Journal #6 Ignorance

1. Journal #6Ignorance • In your journal, respond thoughtfully to the following: Do you believe “ignorance is bliss” as the saying goes? In other words, is a person happier if he or she is unaware of the negative aspects of life?

2. Brave New World By Aldous Huxley

3. Huxley asked the question:Can a utopian society truly exist? • Brave New World is Aldous Huxley’s satirical look at a totalitarian society of the future, in which the trends of Huxley’s day have been taken to extremes. When an outsider encounters this world, he cannot accept its values and chooses to die rather than try to conform to this “brave new world.”

4. Author Biography

5. Aldous Huxley • born on July 26, 1894, in Surrey, England • grewup in London, England • had highly educated parents • half-brother, Andrew Huxley, won the Nobel Prize in 1963 for his work in physiology • 1913 to 1916, Aldous attended Balliol College, Oxford • considered a prodigy, he excelled academically • exceptionally intelligent and creative

6. His mother died of cancer when he was 14 • nearly lost his eyesight because of an illness as a teenager • Because of his failing vision, he was unable to become a scientist as he wanted, so he focused on writing • married Maria Nys in 1919 • had one son, Matthew • To support his family, Huxley pursued writing, editing, and teaching, traveling throughout Europe, India, and the United States • published three books of poetry and a collection of short stories, before he turned to novels

7. his fourth novel, Brave New World (1932), brought him international fame - written just before the rise of dictators Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin • despite being nearly blind all his life, he also wrote screenplays for Hollywood, most notably an adaptations of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre • died of cancer at age 68 in Los Angeles, California, on November 22, 1963 - the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. • His ashes were buried in his parents’ grave in England

8. Brave New WorldBackground • British life in 1932 was very different from American life • Almost an entire generation of men had been lost in World War I. • There was a sense of hopelessness and futility among the writers of the time. • years of mass unemployment, rising prices, and the advance of Communist ideals – aimed at creating a classless society based on common ownership • In 1908, Henry Ford introduced the Model-T, in “any color you choose so long as it’s black.” • In 1914, he opened his Highland Park, Michigan factory, equipped with the first electric conveyor belt assembly line. A Model-T could now be assembled in 93 minutes.

9. The assembly line changed life dramatically. • Henry Ford paid the highest wages in the industry, $5 a day! • Science and technology together began recreating industry, which meant bigger profits and anxieties. • The advent of electrical lighting in both home and factory created shift work, and • created a brighter night-life with more possibilities, and new appliances to make living easier. • This was the newly mechanized, scientific, controlled world which became the model for Huxley’s Brave New World, regarded as “an exercise in pessimistic prognostication, a terrifying Utopia.”

10. Words to Know • Utopia – the perfect society in which everyone is happy. In this book, happiness is achieved through science by limiting choices and free will. • Dystopia – a disfunctional utopia