Brave New World..... the movie, dun dun DUUUNN!

Sorry for the dramatics.... I couldn't help myself.

Anyways, as I was surfing through youtube, amusing myself to death as Mr. Postman would say, I decided to type in "Brave New World" to check out the trailer. Instead I came across the actual movie (pssht! Hey youtube!! I thought you guys were cracking down on copyright violations. Well, guess what? You missed one.).

If I was a movie critic, I would have had walked out before the first five minutes were up. Now, I know that most films based on novels are nothing like the actual book but this one really hit the ball out of the park in the aspect of "worst attempt to follow the book". In my opinion it focused too much on the love affairs going on and didn't even hint at the sections that Mr. Huxley went on and on about, and they were the most important. In the book, John talked for more than half of chapter 8 about his and Linda's life in Malpais, yet the movie completely ignored it. At that point I thought it was kind of ironic to make a movie based on a eye-opening book if the producers weren't even going to try and send out the same message.

And that would be were Amusing Ourselves to Death pops in; Andrew Postman, Neil Postman's son, compares Huxley and and Orwell in the introduction. Postman explains that no matter which point of view you associate with, it will still be the same thing. In Huxley's eyes, this movie is just another method to appease the masses; like the Bread and Circus the Roman Emperors would have held in the coliseum just to maintain their subjects happy and clapping their hands like dazed three-year-olds. But on the other side of the spectrum, Orwell would have had a fit and declare that this movie is another way of brainwashing us into firmly placing those rose tinted glasses over our eyes; he would have seen this as an easy manipulator since most people in this day and age would rather watch television than read a book.

So are we all doomed?

Seems like it, if you're a pessimist. But an optimist would just be cheering for the soma.

But I want your opinion on this; due to our current society's love for all things electronic, do you think that it will all eventually turn us into mindless zombies, sans all the blood and gore? If so, is it to be feared like Orwell states or to be embraced and taken with a gram of soma?

P.S.
Heres the link to the first part of the movie on youtube since embedding it was disabled by the person:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuiaT0nX9ls&feature=channel

I just had an Epiphany! Well, sort of...

When I completed reading both of the summer books, I tried to look for a connection between the two. Just how do a controlled society and entertainment go hand in hand? It's simple. If you understood both books, then answering this question is easy.

In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Postman talks about how the entertainment business controls us. We are like their puppets. One of the main goals of television is entertainment. They want to appease us. Why should they care if we are entertained? Well, they don't. While we are watching these shows that turn our brains to mush, they are controlling what we do and when we do it. There is a new episode of the popular show Degrassi on t.v. tonight and I know that many of my friends will be watching it. Do you see that? They just got us to turn on the t.v. and watch their show exactly when they wanted us to do it. Yes, we are all guilty of it, there is no doubt about it. When there is something that entertains us, we really don't care if we are being controlled. That's when the connection between Postman's book and Huxley's book becomes apparent.

Throughout Brave New World, the citizens are given soma to keep them relaxed and to appease them. There it is. Just as television controls us in our world today, soma controls these people in their world. Just as we don't know or don't care that we are being controlled, they don't care that their every move is being dictated either. It must be something about the human being that makes us so easily distracted that we forget what is really happening and that is just what the people at the top are taking advantage of. It's like giving a baby his favorite food. Make him happy, and he won't care what happens next. Television, soma, and anything that pleases us are all distractions. I'm not saying these things are bad, because I love them too. I'm just making sure that we are all aware of what is going on so that there can be no questions asked. No one can say "I didn't know television controlled us!" You're right, because neither did I until I began to read these books. So I've found the answer to my question. The connection between these two novels is appeasement as a form of entertainment. Now my question to all of you is: What is your opinion on appeasement in the entertainment industry? Do you think there is another connection between these two books? I am interested to hear what you guys think.

Is this a Goldilocks Situation?

I'm finding Neil Postman's book very interesting from the very beginning in the Foreward. He compares George Orwell's 1984 to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Both books are very similar and Huxley has even been accused of plagiarizing Orwell's work, but Postman points out the very important differences. Orwell talks of a world of control, totalitarianism, and government holding information from us. Huxley talks of a world where so much information is offered to us that we stop caring and would rather roam in a world of "passivity and egoism." But both end in similar outcomes as we let the Big Brother (or "externally imposed oppression" as Postman writes) take over either unwillingly or unknowingly. So are we in a Goldilocks situation? Is the best society a balance of freedom and control?