Brave New World Do, 11.0.9.2008
RL
Chapter 2
The usage of hynopaedia
In the story of Little Reuben, a polish boy whose parents once had forgotten to switch off the radio in the evening and who then could repeat everything that have been said in the radio show at night, hynopaedia has its roots. Hence this method does not help to understand things but just to learn them by head, the director first of all claims it to be non-sense. But when he shows the way the Alphas are preconditioned, it is easily remarkable, that it is hynopaedia that is made use of here.
What I would like to discuss about in this reading log entry is the contradiction of the director`s statements concerning hynopaedia and this excerpt:
“ <<Till at last the child`s mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child´s mind. And not the child`s mind only. The adult`s mind too – all his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides – made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our suggestions! >> [...] <<Suggestions from the State.>> [...] A noise made him turn round. <<Oh, Ford! >> he said in another tone, <<I`ve gone and woken the children.>>”(p.27, ll.17-26)
As we get to know in the first part of the chapter, the students that are guided through the Hatchery have no parents, so they must be products of the Bokanowskified eggs as well. But of which caste could they be? On the one hand, they are students, so they must be of the higher caste, the educated one. But on the other hand none of them notices the contradiction concerning hynopaedia – telling that it is non-sense and that therefore the Betas and others have to be preconditioned in the violent way, but practicing it with the Alphas. If we assume that the students are Alphas, which would make sense since otherwise there is no reason to show them the Hatchery except for if they were supposed to work there one day, then that would be a proove for them not being intelligent at all. Then they can as well not think freely. This would also fit to the idea of teaching the Alphas by using hynopaedia. They might know a lot, but they do not know how to use this knowledge. So, if we now assume that the Alphas are not free in their thinking as well, then, who is the director? He seems to be able to think freely. Either he is the last “normal” human being that was born by parents or he was chosen from one individual ancestor who decided that he should be the next individual to rule the world? Taking the first possibility into consideration, then what would it mean for the World State if he would die or make a misstake?
Here I would like to come back to the excerpt I have chosen. As I think, he already makes a misstake there. As I explained above, I do not think that the students understood what he was telling them there; that all their minds are made of the Hatchery`s suggestions and that the Hatchery is the state. But how about the Alphas having been woken up from the hynopaedia with his words? Have they or at least some them noticed some of the words during the hynopaedia and thereby learned them by head as well? What effects would that have? Even if hynopaedia just makes them repeat something they have heard, it must have any other effects as well, since the Alphas seem to take the things they learn about the castes in the Elementary Class Consciousness lessons for granted. So, what would happen if they would now take the words of the director as well for granted?
