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

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 12:53 PM
Subject: VL-IV (15): Brave New World revisited, again


>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.
>

In Brave New World drugs were used to condition and control. Huxley's 
appreciation of the the enlightenment effects came later. . They were 
featured in a later novel. (which I've never read)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_(novel)#Major_themes


> 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


How would the output of 24fps figure in Huxley's dystopia?


> 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.
>>
>