Chapter 20 postscript

It is A. Huxley's famous fantasy novel, which has profound meaning and is chewy, so it is very popular.It was published in 1932, and in the thirty-four years to 1966, fifty-seven editions including Harper's Edition, New Harper's Edition, Bantam Edition, and Bantam Classic Edition had been published, with a total of 2.75 million copies. (Reprints from 1966 to the present have not been counted, and the estimate of doubling would not be too much.) Fantasy fiction is a very new literary genre.According to research, the earliest fantasy work is Veracious History by Lucian of Samosata (c. 115-c. 200) in ancient Greece.Its main character goes into the moon and the sun and becomes involved in Star Wars, and the plot is a bit like modern science fiction, but it's hard to say how much science is involved. Histoire comique desetats et Empires de la Lune (1656) and Interesting History of the Sun Nations ( Histoire comique de set at set Empires du Soleil, 1661) is also similar to fantasy novels in terms of subject matter.The writer who pioneered modern fantasy novels should be Edgar Allan Poe (Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849). His "A Descent in to the Maelström" (ADescent in to the Maelström, 1841) wrote about a pair of brothers sailing a boat. He strayed into a maelstrom that often appeared in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean. The elder brother was so frightened that he lost his mind and drowned. The younger brother escaped from death by relying on a drum. After being rescued, his hair was completely white, and even his entire expression changed.The novel portrays the sinister waves with great force and detail, giving people an immersive feeling.It is said that the description in it was included in the Encyclopedia Britannica's maelstrom entry, which should be considered a very successful work.A typical long science fiction novel was first written by Jules Verne (Jules Verne, 1828-1905) in France.His (1863), (1864), (1869) and (1873) are all very famous, and the last two are even more popular in our country.The twentieth century was an era of vigorous development of science fiction, with masterpieces and famous writers emerging in large numbers. Now the four mainstream science fiction writers in the United States are Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke and Robert F. The influence of Heinlein et al.Sci-fi movies and sci-fi TV are also derived from science fiction. There are a large number of readers and audiences, including a large number of teenagers and children. It is still difficult to popularize scientific knowledge, expand scientific thinking, expand fantasy horizons, and develop social productivity. estimate.It is one of the most influential science fiction novels in the twentieth century, but its influence is probably mainly on humanistic thought rather than technology.

The author of this book, A. Huxley (Aldous Leonard Huxley, 1894-1963), is the grandson of the famous naturalist T. Huxley (Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825-1895), and the famous poet M. Arnold (Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888) are also related by blood.He attended Eton College as a boy and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford University.He once wanted to be a doctor, but because of visual impairment, he changed his original intention and engaged in literary creation.His famous works include novels: "Chrome Yellow" (1921), "Funny Ring Dance of Men and Women" (1923), "Bare Leaves" (1925), "Point to Point" (1923), "Blind Eyes in Gaza" (1936), "After Several Summers" (1939), "Time Must Stand Still" (1944), "Genius and Goddess" (1955), (1962), etc., as well as collections of short stories, poems, essays and plays.Notable among these is "The Doors of Perception," which describes his own experience with psychedelic drugs, and it seems that he has a lot of research on "soma" and the like.He also edited a collection on Hindu philosophy and mysticism.And his most popular work is that this science fiction novel has won him a great reputation in the world.

The title of this book means a lot.It comes from Shakespeare's legendary play The Tempest.In the first scene of the fifth act of the play, Princess Miranda, who grew up on a deserted island and had never seen a human being except her father, suddenly saw a large group of people who survived the shipwreck, and couldn't help shouting excitedly: "Amazing!" Oh, how many wonderful people are here! How beautiful are people! Oh, wonderful new world, there are such wonderful people.” Here, Shakespeare praised human beings through her mouth, saying that human beings are beautiful and wonderful, which makes people feel beautiful. People can't help but be amazed when they see it.But Huxley used this sentence as the title of the book, but it has a different meaning.Although the new world he described is extremely rich in material products, and people only go to work and play, the picture presented is far from beautiful.

