Danaë’s Comments (group member since Nov 19, 2012)

Danaë’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Nor Crystal Tears

Beholder's Eye

Zora Neale Hurston

Quiet Flows the Don

Becoming Human

Victory

Go Tell It On The Mountain

26/26

A - Austen, Jane - Persuasion
B - Bronte, Anne - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
C - Conan Doyle, Arthur - Sherlock Holmes
D - Dickens, Charles - Great Expectations
E - Emmuska Orczy - The Scarlet Pimpernel
F - F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
G - Gaston Leroux - The Phantom of the Opera
H - Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
I - Irving, Washington - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
J - John Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos
K - Kingsolver, Barbara - The Bean Trees
L - Lem, Stanislaw - Solaris
M - Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
N - Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Blithedale Romance
O - Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
P - P.G. Wodehouse - The Girl on the Boat
Q - Laura Esquivel - Like Water for Chocolate
R - Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
S - Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived in the Castle
T - Tolstoy, Leo - Anna Karenina
U - Upton Sinclair - Oil!
V - Verne, Jules - Around the World in Eighty Days
W - Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
X - Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Y - Yann Martel - Life of Pi
Z - Zane Grey - Riders of the Purple Sage

Becky wrote: ""In Ford we Trust""

Haha, this should be the motto of Brave New World civilization!

I'm loving all these.

How about "Ford protects Epsilon Semi-Morons and the newly decanted." (Fools and small children for those not familiar with the phrase.)

I love these threads, I always find new books to add to my to-read list. I'm still chipping away at all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I've been reading chronologically and I find I like the later stories (Baskervilles and after) much more than the early ones. I felt the need for something light and cheery while getting through the end of Brave New World and just listened to a nice librivox recording of The Girl on the Boat. P. G. Wodehouse always lifts my mood. I'm re-reading Trader and once done with that will probably start on Anna Karenina. I'm guessing I should lay aside some more Wodehouse to break that humongous read up. :)

Library Bag. Like Laurie, I'm glad I finally read this, but wasn't excited enough by the writing to read it again soon - like say, anytime in the next decade. After that, if I've forgotten how tragic it was I might give it another go. The ideas were interesting and I'll be thinking about it for some time I'm sure.

I think I would rather be an Alpha and know, but I also think that knowledge would make me miserable and paranoid. (view spoiler)[ My first thought had been the Savage Reservation, but it doesn't seem very open to outsiders; although if Linda had tried to fit in rather than cling to her "civilized" ways perhaps things would have been different for her and John. I'd be worried I might get reconditioned rather than relocated to an island. I think John had a good idea setting up a home in the unpopulated areas between cities. He was only noticed and bothered because he was a celebrity. That would be my choice. Know, be miserable, run away and hide in a little place in the country, plant a garden, possibly go a little nutty with the solitude, but be sure no one is messing with my mind any further. (hide spoiler)]

That's a little more recent than mine Karena, which is from 1968. This is the closest to my cover. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58... Mine doesn't have the white border though. Well, and the bottom inch is ripped clean off, lol.

Grandpa Joe wrote: "In message 15, Danae writes, "this supposedly sexually liberated society is actually rather oppressive..." I agree that it is a regimented society in a great many ways, and a society we might well..."

True, I don't think the general population sees themselves as being controlled/oppressed/whathaveyou. They've been brainwashed into believing they are free. They must feel somewhat uneasy or dissatisfied with their lives though, or they wouldn't all be using so much soma.

HeatherIlene wrote: "As I've been reading the book, I've also been checking out the analysis on Sparknotes. There are some interesting observations regarding the parallels between BNW and The Tempest if anyone is interested. "

I'll have to check that out. I was thinking of reading the Tempest for the Shakespeare optional this month to compare the stories.

Grandpa Joe wrote: "The New World population also seems heartless in disturbing ways. For example, when Linda returns to the New World she is shunned because she looks her age. Nobody reaches out to her because they realize she needs a friend or for the purpose of making her feel included. Nobody shows her any sympathy. Likewise, none of the New World people show any inclination to imagine what it must be like to be in John's shoes in order to understand him better. The population seems very shallow and very uncurious about things they are not programmed to be interested in. "

I wonder if this is an expression of the childish state the controllers want to keep the population in. I can't recall the exact words, but several times being like an infant emotionally is praised. Years a go a friend studying child development told me that young children see things in black and white. This makes sense, as they need to absorb quickly what is safe or dangerous in the world. The shades of grey in between can come later. These New World people however have never been encouraged to think beyond the original black and white.

I also wonder how much of the ability to put themselves in someone else's shoes was lost when the controllers cut out the parenting roles. Parents would usually be the ones saying "Now Susie, how do you think breaking all Bobby's crayons made him feel? Would you like him to do that to you?" If not parents certainly some adult giving one on one attention to the child, which doesn't seem to happen in the group conditioning situations these people use.

Angie wrote: "The quest for beauty, in art especially, is bad basically for the same reason that they don't teach literature. It is old. Because they lead a purely consumerist society, they do not want the citizens owning things that are old. Instead, they are supposed to be constantly replacing everything they have. If there is value placed on literature and art, then people would stop purchasing those types of items and the government wouldn't make as much money."

I agree, but I also think that beauty/art is discouraged because it would encourage creativity which is an expression of individuality. Creative thinking and art could then lead to critical thinking about society and cause chaos.

That sounds familiar HeatherIlene! I added a strip of tape to mine just the other day, haha. I never did find anything that said this version was abridged, so I am assuming it's the whole text.

Haha, thanks Angie. Fun game idea!

Oh one more! "He doesn't have the sense Ford gave little green Gammas."

"Thou shalt have no other Fords before me."

Good Ford! I actually feel a little blasphemous.