首页>> 旅游天下>> 科幻小说>> 阿道斯·赫胥黎 Aldous Huxley   英国 United Kingdom   温莎王朝   (1894年7月26日1963年11月22日)
奇妙的新世界
  赫胥黎是英国二十世纪三位最有影响的讽刺文学作家之一.其代表作,小说《奇妙的新世界》出版于1932年.小说貌似科学幻想,实质上有较深的政治和道德含义.这本薄薄的十多万字的小说发表后,很快就被译成几十种国家文字.赫胥黎的《奇妙的新世界》、乔治·奥韦尔的《一九八四》和苏联作家叶·扎亚京的《我们》被某些评论家称为该世纪的"反乌托邦三部曲".目前,《奇妙的新世界》被列为西方一百本必读书之一.


  Brave New World is a novel by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Set in London of AD 2349 (632 A.F. in the book), the novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology and sleep-learning that combine to change society. The future society is an embodiment of the ideals that form the basis of futurism. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an essay, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with his final work, a novel titled Island (1962), both summarized below.
  
  In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Brave New World fifth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
  
  Title
  
  Brave New World's ironic title derives from Miranda's speech in Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:
  
   O wonder!
  
   How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in it!
  
  This line is word-by-word quoted in the novel by John the Savage, when he first sees Lenina.
  
  The expression "brave new world" also appears in Émile Zola's Germinal (1885):
  
   He laughed at his earlier idealism, his schoolboy vision of a brave new world in which justice would reign and men would be brothers.
  
  and in Rudyard Kipling's 1919 poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings:
  
   And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
  
   When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins...
  
  Translations of the novel into other languages often allude to similar expressions used in domestic works of literature in an attempt to capture the same irony: the French edition of the work is entitled Le Meilleur des mondes (The Best of All Worlds), an allusion to an expression used by the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz and satirized in Candide, Ou l'Optimisme by Voltaire (1759). The German title of the book is Schöne Neue Welt (Beautiful New World). First the word "brave" was translated to "Tapfer", which is the correct modern translation of "brave." Translators later recognized that, at Shakespeare's time, "brave" meant "beautiful" or "good looking".
  Background
  
  Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1931 while he was living in Guatemala and El Salvador (a British writer, he moved to California in 1937). By this time, Huxley had already established himself as a writer and social satirist. He was a contributor to Vanity Fair and Vogue magazines, had published a collection of his poetry (The Burning Wheel, 1916) and four successful satirical novels: Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925) and Point Counter Point (1928). Brave New World was Huxley's fifth novel and first dystopian work.
  
  Brave New World was inspired by the H. G. Wells' utopian novel Men Like Gods. Wells' optimistic vision of the future gave Huxley the idea to begin writing a parody of the novel, which became Brave New World. Contrary to the most popular optimist utopian novels of the time, Huxley sought to provide a frightening vision of the future. Huxley referred to Brave New World as a "negative utopia" (see dystopia), somewhat influenced by Wells' own The Sleeper Awakes and the works of D. H. Lawrence.
  
  George Orwell believed that Brave New World "must be partly derived from" We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. However, in a 1962 letter, Huxley says that he wrote Brave New World long before he had heard of We. According to We translator Natasha Randall, Orwell believed that Huxley was lying.
  
  Huxley visited the newly opened and technologically advanced Brunner and Mond plant, part of Imperial Chemical Industries, or ICI, Billingham, and gives a fine and detailed account of the processes he saw. The introduction to the most recent print[vague] of Brave New World states that Huxley was inspired to write the classic novel by this Billingham visit.
  
  Although the novel is set in the future, it contains contemporary issues of the early 20th century. The Industrial Revolution had transformed the world. Mass production had made cars, telephones, and radios relatively cheap and widely available throughout the developed world. The political, cultural, economic and sociological upheavals of the then-recent Russian Revolution of 1917 and the First World War (1914–1918) were resonating throughout the world as a whole and the individual lives of most people. Accordingly, many of the novel's characters named after widely-recognized influential people of the time, for example, Polly Trotsky, Benito Hoover, Lenina and Fanny Crowne, Mustapha Mond, Helmholtz Watson, and Bernard Marx.
  
  Huxley was able to use the setting and characters from his science fiction novel to express widely held opinions, particularly the fear of losing individual identity in the fast-paced world of the future. An early trip to the United States gave Brave New World much of its character. Not only was Huxley outraged by the culture of youth, commercial cheeriness, sexual promiscuity and the inward-looking nature of many Americans; he had also found a book by Henry Ford on the boat to America. There was a fear of Americanization in Europe, so to see America firsthand, as well as read the ideas and plans of one of its foremost citizens, spurred Huxley to write Brave New World with America in mind. The "feelies" are his response to the "talkie" motion pictures, and the sex-hormone chewing gum is parody of the ubiquitous chewing gum, which was something of a symbol of America at that time. In an article in the 4 May 1935 issue of the Illustrated London News, G. K. Chesterton explained that Huxley was revolting against the "Age of Utopias" — a time, mostly before the First World War, inspired by what H. G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw were writing about socialism and a World State.
  
   After the Age of Utopias came what we may call the American Age, lasting as long as the Boom. Men like Ford or Mond seemed to many to have solved the social riddle and made capitalism the common good. But it was not native to us; it went with a buoyant, not to say blatant optimism, which is not our negligent or negative optimism. Much more than Victorian righteousness, or even Victorian self-righteousness, that optimism has driven people into pessimism. For the Slump brought even more disillusionment than the War. A new bitterness, and a new bewilderment, ran through all social life, and was reflected in all literature and art. It was contemptuous, not only of the old Capitalism, but of the old Socialism. Brave New World is more of a revolt against Utopia than against Victoria.
  
  For Brave New World, Huxley received nearly universal criticism from contemporary critics, although his work was later embraced. Even the few sympathetic critics tended to temper their praises with disparaging remarks.
  Synopsis
  edit] The Introduction (Chapters 1–6)
  
  The novel opens in London in the "year of our Ford 632" (AD 2540 in the Gregorian Calendar). The vast majority of the population is unified under The World State, an eternally peaceful, stable global society in which goods and resources are plentiful (because the population is permanently limited to no more than two billion people) and everyone is happy. Natural reproduction has been done away with and children are created, 'decanted' and raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centres, where they are divided into five castes (which are further split into 'Plus' and 'Minus' members) and designed to fulfill predetermined positions within the social and economic strata of the World State. Foetuses chosen to become members of the highest caste, 'Alpha', are allowed to develop naturally while maturing to term in "decanting bottles", while foetuses chosen to become members of the lower castes ('Beta', 'Gamma', 'Delta', 'Epsilon') are subjected to in situ chemical interference to cause arrested development in intelligence or physical growth. Each 'Alpha' or 'Beta' is the product of one unique fertilized egg developing into one unique fetus. Members of lower castes are not unique but are instead created using the Bokanovsky process which enables a single egg to spawn (at the point of the story being told) up to 96 children and one ovary to produce thousands of children. People of these caste make up the majority of human society, and the production of such specialized children bolsters the efficiency and harmony of society, since these people are deliberately limited in their cognitive and physical abilities, as well as the scope of their ambitions and the complexity of their desires, thus rendering them easier to motivate, manipulate and control. All children are educated via the hypnopaedic process, which simultaneously provides each child with fact-based education and caste-appropriate subconscious messages to mold the child's life-long self-image, class conscientious, social outlook, habits, tastes, morals, ambitions and prejudices, and other values and ideals chosen by the leaders of the World State and their predetermined plans for producing future adult generations.
  
  To maintain the World State's Command Economy for the indefinite future, all citizens are conditioned from birth to value consumption with such platitudes as "ending is better than mending," i.e., buy a new one instead of fixing the old one, because constant consumption, and near-universal employment to meet society's material demands, is the bedrock of economic and social stability for the World State. Beyond providing social engagement and distraction in the material realm of work or play, the need for transcendence, solitude and spiritual communion is addressed with the ubiquitous availability and universally-endorsed consumption of the drug soma. Soma is an allusion to a mythical drink of the same name consumed by ancient Indo-Aryans. In the book, soma is a hallucinogen that takes users on enjoyable, hangover-free "holidays", developed by the World State to provide such inner-directed personal experiences within the socially-managed context of State-run 'religious' organizations, social clubs, and the hypnopaedically-inculcated affinity to the State-produced drug as a self-medicating comfort mechanism in the face of stress or discomfort, thereby eliminating the need for religion or other personal allegiances outside or beyond the World State.
  