The first edition of this book was in 1932. Fifteen years later, that is, in 1947 after World War II, the author added a preface to this book and put forward his ideas for writing this book. He said, "The release of atomic energy marks a remarkable revolution in human history, but it is not the most far-reaching and ultimate revolution"; "A truly revolutionary revolution should not be carried out in the external world, but in the soul and body of mankind. ". It is such a revolution "in the soul and body of man" that his book describes.In the new world in the book, this revolution is mainly carried out in five aspects:

1. Elimination of viviparous births, artificial reproduction, and division of castes: Use biochemical methods to cultivate people genetically and from the embryonic development process, and divide them into five major "castes": α, β, γ, δ, and ε. (α, β, γ, δ, and ε are Greek letters, which are transliterated successively as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon, roughly equivalent to A, B, C, D, and E in English.) Alpha is the highest , followed by Beta, descending successively, reaching the lowest in Ypsilon.Each caste is divided into plus and minus.Such as Alpha Plus, Alpha Minus (even Alpha Double Plus), Beta Plus, Ipsilon Minus, etc., which divide society into more than ten castes.

For the needs of work, culture and stimulation are carried out at the embryonic stage, so that the embryos have different characteristics, and the future fate of that person is predetermined.For example, some are suitable for making steel in tropical heat, some are suitable for repairing spaceships in space, some are suitable for social leaders, and some are suitable for digging sewers. Alpha and Beta are high castes, Gamma, Delta and Ipsilon are low castes.People of high caste are engaged in management and technical work, and people of low caste are doing simple labor.People of high caste are smart, beautiful, proud and hard-hearted; people of low caste can only perform simpler tasks and live their lives in a muddle.They reproduce in large numbers, and one fertilized egg can produce dozens of multiple children, all of which are the same in size and appearance, and all have caste characteristics.

People of different castes are treated very differently.People of lower castes all lived in large barracks, each marked by a uniform of a different color; those of higher castes lived in small dwellings.Society is based on countless low-caste people, and high-caste people are just "the tip of the iceberg". Newspapers are published by caste, with newspapers of the highest caste appearing hourly and newspapers of the lowest caste using monosyllabic words. This is the class division before birth, and the distinction is cultivated from the embryonic stage. 2. Subconscious education: There are two types, one is sleep education, and the other is conditioned reflex stimulation, both of which are carried out from early childhood, so that people can be content with their own status from an early age.

Sleep education takes place after the child has fallen asleep.For example, the education Beta children hear in sleep is: I am happy that I am a Beta, Alpha is too hard, and Gamma, Delta and Ipsilon are too pitiful. Conditioned reflex stimulation cultivates people's love and hatred, such as using noise and electric shock to make children fear and hate flowers and books forever.Because liking flowers will lead to liking nature, and nature is free, which will affect social consumption; liking books will not only waste time, but also lead to wrong thinking. Sleep education and conditioned reflex training methods are very simple, repeated over and over again, a principle or a stimulus is repeated 10,000 to 20,000 to 60,000 to 70,000 times within a few years, forming a psychological set that cannot be reversed in a lifetime.

"New World" believes in a theory: "Moral education cannot appeal to reason." Therefore, it is all carried out subconsciously. 3. Satisfy desires: Not only satisfy the desire for rich material life, but also satisfy the desire for play, including watching sensual movies, listening to "sexy" music, traveling, games and unlimited sex life.Every female and male belong to each other and are free to enjoy each other's bodies, but are opposed to fixed relationships.Advocate contraception and induce abortion immediately after pregnancy.So both "father" and "mother" became obscene words, and people would be very embarrassed to hear them.The home has been described as a filthy rabbit hole that stinks.All desires are satisfied, and no excitement is allowed. It is said that if people are not excited, society will not be in turmoil.

