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May 09
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Lisa
gave
 
to:
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited (P.S.)
by Aldous Huxley
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my rating:
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Lisa said:
"Though definitely not an all-time favorite of mine, Brave New World had resonance for me in its prophetic projections of a world governed by social determination. Huxley presents to us the aftermath of a world in which the social purging and cleansin...more
Though definitely not an all-time favorite of mine, Brave New World had resonance for me in its prophetic projections of a world governed by social determination. Huxley presents to us the aftermath of a world in which the social purging and cleansing of Communism or Aryanism has succeeded to completion.
The Savage is the disastrous byproduct of the social crossroads that is his legacy. As such, he is afflicted by an acute loneliness that is a consequence of his unbelonging. But Huxley renders this bewilderment to comical effect. "Lying in bed, he would think of Heaven and London and Our Lady of Acoma and the rows and rows of babies in clean bottles and Jesus flying up and Linda flying up and the great Director of World hatcheries and Awonawilona."
As disturbing as the civilized Fordians are, their impermeable serenity and oblivion are enviable. But the cracks in this methodical conditioning are what make this story true to life. I believe Huxley was trying to show that human nature, in all its flawed frailty, will assert itself despite the most vigilant human efforts to eradicate it. In that sense, I believe this book is an ode to the flaws in man and to human nature as it is, rather than as it could be.
I think Huxley best accomplishes this systematic unravelling of the social conditioning of his utopia through his alpha characters. As the glorified apotheosis of this Fordian utopia, the alphas are meant to be its most perfect citizens. But they are in fact the most susceptible to heretical viewpoints and social dissatisfaction. It is they who ironically evidence the failings of this social experiment.
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Lisa
gave
to:
Sister Carrie (Paperback)
by Theodore Dreiser
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read in January, 1998
Lisa said:
"I appreciated Sister Carrie for its searing portrait of a young woman whose innocence and self-worth is ravished by the realities of the urban environment.
I think the saddest aspect of the story is that success for a woman in cities like Chicago a...more
I appreciated Sister Carrie for its searing portrait of a young woman whose innocence and self-worth is ravished by the realities of the urban environment.
I think the saddest aspect of the story is that success for a woman in cities like Chicago and New York is inevitably intertwined with sin and moral decay. Carrie achieves the glamorous lifestyle that she coveted from afar only to learn that her dream is not worth aspiring towards, as it leaves her calloused, inured and empty. On a lesser scale, I think many of these truths still linger for women today.
I saw this book very much as a feminist text in that it reveals the social forces that drive a woman away, unwittingly, from social rectitude, and its accompanying privations, and towards a life of comfort, that is also by gross social determination a life of corruption.
Dreiser imbued this book with the theme of loss, presumably to equate material gain with moral and emotional loss. The reader witnesses the breakdown of Carrie's identity as she adapts her behavior to the unforgiving chauvinistic realities of the city. By the end of the book, when a reporter tries to elicit tidbits of information about her personal life, Carrie cannot think of a single detail to offer him, a symbol of the intrinsic emptiness that now defines her.
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