Brave New World Science Quotes

Theme 1: Science

"That's because we don't allow them to be like that. We preserve them from diseases. We keep their internal secretions artificially balanced at a youthful equilibrium. We don't permit their magnesium-calcium ratio to fall below what it was at thirty. We give them transfusion of young blood. We keep their metabolism permanently stimulated. So, of course, they don't look like that. Partly," he added, "because most of them die long before they reach this old creature's age. Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end." (7.22)

In eliminating the aging process, science has destroyed a very basic element of the human experience. Mustapha comments that old age is dangerous for the community – not because of physical

South-south-west, south, south-east, east.… “ (18.108)

The ending of Brave New World brings us back to the beginning – we get a harsh picture of the horrifying precision of science. Instead of mourning over the loss of John, they imagine his swinging corpse as a compass needle that is spinning.

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"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." (2.26)

"Nature" has no meaning in this new world because it is totally controller by science. Mustapha Mond later explicitly make the point that there is no such thing as "instinct," or if there is, it is no different from what citizens are programmed to believe. He thinks that simulations are no different than real feelings of emotions.

He ascribes malevolence to Popé's relationship with his mother and sees Popé as a snake that will kill John’s mother.

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"Going to the Feelies this evening, Henry?" enquired the Assistant Predestinator. "I hear the new one at the Alhambra is first-rate. There's a love scene on a bearskin rug; they say it's marvellous. Every hair of the bear reproduced. The most amazing tactual effects." (3.42)

Simulated sex helps to dehumanize the whole act. The aim is to eliminate all emotion from the act so that loyalty to the state is never in competition with loyalty to an individual. The more sex pervades every aspect of culture, the less important it becomes, and the less emotion attached to it.