4. Cut off the past: Close the museum, blow up all monumental buildings, and ban all books before the 150th year of the Ford era (converted to 2058 AD).In his report, the President "dusted away" all human culture from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, to Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw; he "dusted away" all the love, family, friendship, and human affection that have inspired human beings since ancient times because of their ability to generate agitation and dissatisfaction and endanger social stability. In this way, everything in everyone's life is bestowed by the above, and everyone is satisfied with the status quo, thanks to Ford.

The president warned people that today's happy life is hard to come by.Society has achieved today's situation through the massacres of the Nine Years War and the poisoning of intellectuals in the British Museum.The President's conclusion: The key to happiness and virtue is to love the work you have to do. 5. Soma: This is the sweetest elixir of happiness and the gentlest depressant.If you are in a bad mood, swallow soma; if you are very upset, take more soma and enter the soma holiday; if there is social unrest, there is a soma gun. Can't make a mess.With soma, any disturbance can be solved easily.Says the president of Shinsegae: "Christianity without tears—that's what soma is." With these five measures, society will be stable and life will be wonderful.The Buddhism that advocates being born into the world, birth, old age, sickness, death, and all kinds of troubles will all be eliminated; The poet and Lao Tzu's idea of ​​"removing sages and abandoning wisdom" is also implemented here; More's Utopia opposes luxury and has slaves, but here strongly advocates consumption, and only happy people who abide by their duties; F. Bacon's "New The scientific prophecy of "Atlantic Continent": vivisection, plant grafting, artificial fragrance, telephone, airplane, submarine, and visual phantoms are just a piece of cake here, not only realized, but also greatly surpassed; Owen's "New Harmony Village" needs hard work Labor, the labor here is not hard.So the president of "New World" said proudly: "There is an existence between heaven and earth that philosophers have never dreamed of...it is our modern world." You see how full of ambition he is! It seems that the most revolutionary revolution carried out by the New World probably created a world of bliss on earth, right?However, after reading this book, our impression is far from that. The people here make us feel strange, incomprehensible, and even disgusting. Dozens or hundreds of low caste people have the same face, the same outfit, and most of them do the same manual work. After get off work, they are like maggots.As the President said, these people are the underwater part of the social iceberg of the New World, making up the vast majority of the population without any social status.They are the slaves of Plato's Utopia or More's Utopia, but the best slaves, the most tame, always content, never rebellious slaves. So what about the upper caste people?They didn't have a good time either. Look at women first. Lenina was a beta minus, very pretty, and everyone who saw her in the elevator liked to say hello to her because she slept with them all.Although this is a normal phenomenon in the New World, she uses this to accompany high-ranking people to travel here and vacation there.She was willing to go to the Indian reservation with Bernard, not only because she really liked him, but also because he was Alpha Plus, one of the few people who was qualified to go to the reservation.She went to the Indian village for two or three days, and spent eighteen hours on her soma vacation, but actually knew very little about it.But when she returned to London, she also became a celebrity, lecturing everywhere, and she was very proud.When she found that the Savage was in love with her, she immediately undressed and wanted to have sex with him, but the Savage was startled, disillusioned, angry, and called her a whore and whore.Not long after the savage arrived in hermitage, she got the news and followed him, causing the savage to commit suicide in repentance. In our opinion, she is nothing more than a courtesan outside of work, shallow, vulgar, empty, boring. Linda is also a beta minus, and was the girlfriend of the current Director of the Center for Pregnancy and Conditioning more than twenty years ago.At that time, the two traveled to the Indian reservation together, but she fell into the valley due to a severe storm when she went out, and was separated from her boyfriend, so she stayed there, lived a primitive life, and gave birth to her and the boyfriend's child .Apart from working as a pregnancy worker in the new world, she knows nothing else.She was discriminated against in Indian Village, especially because she adhered to the New World habit of sleeping with any man, and was envied, hated, and even beaten by the women.More than twenty years later, she was brought back to London by Bernard.When she was on the Indian reservation, she had longed for London, but