brave new world by aldous huxley chapter one a squat grey building of only 34 stories
over the main entrance the words central london hatchery and conditioning center
and in a shield the world states motto community identity stability
the enormous room on the ground floor face towards the north cold for all the summer beyond the pains
for all the tropical heat of the room itself a harsh thin light glared through the windows
hungrily seeking some draped lay figure some pallid shape of academic gooseless
but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory wintriness
responded to wintriness the overalls of the workers were white their hands gloved with a pale
corpse-colored rubber the light was frozen dead only from the yellow barrels of the microscopes
did it borrow a certain rich and living substance lying along the polished tubes like butter
streak after luscious streak in long recession down the work tables and this said the director
opening the door is the fertilizing room bent over their instruments 300 fertilizers were plunged
as the director of hatcheries and conditioning entered the room in the scarcely breathing silence
the absent-minded soliloquizing hum or whistle of absorbed concentration a troop of newly arrived
students very young pink and callow followed nervously rather abjectly at the director's heels
each of them carried a notebook in which whenever the great man spoke he desperately
scribbled straight from the horse's mouth it was a rare privilege the dhc for central london
always made a point of personally conducting his new students around the various departments
just to give you a general idea he would explain to them for of course some sort of general idea
they must have if they were to do their work intelligently there was little of one if they
were to be good and happy members of society as possible for particulars as everyone knows
make for virtue and happiness generalities are intellectually necessary evils not philosophers
but fret sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone of society
tomorrow he would add smiling at them with a slightly menacing geniality
you'll be settling down to serious work you won't have time for generalities meanwhile meanwhile
it was a privilege straight from the horse's mouth into the notebook the boys scribbled like mad
tall and rather thin but upright the director advanced into the room
he had a long chin and big rather prominent teeth just covered when he was not talking by his full
floridly curved lips old young 30 50 55 it was hard to say and anyhow the question didn't arise
in this year of stability af 632 it didn't occur to you to ask it
i shall begin at the beginning said the dhc and the more zealous students recorded his intentions
in their notebooks begin at the beginning these he waved his hand are the incubators
and opening an insulated door he showed them racks upon racks of numbered test tubes
the weak supply of over kept he explained at blood heat whereas the male game eats and here he opened
another door they have to be kept at 35 instead of 37. full blood heat sterilizes rams wrapped in
thermogene beget no lambs still leaning against the incubators he gave them while the pencils
scurried allegedly across the pages a brief description of the modern fertilizing process
spoke first of course of its surgical introduction the operation undergone voluntarily for the good
of society not to mention the fact that it carries a bonus amounting to six months salary
continued with some account of the technique for preserving the excised ovary alive and actively
developing passed on to a consideration of optimum temperature salinity viscosity
refer to the liquor in which the detached and ripened eggs were kept and leading his charges
to the work tables actually showed them how this liquor was drawn off from the test tubes
how it was let out drop by drop onto the specially warm slides of the microscopes how the eggs which
are contained were inspected for abnormalities counted and transferred to a porous receptacle how
and he now took them to watch the operation this receptacle was immersed in a warm bouillon
containing free swimming spermatozoa at a minimum concentration of one hundred thousand per cubic
centimeter he insisted and how after 10 minutes the container was lifted out of the liquor and
its contents re-examined how if any of the eggs remained unfertilized it was again immersed
and if necessary yet again how the fertilized over went back to the incubators where the alphas and
betas remained until definitely bottled while the gammas deltas and epsilons were brought out again
after only 36 hours to undergo buckanovsky's process bokonovsky's process repeated the director
and the students underlined the words in their little notebooks one egg one embryo one adult
normality but a buchanofski-fied egg will bud will proliferate will divide
from eight to ninety-six buds and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo and every
embryo into a full-sized adult making 96 human beings grow where only one grew before progress
essentially the dhc concluded buckonovskification consists of a series of arrests of development
we check the normal growth and paradoxically enough the egg responds by budding responds by
the pencils were busy he pointed on a very slowly moving band a rack full of test tubes
was entering a large metal box another rack full was emerging machinery faintly purred
it took eight minutes for the tubes to go through he told them eight minutes of hard x-rays being
about as much as an egg can stand a few died of the rest the least susceptible divided into two
most put out four buds some eight all were returned to the incubators where the buds
began to develop then after two days were suddenly chilled chilled and checked two four
eight the buds in their turn budded and having budded were dosed almost to death with alcohol
consequently burgeoned again and having budded bud out of bud out of bud were thereafter
further arrest being generally fatal left to develop in peace by which time the original egg
was in a fair way to becoming anything from eight to ninety six embryos a prodigious improvement you
will agree on nature identical twins but not in piddling twos and threes as in the old viviporous
days when an egg would sometimes accidentally divide actually by dozens by scores at a time
scores the director repeated and flung out his arms as though he were distributing
largesse scores but one of the students was full enough to ask where the advantage lay
my good boy the director wheeled sharply around on him can't you see can't you see
he raised a hand his expression was solemn bokonovsky's process is one of the major
instruments of social stability major instruments of social stability
standard men and women in uniform batches the whole of a small factory staffed with
the products of a single buckenofskyfied egg 96 identical twins working 96 identical machines
the voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm you really know where you are for the first time
in history he quoted the planetary motto community identity stability grand words
if we could buckanovskyfy indefinitely the whole problem would be solved
solved by standard gammas unvarying deltas uniform epsilons millions of identical twins
the principle of mass production at last applied to biology
but alas the director shook his head we can't buckonovskyfy indefinitely 96 seem to be the limit
72 a good average from the same ovary and with gay meats of the same male to manufacture as
many batches of identical twins as possible that was the best sadly a second best that they could
do and even that was difficult for in nature it takes 30 years for 200 eggs to reach maturity
but our business is to stabilize the population at this moment here
and now dribbling out twins over a quarter of a century what would be the use of that
obviously no use at all pod snaps technique had immensely accelerated the process of ripening
they could make sure of at least a hundred and fifty mature eggs within two years
fertilized and bokonovskyfy in other words multiply by 72 and you get an average of nearly
11 000 brothers and sisters in 150 batches of identical twins all within two years of
the same age and in exceptional cases we can make one ovary yield us over 15 000 adult individuals
beckoning to a fair-haired ruddy young man who happened to be passing at the moment mr foster
he called the ruddy young man approached can you tell us the record for a single ovary mr foster
sixteen thousand twelve in this center mr foster replied without hesitation
he spoke very quickly had a vivacious blue eye and took an evident pleasure in quoting figures
sixteen thousand and twelve in 189 batches of identicals but of course they've done much
better he rattled on in some of the tropical centers singapore's often produced over 16500
and mombasa has actually touched the 17 000 mark but then they have unfair advantages
you should see the way a negro ovary responds to pituitary it's quite astonishing when you
are used to working with european material still he had it with a laugh but the light
of combat was in his eyes and the lift of his chin was challenging still we need to beat them
if we can i'm working on a wonderful delta minus ovary at this moment only just 18 months old over
12 700 children already either decanted or an embryo and still going strong we'll beat them
yet that's the spirit i like cried the director and clap mr foster on the shoulder come along with
us and give these boys the benefit of your expert knowledge mr foster smiled modestly with pleasure
they went in the bottling room all was harmonious bustle and ordered activity
flaps of fresh sow's peritoneum ready cut to the proper size came shooting up in little
lifts from the organ store in the sub-basement whiz and then click the lift hatches flew open
the bottle liner had only to reach out a hand take the flap insert smooth down and before the lined
bottle had time to travel out of reach along the endless band whiz click another flap of peritoneum
had shot up from the depths ready to be slipped into yet another bottle the next of that slow
interminable procession on the band next to the liners stood the matriculators
the procession advance one by one the eggs were transferred from their test tubes to the larger
containers deftly the peritoneal lining was slit the morela dropped into place the saline solution
poured in and already the bottle had passed and it was the turn of the labelers heredity date
of fertilization membership of bokonovsky group details were transferred from test tube to bottle
no longer anonymous but named identified the procession marched slowly on on
through an opening in the wall slowly on into the social predestination room
88 cubic meters of card index said mr foster with relish as they entered
containing all the relevant information added the director brought up to date every morning
and coordinated every afternoon on the basis of which they make their calculations
so many individuals of such and such quality said mr foster distributed in such and such quantities
the optimum decanting rate at any given moment unforeseen wastage is promptly made good
promptly repeated mr foster if you knew the amount of overtime i had to put in after the
last japanese earthquake he laughed good humidly and shook his head the predestinators send in
their figures to the fertilizers who give them the embryos they ask for and the bottles come in here
to be predestinated in detail after which they are sent down to the embryo store where we now
proceed ourselves and opening a door mr foster led the way down the staircase to the basement
the temperature was still tropical they descended into a thickening twilight two doors in a
passage with a double turn insured the seller against any possible infiltration of the day
embryos are like photographic film said mr foster waggishly as he pushed open the second door they
can only stand red light and in effect the sultry darkness into which the students now followed him
was visible and crimson like the darkness of closed eyes on a summer's afternoon
the bulging flanks of roe on receding row and teared above tier of bottles glinted with
