular songs of the late 1970s and 1980s. Reading through the pages of this short stories collection gave me a strong, vivid idea of what a working-class neighbourhood is like today.

Although journalist by profession, Christos Ikonomou succeeds, with this book –his second in Greek but the first to be translated in English–, in becoming a prominent novelist for two reasons. The first is the language he uses – realistic, easy-flowing and brisk, with a subcutaneous compassion for the protagonists of his stories. Νot in the sense of pity, though, but in that of deep empathy and acceptance, αnd that is really moving. He reminded me of the writings of another Greek writer, Lena Kitsopoulou, Known for her idiosyncratic use of common language, devoid of any ostentatious imagery. But here, it is much more subtle, more Faulkner-like and definitely  of a Ken-Loachian saturation. The second reason is that he restores literature to what should be its main concern – the defense of the weak, the poor, the marginalized. Where margin, consider all those who are excluded, nowadays, from every aspect of modern life – the contemporary Les Misérables. In Piraeus, as of course elsewhere struck by an economic crisis, those underpriviledged people may have cars and mobile phones but they definitely have an uncertain future; one coloured in black by unemployment, injustice, debts and laws that seem to have been issued to defend only the few. Bearing this in mind, the book could be characterized as political.

There were times when I wanted to drop it. I didn't because despite being dark, the stories are not gloomy. The people who move throughout the book withstand a reality that is as repugnant as a naturalistic depiction of art. And yet, no one even considers to shift away from, displace or overcome the threshold of dignity. All of them continue to live up to their strengths, trusting something that is not defined with words. Which is what sustains them, though. What keeps them going. As in "If you're going through hell, keep going" that Winston Churchill once said. If nothing else, only in the dark can someone clearly see the light, right?

 

Note: Christos Ikonomou's book was first published in 2010 and since then, it has been translated into six languages. In English, it is masterfully translated by Karen Emmerich and recently launched in the US by Archipelago Books. // The picture of this post is the main theme of the front cover of the Greek edition. // This article was originally published in Greek, on 15.09.2010, and has now been reviewed.