when she came to London, she was not interested in anything except a soma vacation.The doctor complied with her request and kept supply.The savage (her son) feared that it might affect her health, but the doctor dismissed it, on the grounds that her days on soma leave were so long that she outlived her sane life.The hallucinations of soma gave her full satisfaction (including the sexual satisfaction with her lover Pope), and then she died of soma poisoning in a stupor. Her life seems to us more vulgar, empty and even shameful than Lenina's. This is the typical figure of a woman in the New World, and other women are generally similar. Now on to the men. Berner is Alpha Plus, the best of the breed, a sleep education specialist, and a great business.Probably because he was stimulated by alcohol during the embryonic period, he was smaller and less handsome than the Alphas of his caste, so he felt that he was regarded as an outsider, so he also regarded himself as an outsider and was dissatisfied; at the same time, he longed for Freedom, unwillingness to be part of a collective.He went to the Indian reservation, caught his boss's handle, got the savage mother and child to London, defeated the boss, won the victory, and became a social celebrity.From then on, he was proud of himself, felt great, and showed his face everywhere, pretending to be a dignitary, and by the way, taking advantage of it.He likes to brag when he is proud, but regretful and self-pitying when he is frustrated.The Savage refuses to join his party, and although he accepts his explanation, he is still discontented and wants revenge because others he dares not take revenge on the Savage.Helmholtz didn't care about his poor performance. While thanking him, he was also dissatisfied because he felt that Helmholtz was condescending and hurt his self-esteem.His friend the Savage intervened in the soma problem. He was afraid of being responsible and hid aside, but finally he was counted as the perpetrator.Hearing that he was about to be punished, he fell to his knees in a hurry, wept bitterly, blamed his friends, and begged the president for forgiveness, but he still could not escape the fate of being sent to the island. At first glance, he is such a despicable, selfish, spineless, right and wrong, and inhuman guy.But this kind of evaluation has wronged him.This is the result of his conditioning and sleep education.There is a rule in the New World: "Intellect and work are adults, feelings and desires are children." What Berner reflects is the result of this rule.He acted like a child.Same goes for Lenina and Linda.We look down on them, but we have wronged them. Only Helmholtz seems to be an exception, he may have, like Berner, a problem with a procedure, that rule did not do enough to cause trouble.Helmholtz is also Alpha Plus, a lecturer in the School of Emotional Engineering, handsome and pretty, very capable (the disadvantage is "too capable"), very popular, girls are pursuing him.An excess of intellect had the same effect on him as a handicap had on Bernard Marx: loneliness.He longs for freedom, does not want to be a part of society, but also longs to experience true feelings, draw nourishment from them, and write truly good works.Because he wanted to teach students how to write jingles, he quoted one of his own works, but the students made a small report, which made him very embarrassed.He participated in the fight in the soma incident. He was excited and ecstatic, shouting "free at last" and "a man at last".He too was driven to the island.However, he was much better than Bernard. Instead of begging for mercy, he chose to go to the worst climate.This is not a rhetoric, but choosing a place to "exile" and maybe spend the rest of your life there, it's a bit tragic.But in other respects he is still a man of the rules.In fact, his special case will quietly disappear on that island, unable to shake a single bit of the new world. This is the high caste people of the new world.He (she) has different personal qualities, but they all have the same fate. Under the rule of totalitarians, they live the days of white-collar slaves—white-collar slaves who are destined from soul to body. The new world's slogan is "Society, Duty, Stability".For the sake of social stability, everyone must do their duty, and everything else will be cancelled.Traditional culture is gone, books are restricted, science is restricted, family is gone, parents, brothers and sisters are gone, love is gone, family is gone, friendship is gone, human affection is gone, even flowers are gone, nature is gone there is none left.Apart from going to work, people only know how to eat, drink and play, listen to pornographic music, watch sensual movies, play electromagnetic golf, play centrifuge ball with barking puppies, eat soma when they are upset, and high-ranking men take beautiful women to travel.Society, duty, and stability occupy and obliterate everything about people. No wonder the author quotes Nicholas Berdyaev at the beginning of the book: "A new century may possibly begin, when intellectuals and educated classes will dream of escaping