Brave New World: concepts introduced

1. EUGENICS -

Early efforts to breed better human beings have not been uniformly successful. Darwin's half-cousin, the English scientist Francis Galton, is widely regarded as the founder of eugenics. "Eugenics", a term Galton coined, comes from the Greek roots for "good" and "generation" or "origin". Eugenicists seek methods to improve the hereditary characteristics - both physical and mental - of the human species. However, eugenicists have not agreed upon which heritable traits should selected - nor by whom. Nor have they agreed on whether to use encouragement or coercion.

2. UTILITARIANISM -

Utilitarianism is an effort to provide an answer to the practical question “What ought a man to do?” Its answer is that he ought to act so as to produce the best consequences possible.

3. dYSTOPIA -

dys-/dus- (Latin/Greek roots: 'bad' or 'abnormal') + -topos (Greek root: 'place') = 'bad place'

eu- (Greek root: 'good') / ou- (Greek root: 'not') + -topos (Greek root: 'place') = 'good/no place'

as a noun - an imaginary wretched place, the opposite of utopia (a place or state of ideal perfection, the opposite of dystopia);

in other words,

A) an imaginary society that
B) comments on our own society and
C) a majority of us would fear to live in.


Imaginary, as dystopian stories reflect, not depict contemporary society.

An example: Enemy of the State might resemble Nineteen Eighty-four in certain respects, but it still depicts our own society, albeit in a speculative manner. A dystopia that is not imaginary to one degree or another actually lacks the raison d'être for a dystopia, namely to explore possiblities and probabilities.


Society, as dystopian stories discuss major tendencies in contemporary society.

An example: In Lord of the Rings, Sauron's rule is truly dystopian, but it does not really comment on our own society. Another example: Lord of the Flies has many dystopian qualities, but this island community cannot really be considered as a representative society.

Fear, as dystopias reveal and illustrate potential and more or less plausible dangers.

An example: There are obviously many dangers in the Star Wars galaxy, but few would spontaneously fear to live there. However subjective this issue may be, the aim with a dystopian depiction is to frighten and provoke. As a rule, the more realistic and alarming a dystopia is, the more frightening and provoking is it.

Majority, as dystopias are positioned in relation to conventional contemporary values.

An example: Some deranged individuals would probably enjoy the savage world of the Mad Max triology, but most of us would not. This issue can become somewhat complex when dealing with explicitly ideological dystopias or pseudo-utopian dystopias.

On Dickinson

part II:

Emily Dickinson -

1. Was an obsessively private person/writer (only seven of her some 1800 poems were published during her lifetime). Dickinson withdrew from social contact at the age of 23 and devoted herself in secret into writing.

2. Around 1850 Dickinson started to write poems, first in fairly conventional style, but after ten years of practice, she began to make room for experiment. From c. 1858, she assembled many of her poems in packets (called 'fascicles'), which she bound herself with needle and thread.

3. After the Civil War (1861-1865), Dickinson restricted her contacts outside her native town of Amherst to the exchange of letters; she dressed only in white and saw few of the visitors who came to meet her. In fact, most of her time she spent in her room.

4. Although she lived a secluded life, her letters reveal knowledge of the writings of John Keats, John Ruskin, and Sir Thomas Browne. Dickinson's emotional life remains mysterious, despite much speculation about a possible disappointed love affair.

5. After Dickinson's death in 1886, her sister Lavinia brought out her poems. She co-edited three volumes from 1891 to 1896. Despite its editorial imperfections, the first volume became popular. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the poet's niece, transcribed and published more poems, and in 1945 Bolts Of Melody essentially completed the task of bringing Dickinson's poems to the public. The publication of Thomas H. Johnson's 1955 edition of Emily Dickinson's poems finally gave readers a complete and accurate text.

6. Her frequent use of dashes, sporadic capitalization of nouns, off-rhymes, broken metre, unconventional metaphors have contributed her reputation as one of the most innovative poets of 19th-century American literature. Later feminist critics have challenged the popular conception of the poet as a reclusive, eccentric figure, and underlined her intellectual and artistic sophistication.

On Blake

Here's some good scoop on this remarkable poet:


William Blake -

1. Born in London on November 28, 1757, to James, a hosier, and Catherine Blake. Two of his six siblings died in infancy.

2. At age ten, Blake expressed a wish to become a painter, so his parents sent him to drawing school. Two years later, Blake began writing poetry. When he turned fourteen, he apprenticed with an engraver because art school proved too costly.

3. In 1772, he married an illiterate woman named Catherine Boucher. Blake taught her to read and to write, and also instructed her in draftsmanship. Later, she helped him print the illuminated poetry for which he is remembered today; the couple had no children.

4. He was a nonconformist who associated with some of the leading radical thinkers of his day, such as Thomas Paine and Mary Wollstonecraft. In defiance of 18th-century neoclassical conventions, he privileged imagination over reason in the creation of both his poetry and images, asserting that ideal forms should be constructed not from observations of nature but from inner visions. He declared in one poem, "I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's."

5. Blake believed that his poetry could be read and understood by common people, but he was determined not to sacrifice his vision in order to become popular.

6. Blake's final years, spent in great poverty, were cheered by the admiring friendship of a group of younger artists who called themselves "the Ancients." In 1818 he met John Linnell, a young artist who helped him financially and also helped to create new interest in his work. It was Linnell who, in 1825, commissioned him to design illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy, the cycle of drawings that Blake worked on until his death in 1827.