Eng. 12 - Fishbowl

Purpose of an essay: "Looking at the text as a work of art, demonstrating clear critical judgment and explaining to the reader of your essay how the enjoyment of the text is assisted by literary devices, linguistic effects and psychological insights; showing how the text relates to the time when it was written and how it relates to our world today."
Bring a page (double-sided) quotes
*can bring outside quotes - but no notes
Sexuality, politics, scientific progress
Could non-monogamous relationships become the norm one day in our society? [extension by Huxley]
Some disagreement - we would need conditioning to switch our thinking - but we are conditioned to want monogamous
We're conditioned to only love one person [we see lots of affairs] - some families do have polyamorous relationships
MORALITY - fluid?
Our conditioning vs. their conditioning (what does "The Lottery" show us)
Promiscuity - is this the future?
Casual sex is more common and more talked about [remember that during Huxley's lifetime there were not many alternatives for birth control - the pill not invented until the late '60's]
BNW removes art, science, knowledge in order to have stability [contentment]
Keep people happy - no religion, no love, few emotions
"that is the secret to happiness and virtue - liking what you've got to do" (page?)
How are we conditioned in our society - our etiquette
Are we products of society, or are we individuals [international students should be able to see the difference between Canadians and other countries]
We are influenced by the people around us
[The Devil Wears Prada - example of what colour blue is in this season]
We have learned to love democracies rather than monarchies - other people don't know they've been conditioned [North Korea]
Philosopher: "we are not our own masters"(204-205)
We have some form of independence - we conform somewhat, but we are also different
Who starts social customs? - organic and insidious - snowball effect or butterfly effect
Does social media condition us to think the same way?
Could we be 100% conditioned across the world? [can we all agree about climate change]
There will always be Bernards, there will always be rhinoceroses
If everyone's thinking the same way - would this be utopia? - everyone has their own place
Humans created in labs - devaluing families
Are we conditioned to think viviparous births are normal [30 years ago people thought in-vitro fertilization was mad scientists behaviour]
Think about the scientific progress made in the last 30 years (your parents' lifetime)
Religion - growing up religious or choosing religion - are people being conditioned?
Truth, Beauty and Happiness
-hypnopaedia - World Controller - chooses what people believe - eg. Shocks when touching flowers
-Instagram for example - shows pictures that seem attractive
-we want to follow people who we look up to
BNW - knowledge - the World Controllers don't want the rest of the people to have - they think that knowledge and happiness don’t go together
Is this true in our world - are smart people more unhappy in our world?
Oscar Wilde quote:
"The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”


- Epsilons and Deltas are happy - even Lenina (as a Beta) is happy - are the Alphas happy?
- Having different emotions - such as sadness brings more depth to happiness
- Knowledge will lead people to death in BNW
- [notice how when a new entity enters - John & Linda - the whole order is upset - kids in the hospital, whole society, Lenina and her friends
- World Controller know the whole world isn't really happy
- Taught what to think rather than how to think - would it be bad to get rid of this
- New governments are elected - new curriculum [eg. BC wants to follow Finland - who win the PISA education rating all of the time - change away from exams to more experiential and project-based learning]
- China - restricts knowledge - internet usage [can't send emails without them being read - can't play music without getting restricted]
- History is not taught in BNW [we are being told content is no longer key in History classes]
- Patterns occur in human behaviour - not learned about in BNW
- BNW citizens do not have freedom or even understand it
- Soma vs. happiness - (what's the closest thing we have to it? - has legalization of marijuana had an effect? - are kids smoking more or less since the legalization?)
- Our world is based on emotion - there would be a great decline
- Some people would refuse to take Soma

Stable Society/Utopia_

- Could we live in a utopia?
- Most people thought one thing would change everything else
- Whatever makes us happy will always have a down side [for example, almost every medication has side effects]
- One person (at least) will be an outlier
- Eg. 1984 - one person
- Bernard + other rhinoceroses were sent to an island
- Pigs are hermetically sealed off from the world
- In the utopia - everything's perfect until one little thing goes wrong and it effects everyone
- "everyone belongs to everyone"
- "identity, stability, community" - group think - people are conditioned to like it [look at everything Lenina says]
- All conditioning aims at that: making people like their unescapable social destiny."(12)
- We are not stable in our world - in BNW - that's the goal - not to progress
- We are programmed to never be satisfied - also instant gratification is part of our culture
- "Well I'd rather be unhappy than have the sort of false happiness you are having here."(156)
- Great quote from Huxley - perfect world is people not understanding what they're missing - a prison with no walls
- No progress - taking Soma - Pleasantville - just two roads
- John - not conditioned - interesting to see his reaction
- Making a utopia = must make sacrifices - "Happiness is a hard master, especially other people's happiness" (200) - Mustapha Mond
- Who is willing to sacrifice
- Eg. Religion is gone, love, emotion, knowledge,
- Is the point of a utopia - to not have to sacrifice anything
- Ability to feel emotions and be human
- Eg. Feelies (very symbolic of our world - look, listen, feel)
- Aren't there quite a few people in our world who don't read/think? Say things like "I don't care about politics"
- "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely" (119)
BNW doesn't have a pursuit of happiness