utopia in various ways and returning to non-utopian society —It's not so 'perfect' there, but it's freer." Faced with such a reality, can we still say, "How beautiful people are! Oh, wonderful new world, with such wonderful people"? The author Huxley said in the preface that people are given free will, but let them choose between chaos and madness.This is not only about the new world, but also about his real society at that time. The author calls this book a fable.He raised a sharp philosophical question: After all material desires are satisfied, will people be happy?In his preface he points out another path: a sober society.He said: In that society, religion is a conscious and rational pursuit of the ultimate human problem, and it is the overall control of the "Tao", "Lidi", the superb "Divinity" or "Brahma" that pervades all things in the universe. the pursuit of knowledge.The overriding philosophy of life should be a high utilitarianism in which the principle of greatest pleasure is subordinated to the principle of ultimate end. Whether his ideal of "advanced utilitarianism" can solve the problem is difficult to say, but there is one truth that cannot be wrong: happiness is always inseparable from spiritual life.Material life is important, but if one neglects spiritual life and neglects the cultivation of people's noble sentiments and moral character, people in that society can never be truly happy.New World is a vivid example.This is worth pondering for readers in the current situation where the phenomenon of "all looking at money" in our country is becoming more and more serious. This book was quite avant-garde at the time, and it absorbed many new ideas at that time.The earlier ones included Darwin's evolution theory, natural selection theory, eugenics theory in genetics, dysgenics theory, and many assumptions in biochemistry; followed by Freud's psychoanalysis theory, Subconscious theory; Pavlov's conditioned reflex theory; Sartre's existential absurdity and irrational theory of existentialism; Keynes' theory of the relationship between overall social consumption and production capacity.In terms of writing techniques, spatial flashback transformation is often used to show the simultaneous occurrence of several events. This kind of space-time transformation can create special effects, but it is also easy to make people confused.Among them, the second half of the third chapter stands out.There were three groups of people active in different places at the same time: in one place the president was addressing the students (with kindergarten activities mixed in); in another place Lenina was talking to Fanny; Sturt is talking to the Director of Conditions (overheard by Berner).The narrative flashes back and forth frequently between the three groups, and sometimes only a sentence or two appears in one group.Such flickering can easily confuse readers.In order to clarify the clues and not confuse the readers, the translator separates the three groups of dialogues into different lines, please pay attention. This book is written with the American car magnate Henry Ford as a god, which contains some irony.In America, though, the Henry Ford story does resemble a bit of a myth.A child from the countryside went to the city at the age of sixteen to learn a craft. Later, he actually assembled a car by himself, and developed into a huge almost all-encompassing car trust, which greatly promoted the industrial revolution in the United States, changed the structure of American society, and It is indeed remarkable. In 1896, he trial-produced his first car. In 1908, he produced his first T-model car. In 1913, he carried out an accurate and detailed division of labor and established the first car production line. organized mass production.This kind of assembly line was only carried out in one factory at first, and later spread throughout the large and small factory workshops of Ford Trust in various places. Its scale and efficiency have reached an astonishing level.In 1927, the iron ore of the Ford Motor Trust entered the factory at 8:00 a.m., and it was turned into a car 28 hours later. In 1914, he established an eight-hour working system, which suddenly increased the minimum wage of workers from two yuan and thirty-four cents a day to five yuan a day, more than doubled.Working hours were reduced from nine hours a day to eight hours a day, and a three-shift work system was established.Both greatly increase worker motivation and work efficiency.At the same time, the price of cars was gradually reduced, from more than 500 yuan to 290 yuan in 1927, which was lower than the 40% discount.A worker can buy a Ford for two months of minimum wage.This not only expands the automobile market, but also greatly benefits mankind.His Model T car was produced for 19 years, and a total of 19 million units were sold, accounting for more than half of the world's car production. The Model T brought great changes to the lives of ordinary people.Farmers are no longer isolated from cities, and agricultural production has grown dramatically. The Model T car became the backbone of the social economy