Chapter 17
Summary:
After Helmholtz left the office, Mustapha and John continue to talk, but the subject shifts to religion. John tries to explain the religious views of the people on Savage Reservation, but there are no words to describe them. Mustapha has always been interested in God and pulls out The Holy Bible, The Varieties of Religious Experience and The Imitation of Christ. John asks Mond why all of these books and religion are band and Mustapha tells him they, like Shakespeare, are too old. No one would understand them because God doesn't exists anymore
Mustapha reads out of some of the books and then goes on to explain why there is no God today. John asks Mond what he thinks. Mustapha believes that there probably is a God, but he manifests himself in many ways. In a Brave New World, God happens to take an absent form.
John says, "Isn't it natural to think there's a God?" Mond says that thinking there is a God is just conditioning. Well it may have been instinct in the past, in Brave New World; they create instinctual feelings by conditioning. The citizens of the new world's 'instincts' are to not believe in God.
John tries to contradict Mustapha by bringing up the point that being in solitude often brings up thought of a higher power. Mond reminds him that they have essentially gotten rid of solitude.
John, trying to prove his point, quotes lines from King Lear.
John's next point is that maybe God is punishing today's society to live like they do. Mond tells him that man hasn't been demoted; he is happy and perfect. Mustapha realizes that from John's point-of-view as an unconditioned person, the state of society now is terrible. By the standards of Brave New World, the people of even the lower caste have free will.
They continue to talk and John decides that while society prefers to be comfortable; John wants God, poetry, danger, freedom, goodness, and sin. He claims the right to be unhappy.
Vocab:
Neurasthenia ~noun~ an obsolete technical term for a neurosis characterized by extreme lassitude and inability to cope with any but the most trivial tasks
Lit. Terms:
Allusions:
"The Holy Bible"
"Maiden of Mátsaki"
Thomas à Kempis ~The Imitation of Christ
William James ~ The Varieties of Religious Experience
Cardinal Newman ~ Sermon No. 6 of his Plain and Parochial Sermons, Volume 5
Shakespeare ~
King Lear ~ The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us…
Hamlet ~ "[A philosopher is] a man who dreams of fewer things than there are in heaven and earth."
~ Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them…"
Troilus and Cressida ~ But value dwells not in particular will. It holds his estimate and dignity as well wherein 'tis precious of itself as in the prizer."
Othello ~ "If after every tempest came such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death."
~ "All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."
The Life and Death of King John ~ "I Pandulph, of fair Milan, cardinal."
Chapter Importance:
Summary:
After Helmholtz left the office, Mustapha and John continue to talk, but the subject shifts to religion. John tries to explain the religious views of the people on Savage Reservation, but there are no words to describe them. Mustapha has always been interested in God and pulls out The Holy Bible, The Varieties of Religious Experience and The Imitation of Christ. John asks Mond why all of these books and religion are band and Mustapha tells him they, like Shakespeare, are too old. No one would understand them because God doesn't exists anymore
Mustapha reads out of some of the books and then goes on to explain why there is no God today. John asks Mond what he thinks. Mustapha believes that there probably is a God, but he manifests himself in many ways. In a Brave New World, God happens to take an absent form.
John says, "Isn't it natural to think there's a God?" Mond says that thinking there is a God is just conditioning. Well it may have been instinct in the past, in Brave New World; they create instinctual feelings by conditioning. The citizens of the new world's 'instincts' are to not believe in God.
John tries to contradict Mustapha by bringing up the point that being in solitude often brings up thought of a higher power. Mond reminds him that they have essentially gotten rid of solitude.
John, trying to prove his point, quotes lines from King Lear.
John's next point is that maybe God is punishing today's society to live like they do. Mond tells him that man hasn't been demoted; he is happy and perfect. Mustapha realizes that from John's point-of-view as an unconditioned person, the state of society now is terrible. By the standards of Brave New World, the people of even the lower caste have free will.
They continue to talk and John decides that while society prefers to be comfortable; John wants God, poetry, danger, freedom, goodness, and sin. He claims the right to be unhappy.
Vocab:
Neurasthenia ~noun~ an obsolete technical term for a neurosis characterized by extreme lassitude and inability to cope with any but the most trivial tasks
Lit. Terms:
Allusions:
"The Holy Bible"
"Maiden of Mátsaki"
Thomas à Kempis ~The Imitation of Christ
William James ~ The Varieties of Religious Experience
Cardinal Newman ~ Sermon No. 6 of his Plain and Parochial Sermons, Volume 5
Shakespeare ~
King Lear ~ The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us…
Hamlet ~ "[A philosopher is] a man who dreams of fewer things than there are in heaven and earth."
~ Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them…"
Troilus and Cressida ~ But value dwells not in particular will. It holds his estimate and dignity as well wherein 'tis precious of itself as in the prizer."
Othello ~ "If after every tempest came such calms, may the winds blow till they have wakened death."
~ "All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconveniences."
The Life and Death of King John ~ "I Pandulph, of fair Milan, cardinal."
Chapter Importance:
In this society there is no old age, misery or suffering; all of which are things that would cause people to turn to God. There is no God to turn to in Brave New World, people are conditioned to not believe in one.
In this chapter is it said that 'Christianity with out the tears- that's what soma is.' People are now dependent on soma to make them happy, whereas people in the Savage Reservation turn to the Gods when they are sad and hurting.
In this chapter we learn why there is no religion in the society. If there were religion, that means that there is something to be sad. Which would cause people to turn to a God for help. Sadness means instability which means the downfall of society.
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