  Recreational sex is an integral part of society. According to The World State, sex is a social activity, rather than a means of reproduction, and sexual activity is encouraged from early childhood. The few women who can reproduce are conditioned to use birth control (a "Malthusian belt", resembling a cartridge belt holding "the regulation supply of contraceptives", is a popular fashion accessory). The maxim "everyone belongs to everyone else" is repeated often, and the idea of a "family" is considered pornographic; sexual competition and emotional, romantic relationships are rendered obsolete because they are no longer needed. Marriage, natural birth, parenthood, and pregnancy are considered too obscene to be mentioned in casual conversation. Thus, society has developed a new idea of reproductive comprehension.
  
  Spending time alone is considered an outrageous waste of time and money. Admitting to wanting to be an individual is shocking, horrifying, and embarrassing. This is why John, a character in the book, is later afforded celebrity-like status. Conditioning trains people to consume and never to enjoy being alone, so by spending an afternoon not playing "Obstacle Golf," or not in bed with a friend, one is forfeiting acceptance.
  
  In The World State, people typically die at age 60 having maintained good health and youthfulness their whole life. Death isn't feared; anyone reflecting upon it is reassured by the knowledge that everyone is happy, and that society goes on. Since no one has family, they have no ties to mourn.
  
  The conditioning system eliminates the need for professional competitiveness; people are literally bred to do their jobs and cannot desire another. There is no competition within castes; each caste member receives the same food, housing, and soma rationing as every other member of that caste. There is no desire to change one's caste, largely because a person's sleep-conditioning teaches that his or her caste is superior to the other four. To grow closer with members of the same class, citizens participate in mock religious services called Solidarity Services, in which twelve people consume large quantities of soma and sing hymns. The ritual progresses through group hypnosis and climaxes in an orgy. In geographic areas nonconducive to easy living and consumption, securely contained groups of "savages" are left to their own devices.
  
  In its first chapters, the novel describes life in The World State as wonderful and introduces Lenina and Bernard. Lenina is a socially accepted woman, normal for her society, while Bernard, a psychologist, is an outcast. Although an Alpha Plus, Bernard is shorter in stature than the average of his caste—a quality shared by the lower castes, which gives him an inferiority complex. His work with sleep-teaching has led him to realize that what others believe to be their own deeply held beliefs are merely phrases repeated to children while they sleep. Still, he recognizes the necessity of such programming as the reason why his society meets the emotional needs of its citizens. Courting disaster, he is vocal about being different, once stating he dislikes soma because he'd "rather be himself". Bernard's differences fuel rumors that he was accidentally administered alcohol while incubated, a method used to keep Epsilons short.
  
  Lenina, a woman who seldom questions her own motivations, is reprimanded by her friends because she is not promiscuous enough. However, she is still highly content in her role as a woman. Both fascinated and disturbed by Bernard, she responds to Bernard's advances to dispel her reputation for being too selective and monogamous.
  
  Bernard's only friend is Helmholtz Watson, an Alpha Plus lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing). The friendship is based on their similar experiences as misfits, but unlike Bernard, Watson's sense of loneliness stems from being too gifted, too handsome, and too physically strong. Helmholtz is drawn to Bernard as a confidant: he can talk to Bernard about his desire to write poetry.
  The Reservation and the Savage (Chapters 7–9)
  
  Bernard, desperately wanting Lenina's attention, tries to impress her by taking her on holiday to a Savage Reservation. The reservation, located in New Mexico, consists of a community named Malpais (which in Spanish means "bad country", one of many Spanish puns throughout the novel). From afar, Lenina thinks it will be exciting. In person, she finds the aged, toothless natives who mend their clothes rather than throw them away repugnant, and the situation is made worse when she discovers that she has left her soma tablets at the resort hotel. Bernard is fascinated, although he realizes his seduction plans have failed.
  
  In typical tourist fashion, Bernard and Lenina watch what at first appears to be a quaint native ceremony. The village folk, whose culture resembles that of the Pueblo peoples such as the Hopi and Zuni, begin by singing, but the ritual quickly becomes a passion play where a village boy is whipped to unconsciousness.
  
  Soon after, the couple encounters Linda, a woman formerly of The World State who has been living in Malpais since she came on a trip and became separated from her group and her date, whom she refers to as "Tomakin" but who is revealed to be Bernard's boss the DHC at the conditioning center, Thomas. She became pregnant because she mistimed her "Malthusian Drill" and there were no facilities for an abortion. Linda gave birth to a son, John (later referred to as John the Savage) who is now eighteen.
  
  Through conversations with Linda and John, we learn that their life has been hard. For eighteen years, they have been treated as outsiders; the natives hate Linda for sleeping with all the men of the village, as she was conditioned to do, and John was mistreated and excluded for his mother's actions, not to mention the role of racism. John's one joy was that his mother had taught him to read, although he only had two books: a scientific manual from his mother's job, which he called a "beastly, beastly book" and refused to read, and a collection of the works of Shakespeare (a work banned in The World State). John has been denied the religious rituals of the village, although he has watched them and even has had some of his own religious experiences in the desert.
  
  Old, weathered and tired, Linda wants to return to her familiar world in London; she is tired of a life without soma. John wants to see the "brave new world" his mother has told him so much about. Bernard wants to take them back as revenge against Thomas, who had just reassigned Bernard to Iceland as punishment for his antisocial beliefs. Bernard arranges permission for Linda and John to leave the reservation.
  The Savage visits the World State (Chapters 10–18)
  
  Upon his return to London, Bernard is confronted by Thomas Tomakin, the Director of the Hatchery and Conditioning Centre who, in front of an audience of higher-caste Centre workers, denounces Bernard for his antisocial behaviour. Bernard, thinking that for the first time in his life he has the upper hand, defends himself by presenting the Director with his long lost lover and unknown son, Linda and John. The humiliated Director resigns in shame and is himself sent to Iceland.
  
  Spared from reassignment, Bernard makes John the toast of London. Pursued by the highest members of society, able to bed any woman he fancies, Bernard revels in attention he once scorned. Everyone who is anyone will endure Bernard to dine with the interesting, different, beautiful John. Even Lenina grows fond of the savage, while the savage falls in love with her. Bernard, intoxicated with attention, falls in love with himself. In short, John brings tremendous happiness upon the citizens of London.
  
  The victory, however, is short lived. Linda, decrepit, toothless, friendless, goes on a permanent soma holiday while John, appalled by what he perceives to be an empty society, refuses to attend Bernard's parties. Society drops Bernard as swiftly as it had taken him. Bernard turns to the person he'd believed to be his one true friend, only to see Helmholtz fall into a quick, easy camaraderie with John. Bernard is left an outcast yet again as he watches the only two men he ever connected with find more of interest in each other than they ever did in him.
  
  John and Helmholtz's island of peace is brief. John grows frustrated by a society he finds wicked and debased. He is moved by Lenina, but also loathes her sexual advances, which revolt and shame him. He is heartbroken when his mother succumbs to soma and dies in a hospital. John's grief bewilders and revolts the hospital workers, and their lack of reaction to Linda's death prompts John to try to force humanity from the workers by throwing their soma rations out a window. The ensuing riot brings the police, who soma-gas the crowd. Bernard and Helmholtz arrive to help John, but only Helmholtz helps him, while Bernard stands to the side, torn between risking involvement by helping or escaping the scene.
  
  When they wake, Bernard, Helmholtz and John are brought before Mustapha Mond, the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. Bernard and Helmholtz are told they will be exiled to islands of their choice. Mond explains that exile to the islands is not so much a threat to force freethinkers to reform and rejoin society but a place where they may act as they please, because they will not be an influence on the population. He also divulges that he too once risked banishment to an island because of some scientific experiments that were deemed controversial by the state, giving insight into his sympathetic tone. Helmholtz chooses the Falkland Islands, because of their terrible weather, so he could write well, but Bernard simply doesn't want to leave and struggles with the World Controller and is thrown out of the office. After Bernard and Helmholtz have left, Mustapha and John engage in a philosophical argument on the morals behind the godless society and then John is told the "experiment" will continue and he will not be sent to an island.
  