innumerable rubies and among the rubies moved the dim red specters of men and women with purple eyes
and all the symptoms of lupus the harm and rattle machinery faintly stirred the air
give them a few figures mr foster said the director who was tired of talking mr foster
was only too happy to give them a few figures 220 meters long 200 wide 10 high he pointed upwards
like chickens drinking the students lifted their eyes towards the distant ceiling
three tiers of racks ground floor level first gallery second gallery the spidery steelwork of
gallery above gallery faded away in all directions into the dark near them three red ghosts were
busily unloading demijons from a moving staircase the escalator from the social predestination room
each bottle could be placed on one of 15 racks each rack though you couldn't see it was a
conveyor traveling at the rate of 33 and a third centimeters an hour 267 days at eight meters a day
two thousand one hundred and thirty six meters in all one circuit of the seller at ground level one
on the first gallery half on the second and on the 267th morning daylight in the decanting room
independent existence so-called but in the interval mr foster concluded we've managed to do
a lot to them oh a very great deal his laugh was knowing and triumphant that's the spirit i like
said the director once more let's walk round you tell them everything mr foster
mr foster julie told them told them of the growing embryo on its bed of peritoneum
made them taste the rich blood surrogate in which it fed explained why it had to be stimulated with
placentine and thyroxine told them of the corpus luteum extract showed them the jets through
which at every 12 meter from zero to 2040 it was automatically injected spoke of those gradually
increasing doses of pituitary administered during the final 96 meters of their course
describe the artificial maternal circulation installed on every bottle at meter 112 show them
the reservoir of blood surrogate the centrifugal pump that kept the liquid moving over the placenta
and drove it through the synthetic lung and waste product filter refer to the embryos troublesome
tendency to anemia to the massive doses of hog stomach extract and fetal foal's liver
with which in consequence it had to be supplied showed them the simple mechanism by means of
which during the last two meters out of every eight all the embryos were simultaneously shaken
into familiarity with movement hinted at the gravity of the so-called trauma of decanting
and enumerated the precautions taken to minimize by a suitable training of the bottled embryo that
dangerous shock told them of the tests for sex carried out in the neighborhood of meter 200
explain the system of labeling a t for the males a circle for the females and for those who were
destined to become free martins a question mark black on a white ground for of course said mr
foster in the vast majority of cases fertility is merely a nuisance one fertile ovary in 1200 that
would really be quite sufficient for our purposes but we want to have a good choice and of course
one must always leave an enormous margin of safety so we allow as many as 30 percent of the female
embryos to develop normally the others get a dose of male sex hormones every 24 meters for the rest
of the course result they decanted as free martins structurally quite normal except he had to admit
that they do have just the slightest tendency to grow beards but sterile guaranteed sterile
which brings us at last continued mr foster out of the realm of mere slavish imitation of nature
into the much more interesting world of human invention he rubbed his hands for of course they
didn't content themselves with merely hatching out embryos any cow could do that we also predestine
and condition we decant our babies as socialized human beings as alphas or epsilons as future
sewage workers or future he was going to say future world controllers but correcting himself
said future directors of hatcheries instead the dhc acknowledged the compliment with a smile
they were passing meter 320 on rack 11. a young beta minus mechanic was
busy with screwdriver and spanner on the blood surrogate pump of a passing bottle
the hum of the electric motor deepened by fractions of a tone as he turned the nuts down
down a final twist a glance at the revolution counter
and he was done he moved two paces down the line and began the same process on the next pump
reducing the number of revolutions per minute mr foster explained the surrogate goes around
slower therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals therefore gives the embryo less oxygen
nothing like oxygen shortage for keeping an embryo below par and again he rubbed his hands but
why do you want to keep the embryo below par asked an ingenuous student ass said the director
breaking along silence hasn't it occurred to you that an epsilon embryo must have an
epsilon environment as well as an epsilon heredity it evidently hadn't occurred to him he was
covered with confusion the lower the caste said mr foster the shorter the oxygen
the first organ affected was the brain after that the skeleton at 70 of normal oxygen you got dwarfs
at less than 70 eyeless monsters who are no use at all concluded mr foster whereas his voice became
confidential and eager if they could discover a technique for shortening the period of maturation
what a triumph what a benefaction to society consider the horse they considered it mature
at six the elephant had ten while at thirteen a man is not yet sexually mature and is only
full grown at twenty hence of course that fruit of delayed development the human intelligence
but in epsilons said mr foster very justly we don't need human intelligence
didn't need and didn't get it but though the epsilon mind was matured at 10
the epsilon body was not fit to work till 18 long years of superfluous and wasted immaturity
if the physical development could be speeded up till it was as quick say as a cow's what an
enormous saving to the community enormous murmured the students mr foster's enthusiasm was infectious
he became rather technical spoke of the abnormal endocrine coordination which made men grow so
slowly postulated a germinal mutation to account for it could the effects of this
germinal mutation be undone could the individual epsilon embryo be made to revert by a suitable
technique to the normality of dogs and cows that was the problem and it was all but solved
pilkington at mombasa had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full grown at
six and a half a scientific triumph but socially useless six-year-old men and women were too stupid
to do even epsilon work and the process was an all or nothing one either you failed to modify at all
or else you modified the whole way they were still trying to find the ideal compromise between adults
of 20 and adults of six so far without success mr foster sighed and shook his head their wanderings
through the crimson twilight had brought them to the neighborhood of meter 170 on rack nine
from this point onwards rack nine was enclosed and the bottles performed the remainder of their
journey in a kind of tunnel interrupted here and there by openings two or three meters wide
heat conditioning said mr foster hot tunnels alternated with cool tunnels
coolness was wedded to discomfort in the form of hard x-rays by the time they were decanted
the embryos had a horror of cold they were predestined to emigrate to the tropics to
be miners and acetate silk spinners and steel workers later on their minds would be made to
endorse the judgment of their bodies we condition them to thrive on heat concluded mr foster
our colleagues upstairs will teach them to love it and that put in the director cententiously
that is the secret of happiness and virtue liking what you've got to do all conditioning aims at
that making people like their unescapable social destiny in a gap between two tunnels a nurse
was delicately probing with a long fine syringe into the gelatinous contents of a passing bottle
the students and their guide stood watching her for a few moments in silence well lenina said
mr foster when at last she withdrew the syringe and straightened herself up the girl turned with
a start one could see that for all the lupus and the purple eyes she was uncommonly pretty henry
her smile flashed readily at him a row of coral teeth charming charming murmured the director
and giving her two or three little pats received in exchange a rather deferential smile for himself
what are you giving them ask mr foster making his tone very professional oh the usual typhoid
and sleeping sickness tropical workers start being inoculated at meter 150 mr foster explained to the
students the embryos still have gills we immunize the fish against the future man's diseases
then turning back to lenina 10 to 5 on the roof this afternoon he said as usual charming
said the director once more and with a final pat moved away after the others on rack 10
rows of next generations chemical workers were being trained in the toleration of lead caustic
soda tar chlorine the first of a batch of 250 embryonic rocket plane engineers was just passing
the 1100 meter mark on rack 3. a special mechanism kept their containers in constant rotation to
improve their sense of balance mr foster explained doing repairs on the outside of a rocket in midair
is a ticklish job we slacken off the circulation when they're right way up so that they're half
starved and double the flow of surrogate when they're upside down they learn to associate topsy
turvitum with well-being in fact they're only truly happy when they're standing on their heads
and now mr foster went on i'd like to show you some very interesting conditioning for alpha plus
intellectuals we have a big batch of them on rack five first gallery level he called to two boys who
had started to go down to the ground floor they're around meter 900 he explained you can't really do
any useful intellectual conditioning till the fetuses have lost their tails follow me but
the director had looked at his watch ten to three he said no time for the intellectual embryos i'm
afraid we must go up after the nurseries before the children have finished their afternoon sleep
mr foster was disappointed at least one glance at the decanting room he pleaded very well then
the director smiled indulgently just one glance
chapter two
mr foster was left in the decanting room the dhc and his students stepped into the nearest lift
and were carried up to the fifth floor infant nurseries
neopavlovian conditioning rooms announced the notice board the director opened a door they were
in a large bare room very bright and sunny for the whole of the sudden wall was a single window
half a dozen nurses trousered and jacketed in the regulation white viscous linen uniform
their hair asceptically hidden under white caps were engaged in setting out bowls of roses in a
long row across the floor big bowls packed tight with blossom thousands of petals ripe blown and
silkily smooth like the cheeks of innumerable little cherubs but of cherubs in that bright light
not exclusively pink and aryan but also luminously chinese also mexican also apoplectic but too much
blowing of celestial trumpets also pale as death pale with the posthumous whiteness of
marble the nurses stiffened to attention as the dhc came in set out the books he said curtly
in silence the nurses obeyed his command between the rose bowls the books were duly set out a
row of nursery quartos opened invitingly each had some gaily colored image of beast or fish or bird
now bring in the children they hurried out of the room and returned in a minute or two
each pushing a kind of tall dumb waiter laden on all its four wire netted shelves
with eight-month-old babies all exactly alike a buckanovsky group it was evident
and all since their cast was delta dressed in khaki put them down on the floor
the infants were unloaded now turn them so that they can see the flowers and books
turned the babies at once fell silent then began to crawl towards those clusters of sleek colors
those shapes so gay and brilliant on the white pages as they approached the sun came out of a
momentary eclipse behind a cloud the roses flamed up as though with a sudden passion from within
a new and profound significance seemed to suffuce the shining pages of the books
