Brave New World Study Thread

Art, beauty, and faith are the things that move John, and the things the World State decided to sacrifice in exchange for technological advances and stability. Mond argues that God and progress can't coexist, that art and beauty threaten stability, and that none of the three are worth trading for the World State. John disagrees, to put it lightly.

Also, notice that the World State perverts each concept. Art now consists of feely scenarios written by bored Emotional Engineers (like Helmholtz). Beauty - as in Lenina's case, for example - is both false (the result of drugs and altered/stimulated body chemistry) and relative (Lenina doesn't look like you and I do); nobody ages, so nobody "loses" their beauty. (Linda does, but that's because she's allowed to age once she's lost her link to society.) Faith consists of Ford-worship and crosses with the tops cut off. None of these concepts seem to get a fair shake for the World State.

Obscenity and curiosity meet in the scientific and historical arenas. History may be truthful, and that truth is interesting to some (John, for example), but the World State holds that history is bunk. When Mond and the DHC discuss old family systems, they're talking about "the smut that was really science" - the intellectual inconveniences that accompany genuine experiences, the same ones that the World State works so feverishly to avoid.

This is most apparent in the narrative's treatment of John. John's a deeply curious person, but the World State baffles him; he offends just about everyone he meets!