and turned the United States into a "country on wheels." Five out of eight Americans lived in the country when Ford left the countryside for Detroit in 1863, and five out of eight Americans lived in the city by the time Ford died at the age of eighty-three.For this change, Ford's automobile and assembly line production have made great contributions.No wonder Ford was a myth in the hearts of Americans at that time.It is precisely because of this that the author writes Ford as the savior, and sets the year when his Model T was produced—1908—as "the first year of Ford", although it is slightly ironic to people in the new world. When writing novels, the first and last names of the characters can be easily read, and readers generally don’t pay much attention to them, but the author’s use of names in this book is worth paying attention to.He likes to use the first and last names of famous people of the time (1920s and 1930s).Among them are the president of the United States, the American plutocrats, celebrities from the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Turkey and other countries, as well as ancient people.For example, the male protagonist is Bernard Marx, with the first and last names of Bernard Shaw and Marx (there is also a doctor in the book, also surnamed Shaw).There was a technician named Henry Foster.Henry is the name of Henry Ford, the car magnate; Foster is the surname of William Foster, then chairman of the Central Committee of the American Communist Party.There is also a character called Ai Zeer, and Ai Zeer is the son of Henry Ford, and it is also the name of a famous brand car of the Ford company at that time.There is also a character called Benito Hoover, whose surname Hoover is the same as the then US President Herbert Hoover; his name is also the same as the then Italian Prime Minister and fascist leader Benito Mussolini.There is another person in the book named Herbert Bakunin.Herbert is the name of the aforementioned US President Hoover, and Bakunin is the surname of the famous Russian anarchist Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin.There are three women in the book named Lenina, Sarojini Engels and Polly Trotsky.Lenin, Engels and Trotsky were all leaders of the communist movement.There are also two women named Morgana Rothschild and Mellon, and Morgan (also translated as Morgan), Rothschild, and Mellon are the surnames of the three major chaebols who controlled the lifeline of the American economy at that time. (There is also a well-known ethnologist and historian of primitive society, also named Louis Henry Morgan. Engels' "The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State" has made extensive reference to this Morgan's work.) Some people's Although the name is relatively hidden, it can also be seen that it is the surname or first name of a celebrity, such as: the president in the book is called Mustafa Mond, and the first president of Turkey at that time was called Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.There is also a woman named Clara Deterding in the book, which is reminiscent of Clara Zetkin, the leftist leader of the Second International in Germany. (Car magnate Henry Ford's wife is also named Clara.) Others are the names of historical figures, such as the name of Jean-Jacques Habibra in the book. Jean-Jacques is the name of the French Enlightenment thinker Jean-Jacques Rousseau .Darwin Bonaparte is a combination of biologist Charles Darwin and Napoleon Bonaparte.In fact, the same name as the celebrity accounts for the vast majority of the names of the characters in the book, and the author obviously uses it on purpose.But from the perspective of the characters, these surnames and first names have no allusions or other meanings, so the translator translated them according to the traditional translation method, without evasion or concealment, and retained the playfulness of the original text. A. Huxley wrote a well-known essay in 1958, twenty-six years after the publication of this book, called "Revisiting the Brave New World", which is somewhat the same as the preface he wrote for this book in 1947 , such as ignoring atomic energy, the real revolution is the revolution of human mind and body, eugenics and eugenics, sleep education, etc.Then it developed, talked about the future of mankind, and believed that nationalism is the religion of mankind all over the world in the 20th century. No matter what you believe in, whether it is Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, or Confucianism, Nationalism both drives you to kill and to be killed, and will continue to do so for two or three hundred years.He also talked about the Korean War and was surprised by China's "brainwashing" of prisoners of war; he also spent a lot of space talking about narcotics.The full text is long, and a large part has little to do with this book, so it has not been translated. This book is not easy to translate, it is written five or six centuries later, it is full of fantasies, and there are many things that are difficult to understand.Mistakes are inevitable, readers are welcome to advise.