from the ranks of the crawling babies came little squeals of excitement gurgles and twitterings of
pleasure the director rubbed his hands excellent he said it might almost have been done on purpose
the swiftest crawlers were already at their goal small hands reached out uncertainly touched
grasped unpettling the transfigured roses crumpling the illuminated pages of the books
the director waited until all were happily busy then carefully he said and lifting his hand he
gave the signal the head nurse who was standing by a switchboard at the other end of the room pressed
down a little lever there was a violent explosion shriller and even shriller a siren shrieked alarm
bells maddeningly sounded the children started screamed their faces were distorted with terror
and now the director shouted for the noise was deafening now we proceeded to rub in the
lesson with a mild electric shock he waved his hand again and the head nurse pressed
a second lever the screaming of the babies suddenly changed its tone there was something
desperate almost insane about the sharp spasmodic yelps to which they now gave utterance their
little bodies twitched and stiffened their limbs moved jerkily as if to the tug of unseen wires
we can electrify that whole strip of floor bowled the director in explanation but that's enough
he signaled to the nurse the explosion ceased the bells stopped ringing the shriek of the siren died
down from tone to tone into silence the stiffly twitching bodies relaxed and what had become the
sovereign yelp of infant maniacs broadened out once more into a normal howl of ordinary terror
offer them the flowers and the books again the nurses obeyed but at the approach of the roses
at the mere sight of those gaily colored images of [ __ ] and cock-a-doodle-doo and barbar black
sheep the infants shrank away in horror the volume of their howling suddenly increased observe said
the director triumphantly observe books and loud noises flowers and electric shocks already in the
infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked and after 200 repetitions of the same or
a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly what man has joined nature is powerless to put asunder
they'll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an instinctive hatred of books and flowers
reflexes unalterably conditioned they'll be safe from books and botany all their lives the director
turned to his nurses take them away again still yelling the khaki babies were loaded onto their
dumb waiters and wheeled out leaving behind them the smell of sour milk and a most welcome silence
one of the students held up his hand and though he could see
quite well why you couldn't have lower caste people wasting the community's time over books
and that there was always the risk of their reading something which might
undesirably decondition one of their reflexes yet well he couldn't understand about the flowers
why go to the trouble of making it psychologically impossible for deltas to like flowers
patiently the dhc explained if the children were made to scream at the site of a rose that was on
grounds of high economic policy not so very long ago a century or thereabouts gammas deltas even
epsilons had been conditioned to like flowers flowers in particular and wild nature in general
the idea was to make them want to be going out into the country at every available opportunity
and so compel them to consume transport and didn't they consume transport
asked the student quite a lot the ghc replied but nothing else
primroses and landscapes he pointed out have one grave defect they are gratuitous a love of
nature keeps no factories busy it was decided to abolish the love of nature at any rate among the
lower classes to abolish the love of nature but not the tendency to consume transport
for of course it was essential they should keep on going to the country even though they hated it
the problem was to find an economically sounder reason for consuming transport
than a mere affection for primroses and landscapes it was duly found conditioned the masses to
hate the country concluded the director but simultaneously we condition them to love
all country sports at the same time we see to it that all country sport shall entail the use
of elaborate apparatus so that they consume manufactured articles as well as transport
hence those electric shocks i see said the student and was silent lost in admiration
there was a silence then clearing his throat once upon a time the director began while our
ford was still on earth there was a little boy called rubin gribinovich reuben was the child of
polish-speaking parents the director interrupted himself you know what polish is i suppose a
dead language like french and german added another student officiously showing off his learning
and a parent question the dhc there was an uneasy silence
several of the boys blushed they had not yet learned to draw the significant but often very
fine distinction between smut and pure science one at last had the courage to raise a hand
human beings used to be he hesitated the blood rushed to his cheeks
well they used to be viviparous quite right the director nodded approvingly
and when the babies were decanted born came the correction well then they were the
parents i mean not the babies of course the other ones the poor boy was overwhelmed with confusion
in brief the director summed up the parents were the father and the mother
the smut that was really science fell with a crash into the boy's eye avoiding silence
mother he repeated loudly rubbing in the science and leaning back in his chair these
he said gravely are unpleasant facts i know it but their most historical facts are unpleasant
he returned to little reuben to little reuben in whose room one evening by an
oversight his father and mother crash crash happened to leave the radio
turned on for you must remember that in those days of gross viviparous reproduction children
were always brought up by their parents and not in state conditioning centers
while the child was asleep a broadcast program from london suddenly started to come through and
the next morning to the astonishment of his crash and crash the more daring of the boys
ventured to grin at one another little ruben woke up repeating word for word a long lecture by that
curious old writer one of the very few whose works have been permitted to come down to us george
bernard shaw who was speaking according to a well authenticated tradition about his own genius
to little ruben's wink and snicker this lecture was of course perfectly incomprehensible and
imagining that their child had suddenly gone mad they sent for a doctor he fortunately understood
english recognized the discourse as that which shaw had broadcasted the previous evening
realized the significance of what had happened and sent a letter to the medical press about it
the principle of sleep teaching or hypnopedia had been discovered the dhc made an impressive pause
the principle had been discovered but many many years were to elapse before that principle was
usefully applied the case of little ruben was only 23 years after r ford's first t model was put on
the market here the director made a sign of the t on his stomach and all the students reverently
followed suit and yet furiously the students scribbled hypnopedia first used officially
in af 214. why not before two reasons a these early experimenters the dhc was saying were on
the wrong track they thought that hypnopedia could be made an instrument of intellectual education
a small boy asleep on his right side the right arm stuck out the right hand hanging limp over
the edge of the bed through a round grating in the side of a box a voice speaks softly
the nile is the longest river in africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe
although falling short of the length of the mississippi missouri the nile is at the head of
all rivers as regards the length of its basin which extends through 35 degrees of latitude
at breakfast the next morning tommy someone says do you know which is the longest river in africa
a shaking of the head but don't you remember something that begins the nile is
the nile is the longest river in africa and the second in length of all the rivers of the globe
the words came rushing out although falling short of well now which is the longest river in africa
the eyes are blank i don't know but the nile tommy the gnar is the longest river in africa
and second then which river is the longest tommy tommy bursts into tears i don't know
he howls that how the director made it plain discouraged the earliest investigators
the experiments were abandoned no further attempt was made to teach children the length of the nile
in their sleep quite rightly you can't learn a science unless you know what it's all about
whereas if they'd only started on moral education said the director leading the way towards the door
the students followed him desperately scribbling as they walked and all the way up in the lift
moral education withdrawed never in any circumstances to be rational silence
silence whispered a loud speaker as they stepped out of the 14th floor and
silence silence the trumpet mouth indefatigably repeated at intervals down every corridor
the students and even the director himself rose automatically to the tips of their toes
they were alphas of course but even alphas have been well conditioned silence silence
all the air of the 14th floor was sibilant with the categorical imperative
50 yards of tiptoeing brought them to a door which the director cautiously opened they stepped over
the threshold into the twilight of a shuttered dormitory 80 cots stood in a row against the wall
there was a sound of light regular breathing and a continuous murmur as a very faint voices remotely
whispering a nurse rose as they entered and came to attention before the director
what's the lesson this afternoon he asked
we had elementary sex for the first 40 minutes she answered but now it's switched over to elementary
class consciousness the director walked slowly down the long line of cots rosian relaxed
with sleep 80 little boys and girls lay softly breathing there was a whisper under every pillow
the dhc halted and bending over one of the little beds listened attentively elementary class
consciousness did you say let's have it repeated a little louder by the trumpet at the end of the
room a loud speaker projected from the wall the director walked up to it and pressed a switch
all were green said a soft but very distinct voice beginning in the middle of a sentence
and delta children wear khaki oh no i don't want to play with delta children
and epsilons are still worse they're too stupid to be able to read or write besides they wear black
which is such a beastly color i'm so glad i'm a beta there was a pause then the voice began again
alpha children wear gray they work much harder than we do because they're so frightfully clever
i'm really awfully glad i'm a beta because i don't work so hard and then we are much better
than the gammas and deltas gammas are stupid they all wear green and delta children wear khaki oh no
i don't want to play with delta children and epsilons are still worse they're too stupid to be
able the director pushed back the switch the voice was silent only its thin ghost continued to mutter
from beneath the 80 pillows they'll have that repeated 40 or 50 times more before they wake
then again on thursday and again on saturday 120 times three times a week for 30 months
after which they go on to a more advanced lesson roses and electric shocks the khaki of deltas
and a whiff of asafoetida wedded indissolubly before the child can speak
but wordless conditioning is crude and wholesale cannot bring home the finer distinctions cannot
inculcate the more complex courses of behavior for that there must be words but words without reason
in brief hypnopedia the greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time
the students took it down their little books straight from the horse's mouth
once more the director touched the switch so frightfully clever the soft insinuating
indefatigable voice was saying i'm really awfully glad i'm a beta because not so much like drops of
