Saturday, March 9, 2013

BNW Ch. 7


  • Lenina experiences violence on the young and is horrified
  • isn't this normal for her? for everyone?
  • its a sacrifice
  • through this Bernard meets the directors son (John)
  • he introduces his mother to Lenina and Bernard
  • Linda tells Bernard and Lenina about having been pregnant on accident and not being able to back the World State
  • She became part of the reservation with her child
  • She was unable to rid herself of her child and that's why she actually stayed
  • she slept with many men at the reservation including some that were taken by other women in the reservation
  • savage? animals?
  • directors lost "love"
  • Bernardo knew about the connection to the director but kept quiet

BNW Ch. 6


  • see Bernard's resistance to "the norm" when he resists taking soma
  • Bernard confesses to Lenina that the silence of the Channel makes him feel like an individual but his only startles Lenina who is accustomed the life and rules on the Brave New World
  • Bernard does give in to the soma and has sex with Lenina
  • sex to him has no sentimental value but is a way of release
  • no love, no passion, no desire, numbed by the soma
  • Bernard does back to the director and asks for a permit to the Reservation
  • the director ends up telling him about a woman he traveled with once who was lost in a storm but is soon brought back to reality and threatens with exiling Bernard
  • Bernard has new pride in himself
  • the director felt weak with what he confessed to Bernard and covers himself with the threat placed in Bernard for being an outcast

BNW Ch. 4 and 5


  • Lenina accepts going out with Bernard
  • Bernard caught off guard? confused? surprised by her response?
  • Bernard an outcast
  • Proud of being so
  • Feels a bit superior (a rebel)
  • is soon brought back to earth
  • He visits the bright Helmholtz
  • Helmholtz is an Alpha
  • not any Alpha, to intelligent, more than he should be
  • both Bernard and Helmholtz are outcasts for opposite reasons
  • Helmholtz isnt satisfied with his work
  • He could be putting his mind to better use, Bernard freaked  out

  • Soma an addiction to happiness
  • Lenina and Henry become so drugged up they loose there senses
  • its normal for this is happiness
  • they live off of sex and drugs
  • Bernardo disagrees?
  • more to life makes him an outcast?
  • Bernard attends a type of sex ceremony with other men and women but feels even more alone after the experience
  • Strange ritual 
  • this is their religion, sex and drugs
  • this is their idea of a god and of self-fulfillment

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

BNW Ch. 2 and 3


  • director leads students to the nurseries where they witness babies baring electric mind shock and loud noises that is supposed to teach them to stay away form books and flowers
  • this process will keep members from the lower caste away from books and any danger of changing their set nature
  • nature bad because gave a sense of useless freedom and transportation not wanted for the lower caste 
  • got rid of love for nature but kept transportation since its needed by the World State
  • lower caste lovers of sports but haters of nature
  • the term parent, mother, father and any of the sort have become word references to sex
  • Reuben learned through being fed information in his sleep
  • HYPNOPAEDIA: process of learning in your sleep
  • he had no understanding of what he was speaking but could still be used to embed morals into the minds of people
  • nurses whisper into the ears of the lower caste that they are that, inferior


  • children and teems engage on erotic play
  • in the World State it is a normal act where as in the past it was seen as unmoral
  • students meet Mond who speaks to the astonished students
  • Mond manages to make the director uncomfortable with his remarks to the children but means no harm
  • Mond goes on o explain the importance of stability in the World State
  • he explains how the instability of older times led to things like war and disease 
  • after the nine years' war iconic figures like Shakespeare and ideas about religion and such were destroyed
  • this is what they viewed as happiness- complete perfection
  • Bernard overhears a discussion about Lenina going on with Henry taking part in it and is disgusted by his remarks
  • Fanny suggests that Lenina is more open to more partners
  • Lenina mentions Bernard as being a possible partner but Bernard is in even lower Alpha than the rest of them because of an accident
  • Lenina still considers it and decides to give him a chance since she would also enjoy a trip to the reservation with him

Monday, March 4, 2013

BNW Foreword and CH. 1


  • foreword added 1946 when BNW reprinted
  • one regret is limiting Savage to only two kinds: that of the Utopia and the Indian village
  • sanity o insanity?
  • novel wan't designed to serve as some advancement in science but rather the science behind individuals themselves
  • how do humans use their knowledge of the world around them to have control over each other through means of science
  • people in the novel not human at all but subjects of experimentation and control 

  • time of opening 632 after ford
  • ford represents the industrial age of growth and expansion 
  • tour of factory to students (London) in which people are manufactures and prepared for their roles in the real world
  • no longer the act of natural reproduction is existent
  • been replaced by man made techniques of reproduction
  • formation of more subjects and preparing them for their roles in the World State is a fully developed and intricate process
  • they become clones "community, identity, and stability"
  • Podsnap Technique serves to catalyze the eggs creation process
  • thousands of humans are made from a single ovary 
  • chapter focused on explaining the details behind the madness that is genetically engineered humans
  • irrational methods such as oxygen deprivation and alcohol treatment are applied on the fetuses to shape them according to the caste they will inhabit
  • human creations have no shot at escaping the plans their creators have for them
  • Lenina works immunizing fetuses to suit their future tropic environment
  • Henry speaks of future fetus enhancements 