  In the final chapter, John isolates himself from society in a lighthouse outside London where he finds his hermit life interrupted from mourning his mother by the more bitter memories of civilization. To atone, John brutally whips himself in the open, a ritual the Indians in his own village had said he was not capable of. His self-flagellation, caught on film and shown publicly, destroys his hermit life. Hundreds of gawking sightseers, intrigued by John's violent behavior, fly out to watch the savage in person. Even Lenina comes to watch, crying a tear John does not see. The sight of the woman whom he both adores and blames is too much for him; John attacks and whips her. This sight of genuine, unbridled emotion drives the crowd wild with excitement, and—handling it as they are conditioned to—they turn on each other, in a frenzy of beating and chanting that devolves into a mass orgy of soma and sex. In the morning, John, hopeless, alone, horrified by his drug use, and the orgy he participated in that countered his beliefs, makes one last attempt to escape civilization and atone. When thousands of gawking sightseers arrive that morning, frenzied at the prospect of seeing the savage perform again, they find John dead, hanging by the neck.
  Characters
  In order of appearance
  
   * Thomas "Tomakin" Foster, Alpha, Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning (D.H.C.) for London; later revealed to be the father of John the Savage.
   * Henry Foster, Alpha, Administrator at the Hatchery and Lenina's current partner.
   * Lenina Crowne, Beta, Vaccination-worker at the Hatchery; loved by John the Savage.
   * Mustapha Mond, Alpha-Plus, World Controller for Western Europe (nine other controllers exist, presumably for different sections of the world).
   * Assistant Director of Predestination.
   * Bernard Marx, Alpha-Plus but anomalously small, psychologist (specializing in hypnopædia) and the false protagonist of the story. He dates Lenina for a short period of time.
   * Fanny Crowne, Beta, embryo worker; a friend, but not a relation, of Lenina.
   * Benito Hoover, Alpha, friend of Lenina; disliked by Bernard.
   * Helmholtz Watson, Alpha-Plus, lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing), friend and confidant of Bernard Marx and John the Savage.
  
  At the Solidarity Service
  
   * Morgana Rothschild, Herbert Bakunin, Fifi Bradlaugh, Jim Bokanovsky, Clara Deterding, Joanna Diesel, Sarojini Engels, and "that great lout" Tom Kawaguchi.
   * Miss Keate, headmistress of the high-tech glass and concrete Eton College.
   * Arch-Community Songster, a quasi-religious figure based in Canterbury.
   * Primo Mellon, a reporter for the upper-caste news-sheet Hourly Radio, who attempts to interview John the Savage and gets assaulted for his troubles.
   * Darwin Bonaparte, a press photographer who brings worldwide attention to John's mother.
  
  Of Malpais
  
   * John the Savage ("Mr. Savage"), son of Linda and Thomas (Tomakin/The Director), an outcast in both primitive and modern society. While he does not appear until partway through the story, he becomes the protagonist shortly after his introduction. He commits suicide in the end.
   * Linda, a Beta-Minus. John the Savage's mother, and Thomas's (Tomakin/The Director) long lost lover. She is from England and was pregnant with John when she got lost from Thomas in a trip to New Mexico. She is disliked by both savage people because of her "civilized" behaviour, and by civilized people because she is fat and looks old.
   * Popé, a native of Malpais. Although he reinforces the behaviour that causes hatred for Linda in Malpais by sleeping with her and bringing her Mezcal, he still holds the traditional beliefs of his tribe. John also attempts to kill him, in his early years.
  
  Background figures
  
  These are fictional and factual characters who lived before the events in this book, but are of note in the novel:
  
   * Henry Ford, who has become a messianic figure to The World State. "Our Ford" is used in place of "Our Lord", as a credit to popularizing the use of the assembly line.
   * Sigmund Freud, "Our Freud" is sometimes said in place of "Our Ford" due to the link between Freud's psychoanalysis and the conditioning of humans, and Freud's popularization of the idea that sexual activity is essential to human happiness and need not be open to procreation. It is also strongly implied that citizens of the World State believe Freud and Ford to be the same person.
   * H. G. Wells, "Dr. Wells", British writer and utopian socialist, whose book Men Like Gods was an incentive for Brave New World. "All's well that ends Wells" wrote Huxley in his letters, criticizing Wells for anthropological assumptions Huxley found unrealistic.
   * Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, whose conditioning techniques are used to train infants.
   * William Shakespeare, whose banned works are quoted throughout the novel by John, "the Savage". The plays quoted include Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure and Othello. Mustapha Mond also knows them because he, as a World Controller, has access to a selection of books from throughout history, such as a Bible.
   * Thomas Malthus, whose name is used to describe the contraceptive techniques (Malthusian belt) practiced by women of the World State.
   * Reuben Rabinovitch, the character in whom the effects of sleep-learning, hypnopædia, are first noted.
  
  Sources of names and references
  
  The limited number of names that the World State assigned to its bottle-grown citizens can be traced to political and cultural figures who contributed to the bureaucratic, economic, and technological systems of Huxley's age, and presumably those systems in Brave New World:
  
   * Bernard Marx, from George Bernard Shaw (or possibly Bernard of Clairvaux or possibly Claude Bernard) and Karl Marx.
   * Lenina Crowne, from Vladimir Lenin, the Bolshevik leader during the Russian Revolution.
   * Fanny Crowne, from Fanny Kaplan, famous for an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Lenin. Ironically, in the novel, Lenina and Fanny are friends.
   * Polly Trotsky, from Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary leader.
   * Benito Hoover, from Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy; and Herbert Hoover, then President of the United States.
   * Helmholtz Watson, from the German physician and physicist Hermann von Helmholtz and the American behaviorist John B. Watson.
   * Darwin Bonaparte, from Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of the First French Empire, and Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of Species.
   * Herbert Bakunin, from Herbert Spencer, the English philosopher and Social Darwinist, and Mikhail Bakunin, a Russian philosopher and anarchist.
   * Mustapha Mond, from Mustapha Kemal Atatürk, founder of Turkey after World War I, who pulled his country into modernisation and official secularism; and Sir Alfred Mond, an industrialist and founder of the Imperial Chemical Industries conglomerate.
   * Primo Mellon, from Miguel Primo de Rivera, prime minister and dictator of Spain (1923–1930), and Andrew Mellon, an American banker.
   * Sarojini Engels, from Friedrich Engels, co-author of The Communist Manifesto along with Karl Marx: and Sarojini Naidu, an Indian politician.
   * Morgana Rothschild, from J P Morgan, US banking tycoon, and the Rothschild family, famous for its European banking operations.
   * Fifi Bradlaugh, from the British political activist and atheist Charles Bradlaugh.
   * Joanna Diesel, from Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who invented the diesel engine.
   * Clara Deterding, from Henri Deterding, one of the founders of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company.
   * Tom Kawaguchi, from the Japanese Buddhist monk Ekai Kawaguchi, the first recorded Japanese traveler to Tibet and Nepal.
   * Jean-Jacques Habibullah, from the French political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Habibullah Khan, who served as Emir of Afghanistan in the early 20th century.
   * Miss Keate, the Eton headmistress, from nineteenth-century headmaster John Keate.
   * Arch-Community Songster of Canterbury, a parody of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Church's decision in August 1930 to approve limited use of contraception.
   * Popé, from Popé, the Native American rebel who was blamed for the conflict now known as the Pueblo Revolt.
   * John the Savage, after the term "noble savage" originally used in the verse drama The Conquest of Granada by John Dryden, and later erroneously associated with Rousseau.
  
  
  Fordism and society
  
  The World State is built upon the principles of Henry Ford's assembly line—mass production, homogeneity, predictability, and consumption of disposable consumer goods. At the same time as the World State lacks any supernatural-based religions, Ford himself is revered as a deity, and characters celebrate Ford Day and swear oaths by his name (e.g., "By Ford!"). In this sense, some fragments of traditional religion are present, such as Christian crosses, which had their tops cut off in order to be changed to a "T". The World State calendar numbers years in the "AF" era—"After Ford"—with year 1 AF being equivalent to 1908 AD, the year in which Ford's first Model T rolled off his assembly line. The novel's Gregorian calendar year is AD 2540, but it is referred to in the book as AF 632.
  
  From birth, members of every class are indoctrinated by recorded voices repeating slogans while they sleep (called "hypnopædia" in the book) to believe that their own class is best for them. Any residual unhappiness is resolved by an antidepressant and hallucinogenic drug called soma (named for an intoxicating drink in ancient India) distributed by the Arch-Community Songster of Canterbury, a secularised version of the Christian sacrament of Communion ("The Body of Christ").
  
  The biological techniques used to control the populace in Brave New World do not include genetic engineering; Huxley wrote the book before the structure of DNA was known. However, Gregor Mendel's work with inheritance patterns in peas had been re-discovered in 1900 and the eugenics movement, based on artificial selection, was well established. Huxley's family included a number of prominent biologists including Thomas Huxley, half-brother and Nobel Laureate Andrew Huxley, and brother Julian Huxley who was a biologist and involved in the eugenics movement. Nonetheless, Huxley emphasizes conditioning over breeding (see nature versus nurture); as science writer Matt Ridley put it, Brave New World describes an "environmental not a genetic hell". Human embryos and fetuses are conditioned via a carefully designed regimen of chemical (such as exposure to hormones and toxins), thermal (exposure to intense heat or cold, as one's future career would dictate), and other environmental stimuli, although there is an element of selective breeding as well.
  Ban, accusation of plagiarism
  
  Brave New World has been banned and challenged at various times. In 1932, the book was banned in Ireland for its language, being anti-family and anti-religion. The American Library Association ranks Brave New World as #52 on their list of most challenged books. In 1980, it was removed from classrooms in Miller, Missouri among other challenges. In 1993, an attempt was made to remove the novel from a California school's required reading list because it "centered around negative activity".
  