water the water it is true can wear holes in the hardest granite rather drops of liquid sealing wax
drops that adhere in crust incorporate themselves with what they fall on till
finally the rock is all one scarlet blob till at last the child's mind is these suggestions
and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind and not the child's mind only the adult's
mind too all his lifelong the mind that judges and desires and decides made up of these suggestions
but all these suggestions are our suggestions the director almost shouted in triumph
suggestions from the state he banged the nearest table it therefore follows
a noise made him turn round oh ford he said in another tone i've gone and woken the children
chapter three outside in the garden it was playtime naked in the warm june sunshine six
or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns
or playing ball games or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs
the roses were in bloom two nightingales soliloquized in the buskage a cuckoo was just
going out of tune among the lime trees the air was drowsy with the murmur of bees and helicopters
the director and his students stood for a short time watching a game of centrifugal bumble puppy
twenty children were grouped in a circle around a chrome steel tower
a ball thrown up so as to land on the platform at the top of a tower rolled down into the interior
fell on a rapidly revolving disc was held through one or other of the numerous apertures pierced in
the cylindrical casing and had to be caught strange muse the director as they turned away
strange to think that even in our ford's day most games were played without more apparatus than a
ball or two and a few sticks and perhaps a bit of netting imagine the folly of allowing people
to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption it's madness nowadays the
controllers won't approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much
apparatus as the most complicated of existing games he interrupted himself that's a charming
little group he said pointing in a little grassy bay between tall clumps of mediterranean heather
two children a little boy of about seven and a little girl who might have been a year older
were playing very gravely and with all the focused attention of scientists intent on
a labor of discovery a rudimentary sexual game charming charming the dhc repeated sentimentally
charming the boys politely agreed but their smile was rather patronizing they had put aside similar
childish amusements too recently to be able to watch them now without a touch of contempt
charming but it was just a pair of kids fooling about that was all just kids i always think the
director was continuing in the same rather modern tone when he was interrupted by a loud boo-hooing
from a neighboring shrubbery emerged nurse leading by the hand a small boy who howled
as he went an anxious looking little girl trotted at her heels what's the matter asked the director
the nurse shrugged her shoulders nothing much she answered it's just that this little boy
seems rather reluctant to join in the ordinary erotic play i'd noticed it once or twice before
and now again today he started yelling just now honestly put in the anxious looking little girl
i didn't mean to hurt him or anything honestly of course you didn't dear said the nurse reassuringly
and so she went on turning back to the director i'm taking him to see the assistant superintendent
of psychology just to see if anything's at all abnormal quite right said the director take him
in you stay here little girl he added as the nurse moved away with her still howling charge
what's your name polly trotsky and a very good name too said the director
run away now and see if you can find some other little boy to play with the child scampered off
into the bushes and was lost to sight exquisite little creature said the director looking after
her then turning to his students what i'm going to tell you now he said may sound incredible but then
when you are not accustomed to history most facts about the past do sound incredible
he let out the amazing truth for a very long period before the time of our fault
and even for some generations afterwards erotic play among children had been regarded as abnormal
there was a roar of laughter and not only abnormal actually immoral no and had therefore been
rigorously suppressed a look of astonished incredulity appeared on the faces of his listeners
poor little kids not allowed to amuse themselves they could not believe it
even adolescence the dhc was saying even adolescents like yourselves
not possible barring a little surreptitious autoerotism and homosexuality absolutely nothing
nothing in most cases till they were over 20 years old
20 years old echoed the students in a chorus of loud disbelief twenty the director repeated
i told you that you'd find it incredible but what happened they asked what were the results the
results were terrible a deep resonant voice broke startlingly into the dialogue they looked round
on the fringe of the little group stood a stranger a man of middle height black-haired
with a hooked nose full red lips eyes very piercing and dark terrible he repeated
the dhc had at that moment sat down on one of the steel and rubber benches conveniently scattered
through the gardens but at the sight of the stranger he sprang to his feet and darted forward
his hand outstretched smiling with all his teeth effusive controller what an unexpected pleasure
boys what are you thinking of this is the controller this is his ford ship mustafa
in the four thousand rooms of the center the four thousand electric clocks simultaneously
struck four discarnate voices called from the trumpet mouths main day shift off duty second
day shift take over main day shift off in the lift on their way up to the changing rooms
henry foster and the assistant director of pre-destination rather pointedly turned their
backs on bernard marx from the psychology bureau averted themselves from that unsavory reputation
the faint harmon rattle of machinery still stirred the crimson air in the embryo store
shifts might come and go one lupus colored face give place to another majestically
and forever the conveyors crept forward with their load of future men and women
lenin a crown walked briskly towards the door
his fordship mustafa mond the eyes of the saluting students almost popped out of their heads
mustafa monde the resident controller for western europe one of the ten world controllers
one of the ten and he sat down on the bench with the dhc he was going to stay
to stay yes and actually talk to them straight from the horse's mouth straight from the mouth of
ford himself two shrimp brown children emerge from a neighboring shrubbery stare at them
for a moment with large astonished eyes then return to their amusements among the leaves
you all remember said the controller in his strong deep voice
you all remember i suppose that beautiful and inspired saying of our ford's history is
bunk history he repeated slowly is bunk he waved his hand and it was as though with an invisible
feather whisk he had brushed away a little dust and the dust was harappa was ur of the childis
some spiderwebs and they were thieves in babylon and canosus and mycini
whisk whisk and where was odysseus where was job where was jupiter and gotama and jesus whisk and
those specks of antique dirt called athens in rome jerusalem and the middle kingdom all were gone
whisk the place where italy had been was empty whisk the cathedrals whisk whisk
king lear and the thoughts of pascal whisk passion whisk requiem whisk symphony whisk
going to the feelings this evening henry inquired the assistant predestinator
i hear the new one of the alhambra is first rate there's a love scene on a bearskin rug
they say it's marvelous every hair the bear reproduced the most amazing tactile effects
that's why you're taught no history the controller was saying
but now the time has come the dhc looked at him nervously there were those strange rumors
of old forbidden books hidden in a safe in the controller's study bibles poetry ford knew what
mustafa monde intercepted his anxious glance and the corners of his red lips twitched ironically
it's all right director he said in a tone of faint derision i won't corrupt them
the dhc was overwhelmed with confusion
those who feel themselves despised do well to look despising the smile on bernard marx's face
was contemptuous every hair on the bear indeed i shall make a point of going said henry foster
leaned forward shook a finger at them just tried to realize it he said and his voice sent a strange
thrill quivering along their diaphragms try to realize what it was like to have a viviparous
mother that smutty word again but none of them dreamed this time of smiling
try to imagine what living with one's family meant they tried but
obviously without the smallest success and do you know what a home was they shook their heads
from her dim crimson cellar lennon crown shot up 17 stories turned to the right she stepped
out of the lift walked on a long corridor and opening the door marked girl's dressing room
plunged into a deafening chaos of arms and bosoms and underclothing
torrents of hot water were splashing into or gurgling out of a hundred baths
rumbling and hissing 80 vibro vacuum massage machines were simultaneously
kneading and sucking the firm and sunburned flesh of 80 superb female specimens everyone
was talking at the top of her voice a synthetic music machine was wobbling out a super cornet solo
hello fanny said lennon to the young woman who had the pegs and locker next to hers fanny worked in
the bottling room and her surname was also crown but as the two thousand million inhabitants of the
planet had only ten thousand names between them the coincidence was not particularly surprising
lennon pulled at her zippers downward on the jacket downwards with a double-handed
gesture at the two that held trousers downwards again to loosen her undergarment
still wearing her shoes and stockings she walked off towards the bathrooms
home home a few small rooms stiflingly over inhabited by a man by a periodically teeming
woman by a rabble of boys and girls of all ages no air no space and under sterilized prison
darkness disease and smells the controller's evocation was so vivid that one of the boys more
sensitive than the rest turned pale at the mere description and was on the point of being sick
lennon got out of the bath toweled herself dry took hold of a long flexible tube plugged
into the wall presented the nozzle to her breast as though she meant to commit suicide
pressed down the trigger a blast of warmed air dusted her with the finest talcum powder
eight different scents and oda cologne were laid on in little taps over the wash basin
she turned on the third from the left dab herself with sheep and carrying her shoes
and stockings in her hand went out to see if one of the vibro vacuum machines were free
and home was as squalid psychically as physically psychically it was a rabbit hole a midden hot with
the frictions of tightly packed life reeking with emotion what suffocating intimacies what
dangerous insane obscene relationships between the members of the family group
maniacally the mother brooded over her children her children brooded over them like a cat over
its kittens but a cat that could talk a cat that could say my baby my baby over and over again
my baby and oh oh at my breast the little hands the hunger and that unspeakable agonizing pleasure
till at last my baby sleeps my baby sleeps with a bubble of white milk at the corner of his mouth
my little baby sleeps yes said mustafa monde nodding his head you may well shudder
who are you going out with tonight then anna asked returning from the vibro vac like a pearl
illuminated from within pinkly glowing nobody lenina raised her eyebrows in astonishment
i've been feeling rather out of sorts lately fanny explained dr wales advised me to have a
pregnancy substitute but my dear you're only 19. the first pregnancy substitute
isn't compulsory till 21 and oh dear but some people are better if they begin earlier dr wells
told me that brunettes with wide pelvises like me ought to have their first pregnancy substitute at
so i'm really two years late not two years early she opened the door of her locker and pointed to
