The original epigraph to Brave New World reads as follows:
Les utopies apparaissent bien plus réalisables qu'on ne le croyait autrefois. Et nous nous trouvons actuellement devant une question bien autrement angoissante: comment éviter leur réalisation définitive?… Les utopies sont réalisables. La vie marche vers les utopies. Et peut-être un siècle nouveau commence-t-il, un siècle où les intellectuels et la classe cultivée rêveront aux moyens d'éviter les utopies et de retourner à une société non utopique moins "parfaite" et plus libre.
Even though it's written in French, the source was actually a Russian philosopher named Nikolai Berdyaev. Berdyaev believed in individual freedom and creativity. Here is the translation of his words:
Utopias seem to be much more achievable than we formerly
believed them to be. Now we find ourselves presented with another
alarming question: how do we prevent utopias from coming into existence?
…Utopias are possible. Life tends towards the formation of utopias.
Perhaps a new century will begin, a century in which intellectuals and
the privileged will dream of ways to eliminate utopias and return to a
non-utopic society less “perfect” and more free.”
Please interpret the epigraph and explain whether or not you think the logic is valid. Why do you think Huxley chose this source and this text to serve as an "appetizer" for a novel that is arguably a full meal of Utopia?
AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Chewing on the Epigraph & Foreword
3. Finish reading Chapter 1 of Brave New World. Continue taking careful notes on anything
you see that: a) strikes you as significant to the theme, plot, tone, or
characterizations in the novel; b) exemplifies any of the lit terms
you've learned so far; and/or c) is extremely well-written. Please add to your Chapter 1 post from yesterday.
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