  In 1982, Polish author Antoni Smuszkiewicz in his book Zaczarowana gra presented accusations of plagiarism against Huxley. Smuszkiewicz presented similarities between Brave New World and two science fiction novels written by Polish author Mieczysław Smolarski, namely Miasto światłości (The City of the Sun, 1924) and Podróż poślubna pana Hamiltona (The Honeymoon Trip of Mr. Hamilton, 1928).
  Comparisons with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
  
  Social critic Neil Postman contrasts the worlds of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He writes:
  
   What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.
  
  Journalist Christopher Hitchens, who has himself published several articles on Huxley and a book on Orwell, notes the difference between the two texts in the introduction to his 1999 article "Why Americans Are Not Taught History":
  
   We dwell in a present-tense culture that somehow, significantly, decided to employ the telling expression "You're history" as a choice reprobation or insult, and thus elected to speak forgotten volumes about itself. By that standard, the forbidding dystopia of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four already belongs, both as a text and as a date, with Ur and Mycenae, while the hedonist nihilism of Huxley still beckons toward a painless, amusement-sodden, and stress-free consensus. Orwell's was a house of horrors. He seemed to strain credulity because he posited a regime that would go to any lengths to own and possess history, to rewrite and construct it, and to inculcate it by means of coercion. Whereas Huxley ... rightly foresaw that any such regime could break but could not bend. In 1988, four years after 1984, the Soviet Union scrapped its official history curriculum and announced that a newly authorized version was somewhere in the works. This was the precise moment when the regime conceded its own extinction. For true blissed-out and vacant servitude, though, you need an otherwise sophisticated society where no serious history is taught.
  
  Brave New World Revisited
  1st UK edition
  
  Brave New World Revisited (Harper & Row (US) 1958, Chatto & Windus (UK) 1959), written by Huxley almost thirty years after Brave New World, was a non-fiction work in which Huxley considered whether the world had moved toward or away from his vision of the future from the 1930s. He believed when he wrote the original novel that it was a reasonable guess as to where the world might go in the future. In Brave New World Revisited, he concluded that the world was becoming like Brave New World much faster than he originally thought.
  
  Huxley analysed the causes of this, such as overpopulation as well as all the means by which populations can be controlled. He was particularly interested in the effects of drugs and subliminal suggestion. Brave New World Revisited is different in tone because of Huxley's evolving thought, as well as his conversion to Hindu Vedanta in the interim between the two books.
  
  The last chapter of the book aims to propose actions which could be taken in order to prevent a democracy from turning into the totalitarian world described in Brave New World. In Huxley's last novel, Island, he again expounds similar ideas to describe a utopian nation, which is generally known as a counterpart to his most famous work.
  Related works
  
   * The Scientific Outlook by philosopher Bertrand Russell. When Brave New World was released, Russell thought that Huxley's book was based on his book The Scientific Outlook that had been released the previous year. Russell contacted his own publisher and asked whether or not he should do something about this apparent plagiarism. His publisher advised him not to, and Russell followed this advice.
   * The 1921 novel Men Like Gods by H.G. Wells. A utopian novel that was a source of inspiration for Huxley's dystopian Brave New World.
   * In Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, an isolated planet practicing genetic eugenics to form a perfect society is called 'Huxleys Haven'
   * The 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman alludes to how television is goading modern Western culture to be like what we see in Brave New World, where people are not so much denied human rights like free speech, but are rather conditioned not to care.
   * Kurt Vonnegut said that in writing Player Piano (1952) he "cheerfully ripped off the plot of Brave New World, whose plot had been cheerfully ripped off from Yevgeny Zamyatin's We."
   * The Iron Maiden song by the same name on their album Brave New World whose cover art depicts a futuristic London described by Huxley.
   * "Slave New World," a song by Brazilian band Sepultura from their album Chaos A.D.
   * Brazilian rock singer Pitty's debut album, released in 2003, is called Admirável Chip Novo (Brave New Chip).
   * Brave New World is the title song on the third album by the Steve Miller Band.
   * The Motörhead album Hammered includes a song named Brave New World.
   * Richard Ashcroft's first solo album Alone with Everybody includes a song named Brave New World.
   * Demolition Man, a film starring Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes and Sandra Bullock, is set in a not-too-distant future utopian society based on a Brave New World. Sandra Bullock's character is even named Lenina Huxley, referencing the author and character from the book. (1997)
   * Reagan Youth had a song named "Brave New World".
   * The Proletariat had an LP entitled "Soma Holiday."
   * Greenwheel changed their name from "Hindsight" to "Soma Holiday," before settling on their current name. Their debut album (as Greenwheel) was entitled "Soma Holiday."
   * Scottish techno record label Soma Quality Recordings was named after the drug Soma featured in a Brave New World
   * On their album Here, Here, and Here, Meg & Dia have a track titled "Hug Me", a song written by Dia inspired by "Brave New World."
   * The song "Soma Holiday" by Gods of Luxury is based on the novel and includes several quotes from the novel in its lyrics.
   * The lyrics for Marilyn Manson's song "Ka-boom Ka-boom" from The Golden Age of Grotesque play on the title and idea of this book; in them, Manson suggests that society is a "depraved new world."
   * Sam Endicott of The Bravery based the song I Have Seen The Future on Brave New World, as he said in an interview.
   * The song "Soma" by The Strokes is loosely based on the novel. Producer and DJ deadmau5 also released a song called "Soma."
  