the row of boxes and labeled files on the upper shelf syrup of corpus luteum lenina
read the names aloud over in guaranteed fresh not to be used after august the first af632
mammary gland extract to be taken three times daily before meals with a little water
placentine 5cc to be injected intravenously every third day lennon shouted how i loathe
intravenous don't you yes but when they do one good fanny was a particularly sensible girl
our ford or our freud as for some inscrutable reason he chose to call himself whenever he
spoke of psychological matters our freud had been the first to reveal the appalling
dangers of family life the world was full of fathers was therefore full of misery
full of mothers therefore of every kind of perversion from
sadism to chastity full of brothers sisters uncles aunts full of madness and suicide
and yet among the savages of samoa in certain islands off the coast of new guinea
the tropical sunshine lay like warm honey on the naked bodies of children
tumbling promiscuously among the hibiscus blossoms home was in any one of 20 palm thatched houses
in the trobriands conception was the work of ancestral ghosts nobody had ever heard of a father
extremes said the controller meat for the good reason that they were made to meet
dr wells said that a three months pregnancy substitute now will make
all the difference to my health for the next three or four years
well i hope he's right so lennon but fanny do you really mean to say that for the next three months
you're not supposed to oh no dear only for a week or two that's all i shall spend the evening at
the club playing musical bridge i suppose you are going out lennon are nodded who with henry foster
again fanny's kind rather moonlike face took on an incongruous expression of pained and
disapproving astonishment do you mean to tell me you're still going out with henry foster
mothers and fathers brothers and sisters but there were also husbands wives lovers
there were also monogamy and romance though you probably don't know what those are
said mustafa monde they shook their heads family monogamy romance
everywhere exclusiveness everywhere a focusing of interest a narrow channeling of impulse and energy
but everyone belongs to everyone else he concluded citing the hypnopedic proverb the students nodded
emphatically agreeing with a statement which upwards of 62 000 repetitions in the dark had
made them accept not nearly as true but as axiomatic self-evident utterly indisputable
but after all leniner was protesting it's only about four months now since i've been having henry
only four months i like that and what's more fanny went on pointing an accusing finger there's been
nobody else except henry all that time has there lennon blush scarlett but her eyes the tone of her
voice remained defiant no there hasn't been anyone else she answered almost tracking and i jolly
well don't see why there should have been oh she jolly well doesn't see why there should have been
fanny repeated as though to an invisible listener behind lenina's left shoulder then with a sudden
change of tone but seriously she said i really do think you ought to be careful it's such horribly
bad form to go on and on like this with one man at 40 or 35 it wouldn't be so bad but at your age
linen uh no it really won't do and you know how strongly the dhc objects to anything intense or
long drawn four months of henry foster without having another man why he be furious if he knew
think of water under pressure in a pipe they thought of it i pierce it once said the controller
what a jet he pierced it 20 times there were 20 piddling little fountains my baby my baby
mother the madness is infectious my love my one and only precious precious mother monogamy romance
high spurts the fountain fierce and foamy the wild jet the urge has but a single outlet
my love my baby no wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad and wicked and miserable their world
didn't allow them to take things easily didn't allow them to be sane virtuous happy what with
mothers and lovers what with the prohibitions they were not conditioned to obey what were
the temptations and the lonely remorses but with all the diseases and the endless isolating pain
what were the uncertainties and the poverty they were forced to feel strongly and feeling strongly
and strongly what was more in solitude in hopeless individual isolation how could they be stable
of course there's no need to give him up have somebody else from time to time that's all
he has other girls doesn't he lenina admitted it of course he does trust henry foster to be
the perfect gentleman always correct and then there's the director to think of
you know what a stickler nodding he patted me on the behind this afternoon said lennon there
you see fanny was triumphant that shows what he stands for the strictest conventionality
stability said the controller stability no civilization without social stability no social
stability without individual stability his voice was a trumpet listening they felt larger warmer
the machine turns turns and must keep on turning forever it is death if it stands still
a thousand millions scrabbled the crust of the earth the wheels began to turn in a hundred and
fifty years there were two thousand million stop all the wheels in 150 weeks there are once more
only a thousand millions a thousand thousand thousand men and women have starved to death
wheels must turn steadily but cannot turn untended there must be men to tend them
men as steady as the wheels upon their axles sane men obedient men stable in contentment crying
my baby my mother my only only love groaning my sin my terrible god screaming with pain mattering
with fever bemoaning old age and poverty how can they tend the wheels and if they cannot tend the
wheels the corpses of a thousand thousand thousand men and women would be hard to bury or burn
and after all fanny's tone was coaxing it's not as though there were anything painful
or disagreeable about having one or two men besides henry
and seeing that you ought to be a little more promiscuous
stability insisted the controller stability the primal and the ultimate need stability
hence all this with a wave of his hand he indicated the gardens the huge building of the
conditioning center the naked children furtive in the undergrowth or running across the lawns
leniner shook her head somehow she mused i hadn't been feeling very keen on promiscuity lately
there are times when one doesn't haven't you found that too fanny fanny nodded her sympathy
and understanding but once got to make the effort she said contentiously one's got to play the game
after all everyone belongs to everyone else yes everyone belongs to everyone else lenina repeated
slowly and sighing was silent for a moment then taking fanny's hand gave it a little squeeze
you're quite right fanny as usual i'll make the effort
impulse arrested spills over and the flood is feeling the flood is passion the flood is
even madness it depends on the force of the current the height and strength of the barrier the
unchecked stream flows smoothly down its appointed channels into a calm well-being
the embryo is hungry day in and day out the blood surrogate pump unceasingly turns its
800 revolutions a minute the decanted infant howls at once a nurse appears with a bottle of external
secretion feeling lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation shorten that
interval break down all those old unnecessary barriers fortunate boys said the controller
no pains have been spared to make your lives emotionally easy to preserve you so far as that is
possible from having emotions at all fords in his liver murmured the dhc alls well with the world
lenina crown said henry foster echoing the assistant predestinators question as he zipped up
his trousers oh she's a splendid girl wonderfully pneumatic i'm surprised you haven't had her
i can't think how it is i haven't said the assistant predestinator
i certainly will at the first opportunity from his place on the opposite side of the
changing room isle bernard marx overheard what they were saying and turned pale
and to tell the truth said lennon i'm beginning to get just a tiny bit bored with nothing but
henry every day she pulled on her left stocking do you know bernard marx she asked in a tone whose
excessive casualness was evidently forced fannie looks startled you don't mean to say why not
then it's an alpha plus besides he asked me to go to one of the savage reservations with him
i've always wanted to see a savage reservation but his reputation why do i care about his reputation
they say doesn't like obstacle golf they say they say mocked lennon
and then he spends most of his time by himself alone there was horror in fanny's voice
well he won't be alone when he's with me and anyhow why are people so beastly to
him i think he's rather sweet she smiled to herself how absurdly shy he had been
frightened almost as though she were a world controller and here gamma minus machine minder
consider your own lives said mustafa monde has any of you ever encountered an insurmountable
obstacle the question was answered by a negative silence has any of you been compelled
to live through a long time interval between consciousness of a desire and its fulfillment
well began one of the boys and hesitated speak up so the dhc don't keep his fortune waiting
i once had to wait nearly four weeks before a girl i wanted would let me have her and you
felt a strong emotion in consequence horrible horrible precisely said the controller our
ancestors were so stupid and short-sighted that when the first reformers came along and offered
to deliver them from those horrible emotions they wouldn't have anything to do with them
talking about her as though she were a bit of meat bernard ground his teeth have her here hover there
like mutton degrading her to so much mutton she said she'd think it over she said she'd
give me an answer this week oh ford ford ford he would have liked to go up to them and hit them in
the face hard again and again yes i really do advise you to try her henry foster was saying
take ectogenesis fitzner and kawaguchi had got the whole technique worked out
but would the government look at it no there was something called christianity
women were forced to go on being viviparous
he's so ugly said fanny but i rather like his looks and then so small fanny made a grimace
smallness was so horribly and typically low cast i think that's rather sweet
said lennon one feels one would like to pet him you know like a cat fanny was shocked
they say somebody made a mistake when he was still in the bottle thought he was a gamer and
put alcohol into his blood surrogate that's why he's so stunted what nonsense lenina was indignant
sleep teaching was actually prohibited in england there was something called liberalism
parliament if you know what that was passed a law against it
the records survive speeches about the liberty of the subject liberty to be
inefficient and miserable freedom to be a round peg in a square hole
but my dear chap you're welcome i assure you you're welcome henry foster patted
the assistant pre-destinator on the shoulder everyone belongs to everyone else after all
100 repetitions three nights a week for four years thought bernard marks
who was a specialist on hypnopedia 62 400 repetitions makes one truth idiots
all the caste system constantly proposed constantly rejected there was something
called democracy as though men were more than physical chemically equal
well all i can say is that i'm going to accept his invitation
bernard hated them hated them but they were too they were large they were strong
the nine years war began in af 141
not even if it were true about the alcohol in his blood surrogate
fosgene chloropicrin ethyl iodo acetate diphenyl cyanasine trichloromethyl chloroformate
dichlorethylsulfide not to mention hydrocyanic acid
which i simply don't believe leniner concluded
the noise of fourteen thousand aeroplanes advancing in open
order but in the kerfurstendam and the eighth arundi small
the explosion of the anthrax bombs is hardly louder than the popping of a paper bag
because i do want to see a savage reservation
ch3 sub 3 c sub 6 h sub 2 left parenthesis n o sub 2 right parenthesis sub 3 plus h g left
