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wingedbeastThere are two competing elements of this chapter/scene. It's short and it packs an emotional punch. At the same time, that emotional punch is delivered because it is a culture depicted by someone who isn't interested in it.
Here is the chapter where Linda dies. Or rather, here is the chapter where John is there for Linda's death. And, in that much, you can't help but feel for John. You don't have to like him at this point, but you have to feel for him at least a little. His mother is dying and suffering from severe dementia.
I've lived a semi-charmed life in that I've never had to deal with a loved one suffering from dementia. I've never had to look in the eyes of someone who I loved and who couldn't recognize me to save their life. Say what you will about Linda or John (and there's enough to be said about either), neither side of this is anywhere you want to be.
At first, Linda doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's one of her former lovers. John, not understanding, tries to get her to recognize him, but when she does, she only recognizes him as a threat when he was mad. So, John, desperately wanting to have some connection to his mother can't have anything but losing all hope of ever having a connection with her again, as she dies.
These could be the most horrible people (as Huxley intended Linda to be but did not intend John to be), but you'd still have to feel sympathy for what they're both going through in that moment.
At the same time, this is all undercut by a presentation of a society that is not even paradoxical.
There's the attitude of the nurse who conducts John to his mother and responds to his reaction to his mother's death. By text, she's completely dumbfounded by the idea that death matters or that dying people matter. Yet, her job exists.
This all takes place in a hospital for the dying. In introducing John to the place, she mentions that the idea.
These aren't cut-rate retirement homes to warehouse the elderly. If consumption for consumption sake were the idea, there would be purchased goods so one could "die in style". It would fit right in with the planned economy. Instead, the only way any of this can work is if Fordly society views individuals, their comfort and their needs, as important enough to spend resources on.
Additionally, there's the death-conditioning. A Bokanovsky Group of Gamma children are present for their death conditioning. The textually stated purpose is so that the children will view death as just another thing that happens, no big deal. But, this death conditioning obviously includes bringing children into direct contact with people who are dying.
Despite the book's statement on the matter, not everybody who's close to death lacks for lucidity. By bringing children to a hospice, the children will, inevitably, form connections to people who can have conversations with them, tell them stories, answer their questions, and be dead within weeks. This is not a good way of convincing someone that death is just something that happens and nobody really matters. This is a good way of giving someone experience with having people you care about die, processing the emotions, and going back to work as is often necessary.
It all makes me think of conservative, fundamentalist descriptions of liberal lives and values. Recently, a movie called Let There Be Light came out. It stars Kevin Sorbo and was written by his wife and it is an amazing self-parody. But, it presents atheist lifestyle as being this high-profile, high hedonism party that has absolutely nothing in terms of emotional depth.
It's a look at sex-positivity that ignores the concept of sex-positive virgins or people who are sex-positive but personally asexual.
With 1984, I could understand Orwell's intention to be the presentation of flaws in every society. The purpose of power is power. The goal of continued power becomes one of priorities of any organization with power that manages to continue.
But, with Brave New World I see less of a chilling warning of a world to come and more the vision of man who looks at a changing world and refuses to imagine any possible value to a world with different values than his own.
I may have to rethink my view of this as a dystopian novel, let alone one of the three great dystopian novels.
Here is the chapter where Linda dies. Or rather, here is the chapter where John is there for Linda's death. And, in that much, you can't help but feel for John. You don't have to like him at this point, but you have to feel for him at least a little. His mother is dying and suffering from severe dementia.
I've lived a semi-charmed life in that I've never had to deal with a loved one suffering from dementia. I've never had to look in the eyes of someone who I loved and who couldn't recognize me to save their life. Say what you will about Linda or John (and there's enough to be said about either), neither side of this is anywhere you want to be.
At first, Linda doesn't recognize him. She thinks he's one of her former lovers. John, not understanding, tries to get her to recognize him, but when she does, she only recognizes him as a threat when he was mad. So, John, desperately wanting to have some connection to his mother can't have anything but losing all hope of ever having a connection with her again, as she dies.
These could be the most horrible people (as Huxley intended Linda to be but did not intend John to be), but you'd still have to feel sympathy for what they're both going through in that moment.
At the same time, this is all undercut by a presentation of a society that is not even paradoxical.
There's the attitude of the nurse who conducts John to his mother and responds to his reaction to his mother's death. By text, she's completely dumbfounded by the idea that death matters or that dying people matter. Yet, her job exists.
This all takes place in a hospital for the dying. In introducing John to the place, she mentions that the idea.
"We try," explained nurse, who had taken charge of the Savage at the door, "we try to create a thoroughly pleasant atmosphere here, something between a first-class hotel and a feely-palace, if you take my meaning."
These aren't cut-rate retirement homes to warehouse the elderly. If consumption for consumption sake were the idea, there would be purchased goods so one could "die in style". It would fit right in with the planned economy. Instead, the only way any of this can work is if Fordly society views individuals, their comfort and their needs, as important enough to spend resources on.
Additionally, there's the death-conditioning. A Bokanovsky Group of Gamma children are present for their death conditioning. The textually stated purpose is so that the children will view death as just another thing that happens, no big deal. But, this death conditioning obviously includes bringing children into direct contact with people who are dying.
Despite the book's statement on the matter, not everybody who's close to death lacks for lucidity. By bringing children to a hospice, the children will, inevitably, form connections to people who can have conversations with them, tell them stories, answer their questions, and be dead within weeks. This is not a good way of convincing someone that death is just something that happens and nobody really matters. This is a good way of giving someone experience with having people you care about die, processing the emotions, and going back to work as is often necessary.
It all makes me think of conservative, fundamentalist descriptions of liberal lives and values. Recently, a movie called Let There Be Light came out. It stars Kevin Sorbo and was written by his wife and it is an amazing self-parody. But, it presents atheist lifestyle as being this high-profile, high hedonism party that has absolutely nothing in terms of emotional depth.
It's a look at sex-positivity that ignores the concept of sex-positive virgins or people who are sex-positive but personally asexual.
With 1984, I could understand Orwell's intention to be the presentation of flaws in every society. The purpose of power is power. The goal of continued power becomes one of priorities of any organization with power that manages to continue.
But, with Brave New World I see less of a chilling warning of a world to come and more the vision of man who looks at a changing world and refuses to imagine any possible value to a world with different values than his own.
I may have to rethink my view of this as a dystopian novel, let alone one of the three great dystopian novels.
no subject
Date: 2017-12-19 01:50 am (UTC)