  Adaptations
  
   * Brave New World (radio broadcast) CBS Radio Workshop (27 January and 3 February 1956)
   * Brave New World (film) (1980)
   * Brave New World (film) (1998)
   * Brave New World (film) (scheduled 2011) Ridley Scott, Leonardo DiCaprio collaborating
   * Brave New World (stage adaptation) Brendon Burns, Solent Peoples Theatre 2003
   * Schöne Neue Welt (rock musical) Roland Meier/Stefan Wurz, Kulturhaus Osterfeld Pforzheim, Germany, 1994
   * Schöne Neue Welt (musical) GRIPS Theater Berlin, Germany, 2006
   * Brave New World a song and album of Iron Maiden
   * Brave New World Catalogue Number: SAFE 45 1982 (single) from UK vocalist Toyah WIllcox
第一章
  一幢灰白色的大楼,矮矮的,只有三十四层。门口大书:中央伦敦孵化与条件设置中心,盾式的图案上是世界国的格言:社会,本分,稳定。
   底楼的巨大厅堂面对着北方。尽管对夏天而言窗户外已经很冷,室内却热得像赤道。薄薄一道森严的光耀眼地射进了窗户,渴望搜索出什么苍白的、长鸡皮疙瘩的穿便衣的非专业人员的形象,却只找到了实验室的玻璃器、镀镍柜橱和闪着凄凉的光的陶瓷。对荒凉的反应还是荒凉。工人穿的大褂是白色的,手上戴的橡胶手套死尸般煞白。光线冻住了,冻死了,成了幽灵,只有在显微镜黄色的镜头下,才找到了某种丰腴的有生命的物质。那东西在镜头下浓郁得像奶油,躺在实验桌一排排擦得银亮的漂亮的试管里,向辽远处伸展开去。
   “这里,”主任开了门说,“就是孕育室。”
   孵化与条件设置中心主任进屋时三百个孕育员身子都俯在仪器上。有的不声不气,全神贯注,几乎大气不出;有的则。已不在焉地自语着,哼着,吹着口哨。一群新来的学生低声下气地跟在主任身后,有些紧张。他们全都非常年轻,红扑扑的脸蛋,乳臭未干。每个人都拿着一个笔记本,那大人物说一句他们就拼命地记一”句——从“大人物那里”直接受教是一种难得的特权。中央伦敦孵化与条件设置中心主任对亲自带领新生参观各个部门特别重视。
   “这只是给你们一个全局的印象。”他向他们解释。因为既然需要他们动脑筋工作,就得让他们了解一些全局,尽管他们如果想成为良好的社会成员过幸福的日子,还是知道得越少越好。具体细节通向品德与幸福,而了解全局只是必不可少的,这个道理凡是聪明人都是明白的。因为形成社会脊梁的并不是哲学家,而是细木工和玩集邮的人。
   “明天”主任总对他们微笑,亲切而略带威胁他说,“你们就要安下心来做严肃的工作了。你们不会有多少时间了解全局的。而同时……。”
   而同时,从大人物的嘴直接到笔记本也是一种特权。孩子们发狂地记着笔记。
   主任往屋里走去。他身材修长,略显瘦削,身板挺直。长长的下巴,相当突出的大门牙,不说话时两片嘴唇勉强能包住,嘴唇丰满,曲线好看。他究竟是老还是年轻?是三十岁还是五十岁?或是五十五岁?很难讲。不过,在这个安定的年代,福帝六三二年,并没有谁会想到去问一问。
   “我从头说一说”主任说,积极的学生把他的意思记进了笔记本:从头说一说。“这些”他一挥手,“就是孵化器”他打开一道绝缘门,向学生们展示出一架架编了号的试管。“这都是本周才供应的卵子,保持在血液的温度,”他解释道,“而男性配偶子的温度,”说时他开了另一道门,“必须保持在三十五度而不是三十七度。十足的血液温度能够使配偶子失效。”窝在发热器里的公羊是配不出崽的。
   他仍然靠在孵化器上,向他们简要地讲述现代的授精过程,铅笔在本子上匆匆地涂抹着。当然,先从外科手术介绍起——“接受手术是为了社会的利益,同时也可以带来一笔报酬,相当于六个月的工资。”然后他讲到保持剥离卵存活、使之活跃发展的技术,对最佳温度、最佳盐度和最佳部调度的考虑;讲到用什么液体存放剥离的成熟卵。然后他把学生领到了工作台前,向他们实际展示了这种液体是怎样从试管里抽取的,是怎样一滴一滴注入特别加温的显微镜玻片上的;展示了液体中的卵子如有异常如何检查,卵子如何记数,如何转入一个有孔的容器里,那容器是如何浸入一种有精子自由游动的温暖的肉汤里的——他强调肉汤里的精子浓度至少是每立方厘米十万(同时他领着他们观看操作),如何在十分钟后从液体里取出容器,再次检验其中的东西。如果有的卵子还没有受精,又再浸泡一次,必要时还要再浸泡一次;然后受精卵便回到孵化器里,留下阿尔法们和比塔们,直到终于人瓶。而伽马们、德尔塔们和爱扑塞隆们则要到三十六小时之后才重新取出,再进入波坎诺夫斯基程序。
   “波坎诺夫斯基程序。”主任重复道,学生们在各自的小笔记本里的这个字下面画一道杠子。
   一个卵子形成一个胚胎,一个成人,这是常规。但是一个经过波坎诺夫斯基程序处理的卵子会萌蘖、增生、分裂,形成八至九十六个胚芽,每个胚芽可以成长为一个完整的胚胎,每一个胚胎成长为一个完整的成人。以前一个受精卵只能生成一个人,现在能生成九十六个人。这就叫进步。
   “从根本上讲,”主任下结论道,“‘波坎诺夫斯基化程序’包含了一系列对发展的抑制——我们制止卵子正常发育生长。而出人意外的是,卵子的反应却是:萌蘖。”
   卵子的反应是萌蘖,铅笔忙碌着。
   他指点着。一条非常缓慢地移动着的传送带上有满满一架试管正在进入一个巨大的金属柜,另一架试管也在逐渐露出,机器发出轻微的嗡嗡声。他告诉他们:一架试管通过金属柜需要八分钟。八分钟的X光强力照射大体是一个卵子所能经受的照射量。有些卵子死去了,有些最不敏感的卵子一分为二;而大部分卵子则萌蘖出四个胚芽;有的则萌蘖出八个。它们又全部被送回孵化器,胚芽在其中继续发育。两天后又给予突然的冰冻。冰冻,抑制。两个分为四个,再分为八个。胚芽反而分蘖了;分蘖之后又用酒精使之几乎死亡;随之而来的是再分蘖,又再分蘖——胚芽再长胚芽,新胚芽又发展出新胚芽——然后便任其自由生长,此时如再抑制,一般是会造成死亡的。这时原始卵可能已经分裂为八至九十六个胚胎——你们会承认这对大自然是了不起的进步。恒等多生,不是母体分裂时代那种可怜巴巴的双生或三生;那时卵子分裂是偶然的——现在实际上一个卵子一次能够生长为四五十个,或十个人。
   “十个人呀。”主任双手一挥,重复了一句,仿佛在抛撒赏金似的。
   可是有个学生却傻呵呵地问起那能有什么好处来。
   “我的好孩子!”主任猛然转身对着他:“这你还看不出来?你连这也看不出来?”他庄严地举起一只手,“波坎诺夫斯基程序是稳定社会的一种重要手段!”
   稳定社会的一种重要手段。
   批量生产的标准化男性和女性。一个小工厂的人员全部由一个经过波坎诺夫斯基程序处理的卵子产生。
   “九十六个多生子女操作九十六部完全相同的机器!”那声音由于激动几乎在颤抖。“你们现在才真正明白了自己的地位,有史以来的第一次。”他引用了全球的格言:“社会,本分,稳定。”这是了不起的话。“如果我们能够无穷无尽地波坎诺夫斯基化,一切问题都可以迎刃而解。”
   由同一标准的伽马们,一模一样的德尔塔们,一成不变的爱扑塞隆们解决了,由数以百万计的恒等多生子解决了。大规模生产的原则终于在生物学里使用了。
   “但遗憾的是,”主任摇摇头,“我们不能够无地波坎诺夫斯基化。”
   九十六个似乎已经达到了极限,七十二个已是很不错的中数。要用同一个男性的精子从同一个卵子生产出尽可能多批量的恒等多生子,这已是最佳成绩(遗憾的是,只能够算是次佳成绩)而且就连这也很困难。
   “因为在自然状态下,要让两百个卵子成熟需要三十年之久。但我们现在的任务是稳定人口,稳定在此时此地的水平。花四分之一个世纪去生产少数几个多生子——那能有什么用处?”
   显然毫无用处。但是泼孜纳普技术却大大加速了成熟的过程。他们有把握在两年之内至少生产出二百五十个成熟的卵子。然后让它们受精,再波坎诺夫斯基化——换句话说,乘以七十二,于是你得到差不多一万一千个兄弟姐妹,一百五十批恒等多生子女,全都在两年之内出生,年龄一样大。
   “在特殊的例外情况下我们可以用一个卵子培养出一万五千个成年人。”
   主任向一个浅色头发的壮健青年招了招手——那人正好路过。“福斯特先生。”他叫道。那壮健的青年走了过来。“你能够告诉我们一个卵子的最高记录是多少么?”
   “在本中心是一万六千零一十二个。”福斯特先生毫不犹豫地回答。他长着一对快活的蓝眼睛,说话迅速,显然很以引述数字为乐。“一万六千零一十二个,共是一百八十九批恒等多生子。但是在赤道的有些孵化中心”他滔滔不绝地说了下去,“成绩还要好得多。新加坡的产量常常超过一万六千五百个;而蒙巴萨实际上已达到一万七千的指标。但是他们的条件优越。你要是能看看黑人卵子对新液的反应就好了!你若是习惯于使用欧洲材料的话,黑人卵子的反应会叫你大吃一惊的。不过,”他笑了笑,又说(但眼里却有战斗的光彩,翘起的下巴也带有挑战意味),“不过,只要有可能我们还是想超过他们。目前我正在培养一个惊人的德尔塔加卵子,只有十八个月时间,却已经有一千二百七十个孩子,有的已经换瓶,有的还处于胚胎状态,可仍然健壮。我们还有可能超过蒙巴萨。”
   “我喜欢的就是这种精神户主任拍了拍福斯特先生的肩膀,叫道,“跟我们一块走走吧,让孩子们有幸获得你的专门知识。”
   福斯特先生客气地笑了笑。“乐意效劳。”便一起走了。
   装瓶室一片繁忙,却节奏和谐,井井有条。切成适当大小的新鲜母猪腹膜片从大楼次底层的器官库里由小电梯里送出来,吱的一声,然后是咔哒!电梯孵化器打开;装瓶线上的人只须伸出一只手,抓住腹膜片,塞进瓶里,按平,已经装好的瓶子还没有沿着运输线走开,吱,咔哒!又一块腹膜片已经从下面冒了出来,只等着被塞进另一个瓶子——那缓慢的传送带上的无穷的行列里的下一个瓶子。