parenthesis c and right parenthesis sub 2 equals well what an enormous hole in the ground a pile
of masonry some bits of flesh and mucus a foot with a boot still on it flying through the air
and landing flop in the middle of the geraniums the scarlet ones such a splendid show that summer
you're hopeless lennon i give you up
the russian technique for infecting water supplies was particularly ingenious
back turned to back fanny and lennon continued their changing in silence
the nine years wore the great economic collapse there was a choice between world control and
destruction between stability and fanny crown's a nice girl too said the assistant predestinator
in the nurseries the elementary class consciousness lesson was over
the voices were adapting future demand to future industrial supply
i do love flying they whispered i do love flying i do love having new clothes i do love
liberalism of course was dead of anthrax but all the same you couldn't do things by force
not nearly so pneumatic as lenin oh not nearly
but old clothes are beastly continued the untiring whisper we always throw away
old clothes ending is better than mending ending is better than mending ending is better
governments an affair of sitting not hitting you rule with the brains and the buttocks never
with the fists for example there was the conscription of consumption
there i'm ready said lenina but fanny remained speechless and averted
let's make peace fanny darling
every man woman and child compelled to consume so much a year in the
interests of industry the sole result
ending is better than mending the more stitches the less riches the more stitches
one of these days said fanny with dismal emphasis you'll get into trouble
conscientious objection on an enormous scale anything not to consume back to nature
i do love flying i do love flying
back to culture yes actually to culture you can't consume much if you sit still and read books
do i look all right lenina asked
her jacket was made of bottle green acetate cloth with green viscous fur at the cuffs and collar
800 simple lifers were mowed down by machine guns at gulda's green
ending is better than mending ending is better than mending
green corduroy shorts and white viscous woolen stockings turned below the knee
then came the famous british museum massacre 2 000 culture fans gassed with dichloroethyl sulfide
a green and white jockey cap shaded lennon's eyes her shoes were bright green and highly polished
in the end said mustafa monde the controllers realized that force was no good the slower but
infinitely sure methods of ectogenesis neopavlovian conditioning and hypnopedia
and round her waist she wore a silver mounted green morocco surrogate cartridge belt
bulging for lennon was not a free martin with the regulation supply of contraceptives
the discoveries of fitzner and kawaguchi were at last
made use of an intensive propaganda against viviparous reproduction
perfect cried fanny enthusiastically she could never resist lenin's charm for long
and what a perfectly sweet malthusian belt
accompanied by a campaign against the past by the closing of museums the blowing up
of historical monuments luckily most of them had already been destroyed during the nine years war
by the suppression of all books published before af 150. i simply must get one like it said fanny
there were some things called the pyramids for example my old black
pattern bandolier and a man called shakespeare you've never heard of them of course
it's an absolute disgrace that bundler of mine such are the advantages of a really
scientific education the more stitches the less riches the more stitches the less
the introduction of our ford's first tea model i've had it nearly three months
chosen as the opening date of the new era ending is better than mending ending
is better there was a thing as i've said before called christianity ending is better than mending
the ethics and philosophy of under consumption i love new clothes i love new clothes i love
so essential when there was under production but in an age of machines and the fixation of nitrogen
positively a crime against society henry foster gave it me all crosses had their tops cut
and became t's there was also a thing called god it's real morocco surrogate
we have the world state now and ford's day celebrations
and community sings and solidarity services fought how i hate them bernard marx was thinking
there was a thing called heaven but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol
like meat like so much meat there was a thing called the soul and a thing called immortality
to ask henry where he got it but they used to take morphia and cocaine and what makes it worse she
thinks of herself as meat 2 000 pharmacologists and biochemists were subsidized in af178
he does look glum said the assistant predestinator pointing at bernard marks six years later it was
being produced commercially the perfect drug let's bait him euphoric narcotic pleasantly hallucinate
the clap on the shoulder made him start look up it was that brute henry foster
what you need is a gram of soma all the advantages of christianity and alcohol none of their defects
thought i should like to kill him but all he did say was no thank you
and fend off the profit tube of tablets take a holiday from reality whenever you like
and come back without so much as a headache or a mythology take it insisted henry foster take it
stability was practically assured one cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments
said the assistant predestinator citing a piece of homely hypnopedic wisdom
it only remained to conquer old age
shouted bernard marks pointy toity
gonadal hormones transfusion of young blood magnesium salts
and do remember that a gram is better than a dam
they went out laughing all the physiological stigmata of old age have been abolished and along
with him of course don't forget to ask him about that malthusian belt said fanny along with them
all the old man's mental peculiarities characters remain constant throughout a whole lifetime
two rounds of obstacle golf to get through before dark i must fly work
play at 60 our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen old men in the bad old days
used to renounce retire take to religion spend their time reading thinking thinking
idiots swine bennett marx was saying to himself as he walked down the corridor to the lift
now such his progress the old men work the old men copulate the old men have no
time no leisure from pleasure not a moment to sit down and think or if ever by some unlucky
chance such a crevice of time should yawn in the solid substance of their distractions
there is always soma delicious soma half a gram for a half holiday a gram for a weekend two grams
for a trip to the gorgeous east three for a dark eternity on the moon returning whence they find
themselves on the other side of the crevice safe on the solid ground of daily labor and distraction
scampering from feely to philly from girl to pneumatic girl from electromagnetic golf course to
go away little girl shouted the dhc angrily go away little boy can't you
see that his four chips busy go and do your erotic play somewhere else
suffer little children said the controller slowly majestically with a faint humming of machinery
the conveyors moved forward 33 centimeters an hour in the red darkness glinted innumerable rubies
chapter four the lift was crowded with men from the alpha changing rooms and lennon's entry was
greeted by many friendly nods and smiles she was a popular girl and at one time or another had spent
a night with almost all of them they were dear boys she thought as she returned their salutations
charming boys still she did wish that george edsel's ears weren't quite so big
perhaps you've been given just a spot too much parathyroid at meto 328 and looking at benito
hoover she couldn't help remembering that he was really too hairy when he took his clothes off
turning with eyes a little saddened by the recollection of benito's curly blackness
she saw in a corner the small thin body the melancholy face of bernard marks bernard she
stepped up to him i was looking for you her voice rang clear above the hum of the mounting lift
the others looked round curiously i wanted to talk to you about our new mexico plan out of the
tail of our eye she could see benito hoover gaping with astonishment the gape annoyed her surprised
i shouldn't be begging to go with him again she said to herself then aloud and more warmly
than ever i'd simply love to come with you for a week in july she went on anyhow she was publicly
proving her unfaithfulness to henry fannie ought to be pleased even though it was bernard
that is lender gave him her most deliciously significant smile if you still want to have me
bennett's pale face flashed what on earth four she wandered astonished but at the same time
touched by this strange tribute to her power hadn't we better talk about it somewhere else
he stammered looking horribly uncomfortable as though i'd been saying something shocking
thought lenina he couldn't look more upset if i made a dirty joke asked him who his mother was
or something like that i mean with all these people about he was choked with confusion
lenin's laugh was frank and holy are malicious how funny you are she said and she quite genuinely did
think him funny you'll give me at least a week's warning won't you she went on in another tone i
suppose we take the blue pacific rocket does it start from chairing teto or is it from hampstead
before bernard could answer the lift came to a standstill
called a creaking voice the leftman was a small
simian creature dressed in the black tunic of an epsilon minus semi-moron
he flung open the gates the warm glory of afternoon sunlight made
him start and blink his eyes oh ruth he repeated in a voice of rapture
he was as though suddenly and joyfully awakened from a dark annihilating stupor
he smiled up with a kind of doggiely expectant adoration into the faces of his passengers
talking and laughing together they stepped out into the light the liftman looked after them
he said once more questioningly then a bell rang and from the ceiling of the
lift a loud speaker began very softly and yet very imperiously to issue its commands
go down it said go down floor 18 go down go down floor 18. go down go the liftman slammed the gates
touched a button and instantly dropped back into the droning twilight of the well the twilight of
his own habitual stupor it was warm and bright on the roof the summer afternoon was drowsy with the
hum of passing helicopters and the deeper drone of the rocket planes hastening invisible through
the bright sky five or six miles overhead was like a caress on the soft air bernard marx drew a deep
breath he looked up into the sky and round the blue horizon and finally down into lennon's face
isn't it beautiful his voice trembled a little she smiled at him with an expression of the most
sympathetic understanding simply perfect for obstacle golf she answered rapturously
and now i must fly bernard henry gets cross if i keep him waiting let me know in good time
about the date and waving her hand she ran away across the wide flat roof towards the hangers
bernard stood watching the retreating twinkle of the white stockings the sunburnt knees
vivaciously bending and unbending again again and the softer rolling of those well fitted
corduroy shorts beneath the bottle green jacket his face wore an expression of pain
i should say she was pretty said a loud and cheery voice just behind him bernard
started and looked round the chubby red face of benito hoover was beaming down at him beaming
with manifest cordiality benita was notoriously good-natured people said of him that he could
have got through life without ever touching soma the malice and bad tempers from which other people
had to take holidays never afflicted him reality for benito was always sunny pneumatic to and how
then in another tone but i say he went on you do look glum what you need is a gram of soma
diving into his right hand trouser pocket benito produced a file one cubic centimeter cures ten
gloomy but i say bernard had suddenly turned and rushed away benito stared after him what
can be the matter with the fellow he wondered and shaking his head decided that the story about the