Sunday, March 3, 2013

First Quarter Review

a) I haven't been on top of things with my blog this semester because my load of things I have to get done just keeps on growing and growing but I have caught up. I forget to update my blog sometimes but I do end up putting it all up. Some work takes more time and effort than others and it can be time consuming. Still I have to manage to finish it all for the grade matters on that final report. My senior project has been planned out but my group just needs to film and gather the information for the second part of our project.

b) I have to stay up to date in my blog while still keeping up with my other classes and scholarships as well. I have to also keep up with my reading and studying. I have procrastinated on some things but I have managed to turn them in on time not just regarding this class but other things going on right now.

c) I think we haven't been practicing enough for the AP test. I would just like to see it all tie up for that purpose. I know we are trying new things but in the end the AP test will be just as it has always been and right now I don't feel prepared for it at all.

I AM HERE

Yes, my SMART goal is in in progress. Results of my efforts and sacrifices will be seen until March and April when UC's send out their admissions decisions. This is also the time in which scholarship awards will be given out and other scholarships are due. Regarding this class I have bee having trouble trying to memorize all the lit terms or at least keep them in my mind long enough but that is also in progress. I haven't officially begun my senior project but I have planned it out with my group. All we need to do is film and edit our video as well as gather the information for the second part of our project. I think our idea is great and should be easy to complete. There are five members in my group so completing our project should take a short amount of time.

LAR The Catcher in the Rye



Ill mannered boy Holden was. Bad mouthed and careless. Cynical as can be and full of "anger" or what seemed to be such. Maybe confusion disguised as the anger perceived by the reader. In need of direction...or love. The complexity of the character gives the freedom a reader needs to understand the character and read the story through their eyes. The connection between Holden and the reader was a strange one though for rare is the soul who identifies with his peculiar being of fiction.



Yet still the strange boy had a story much like all other teenage boys. A story not pleasantly told by Holden. A younger brother whose death at the hands of leukemia  haunts Holden. Allie's mit with the poems written on it is a memory told by Holden.



Not satisfied with the mundane, Holden decides to leave his former school Pencey after a fight with another student of which he wasn't exactly victorious. Bags packed and mind resolved he spends a few days in New York while winter break passes. On a train he meets the mother of one of his "phony bastard" classmates and talks wonders of him to her. Reason for pleasing her isn't clear but the mind of Holden can only be deciphered if the mind of the reader is open and creative.



Holden stays at a hotel in Manhattan and is intrigued by the doings of people he can see from him room window. He sees a man dressing up as a woman and is both disgusted and aroused at the sight of a man and woman engaging in what he thinks is foreplay. With this in mind he calls up a woman he believes to be a stripper and soon changes his mind. Holden's mind is filled with strange yearnings and to a certain point is looking for love with a preference on the sexual side if it.



Holden thinks back to the old days when him and Jane were together. They used to go out to the movies and held hands but it never went anywhere from there. Again, Holden was denied love from Jane. She didn't think much of Holden other than them being friends. Holden was used for comfort but he was never given any. He grew up with a feel of indifference towards those who couldn't give him what he was looking for.



Holden goes to a bar but leaves soon after finding one of his brothers former girlfriends. He has a prostitute sent up to his room but can't carry out the deed. He pays her but ends up beat up and stolen from. He is once again alone and neglected. Holden wakes up and goes in search of his sister Phoebe in Central Park. When he has no success finding her he decided to go back to the hotel and meet up with Sally. Holden's life at this point is completely convoluted. He doesn't know what his life will turn out to be nor does he care because right now he doesn't even understand who he is. All he knows is has been kicked out of school and want to make time pass while his parents get the news.



Holden meets up with Sally but upsets her when he offends her for not wanting to run away with him. Holden passes the time watching a movie while he waits to meet up with a counselor, Luce that has gone on to Columbia University. They start discussing sexual issues but Holden soon upsets Luce as well and Luce leaves promptly laving Holden alone once again. Holden has a tendency or need to push those who come close to him away. He is cynical about it and pushes them away in the most offensive of ways. He continues to call Jane but can't get a hold of her.



Holden sneaks into his house and tells his sister what has happened. She nags at him and he leaves once again. He goes to a former teachers house but thinks he is trying to make a homosexual move on him and leaves soon after. He lets his sister know that he is leaving forever and she packs her things and wants to leave with him. He says no and takes her to a carousel. He stands there watching her while rain pours and he tells the audience of his optimistic view of his future. Holden finds the love he has been searching for in the most unexpected of places, his sister. He had love close all along but was blinded by his strange way of thinking and went off to look for love in all the wrong places.