First off, I would just like to say that Postmodernism confuses me at times so i'm sorry if this post isn't 100 percent insightful.
Societies often use stories or myths to help explain things that their culture believes. Many people fit in with society only after they have heard the myth. This gives all the people an easy way to relate with one another because they just so happen to share a common belief. The bonds these stories create are much deeper than the actual story being passed on. These stories are usually called narratives.
Narratives are pretty much stories that are passed down in order to explain something. I think in Brave New World, the people use machines and methods of manipulation to pass on narratives; like how the conditioning center brainwashes the children into believing that they like their jobs and various other ways of life. They do not need to pass down these narratives by word of mouth because the people are taught these ideas as they sleep. That way, the people never really have an original thought because they don't need it. They can simply rely on the magical voice that tells them clever little chants that they can remember forever and recite on que. The worst part is that the people know they have been brainwashed yet they are completely content with it. All the people are told the same thing which means they have had a massive grand narrative thrown at them. This makes it possible for the society to keep certain truths from its people. Nobody will ever question the system because they were never programed to do so. They do not really know anything about the past so they don't really pay much attetion to it. That is their way of life so it is completely normal to them.
The society shown in Brave New World is a very scientifically advanced world. I think this idea merges with postmodern ideas nicely. The people in Brave New World have created an extremely efficient society. The level of scientific skill used to keep the world running is amazing. They seem to have everything down to an art. Postmodernism states that "science is no longer concerned with truth but with performativity--performing--producing more of the same kind of research" (31). The novel easily shows an example of this with the mass production of children. Not only are twins or triplets produced, thousands of children are made that are identical. The world shows a huge emphasis on productivity and they pride themselves on having the capability of producing that many kids from one uterus. They might even be too efficient for their own good, which could potentially ruin the society.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would like to start off by saying hello Katrina! Okay, so I think you did a really good job in staying on track with your train of thought. Everything fit together nicely, so good job on that. And I like how you saw the method of brainwashing as a form of narrative, I just thought they ignored narratives completely, but that makes sense. The voices that chant the children to sleep could be a form of narrative I suppose, because they are explaining to them why they are in the class they are in, and reasons to be happy in that class. But I don't think they have a need for narratives because their society is solely based on science and scientific research. They don't have religion, and they don't really question things, so there's really no need for them to have narratives. Everything they need, can be proven by science, or at least that's what they would say. I think you said something along those lines as well? Anyways, I also agree with you when you said the ideas in Brave New World and the ideas of postmodernism merges together, no need to explain because I basically wrote the same thing you did in my blog =)
ReplyDeleteHey Katrina -
ReplyDeleteDon't feel like you're the only who doesn't fully understand Postmodernism, because I don't really get it either!
Anyway, your explanation of narrative was pretty good. I couldn't comprehend what exactly they were saying in the book, but after reading your explanation of it, I understand it now. So, I would like to thank you for that :)
Yes, I noticed how in Brave New World the society never disagrees with the ruling because they were brainwashed to believe what they were told when they were still in the process of development. Because of this, they seem like they would never dare to disagree and act in different ways from what they were told; however, we're only at the beginning of the book. So who knows.
But yeah, I really appreciated reading your blog because it made me understand it a little bit better. So thanks a lot for that! I look forward to continue reading your blogs :)
Hello Katrina :)
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed reading your blog.
I also want to admit that I do not fully grasp the whole postmodernism thing either,so you're not alone. :) However, on the flip side, I think that by the end of the year we're going to be masters at this Postmodernism thing...just watch! I know we will achieve that much :D
Anyway, I think you did a great job on your blog! For someone who claims that Postmodernism confuses her, I think you did an absolute excellent job explaining what you believe it means. To me you made perfect sense. I on the other hand am hoping no one reads my blog ha ha...ssh, don't tell anyone :P I think I was just babbling. But you, you did not bable one bit. I actually enjoyed reading your blog very much (I even read it multiple times so I could try to remember the information that I read off your blog)! I think that it was well organized and very informative. Actually, I also think that I came out of my blogging experience with way more information that I had before, so thank you Katrina!
I liked how you incorporated both Postmodernism and Brave New World into your blog. I think this shows that you're understanding the concept of Postmodernism enough to relate the two books together. I liked how you stated, " [that] nobody will ever question the system because they were never programed to do so. They do not really know anything about the past so they don't really pay much attetion to it. That is their way of life so it is completely normal to them." I believe that 1984 also proved this to be true. Just like Brave New World, these people didn't know any better to trust and believe that information that they were given, so how will they ever know that it was true? It kind of reminds me oh how we as human beings will never know if certain things in our socity are really true. But, like you said, "many people fit in with society only after they have heard the myth (or bit of information). This gives all the people an easy way to relate with one another because they just so happen to share a common belief."