Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, was published in 1932 but it anticipates what the future will be like. Huxley describes the future in London in 632 AF (after Ford) as a society totally based on control. The novel is based on the ideas of futurism, and in this fictional society nothing is how we know it in our world today. In this society there is no natural birth, and people are conditioned into social status classes. In this world, to escape their day-to-day lives the characters take a drug called soma. Soma is a dream-inducing drug that puts the taker into a state of relaxation. The characters in the novel take soma in many different situations. Some times to relax themselves, sometimes to increase their concentration, and other times to give themselves confidence. In the novel, when John Savage causes a riot to break out, the crowd is sprayed with a soma spray to cause them all to become relaxed and to stop feelings animosity. Also the drug can also produce happiness, and when taken in extreme dosages like how Lenina uses the drug, can incapacitates the user. The drug is available to everyone, and the Government uses it to control the people living in the world Huxley created. By taking the soma, the people are put in a drugged out state that makes them not question where there feelings come from. The drug soma is not like a drug we have available today, but instead mixes the effects of many of today’s drugs. Drugs that soma is similar to in today’s society are marijuana, ADHD medications like Adderall, and Phencyclidine (PCP). These drugs, when taken give some of the effects the soma produces. Unlike in Huxley’s world however, our society has still not accepted drug use and it is not acceptable to take drugs. Even ADHA medications still have a negative stigma attached to them. In this world these drugs are accepted and used is forced by the government, but this is a far cry from the War on Drugs our government has created.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Brave New World Background and Connection
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, was published in 1932 but it anticipates what the future will be like. Huxley describes the future in London in 632 AF (after Ford) as a society totally based on control. The novel is based on the ideas of futurism, and in this fictional society nothing is how we know it in our world today. In this society there is no natural birth, and people are conditioned into social status classes. In this world, to escape their day-to-day lives the characters take a drug called soma. Soma is a dream-inducing drug that puts the taker into a state of relaxation. The characters in the novel take soma in many different situations. Some times to relax themselves, sometimes to increase their concentration, and other times to give themselves confidence. In the novel, when John Savage causes a riot to break out, the crowd is sprayed with a soma spray to cause them all to become relaxed and to stop feelings animosity. Also the drug can also produce happiness, and when taken in extreme dosages like how Lenina uses the drug, can incapacitates the user. The drug is available to everyone, and the Government uses it to control the people living in the world Huxley created. By taking the soma, the people are put in a drugged out state that makes them not question where there feelings come from. The drug soma is not like a drug we have available today, but instead mixes the effects of many of today’s drugs. Drugs that soma is similar to in today’s society are marijuana, ADHD medications like Adderall, and Phencyclidine (PCP). These drugs, when taken give some of the effects the soma produces. Unlike in Huxley’s world however, our society has still not accepted drug use and it is not acceptable to take drugs. Even ADHA medications still have a negative stigma attached to them. In this world these drugs are accepted and used is forced by the government, but this is a far cry from the War on Drugs our government has created.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Annotated Bibliography
Courtwright, David T. Dark paradise: opiate addiction in America before 1940. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982.
This source is a 270 page book. It will be a very important source because it documents a side of drug use different from the drug use of Brave New World. It highlights all of the negative effects of drugs, especially opiates, where as in Brave New World the people take drugs to give them positive effects. It also explains how people use drugs for the feelings they produce, like how people in Brave New World take soma because of the calming results it produces. Soma and opiates are very closely related, today, there is even a pain killer called soma.
Diller, Lawrence H. The last normal child : essays on the intersection of kids, culture, and psychiatric drugs. Westport: Praeger, 2006.
This source is a 150 page book that is composed of essays detailing prescription drugs being used in children. It takes the approach that giving children drugs for things such as ADD and ADHD is not good. The author takes the side that normal children are the children who do not take these drugs. Like the people in Brave New World become dependent on soma the author puts together essays that show the fear of people, especially children, becoming dependent on these drugs that people survived without for many years.