alcohol having been put into the poor chap's blood surrogate must be true touched his brain i suppose
he put away the soma bottle and taking out a packet of sex hormone chewing gum stuffed a plug
into his cheek and walked slowly away towards the hangers ruminating henry foster had had his
machine wheeled out of its lockup and when lenina arrived was already seated in the cockpit waiting
four minutes late was all his comment as she climbed in beside him he started the engines
and threw the helicopter screws into gear the machine shot vertically into the air
henry accelerated the humming of the propeller shrilled from hornet to wasp from wasp to mosquito
the speedometer showed that they were rising at the best part of two kilometers a minute
london diminished beneath them the huge tabletop buildings were no more in a few
seconds than a bed of geometrical mushrooms sprouting from the green of a park and garden
in the midst of them thin stalked a taller slenderer fungus the charring tea tower
lifted towards the sky a disc of shining concrete like the vague torsos of fabulous athletes huge
fleshy clouds lolled on the blue air above their heads out of one of them suddenly dropped a small
scarlet insect buzzing as it fell there's the red rocket said henry just come in from new york
looking at his watch seven minutes behind time he added and shook his head these atlantic services
they're really scandalously unpunctual he took his foot off the accelerator the humming of the screws
overhead dropped an octave and a half back through wasp and hornet to bumblebee to cockchafer to stag
beetle the upward rush of the machine slackened off a moment later they were hanging motionless in
the air henry pushed at a lever there was a click slowly at first then faster and faster till it was
a circular mist before their eyes the propeller in front of them began to revolve the wind of a
horizontal speed whistled ever more shrilly in the stays henry kept his eye on the revolution counter
when the needle touched the 1200 mark he threw the helicopter screws out of gear
the machine had enough forward momentum to be able to fly on its planes then looked down through the
window in the floor between her feet they were flying over the six kilometer zone of parkland
that separated central london from its first ring of satellite suburbs the green was maggoty
with foreshortened life forests of centrifugal bumble puppy towers gleam between the trees near
shepherd's bush two thousand beta minus mixed doubles were playing riemann surface tennis
a double row of escalator fives courts lined the main road from notting hill to wilsdon
in the ealing stadium a delta gymnastic display and community sing was in progress
what a hideous color khaki is remarked lennon voicing the hypnopedic prejudices of her cast
the buildings of the hounslow philly studio covered seven and a half hectares near them
a blackened khaki army of laborers was busy re-vitrifying the surface of the great west road
one of the huge traveling crucibles was being tapped as they flew over the molten stone
poured out in a stream of dazzling incandescents across the road the asbestos rollers came and went
at the tail of an insulated watering cart the steam rose in white clouds at brentford the
television corporation's factory was like a small town they must be changing the shift said lennon
like aphids and ants the leaf green gamma girls the black semi-morons swarmed around the entrances
or stood in queues to take their places in the monorail tram cars
mulberry-colored beta-minuses came and went among the crowd the roof of the main building was alive
with the lighting and departures of helicopters my words said lennon i'm glad i'm not a gamma
ten minutes later they were at stoke poaches and had started their first round of obstacle golf
with eyes for the most part downcast and if ever they lighted on a fellow creature at once and
furtively averted bernard hastened across the roof he was like a man pursued but pursued by
enemies he does not wish to see lest they should seem more hostile even than he had supposed
and he himself be made to feel guiltier and even more helplessly alone that horrible
benito hoover yet the man had meant well enough which only made it in a way much worse those who
meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly even lenina was making him suffer he
remembered those weeks of timid indecision during which he had looked and longed and despaired of
ever having the courage to ask her did he face the risk of being humiliated by a contemptuous refusal
but if she were to say yes what rapture well now she had said it and he was still wretched
wretched that she should have thought it's such a perfect afternoon for obstacle golf that she
should have trotted away to join henry foster that she should have found him funny for not wanting
to talk of their most private affairs in public wretched in a word because she had behaved as any
healthy and virtuous english girl ought to behave and not in some other abnormal extraordinary way
he opened the door of his lockup and called to a lounging couple of delta minus attendants to come
and push his machine out onto the roof the hangars were staffed by a single bokonovsky group and the
men were twins identically small black and hideous bernard gave his orders in the sharp rather
arrogant and even offensive tone of one who does not feel himself too secure in his superiority
to have dealings with members of the lower castes was always for bernard
a most distressing experience for whatever the cause and the current gossip about the alcohol
in his blood surrogate may very likely for accidents will happen have been true
bernard's physique was hardly better than that of the average gamma he stood eight centimeters
short of the standard alpha height and was slender in proportion contact with
members of the lower castes always reminded him painfully of this physical inadequacy
i am i and i wish i wasn't his self-consciousness was acute and distressing each time he found
himself looking on the level instead of downward into a delta's face he felt humiliated would
the creature treat him with a respect due to his caste the question haunted him not without reason
for gammas deltas and epsilons have been to some extent conditioned to associate corporeal mass
with social superiority indeed a faint hypnopedic prejudice in favor of size was universal hence the
laughter of the women to whom he made proposals the practical joking of his equals among the men
the mockery made him feel an outsider and feeling an outsider he behaved like one
which increased the prejudice against him and intensified the contempt and hostility
aroused by his physical defects which in turn increased his sense of being alien and alone
a chronic fear of being slighted made him avoid his equals made him stand where his inferiors
were concerned self-consciously on his dignity how bitterly he ended men like henry foster and benito
hoover men who never had to shout at an epsilon to get an order obeyed men who took their position
for granted men who moved through the caste system as a fish through the water so utterly
at home as to be unaware either of themselves or of the beneficent and comfortable element in
which they had their being slightly it seemed to him and with reluctance the twin attendants
wheeled his plane out on the roof hurry up said bernard irritably one of them glanced at him
was that a kind of bastille derision he detected in those blank grey eyes
hurry up he shouted more loudly and there was an ugly rasp in his voice he climbed into the plane
and a minute later was flying southwards towards the river the various bureaus of propaganda and
the college of emotional engineering were housed in a single 60-story building in fleet street
in the basement and on the lower floors were the presses and offices of the three great london
newspapers the hourly radio an uppercast sheet the pale green gamma gazette and on khaki paper
and in words exclusively of one syllable the delta mirror then came the bureaus of propaganda by
television by feeling picture and by synthetic voice and music respectively 22 floors of them
above were the research laboratories and the padded rooms in which the
soundtrack writers and synthetic composers did their delicate work
the top 18 floors were occupied by the college of emotional engineering
bernard landed on the roof of propaganda house and stepped out ring down to mr helmholtz watson he
ordered the gamma plus porter and tell him that mr bernard marx is waiting for him on the roof
he sat down and lit a cigarette helmholtz watson was writing when the message came down
tell him i'm coming at once he said and hung up the receiver
then turning to his secretary i'll leave you to put my things away he went on in the same official
and impersonal tone and ignoring her lustrous smile got up and walked bristly to the door
he was a powerfully built man deep chested broad-shouldered massive and yet quick in his
movement springy and agile the round strong pillar of his neck supported a beautifully shaped head
his hair was dark and curly his features strongly marked in a forcibly emphatic way he was handsome
and looked as his secretary was never tired of repeating every centimeter an alpha plus
by profession he was a lecturer at the college of emotional engineering department of writing
and in the intervals of his educational activities a working emotional engineer
he wrote regularly for the hourly radio composed feely scenarios and had the
happiest knack for slogans and hypnopedic rhymes abel was the verdict of his superiors
perhaps and they would shake their heads would significantly lower their voices a little
too able yes a little too able they were right a mental excess had produced in helmholtz watson
effects very similar to those which in bernard marks were the result of a physical defect
too little bone and brawn had isolated bernard from his fellow men and the sense of this
apartness being by all the current standards a mental excess became in its turn a cause of
wider separation that which had made helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and all alone
was too much ability what the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals
but whereas the physically defective bernard had suffered all his life from the consciousness of
being separate it was only quite recently that grown aware of his mental excess
helmholtz watson had also become aware of his difference from the people who surrounded him
this escalator squash champion this indefatigable lover it was said that he had had 640 different
girls in under four years this admirable committee man and best mixer had realized quite suddenly
that sport women communal activities were only so far as he was concerned second bests
really and at the bottom he was interested in something else but in what in what
that was the problem which bernard had come to discuss with him or rather since it was always
helmholtz who did the talking to listen to his friend discussing yet once more
three charming girls from the bureau of propaganda by synthetic voice waylaid him as he stepped out
of the lift oh helmholtz darling do come and have a picnic supper with us on exmoor
they clung around him imploringly he shook his head he pushed his way through them no no
we're not inviting any other man
but helmholtz remained unshaken even by this delightful promise no he repeated i'm busy
and he held resolutely on his course the girls trailed after him it was not until he had actually
climbed into bernard's plane and slammed the door that they gave up pursuit not without reproaches
these women he said as the machine rose into the air these women and he shook his head
he frowned too awful bernard hypocritically agreed wishing as he spoke the words that he could have
as many girls as helmholtz did and with as little trouble he was seized with a sudden urgent need to
boast i'm taking lennon acrown to new mexico with me he said in a tone as casual as he could make it
are you said helmholtz with a total absence of interest
then after a little pause this last week or two he went on i've been cutting all my committees and
