There are several scenes throughout Brave New World which can be thought of as humorous and even out and out hysterical. The scene where Lenina first visits the savage reservation, Bernard's erratic behavior and comments, Linda's reunion with Tomakin, and John's reaction to the feelies just to name a few. Do you think Huxley meant these scenes to be funny? If he did, why would he include them in an otherwise nightmarish dystopian novel? If he did not mean for them to be funny, why do we find them so? Is it our culture? Our comedic perception? Or something else.... Please comment.
McKenzie Johnson
ReplyDeleteI believe that indeed there are many moments in Brave New World in which we find humorous. I think in some sense Huxley wanted to put humor into the book. I kind of comic relief one might say to the otherwise nightmarish topics in the story. I also see where in some parts of the story we would find things humorous where they were not meant to be. For example, when on her death bed the presence of the lack of morals held by the children I believe was meant to act as a warning for present day beings reading the book. The culture we live in however has missed the warnings left behind over time and cause our comedic perception to also be lacking in morals. We for example grew up with Tom and Jerry where we found it funny that the mouse was able to physically harm the cat.
Veronica Wallace
ReplyDeleteI agree with McKenzie on the fact that he meant it to be funny. He put them in the book because he wanted to like counter act what he was writing about the harsh things you know? How people percive a certain society and view things as funny, like when the alphas and betas watch the videos of savages and things, beating themselves with the whip and they all are laughing. They think it's funny because they don't know why someone would do that, and that it's just not know to do such a funny thing. It goes along with not learning religion and being in a "trained" society. We learn to either go with the group, as all of the classes do, or go our own way, such as John.
Jessica Vilberg,
ReplyDeleteI think only a few of the events that are questioned on wither they were meant to be funny or not are actually supposed to be funny. I think when john was in the feelies it was supposed to be funny because he was so uncomfortable and nervous. Also the scene where lenina comes to the reservation and sees Linda ans is disgusted by her perseverance is funny because lenina hasn't seen someone like that and is so shocked she goes on a soma holiday. However the scene where john is trying to tell lenina he loves her and she doesn't get what he is saying is actually sad because it is showing the fact that they can't talk about almost anything and was meant to pull pity to john to pull another emotion besides the other scary and funny parts. If he didn't mean for any parts to be funny then it must be our culture that we are more exposed to the things and john freaking out about them is unlike us.
Tay Brown
ReplyDeleteIn this novel there are a few parts that are questionable on whether or not they should be funny....I think that we may have found some of these events funny because of the day and age we live in. I think that this whole novel was meant to be a serious prediction of how the 21st century would be and show examples from outside people. For example everyone's reactions form john and linda when they are brung back to the brave new world.
Shonique Edwards
ReplyDeleteI think Huxley intentionally made those scenes the way they are for our humor. They're supposed to be serious situations in any case, but he knew to a future world, we'd find these cases funny. But if he didn't mean for them to be funny, a reason why we may have found them funny is because of our culture and how we look at people who look like Linda, and how we judge people who act like John and Bernard. These factors contribute to our perception of these scenes.
Brianna parlette
ReplyDeleteII think he intentionally made some parts funny. Like previous answers to make the book less harsh and also to stress the idea that people don't understand concepts that we hold. Like proving that in the future the same morals and religion we have now will be a huge joke in the future and he's saying that it'll become obsolete. Its just another factor he intentionally predicted that the new 'bravetrophy new world' would laugh at concepts that we hold. Like when john was beating himself because of his religion maybe it was a hyperbole explaining that for example people in the future will laugh at singing an d worshiping to a god. They. Wont understand those practices and why we do it.
Mickale Foard
ReplyDeleteHow the book seemed to flow it all seemed that Huxley didn't want to be funny, maybe seemed that way, although it might have been showing how out of tune the Brave New World society was to the real world or in the book Savage World. We may find these funny due to our society showing us that anyone who finds the normal social interactions wierd and/or disturbing should be shunned and laughed at and in a way was our conditioning for our life now.
Onecia Burton
ReplyDeleteI think he didn't mean for those scenes to be funny. I think just because of the day and age we live in, things like Linda and The Director's reunion, we find funny because we watch shows that are similar to this, like Maury, and we find it hilarious. The century we now live in can find humor in almost anything.
Stephana Reid
ReplyDeleteI believe that Huxley meant for most of those scenes to be funny. Like McKenzie said, he wanted to create a sense of comic relief to get away from the unnerving novel. The scenes of the novel that I thought was really funny was when Linda saw the director again and when John saw him for the first time and said "My father!" The director freaked out and everyone in the factory started laughing. Thats the part of the novel where Huxley firt wanted to break away from the unnerving aspects of the novel and add humor.
Tori Miller
ReplyDeleteThose scenes are funny to us, but to the characters in the brave new world, those scenarios are apart of everyday life. The fact that we would find certain parts humurous such as the orgy porgy, emphasizes that the brave new world society greatly differs from our own. Houxley added those parts to make a point that life in the future would be so different to life now, that it is comical to us. For example, how mom and dad are forbidden words. I find that funny because i hear these words daily.
Marlena Hill
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that Huxley knew what he was doing when he included humor in his novel. Since he predicted that the world would come to test-tube babies, and having no parents, I'm sure he couldve seen our different styles of humor in the 21st century. Some people nowadays have a pretty twisted sense of humor, because I know that I do.
Kristien Salisbury
ReplyDeleteHuxley probably put them in a funny tone but made them to be serious. Let people figure it out. Or to see how many people just don't care that this could happen to the world or is already happening in society.
Aaliyah Lelievre
ReplyDeleteHuxley did this to add some humor to the book, because the book was for the most part pretty awkward. Maybe he knew that one day sustaining beauty would be very important to society.
Giovanna Sutherland
ReplyDeleteHuxley might have thought it was funny to add this in the story however I don't think the people of his time would have found it as funny as the people of are time. Now we find people sex adn ugly people even though we don't live in the brave new world. I think Huxley predicted that the way people look would be scrutinized more than it use to and sex would be normal a normal pass time and thinking any other way would be funny.
Jamaal Roberson
ReplyDeleteEven though the things that happend came off as funny i think that we may think its funny because of the society we're in an the things we watch.I think Huxley meant to just have them added to the mix for literary terms.In this time and day we think that ugly bops sexual escapades and drama is a recipe for humor like Jersey Shore.
I believe he did because he knew that our culture today thinks sexual things are funny and hilarious he pursuaded the themes to be funny -Brandon bernard
ReplyDeleteKeith Knudsen
ReplyDeleteIm sure back-in-the-day when this was written they were meant to be serious reactions to serious situations. we make it funny because these newer generations are the product of people who laugh at anything that moves because they can pull out some sort of sexual reference or malicious joke. maybe the author doesnt have a sense of humor and wrote it just because he was on some crazy strain of cocaine and got bored.