   生产线工人旁边是收纳员。流水线继续前进;卵子一个个从试管转入更大的容器;腹膜内膜被巧妙地剖开,甚状细胞准确落了进去,硷盐溶液注入……此时瓶子已经离去。下面是标签员的工作。遗传状况、授精日期、波坎诺夫斯基组别——全部细节都从试管转到瓶子上。这回不再是没有名字的了,署上了名,标明了身分。流水线缓缓前进,通过墙壁上一个人口进入了社会条件预定室。
   “索引卡片总共有八十八立方米之多。”大家步入社会条件预定室时福斯特先生得意地说。
   “包括了全部的有关资料。”主任补充道。
   “而且每天早上更新。”
   “每天下午调整。”
   “他们在资料的基础上做出设计。”
   “某种品质的个体是多少。”福斯特先生说。
   “按这一种、那一种数量分配。”
   “在任何特定时到投入最佳的分量。”
   “有了意外的消耗立即会得到补充。”
   “立即补充,”福斯特先生重复道,‘称要是知道上一次日本地震之后我加班加点所做的工作就好了!”他摇着头,温文尔雅地笑了笑。
   “命运预定员把他们设计的数字给胎孕员。”
   “胎孕员把需要的胚胎给他们。”
   “瓶子送到这儿来敲定命运设置的细节。”
   “然后再送到胚胎库房去。”
   “我们现在就是到胚胎库房去。”
   福斯特先生开了一道门,领着大家走下台阶,进入了地下室。
   温度仍热得像赤道。他们进入的地方越来越暗。那条通道经过了两道门,拐了两个弯,用以确保目光不透进地窖。
   “胚胎很像摄影胶卷,”福斯特先生推开第二道门时开玩笑似地说,“只能承受红光。”
   学生们跟他进去的地方又暗又热,实际上可以看见的东西都呈红色,像夏天午后闭上眼时眼里那种暗红。通道两侧的大肚瓶一排接着一排,一层高于一层,闪着数不清的红宝石般的光。红宝石之间行走着幽灵样的男男女女,形象模糊,眼睛通红,带着红斑狼疮的一切病征。机器的嗡嗡声和咔哒声微微地震动着空气。
   “告诉他们几个数字吧。”主任不想多说话。
   福斯特先生巴不得告诉他们一些数字。
   二百二十公尺长,二百公尺宽,十公尺高,他指了指头顶上。学生们抬起眼睛望望高处的天花板,一个个像喝着水的鸡。
   架子有三层:地面长廊,一阶长廊,二阶长廊。
   一层层蜘蛛网样的钢架长廊从各个方面往黑暗里模糊了去。他们身边有三个红色幽灵正忙着从传送梯上取下小颈大肚瓶。
   从社会命运预定室来的电梯。
   每一个瓶子都可以往十五个架子中的任何一个上面搁。虽然看不见,每个架子却都是一条传送带,以每小时三十三点三厘米的速度运动着。每天八公尺,二百六十七天。总共两千一百三十六公尺。地下室的巡回线有一条在地面高度,有一条在一阶长廊高度,还有半条在二阶长廊高度。第二百六十七天早上日光照进换瓶室。所谓的“独立生命’便出现了。
   “但是在这个阶段,”福斯特先生总结道,“我们已经在它们身上下了很多功夫。啊,非常多的功夫。”他带着洞察一切的神态和胜利的情绪笑了。
   “我喜欢的就是这种精神。”主任再次说道,“大家一起走一圈,你来把所有的东西都向他们介绍一下吧,福斯特先生。”
   福斯特先生照办。
   他向他们介绍了在腹膜苗床上生长的胚胎,让他们尝了尝给胚胎吃的浓酽的代血剂,解释了必须使用胎盘制剂和甲状腺制剂刺激它的理由;介绍了妊娠素精;让他们看了从零至二千零四十公尺之间每隔十二公尺就自动喷射一次妊娠素精的喷射口;介绍了在最后的九十六公尺过程里分量逐渐增加的黏液。描述了在一百一十二米处安装进每个瓶里的母体循环;让他们看了代血剂池;看了驱使液体在胎盘制剂上流动并驱动其流过合成肺和废物过滤器的离心泵。向他们谈了很麻烦的胚胎贫血倾向;谈了大剂量的猪胃提取素和胚胎马的肝——人的胚胎需要用马胚胎肝营养。
   他也让他们看了一种简单的机械,每一个胚胎每运行八公尺到最后两公尺时,那机械便对它进行摇晃,使之习惯于运动。他提示了所谓的“换瓶伤害”的严重性,阐述了种种预防措施,用以对瓶里的胚胎进行适当的训练,把那危险的震动减少到最低限度。向他们介绍了在二百公尺左右进行的性别测试。解释了标签体系。T表示男性,O表示女性,而命定了要做不孕女的则是白底上的一个黑色问号。
   “当然,因为”福斯特先生说,“对绝大部分情况而言,多产只是一种多余。一千二百个卵子里只须有一个多产就已能满足我们的要求。不过我们想精挑细选。当然还得有很大的保险系数。因此,我们任其发育的女性胚胎多到总数的百分之三十,剩下的便在以后的过程里每隔二十四米给予一剂男性荷尔蒙。其结果是:到换瓶时它们已经成了不孕女——生理结构完全正常(‘只是’,他不得不承认,‘她们确实有一种很轻微的长胡子的倾向’),但是不能生育。保证不能生育。这就使我们终于,”福斯特先生继续说,“走出对大自然的奴隶式模仿的王国,进入人类发明的世界,那就要有趣得多了。”
   他搓搓手。因为当然,他们并没有以孵化出胚胎为满足:孵化胚胎是无论哪条母牛都能干的事。
   “我们也预定人的命运,设置人的条件。我们把婴儿换瓶为社会化的人,叫做阿尔法或爱扑塞隆,以后让他们掏阴沟或是……”他原打算说“主宰世界”,却改了口道:“做孵化中心主任。”
   孵化中心主任笑了笑,接受了赞美。
   他们正从三百二十米处的十一号架前经过。一个年轻的比塔减技术员正忙着用螺丝刀和扳手处理路过的血泵——那是用以泵出瓶里的代血剂的。他拧紧了螺丝,马达的嗡嗡声极轻微地加大了。往下,往下……拧了最后一下,他看了一下旋转柜台,任务完成。他沿着流水线前进了两步,在下一个血泵前重复起了同样的程序。
   “每分钟旋转数一减少,”福斯特先生解释道,“代血剂的循环就减慢了,流经肺部的时间也随之延长,这样,输送给胚胎的氧气就减少了。要降低胚胎规格没有比减少氧气更好的办法了。”他又搓了搓手。
   “可你为什么要降低胚胎规格?”一个聪明的学生问道。
   “傻孩子!’长时间的沉默,最后,主任才说,“你就没有想到爱扑塞隆胚胎必须有爱扑塞隆环境和爱扑塞隆遗传吗?”
   那学生显然没有想到过,感到惶惑。
   “种姓越低,”福斯特先生说,“供氧越少。最早受到影响的是头脑,然后是骨骼。供氧量只达正常量百分之七十就形成侏儒。低于百分之七十就成了没有眼睛的怪胎。”
   “那就完全是废品了。”福斯特先生总结说。
   而同时,他们要是能找到一种缩短成熟期的技术,对社会又是多么大的贡献呀!(他说话时带着机密的口气,而且迫切。)
   “设想一下马吧。”
   他们设想了一下。
   马六年成熟;象十年成熟;而人到十三岁性还没有成熟,等到充分成熟已经二十岁了。当然,发育迟缓的结果是智力发育也迟缓。
   “但我们在爱扑塞隆们身上,”福斯特先生非常公正地说,“并不需要人类的智慧。”
   “本来就不需要,而且也得不到。但是爱扑塞隆们到十岁时心智就已成熟,而身体呢,不到十八岁却成熟不了。让非成熟期占去许多年是不必要的,也是浪费。如果体力的发展能够加速,比如能够跟母牛一样快,那对社会会是多大的节约呀!”
   “了不起的节约!”学生们喃喃地说。福斯特先生的热情带有传染性。
   他相当专门化地谈起了使人生长迟缓的内分泌失调问题,并提出萌芽期突变作为解释。那么,这种突变的影响能不能消除?能不能采用一种适当的技术使个别的爱扑塞隆胚胎回归到狗和牛一样的常规去?问题就在这里,而这个问题已经差不多解决了。
   蒙巴萨的琵金顿已经培育出四岁就性成熟,六岁半就充分成长的个体。那是科学的胜利,可在社会上却还没有用处。六岁的男人和女人太愚蠢,连爱扑塞隆的工作都干不了。而这却是个“一揽子”程序,要就是不变,要就是全变。他们打算在二十岁的成人和六岁的成人之间寻求理想的折中,到目前为止还没有取得成功。福斯特先生叹了口气,摇了摇头。
   他们在猩红的光线里转悠着,来到了九号架的一百七十公尺附近。从这儿往下九号架就封闭了。瓶子在一个隧道样的东西里结束了行程。隧道里每隔一定距离就有一个口子,两三公尺宽。
   “是调节温度的。”福斯特先生说。
   热隧道与冷隧道交替出现。以强X射线的形式出现的冷冻跟不舒服结合在一起,胚胎换瓶时经历了可怕的冷冻。这批胚胎是预定要移民到赤道地区去做矿工、人造丝缫丝工和钢铁工人的。以后还要给他们的身体配合心灵判断力。“我们设置条件让他们能在炎热气候里兴旺成功,”福斯特先生下了结论,“我们楼上的同事会培养他们喜爱炎热。”
   “而幸福与德行的诀窍,”主任像说格言一样道,“是爱好你非干不可的事。一切条件设置的目标都是:让人们喜欢他们无法逃避的社会命运。”
   在两条隧道交合点的一个空处,一个护士正用细长的针管小心探索着走过的瓶中的胶状物质。学生们和向导默默地看了一会儿。
   “列宁娜。”护土抽回针管,站直身子后,福斯特先生说。
   那姑娘吃了一惊转过身来。人们可以看出,尽管光线令她红得像害了红斑狼疮,眼睛也通红,却美丽非凡。
   “亨利。”她向他闪来一个红色的微笑——一排珊瑚样的牙齿。
   “迷人,迷人。”主任喃喃地说,轻轻地拍了她两三下,从她那儿得到一个毕恭毕敬的微笑。
   “你在给他们加什么?”福斯特先生问道,有意让声音带公事公办的调子。
   “啊,平常的伤寒和昏睡症疫苗。”
   “赤道工人到一百五十公尺处就注射预防疫苗。”福斯特先生对学生们说。“这时胚胎还长着鳃。我们让‘鱼’免疫,以后就不会传染人类的疾病。”他转向列宁娜,“今天下午四点五十分在屋顶上,”他说,“照旧。”
   “迷人。”主任又说了一句,又最后拍了她一下,跟别人一起走掉了。
   第十道架上一排排下一代的化学工人正在承受着铅毒、苛性苏打、沥青和氯气伤害的锻炼。第三排架上是胚胎期的火箭飞机机械师,每批二百五十个,其中的头一个正从三号架的一千一百公尺点通过。一种特别的机械使它们的容器旋转个不停。“这是为了提高它们的平衡能力,”福斯特先生解释道,“火箭进入太空之后,要到火箭外进行修理是很困难的活儿。他们直立时我们便减缓转速,让他们感到很饥饿;他们倒立时我们就加倍供应代血剂。这样,他们就把舒适跟倒立状态联系了起来。实际上他们只有倒立时才真正感到快活。”“现在,”福斯特先生说下去,“我要让你们看看对阿尔法加型知识分子的性格预定,那是很有趣的。在五号架上我们有一大批阿尔法加,在第一道长廊,”他对已经开始往一楼下去的两个小伙子叫道。
   “他们大体在九百公尺附近,”他解释道,“在胚胎的尾巴消失以前实际上是无法设置智力条件的。跟我来。”
   但是主任已经在看他的表了。“差十分钟到三点,”他说,“我担心的是没有时间看知识分子胚胎了。我们必须在孩子们午睡醒来之前赶回育婴室去。”
   福斯特先生感到失望。“至少看看换瓶车间吧。”他请求。
   “那也行,”主任宽厚地笑了笑,“那就看看吧。”
  