all my girls you can't imagine what a hullabaloo they've been making about it at the college
so it's been worth it i think the effects he hesitated well they're odd they're very odd
a physical shortcoming could produce a kind of mental excess
the process it seemed was reversible mental excess could produce for its own purposes
the voluntary blindness and deafness of deliberate solitude the artificial impotence of asceticism
the rest of the short flight was accomplished in silence when they had arrived and were
comfortably stretched out on the pneumatic sofas in bernard's room helmholtz began again
speaking very slowly
did you ever feel he asked as though you had something inside you that was only waiting for you
to give it a chance to come out some sort of extra power that you aren't using you know like all the
water that goes down the falls instead of through the turbines he looked at bernard questioningly
you mean all the emotions one might be feeling if things were different helmholtz shook his head not
quite i'm thinking of a queer feeling i sometimes get a feeling that i've got something important
to say and the power to say it only i don't know what it is and i can't make any use of the power
if there was some different way of writing or else something else to write about
he was silent then you see he went on at last i'm pretty good at inventing phrases you know the sort
of words that suddenly make you jump almost as though you'd sat on a pin they seem so new and
exciting even though they're about something hypnopedically obvious but that doesn't seem
enough it's not enough for the phrases to be good what you make with them or to be good too
but your things are good helmholtz oh as far as they go helmholtz shrugged his shoulders
but they go such a little way they aren't important enough somehow i feel i could do
something much more important yes a much more intense more violent but what what is there more
important to say and how can one be violent about the sort of things one's expected to write about
words can be like x-rays if you use them properly they'll go through anything you read and you're
pierced that's one of the things i try to teach my students how to write piercingly but what on earth
the good of being pierced by an article about a community sing or the latest improvements in
scent organs besides can you make words really piercing you know like the very hardest x-rays
when you're writing about that sort of thing can you say something about nothing that's what it
finally boils down to i try and i try hush said bernard suddenly and lifted a warning finger
they listened i believe there's somebody at the door he whispered helmholtz got up
tiptoed across the room and with a sharp quick movement flung the door wide open there was of
course nobody there i'm sorry said bernard feeling and looking uncomfortably foolish
i suppose i've got things on my nerves a bit when people are suspicious with you you start being
suspicious with them he passed his hand across his eyes his side his voice became plaintiff
he was justifying himself if you knew what i had to put up with recently he said almost tearfully
and the rush of his self-pity was like a fountain suddenly released if you only knew helmholtz
watson listened with a certain sense of discomfort poor little bernard he said to himself but at the
same time he felt rather ashamed for his friend he wished bernard would show a little more pride
chapter five by eight o'clock the light was failing the loudspeakers in the tower of
the stoke pogee's clubhouse began in a more than human tenor to announce the closing of the courses
lenin and henry abandoned their game and walked back towards the club from the grounds of the
internal and external secretion trust came the lowing of those thousands of cattle which provided
with their hormones and their milk the raw materials for the great factory at farnam royal
the incessant buzzing of helicopters filled the twilight every two and a half minutes a
bell and the screech of whistles announced the departure of one of the light monorail trains
which carried the lower caste golfers back from their separate course to the metropolis
lenin and henry climbed into their machine and started off at 800 feet henry slowed
down the helicopter screws and they hung for a minute or two poised above the fading landscape
the forest of burnham beaches stretched like a great pool of darkness towards the bright shore
of the western sky crimson at the horizon the last of the sunset faded through orange upwards into
yellow and a pale watery green northwards beyond and above the trees the internal and external
secretions factory glared with a fierce electric brilliance from every window of its twenty stories
beneath them lay the buildings of the golf club the huge lower caste barracks and on
the other side of a dividing wall the smaller houses reserved for alpha and beta members
the approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant like pollution
of lower caste activity from under the glass fault a lighted train shot out into the open
following its south easterly course across the dark plain their eyes were drawn to the majestic
buildings of the slough crematorium for the safety of night flying planes
its four tall chimneys were floodlighted and tipped with crimson danger signals
it was a landmark why do the smokestacks have those things like balconies around them
inquired lenina phosphorus recovery explained henry telegraphically on their way up the chimney
the gases go through four separate treatments p205 used to go right out of circulation every time
they cremated someone now they recover over 98 of it more than a kilo and a half per adult corpse
which makes the best part of 400 tons of phosphorus every year from england alone henry
spoke with a happy pride rejoicing wholeheartedly in the achievement as though it had been his own
fight i think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead making plants grow lenina
meanwhile had turned her eyes away and was looking perpendicularly downward at the monorail station
fine she agreed but queer that alphas and betas won't make any more plants grow than those nasty
little gammas and deltas and epsilons down there all men are physical chemically equal said henry
cententiously besides even epsilons perform indispensable services even an epsilon lenin
suddenly remembered an occasion when as a little girl at school she'd woken up in the middle of
the night and become aware for the first time of the whispering that had haunted all her sleeps
she saw again the beam of moonlight the row of small white beds heard once more the soft soft
voice that said the words were there unforgotten unforgettable after so many night long repetitions
everyone works for everyone else we can't do without anyone even epsilons are useful
we couldn't do without epsilons everyone works for everyone else we can't do without
anyone lenina remembered her first shock of fear and surprise her speculations through
half a wakeful hour and then under the influence of those endless repetitions
the gradual soothing of her mind the soothing the smoothing the stealthy creeping of sleep
i suppose epsilons don't really mind being epsilons she said aloud of course they don't
how can they they don't know what it's like being anything else we'd mind of course but
then we've been differently conditioned besides we start with a different heredity
i'm glad i'm not an epsilon said lennon with conviction and if you were in epsilon said
henry your conditioning would have made you no less thankful that you weren't a baiter on alpha
he put his forward propeller into gear and headed the machine towards london behind them in the
west the crimson and orange were almost faded a dark bank of cloud had crept into the zenith
as they flew over the crematorium the plane shot upwards on the column of hot air rising from the
chimneys only to fall as suddenly when it passed into the descending chill beyond what a marvelous
switchback then in a laugh delightedly but henry's turn was almost for a moment melancholy
do you know what that switchback was he said
it was some human being finally and definitely disappearing going up in a squirt of hot gas
it would be curious to know who it was a man or a woman an alpha an epsilon
he signed then in a residently cheerful voice
anyhow he concluded there's one thing we can be certain of
whoever he may have been he was happy when he was alive everybody's happy now yes everybody's happy
now echoed lennon they had heard the words repeated 150 times every night for 12 years
landing on the roof of henry's 40-story apartment house in westminster
they went straight down to the dining hall there in a loud and cheerful company they ate an
excellent meal soma was served with the coffee lenina took two half gram tablets and henry three
at twenty past nine they walked across the street to the newly opened
westminster abbey cabaret it was a night almost without clouds moonless and starry
but of this on the whole depressing fact lennon and henry were fortunately unaware the electric
sky signs effectively shut off the outer darkness calvin stopes and his 16 saxophonists
from the facade of the new abbey the giant letters invitingly glared
london's finest scent and color organ all the latest synthetic music
they entered the air seemed hot and somehow breathless with the scent of
ambergris and sandalwood on the domed ceiling of the hall the color organ
had momentarily painted a tropical sunset the 16 saxophonists were playing an old favorite
there ain't no bottle in all the world like that dear little bottle of mine 400
couples were five-stepping around the polish floor lennon and henry were soon the 401st
the saxophones wailed like melodious cats under the moon moaned in the alto antenna registers as
though the little death were upon them rich with a wealth of harmonics their tremulous mounted
towards a climax louder and even louder until at last with a wave of his hand the conductor let
loose the final shattering note of ether music and blew the 16 merely human blowers clean out
of existence thunder in a flat major and then in all but silence in all but darkness there followed
a gradual detergence a diminuendo sliding gradually through quarter tones down down to a
faintly whispered dominant chord that lingered on while the 5'4 rhythm still pulsed below charging
the darkened seconds with an intense expectancy and at last expectancy was fulfilled there was
a sudden explosive sunrise and simultaneously the sixteen burst into song bottle of mine it's
you i've always wanted bottle of mine why was i ever decanted skies are blue inside of you the
weather's always fine for there ain't no bottle in all the world like that dear little bottle of mine
five-stepping with the other 400 round and round westminster abbey lennon and henry were yet
dancing in another world the warm richly colored the infinitely friendly world of soma holiday
how kind how good looking how delightfully amusing everyone was
bottle of mine it's you i've always wanted but lenina and henry had what they wanted
they were inside here and now safely inside with the fine weather the perennially blue sky and when
exhausted the sixteen had laid by their saxophones and the synthetic music apparatus was producing
the very latest in slow malthusian blues they might have been twin embryos gently rocking
together on the waves of a bottled ocean of blood surrogate good night dear friends
good night dear friends the loudspeakers veiled their commands in a genial and musical politeness
good night dear friends obediently with all the others lenina and henry left the building
the depressing stars had traveled quite some way across the heavens but though the separating
screen of the sky signs had now to a great extent dissolved the two young people still retained
their happy ignorance of the night swallowed half an hour before closing time that second
dose of soma had raised a quite impenetrable wall between the actual universe and their minds
bottled they crossed the street bottled they took the lift up to henry's room on the 28th floor
and yet bottled as she was and in spite of that second gram of soma
lennon did not forget to take all the contraceptive precautions prescribed by
the regulations years