McInnis, Sasha C. "The political is personal--or why have a revolution when you could be medicated." Off Our Backs 30 (2000): 10.
This source is a journal article, and is an opinion piece. The main focus of this article is how in today's society we are pushing the use of psychotropic medications to deal with everyday life problems. This article even contains a quote from Brave New World: "And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long suffering..[S[wallow two or three half-gram tablets and there you are." The author of the article is arguing that this drug use is not good for our society. She is a feminist who thinks male dominated industries are creating these drugs to make women behave how the men feel they should.
Stafford, Peter. Psychedelics encyclopedia. Berkekey: Ronin, 1992. This source is a book that acts as an encyclopedia of psychedelic drugs.
It explains how psychedelic drugs alter the mind; it even contains a chapter about soma. This source will help with my blog because it will allow me to explain how people's minds are altered by drug use, just like how the people in Brave New World had soma to escape from their problems. The entries in the book also explain the negative effects of drugs on the brain, and how the drugs begin to enslave the drug users. This reminded me of when John Savage encourages the people to break free of the enslavement of soma so this connects very easily to the text.
Tracy, Sarah W., and Caroline J. Acker, eds. Altering American consciousness: the history of alcohol and drug use in the United States, 1800-2000. Amherst: University of Massachusetts P, 2004.
This source is a 414 page book. It details the history of drug use in the United States- discussing both legal drugs and illegal drugs. This sauce is very valuable because it provides background information on why drugs are beneficial, how they became abused, and why drugs are used.
This source is a 270 page book. It will be a very important source because it documents a side of drug use different from the drug use of Brave New World. It highlights all of the negative effects of drugs, especially opiates, where as in Brave New World the people take drugs to give them positive effects. It also explains how people use drugs for the feelings they produce, like how people in Brave New World take soma because of the calming results it produces. Soma and opiates are very closely related, today, there is even a pain killer called soma.
Diller, Lawrence H. The last normal child : essays on the intersection of kids, culture, and psychiatric drugs. Westport: Praeger, 2006.
This source is a 150 page book that is composed of essays detailing prescription drugs being used in children. It takes the approach that giving children drugs for things such as ADD and ADHD is not good. The author takes the side that normal children are the children who do not take these drugs. Like the people in Brave New World become dependent on soma the author puts together essays that show the fear of people, especially children, becoming dependent on these drugs that people survived without for many years.
McInnis, Sasha C. "The political is personal--or why have a revolution when you could be medicated." Off Our Backs 30 (2000): 10.
This source is a journal article, and is an opinion piece. The main focus of this article is how in today's society we are pushing the use of psychotropic medications to deal with everyday life problems. This article even contains a quote from Brave New World: "And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there's always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long suffering..[S[wallow two or three half-gram tablets and there you are." The author of the article is arguing that this drug use is not good for our society. She is a feminist who thinks male dominated industries are creating these drugs to make women behave how the men feel they should.
Stafford, Peter. Psychedelics encyclopedia. Berkekey: Ronin, 1992. This source is a book that acts as an encyclopedia of psychedelic drugs.
It explains how psychedelic drugs alter the mind; it even contains a chapter about soma. This source will help with my blog because it will allow me to explain how people's minds are altered by drug use, just like how the people in Brave New World had soma to escape from their problems. The entries in the book also explain the negative effects of drugs on the brain, and how the drugs begin to enslave the drug users. This reminded me of when John Savage encourages the people to break free of the enslavement of soma so this connects very easily to the text.
Tracy, Sarah W., and Caroline J. Acker, eds. Altering American consciousness: the history of alcohol and drug use in the United States, 1800-2000. Amherst: University of Massachusetts P, 2004.
This source is a 414 page book. It details the history of drug use in the United States- discussing both legal drugs and illegal drugs. This sauce is very valuable because it provides background information on why drugs are beneficial, how they became abused, and why drugs are used.
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