第二章
  福斯特先生被留在了换瓶车间。孵化与条件设置中心主任和学生们踏上了附近的电梯,上了五楼。
   育婴室。新巴甫洛夫条件设定室,门牌上写着。
   主任打开一道门,他们来到一个巨大的空房间里。阳光照耀得异常明亮,因为南墙整个是一扇窗户。六个护士全穿着白色:粘胶纤维短上衣和长裤;为了防止污染,把头发压在帽子下面。她们正忙着把~R排玫瑰花在地板上摆列开来。盆子很大,开着密密的花朵,千万片花瓣盛开,光致得像丝绸,有如无数张小天使的脸,但在明亮的光照之下的并不全是雅利安型和粉红色的脸,其间还有开朗的中国人的脸、墨西哥人的脸。有的大约因为吹奏天上的喇叭太多而中风般地歪扭了,苍白得像死亡,像大理石。
   主任一到,护士们就立正,挺直了身子。
   “把书摆出来。”他简短地说。
   护士们一声不响,服从了命令,把书在花钵的行列之间排开——一大排幼儿园用的四开本大书翻了开来,露出了一些色彩鲜艳的鸟儿、野兽和鱼的形象,美丽动人。
   “现在把孩子们带进来。”
   护士们急忙出了屋子,一两分钟之后每人推来了一辆车,车上的四个钢丝网架上各睡着一个八个月的婴儿,全都一模一样(显然是同一批波坎诺夫斯基产品),因为是同属德尔塔种姓,所以一律穿咔叽。
   “把他们放到地板上。”
   婴儿们被放了下来。
   “现在让他们转过身来看见花朵和书籍。”
   婴儿们一转过身就不出声了,都向一丛丛花花绿绿的颜色和白色的书页上鲜艳耀眼的形象爬去。他们靠近时,太阳从暂时的云翳后面照射了出来;玫瑰花仿佛由于内在的突然变得灿烂了。明亮的书页上仿佛弥漫了一种深沉的新意。爬着的婴儿队伍里发出了激动的尖叫,欢乐的笑声和咕咕声。
   主任搓着手。“好极了!”他说,‘简直像有意表演似的。”
   爬得最快的已经快到目标了。小手摇摇晃晃伸了出来,摸着,抓着,玫瑰花变了形,花瓣扯掉了,书本上有插图的书页揉皱了。主任等待着,趁他们全都快活地忙碌着的时候,“好好地看着吧。”他说,同时举起手发出了信号。
   站在屋子那头仪表盘边的护士长按下了一根小小的杠杆。
   一声猛烈的爆炸,汽笛拉了起来,声音越来越刺耳,警铃也疯狂地响着。
   孩子们震惊了,尖叫了;脸儿因为恐怖而扭曲了。
   “现在,”主任因为噪声震耳欲聋高叫道,“现在我们用柔和的电台来巩固一下这次的教训。”
   他再挥了挥手,护士长按下第二根杠杆。婴儿们的尖叫突然变了调子,发出的抽搐叫喊中有一种绝望的、几乎是疯狂的调子。一个个小身子抽搐着,僵直着;四肢抖动着,好像有看不见的线在扯动他们。
   “还可以让那片地板整个通电,”主任大声解释,“不过,就这就已经够了,”他向护士做了个手势。
   爆炸停止,铃声停止,警报一声声低去,终于静止。僵直的、抽搐的身子放松了,婴儿的已经微弱的疯狂啜泣和惊叫再次加大,变成平时受到惊吓时的一般哭嚎。
   “再给他们花和书。”
   护士们照办了。但是玫瑰花、色彩鲜艳的小猫、小鸡和咩咩叫的黑羊刚一靠近,婴儿们就吓得闪躲。哭喊声突然响亮了起来。
   “注意,”主任胜利地说,“注意。”
   在婴儿们心里花朵跟巨大的噪声的匹配,花朵跟电击的匹配已经熔融、结合到了一起。像这样的或类似的课程接连进行两百次之后,两者之间就建立了无法分离的关系。这种人造的联系木是自然所能够拆散的。
   “他们会带着。心理学家称之为‘本能’的对书本和鲜花的厌恶长大成人。反射的条件无可逆转地形成了。他们一辈子都不会有爱书籍和爱植物的危险了。”主任转身对护士们说,“把孩子们带走。”
   穿咔叽衣服的啼啼哭哭的婴儿被塞回车上推走了,在身后留下一些发酸的奶味和非常受欢迎的寂静。
   一个学生举起了手:不能让低种姓的人在书本上去浪费社会的时间,而且读书总有可能读到什么东西,有破坏他们的某个条件设置的危险,那是不可取的。这些他都很想得通;但……晤,但对花他却想不通,为什么要费力气去让德尔塔们从心理上厌恶花?
   孵化及条件设置中心主任耐。心地做了解释。培养孩子们见了玫瑰花就尖叫是为了高度节约。不能算很久以前(大约才过去一个世纪),伽玛们、德尔塔们甚至爱扑塞隆们都有喜欢花朵的条件设置——一般地说是喜欢野外的自然,特殊地说是喜欢花朵。其目的是让他们一有机会就产生到田野里去的要求,逼得他们多花交通费。
   “他们花交通费了吗?”学生问。
   “花了很多,”主任回答,“但是别的费用却不必花了。”
   主任指出,樱草花和风景都有一个严重的缺点:它们是免费的。爱好大自然能使工厂工作懈怠。于是决定取消了对大自然的爱——至少取消了低种姓的人对大自然的爱;却并不取消花交通费的倾向。因为他们仍须到农村去,即使憎恨也得去,那是根本的。问题是能在经济上为交通消费找出更站得住脚的理由,而不是喜欢樱草花和风景什么的。恰当的理由后来找到了。
   “我们设置了条件,让人群不喜欢乡村,”主任的结论是,“却又设置了条件让他们喜欢田野里的一切运动。而我们同时又注意让田野里的运动消耗精美的器材;让他们既消费工业品也花交通费。因此我们才给婴儿电击。”
   “明白了。”学生说完便住了嘴,佩服得五体投地。
   沉默。主任清了清嗓子,“从前,”他开始说,“在我主福帝还在世的时候,有一个小孩,叫做鲁本·拉宾挪维奇,父母说波兰语,’主任岔开了一句,“你们是知道什么叫波兰语的吧,我看?”
   “是一种死亡的语言。”
   “像法语和德语一样。”另一个学生插嘴补充,炫耀着学识。
   “还有‘父母’,你们知道吧?”主任问。
   短暂的木好意思的沉默,几个孩子脸红了。他们还没有学会区别粗俗科学与纯粹科学之间的重大的却也微妙的差异。但毕竟有一个学生鼓起勇气举起了手。
   “人类以前就是……”他犹豫了,血往面颊上涌,“胎生的。”
   “很对。”主任赞许地点点头。
   “那时在婴儿换瓶的时候……”
   “出生’的时候。”他受到纠正。
   “晤……他们是父母生出来的——我的意思是,不是现在的婴儿,当然,而是那时的。”可怜的孩子语无伦次了。
   “简而言之,”主任总结道,“那时生孩子的就是爸爸和妈妈。”这话实际上是把真正科学的污物猛然向孩子们羞得不敢抬头的沉默砸过去。“妈妈,”他往椅子后面一靠,大声重复着,把科学硬揉进他们的脑子,“这些都是不愉快的事实,我明白。不过大部分的历史事实都是不愉快的。”
