Brave New World 1-5: Thoughts and Questions

After starting the book I now realize what is means by Henry-Georgian as it stated on the second page of the foreword. It is an allusion to both Marx-Leninism and two characters of the story.
One thing I wonder is why Preston keeps saying when Huxley wrote this book in the 1950's when it predates Nineteen Eighty-Four (published 1949) and in the foreword the author he mentioned he had no knowledge of the weapons of mass destruction ahead. Googling it says it was written and/or published in 1932 so it explains why he could predict an imminent war to come but not that man would soon develop a method that could end all life on Earth.
Another thing that seemed odd was the apathy to caring ratio. The characters exude the most feelings, if they truly posses any, towards things like a few minutes, classes, and what the Director tells them; yet is completely uncaring on matters like their own peers, passion, and ambitions.
Something else that is remarkable was Huxley's prediction on society and marriage. He writes in the foreword and foreshadows the entire novel so far about the disintegration of the family as a unit and the rise of the state. Considering people can no longer hold a relationship for more than a month nor do much without direction from an authority figure seems fairly accurate. Maybe considering the social trends from the date of publication compared to just a few decades prior anyone could witness a movement, gradual and subtle yes, but that would amount to half of marriages failing and human reliance on the state to do practically everything for them.

Brave New World Chapter 4 Anaylized

Roughly speaking the book is getting much better. I still think I might like Nineteen Eighty-Four more by the end. Very explicit display of...lust?...passion?..or probably conformity as the children had an orgy while singing and laughing. I thought Freud had insidious thoughts sometimes these lines are like the mind of Charles Manson. That horrible scene I believe could cover imagery and irony. The former is obvious the latter is due to when we think, or I at least, remember grade school I think of the songs and stuff my goofy principal would sing and play his guitar to, this is children enjoying something that in any other context is awful it is as close to molestation and kitty porn as it comes. Juxtaposition could be Bernard having his own conscientious as opposed to all the others who show no thoughts or emotions. Foreshadowing could be Lenina's ideals that lean towards monogamy which might come up later if she falls in love with someone; it'll probably end in her death by electrocution knowing the current direction...

Huxley on...

Sanity: Maybe he follows, or set the path for the Catch-22, Nineteen Eighty-Four view that everyone is insane, and sanity is statistical.  He probably saw sanity as a choice between two almost identical camps of Fascism or Communism and the savage strays from these options.

The Third Option: The third option is like the Third Reich horrible to live under. His third option was most likely seclusion like Thoreau and J.D. Salinger choose. Many writers pick this path. Anyone from this time, notable Huxley, Orwell, and Mencken, were all around in the interwar years and knew what was to come. For this they were cynical and pessimistic for they could assume what was to come of the world once more.  

The Iron Curtain: Churchill like Lincoln and FDR and all the other Western "heroes" may have few opponents today but did at their times. It wouldn't surprise me if Huxley understood that there was no heroism in World War II that was not a product of the military, medical staff, or common people. Indeed all seem to be with them yet who takes credit our tyrannical leaders. He probably understood how the Allies planned out to divide Europe and that the Iron Curtain was intentional and planned. The Western powers knew what Stalin wanted and conceded it to him anyone of intelligence at the time understood this. They also knew what the Soviet Union was and what would become of the world under its death grip. So he was critical of the leaders simply using words to decry the ally a year ago and enemy now instead of logical argumentation to attack it.

Huxley the Author and the Man

Huxley was born in 1894 and passed away in 1963. He is most well known for being a writer, predominantly for his book Brave New World written in 1931. His insight into the future of the current regimes upon the publication and of those that would spring up in the years shortly after the book is magnificent. Outside of writing he was a prominent Englishmen who was born to a family of scientist. Most of his family focused on biology, which could be where he draws his many allusions and predictions to how the world was and would become. His novel predates Orwell’s masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four and the Second World War. Another interesting thing to note is the idea of the World State which seems to foment today in conspiracies such as the New World Order.

Great Expectations Essay

Literary Terms #5

parallelism - Parallelism is the use of components in a sentence that are grammatically the same; or similar in their construction, sound, meaning or meter
parody – a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing
pathos - stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow
pedantry - describes words, phrases, or tone that is overly scholarly or academic
personification - figure of speech in which the author presents/describes concepts, animals, or inanimate objects by endowing them with human qualities
plot - the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work like a play, novel, or short story
poignant - arousing deep emotion, touching
point of view - the perspective at which a story is told
postmodernism - a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism;
prose - a form of language that has no formal metrical structure
protagonist - the main or of the main characters in a story
pun – the humorous use of a word or phrase so as to emphasize or suggest its different meanings or applications, a play on words
purpose - the reason an author creates a piece of work, intends to persuade/inform/entertain/explain his or her ides
realism – the tendency to view or represent things as they really are
refrain - a verse, a line, a set, or a group of some lines that appears at the end of stanza, or appears where a poem divides into different sections
requiem - chant, hymn, dirge or musical service for the dead
resolution - the part of a story where the problem or climax is resolved
restatement - to state again in a new form for emphasis
rhetoric - the art or science of all specialized literary uses of language in prose or verse, can include figures of speech
rhetorical question - asked just for effect or to lay emphasis on some point discussed when no real answer is expected
rising action - the part of the story leading up to the climax
romanticism - emphasized emotion over reason
satire - exposes and criticizes foolishness and corruption of an individual or a society by using humor, irony, exaggeration or ridicule; it is meant
scansion -  is the act of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical character of a line of verse.
setting - the surroundings or environment of anything, in this case where the story is

Literature Analysis Spring 1

Nonfiction: Nullification

Topics and Events

1.      I liked this book it was well written and constantly went back to facts and examples of when this process of nullification worked and how to apply it again. This book clearly defines nullification: how our Founding Fathers felt about it, its history to the twenty first century, and uses now.

2.      Tom Woods wrote about this to refute all the naysayers who never argue over this topic but simply dismiss it with a fallacy, mainly ad hominem, and explain why we should fight to use it.

3.      This book appealed to me because like most other people I am frustrated with the failure of the federal government and these people who claim to represent us never doing their duty.

4.      Yes the book was extremely realistic it was a bit startling how much this political process was used but is now rejected by the two main sides, which of course is only one party.

People

1.      The people in here are mainly people in the government so they all fall under the umbrella of playing public servants trying to help the people but in reality are all equally corrupt. This book does not really go into the nature of the elite but generally this can be inferred by their actions which reverberate much louder than their pretty speeches.

2.      Some people mentioned this book were John C. Calhoun from the early to mid-1800’s, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush. They are not explained in detail or with much bias just a simple statement explaining their party, ideology, and positions of office.

3.      They are a few of many important for our policies and big names that by an act of congress can alter things for better or worse.

Style

1.      No the book was written in a scholarly manner always citing things with references and documents like notes on the legal tender act, South Carolina’s nullification attempts under Andrew Jackson, and now with issues ranging from guns, common core, marijuana, privacy etc.

2.      Lengthy descriptions are used more than action, action and dialogue are only used to show how individuals felt on a topic quoting them on their beliefs.

3.      The tone is set by constraint saying the general government is this large, inefficient, and undemocratic entity while the states have more representation, flexibility, and representation.

4.      The author is completely for using this to ward off unconstitutional acts by congress that are either unethical or the majority of people oppose.

5.      Cited are articles from decades ago, scholarly journals, text books, and current events to show nullification at work. This does affect my thinking since I base all things off of objective facts with little regard to obvious persuasion of the writer then make my own decisions as impartially as one can when reading a biased book.