Brave New World Notes (Ch. 8)

• Memories of Linda trying to assimilate to the new culture, John trying to understand the unfairness of the world
• Huxley directly connects alcohol to soma
• Linda's treatment of John is a contradiction
• Part BNW, part "savage"
• Nature vs. nurture?
• Her instinct is to care for John, but her hypnopaedic-twisted mind hates him for what he "made" her
• Linda's stories build up what the BNW is like
• John calls his mother by her first name
• Linda does not want to be called "mother" because she has come to think of it as an insult, or at least an embarrassing phrase
• "A man can smile and smile and be a villain."
• Huxley links the scene back to the theme that happiness is not everything
• "If one's different, one's bound to be lonely."
• thematic isolation an conformity
• John shows a propensity for self-punishment, not unlike Berard's enjoyment of persecution
• "O brave new world," he repeated. "O brave new world that has such people in it. Let's start at once."