   主任回头又说起了小鲁本——小鲁本。有天晚上小鲁本的爸爸(一砸!)和妈妈(二砸!)不小心忘了关掉小鲁本房里的收音机。
   (因为,你必须记住,在那野蛮的胎生繁殖时代,孩子们都是在爸爸(又砸!)和妈妈(再砸!)身边长大,而不是在国家的条件设置中心长大的。)
   在那孩子睡着的时候,伦敦的广播节目突然开始了。第二天早上令他的砸和砸(较为胆大的孩子竞偷偷彼此望着傻笑起来)大为吃惊的是,小鲁本醒过来时竟能一字不差地背诵一个奇怪的老作家的长篇说教。那是少数几个被允许把作品留给我们的老作家之一,名叫乔治悄伯纳。他正按照一种经过考证确实存在过的传统讲述着自己的天才。那些话当然是完全听不懂的,小鲁本背诵时者挤眉弄眼,格格地笑着。他们以为孩子发了疯,急忙请来了医生。幸好医生懂得英语,听出了那就是肖伯纳头天晚上广播的那段话。医生明白此事的意义,便写信给医学刊物报告了。
   “于是发现了睡眠教育法,或称‘眠教’的原则。”主任故意停顿了一下,引人注意。
   原则倒是发现了,但把它运用于有利的实践却是许多许多年以后的事。
   “小鲁本的病例早在我主福帝的T型车推上市场以后不过二十三年就发生了,”(说到这里主任在肚子上画了个T字。所有的学生也虔诚地照画。)可是……”
   学生们拼命地记着。“睡眠教育,福帝二一四年正式使用。为什么不在以前使用?理由有二。(a)……”
   “这些早期的实验者,”主任说道,“走错了路,把睡眠教育当做了智力培养的手段……”
   (他身边一个打盹的小孩伸出了右臂,右手在床边无力地垂下了。有声音从一个匣子上的圆格栅里轻轻发出:
   “尼罗河是非洲最长的河,是地球上第二条最长的河。虽然长度不如密西西比一密苏里河,它的流域长度却居世界首位,流经的纬度达三十五度之多……”
   第二天早餐时,“汤姆,”有人说,‘你知道非洲最长的河是什么河吗?”对方摇了摇头。“可是你记得从‘尼罗河是……’开头的那句话吗?”
   “尼罗河是非洲最长的河,是地球上第二条最长的河……”话句冲口而出。“虽然长度不如……,
   “那么现在回答我,非洲最长的河是什么河?”
   目光呆钝,“我不知道。”
   “可是尼罗河,汤米。”
   “尼罗河是非洲最长的河,是地球上第一,二条……”
   “那么,哪一条河是最长的呢,汤米?”
   汤米急得流眼泪了。“我不知道。”他哭了出来。
   主任指明,是他那哭喊使最早的调查人员泄了气,放弃了实验的。以后便再也没有做过利用睡眠时间对儿童进行尼罗河长度的教育了。这样做很对。不明白科学的意义是掌握不了科学的。
   “可是,如果他们进行了道德教育,那就不同了,”主任说着领着路向门口走去。学生们一边往电梯走一边拼命地写着:“在任何情况下道德教育都是不能够诉诸理智的。”
   “肃静,肃静,”他们踏出十四层楼的电梯时,一个扩音器低声说着,“肃静,肃静。”他们每走下一道长廊,都听见喇叭口不疲倦地发出这样的声音。学生们,甚至主任,都不自觉地踏起了脚尖。他们当然都是阿尔法,但就是阿尔法也都是受到充分的条件设置的。“肃静,肃静”,这断然的命令让十四楼的空气里充满了肃、肃、肃的嘶沙音。
   他们赔着脚走了五十码,来到一道门前,主任小心翼翼地开了门。他们跨过门槛,进入了一片昏暗,那是个宿舍,百叶窗全关闭了。靠墙摆了一排小床,一共八十张。一片轻柔的有规则的呼吸声和连续不断的喃喃声传来,仿佛是辽远处微弱的细语。
   他们一进屋,一个护土就站了起来,来到主任面前立正。
   “今天下午上什么课?”他问。
   “开头的四十分钟上《性学发凡》”她回答,“现在已经转入《阶级意识发凡》。”
   主任沿着那一长排小床慢慢走去。八十个男女儿童舒坦地躺着,轻柔地呼吸着,面孔红红的,平静安详。每个枕头下都有轻柔的声音传来。主任停了脚步,在一张小床前弯子仔细倾听。
   “你说的是《阶级意识发凡》吗?我们把声音放大点试试看。”
   屋子尽头有一个扩音器伸出在墙上。主任走到它面前摁了摁按钮。
   “……都穿绿色,”一个柔和清晰的声音从句子中途开始,“而德尔塔儿童则穿咔叽。爱扑塞隆穿得更差一些。爱扑塞隆们太笨,学不会读书写字;他们穿黑色,那是很粗陋的颜色。我非常高兴我是个比塔。”
   停顿了片刻,那声音又开始了。
   “阿尔法儿童穿灰色。他们的工作要比我们辛苦得多,因为他们聪明得吓人。我因为自己是比塔而非常高兴,因为我用不着做那么辛苦的工作。何况我们也比伽玛们和德尔塔们要好得多。伽玛们都很愚蠢,他们全都穿绿衣服,德尔塔们穿咋叽衣服。啊,不,我不愿意跟德尔塔孩子们玩。爱扑塞隆就更糟糕了,太笨,他们学不会…”
   主任摁回了按钮,声音没有了。只有它的细弱的幽灵还在八十个枕头底下继续絮叨。
   “它醒来之前这些话还要为他们重复四十到五十遍;星期四,星期六还要重复。三十个月,每周三次,每次一百二十遍。然后接受高一级的课程。”
   玫瑰花和电击,德尔塔们穿咋叽,还加上阿魏树脂的香味——在孩子们能够说话之前这些东西便不可分割地融合成了一体。但是不使用话语的条件设置是很粗陋的、笼统的;无法把精微的区别和复杂的行为灌输到家。那必须有话语,而且必须是不讲理由的话语。简而言之就是:睡眠教育。
   “这是有史以来最伟大的道德教育和社会化教育的力量。”
   学生们把这些全写进了小本于,是大人物口授的。
   主任再度摁响了喇叭。
   “聪明得吓人。我为自己是比塔而非常高兴,因为,因为··。…”
   这不太像水滴,虽然水的确能够滴穿最坚硬的花岗岩;要说嘛,倒是橡滴滴的封蜡,一滴一滴落下,粘住,结壳,跟滴落的地方结合在一起,最后把岩石变成了个红疙瘩。
   “结果是:孩子们心里只有这些暗示,而这些暗示就成了孩子们的心灵。还不仅是孩子们的心灵,也还是成年后的心灵——终身的心灵,那产生判断和欲望并做出决定的心灵都是由这些暗示构成的。可是这一切暗示都是我们的暗示!”主任几乎因为胜利而高叫了起来。“而由国家执行的。”他捶了捶最靠近他的桌子。“因此随之而来的就是……”
   一阵噪声使他回过头去。
   “啊,福帝!”他换了个调子说道,“我只顾说话了,把孩子们都吵醒了。”
  
首页>> 旅游天下>> 科幻小说>> 阿道斯·赫胥黎 Aldous Huxley   英国 United Kingdom   温莎王朝   (1894年7月26日1963年11月22日)