I’m trying to figure out what the title is originated from… A link would be useful.
Trying to find an official origin.
Thanks.
Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Act V Scene I
Shakespeare
The Tempest
Act V Scene i
Miranda (on first seeing people other than Prospero and Caliban)
O! Wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
Hoq beateous mankind is! O brave new world,
That hath such people in 't!
Brought prominence in the 20th Century by Aldous Huxley’s book “Brave New World”
Huh, that’s interesting. Do you know why that was chosen?
Oh, and motog, I’ve read the book, just was wondering about the title of the book, But thanks anyway.
Make that to prominence…"
“Huh, that’s interesting. Do you know why that was chosen?”
Huxley was using it in a very ironic manner. His book is a psuedo science fiction novel that posits a society where everybody is born from a test tube and family and love links are deliberately destroyed in the interests of societal harmony. Religion is replaced with a distorted worship of the production line manufacturing process (the christian crucifix is replaced with the T from the Model T Ford).
There are no strong emotions that aren’t either suppressed or channelled into official staged events. Families and pregnancy are viewed with disgust.
It makes for a calmer but much less spontaneous and caring society.
He used that particular quote because one of the main characters- who was lost in the wilderness as a child- has learnt his english from the collected works of Shakespeare, speaks continually in shakespearean quotes and uses that particular line at an important point in the book.
That’s a short precis but it’s been about ten years since I read it so I could be a bit off the mark.
I think either the “savage” or his mother says the quote when they are first brought to the modern city. (They had a book of Shakespeare and he grew up reading it.) They’re amazed at the people and the technology and stuff. I admit that I haven’t read the Tempest, but I thought the general gist of the quote was that it looks so wonderful when you first arrive, and you don’t know that it’s really not as great as it all seems.
The title of the book is not A Brave New World. It’s Brave New World.
I found the complete text of Brave New World online. (The page claims that it’s in public domain.) It looks like the phrase “brave new world” appears in Chapters Eight, Eleven, and Fifteen. Here’s an excerpt from the end of Chapter Eight. Bernard has just invited the young savage (John) to return with them to London:
In Chapter Eleven, John again uses the quote (this time ironically) to describe the genetically modified people of the culture:
By Chapter Fifteen, John pretty much just mutters this phrase as he descends into madness.
Ummmm… I thought that was what I said:
Wendell Wagner wasn’t talking to you, Motog. He was referring to clayton_e’s original post.
Ahhh, I see. My apologies Wendell.
Motog, I’m curious - why do you say that Brave New World is “a psuedo science fiction novel”? Why not science fiction? The underpinning for his future vision is signficant advances in reproductive technology. Why would you say it’s only “pseudo”?
If you want to appreciate all the subtleties of why Huxley chose that quote you really need to read and study ‘The Tempest’. Huxley meant much more by it than simply a Shakespearean quote which one of his characters happened to make. A complete explanation would fill a tract if not a book so I’ll just make a few points.
When Miranda says this she means it literally but to the audience it is ironic because the world she is entering has been depicted as full of deceit and vice. Her experience up to now has been largely innocent, except for her contact with Caliban who is deformed and thus ‘looks evil’. The people of the court of the King of Naples look ‘brave’ meaning beautiful and good but they are not, though some are trying and have been redeemed.
Miranda has come from a state of nature and is now exposed to civilization which she automatically assumes on appearance is superior. Because of her primitive state she has been schooled in virtue unlike the idle ladies of court but she doesn’t recognize this.
Her father Prospero and she have been dispossessed by the court from their rightful dominion. which is now to be returned to them.