BNW Chapter 6

Part I
1. Why does Lenina think Bernard Marx "odd" - please use specific references from this chapter in your answer.
Lenina thinks Bernard Marx is "odd" because he didn't "respond properly to conditioning" (pg 88), his "mania for doing things in private" (pg 88), he did not think that time should be wasted (pg 89), wanting to spend the afternoon walking and talking, (pg.89), not wanting to take soma (pg 89), "not wanting to be a part of the social body" (pg 91), and not wanting to end their day in bed (pg 93).

2. Please provide more lines from Lenina that she learned from hypnopedia (there are some great ones in this chapter!). Do any of them remind you of sayings that we may use - please don't use commercial jingles. i.e. "1-800-54-Giant!"
- "A gramme in time saves nine". (pg 89)
This is very similar to our "A stitch in time saves nine." They both mean that if you do soemthing now you can prevent having to do much more later. (Like doing your blogs when they're due, not all at the same time...oops.)
-"Remember on cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments." (pg 89)
-"A gramme is always better than a damn." (pg 90)
I think we have a saying that says to do something instead of just complaining.
-"Every one works for every one else. We can't do without any one. Even Epsilons...are useful!" (pg 91)
-"Everyone's happy nowadays." (pg 91)
-"Never put off till to-morrow the fun you can have today."(pg 93)
We also have a saying like this, but it refers more to doing work today so you can have fun tomorrow.
-When the individual feels, the community reels." (pg 94)

All in all, what hypnopedia sayings are to BNW, so cliches are to (American?) Society 2009.

3. What is Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior?
Fanny's explanation for Bernard's behavior is that there was too much alcohol in his blood surrogate.


Part II
4. What did the Director tell Bernard about his own trip to the Reservation? Why did it initially make Bernard feel uncomfortable?
The Director told Bernard that he had been to the Reservation "Twenty years, I suppose. Nearer twenty-five. I must have been your age..." (pg 96). This initally makes Bernard feel "extremely uncomfortable" because the Director is "so scrupulously correct," and he "commit[s] so gross a solecism!" by talking about the remote past.
The Director also tells Bernard that he also "wanted to have a look at the savages," and got a permit to the Reservation for his summer holiday. He took a girl who was "particularly pneumatic," and on the almost the last day, she got lost, by going out on a walk by herself while he was sleeping. Then there was a thunderstorm, and the horses they had been riding broke free and he hurt his knee, and could not find her. He eventually made it back to the rest-house hoping he'd find her there, but she wasn't, and when they conducted the search they couldn't find her. It made the Director almost too upset.

5. What does the Director threaten Bernard with if he doesn't change his behavior? Why does it elate Bernard?
The Director threatens Bernard with transference to a Sub-Centre, like Iceland, if he does not make an effort to conform and lapses again "from a proper standard of infantile decorum." This elates Bernard because he believes that he now stood alone, and has "consciousness of his individual significance and importance." He feels s"strong enough to meet and overcome affliction."

Part III
6. How does the Warden describe the Reservation?
The Warden describes the Reservation as very large (560,000 sq km), but divided into four Sub-reservations, which are surrounded by "a high-tension wire fence." There's 5,000 km of fencing at 60,000 volts, supplied from the Grand Canyon hydro-electric station. Therefore "there is no escape from a Savage Reservation." The children who are actually born on the Reservation, must not leave, and die on the Reservation.