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Brave New World, a la Shmoop. Car crashes, epic battles, cliffhangers, passionate

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kisses...

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...sounds like enough to keep us entertained for an afternoon.

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But the last thing we'd want is a lull in the action.

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So why does Aldous Huxley's boundary-pushing book, Brave New World, take two whole chapters

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off to... navel-gaze?

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When John, AKA "The Savage,"...

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...heads to the big city...

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...he finds it full of identical clones controlled by drugs, sex, and genetic engineering.

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And he isn't even in southern California.

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The brains of this operation is "World Controller" Mustapha Mond, <Moose-toffa Mahnd> who likes

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to exile people to islands.

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Gotta have a gimmick, right? When John and Mustapha finally meet in Chapter

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16, it's the perfect time for a showdown.

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Will there be an arm-wrestling match, or... torture?

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Nah. Instead, these two main characters have a no-holds-barred, knock-down, drag-out...chat.

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Why does Huxley put the brakes on for the rambling conversations in Chapters 16 and

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17?

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Is he getting paid by the word?

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Or was he influenced by multiple viewings of Spider-Man?

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Here's one thought... Huxley could be advertising his own beliefs.

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Brave New World predicts a future where knowledge is forgotten and replaced with slogans and

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instant gratification.

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Mustapha has well-reasoned arguments as to why independence should be suppressed...

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...but is John right to desire freedom with all its flaws?

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Or, maybe these chapters were a shout-out to the Bard. Brave New World references over

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15 of Shakespeare's plays.

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The Tempest gives the book its name, which comes to mean different things to John over

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time.

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The Tempest also helps John in matters of love, when he's trying to get rid of Lenina.

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<Lennon-uh>

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Chapters 16 and 17 may also be a shout-out to a technique that all the cool playwrights

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use...the philosophical dialogue.

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Philosophical dialogue breaks down a topic through a conversation between two characters.

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Through Mustapha and John, Huxley can look at art, science and religion from totally

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different viewpoints... kind of like playing yourself at chess.

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Philosophical dialogue lets an author make two arguments at the same time—and in this

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case, Huxley really wants John to win. So why does Huxley slow it down for chapters

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16 and 17?

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Is he using "Brave New World" as a billboard for his beliefs?

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Or is he proving his status as Shakespeare's BFF?

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Shmoop amongst yourselves.

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