VL-IV (15): Brave New World revisited, again

[Robin Landseadel]

I thank Paul Mackin for pointing us in a direction we haven't  
considered nearly enough, and that's the issue of just how much of  
"Vineland" comes out of the "Brave New World". Certainly the book's  
titles have this in common—both are very old names for this land we  
live in. Vineland comes from "Vinland," pointing to the earliest  
recorded interaction of our continent with visitors from European  
shores. As I recall, Pynchon makes much of that in Against the Day.  
And the Brave New World reference comes from Miranda in the Tempest,  
doubtless a hot topick of conversation in London at the time thanks to  
the efforts of Sir Walter Raleigh and others.

	But the chief emblem of Brave New World is the Feelies-
	movies that feature not only sight and sound but also the
	sensation of touch, so that when people watch a couple making
	love on a bearskin rug, they can feel every hair of the bear on
	their own bodies.

http://www.huxley.net/studyaid/bnwbarron.html

http://tinyurl.com/cty8hz

The Feelies of BNW serve a similar function as the Tube of Vineland. I  
remember the Feelies as being the most state-of-the-art production and  
distribution of filmed entertainments, reaching a level of technology  
that we are very close to right now in our own world with Plasma TVs,  
Blue Ray and 3-D that nearly works in the movie houses. The nature of  
the content is also moving in a similar direction. We have surround  
sound and subwoofers in the home, we have display screens that  
reproduce with more detail than is available in any film based  
theater. You may not feel the individual hairs of a bearskin rug, but  
you will feel the rumble of explosions and cars tearing by, thanks to  
Velodyne's best efforts. And the ante keeps getting upped as regards  
the erotic content of modern entertainments. The description of the  
"feelies" is dangerously close to Tony Soprano's home entertainment  
center.

I gotta grab me a copy of Brave New World. Read it 37 years ago, can't  
say as I recall all that much but I always remembered the feelies—hey,  
I've been a recording engineer, whatduya want, already? And if anyone  
else out there in the w.a.s.t.e.land wants to chime in, I'd  
appreciate. Ciao.

On Apr 15, 2009, at 8:55 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net 
> >
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 11:16 AM
> Subject: Re: Ch 15
>
>
>
>> In any case, different people respond to music in different ways.  
>> My point would be that music can work on people—particularly in  
>> Film and esp. TV—in a way that bypasses the conscious mind. "Just  
>> throw in a  oboe theme, you're supposed be getting people to cry  
>> here."
>>
>
> I find Robin's posts on music interesting in their entirity but I  
> picked the above sentences as specifically relevant to Huxley.
>
> Huxley wanted to demonstrate that what he had much earlier predicted  
> in Brave New World had now come to pass.
>
> One feature of the new order was the extensive use of appeals to the  
> unconscious as a means of manipulating  the populace.
>
> Subliminal messaging.
>
> The Jingle.
>
> P.
>