idun Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Someone told me recently when they were at school in the 1960's they took Brave New World home to study. Their mother, quite a religious woman, threw it on the fire. Could anyone tell me why this book would have been treat in such a manner. I remember reading it, I don't remember thinking that it was evil and should be put to the flames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Trunk Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Racial hygiene and racial purity were widely-discussed issues in the 1920s and 30s, and not just among the Nazis. Several US states had policies of sterilising physically and mentally handicapped and retarded chidlren until the Supreme Court banned the practice. The Nazis did the same but gave up in the face of opposition from the churches - one of the few things they gave up on. The novel is a satire on the idea of racial purity. It also describes asexual reproduction - what we were later to call "test-tube babies" - and idealises a society where individual choice - including moral choice -is no longer possible. I think the Vatican put it on their list of banned books. No wonder your friend's mother burned it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Trunk Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 The forum will not accept the usual abbreviation for National Socialists! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 [quote user="Edward Trunk"]Racial hygiene and racial purity were widely-discussed issues in the 1920s and 30s, and not just among the Nazis. Several US states had policies of sterilising physically and mentally handicapped and retarded chidlren until the Supreme Court banned the practice. The Nazis did the same but gave up in the face of opposition from the churches - one of the few things they gave up on. The novel is a satire on the idea of racial purity. It also describes asexual reproduction - what we were later to call "test-tube babies" - and idealises a society where individual choice - including moral choice -is no longer possible. I think the Vatican put it on their list of banned books. No wonder your friend's mother burned it. [/quote] If Rome banned it, then it is a book that surely has much merit. The young me took it, Animal Farm and 1984 as warnings. I never felt corrupted by them, in fact they opened my eyes as I suppose they were supposed to do. I'm glad I read them. The old lady is very old and I thought her a nice old lady until I was told that quite recently, now I look upon her in quite a different light, distrust has set in, it was an horrendous thing to do, I thought that it was the nartzies who burnt books, not middle class church going ladies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edward Trunk Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Well, your last post reminds me of the Father Ted episode where he is supected of being a fascist and a racist because he made fun of Chinese people. He is desperate to point out the difference between fascists and priests. "Fascists", he explains, "dress in black and go around telling people how to behave. Whereas priests...." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 [:D][:D][:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkkent Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 [quote user="idun"]Someone told me recently when they were at school in the 1960's they took Brave New World home to study. Their mother, quite a religious woman, threw it on the fire.Could anyone tell me why this book would have been treat in such a manner. I remember reading it, I don't remember thinking that it was evil and should be put to the flames.[/quote]It may also have been because Brave New World portrays sex as a recreational activity - the women, having been harvested of their ovaries, were incapable of reproduction. One of the peculiarities of Christianity (heavily influenced by Thomas Aquinas) is that it all too often regards sexuality and sexual activity as sinful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted April 30, 2012 Author Share Posted April 30, 2012 I think I am going to have to read it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 Its in my loft amongst other books that I never returned to the school, not sure if I read it, if I did it would have gone right over my immature head judging by what I have scribbled over the cover!I re-read animal farm and 1984 in recent years and at least I got them this time round!I wonder if the teachers cynically knew what they were doing by giving books like that to children too young to understand them? I wonder if it is a form of conditioning?My father once told me that when I was very young I read the bible from cover to cover, I have no memory of this but I suspect it has formed my morality, we never went to church as a family, perhaps my mother was conditioning me? She had herself renounced catholicism after being disgusted by the hypocricy and double standards that she saw, especially her own father and vowed that we children would never be forced into religion but could make our own choices when we had the age of majority, it took me another 30 years before I grew up enough to do so. Knowing as I now do the power of the sub-conscious through hypnosis I suspect that reading things at a very young age has a profound effect that we are otherwise unaware of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 "I suspect that reading things at a very young age has a profound effect that we are otherwise unaware of."I am sure that you are right, and that is one of the problems of society.I read books which encouraged all sorts of 'noble' ideals, from Tom Brown's Schooldays to comics (text versions) where underdogs won over villains by hard work and courage, and self-sacrifice was rewarded.It had an effect so that I became the 'mug' I am now....But if you look at the things that children ingest now such as computer games they are full of violence, horror, short term reward... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooperlola Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 [quote user="NormanH"]It had an effect so that I became the 'mug' I am now....[/quote][:D] Better a well-meaning mug than a cynical, unfeeling b*****rd perhaps?I remember my great aunt once telling me that my father read A Piglrim's Progress when he was 6. As he was an atheist through and through for most of his life, clearly it did not have the desired effect. I was made to read the bible at school too - was this a religious conspiracy? Not that that worked, either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkkent Posted May 1, 2012 Share Posted May 1, 2012 I don't really see how reading the Bible can ever improve anyone. The Old Testament is a collection of the myths, legends and fairy tales of a small group of bronze age arab goat herders which involve a rather capricious and bad tempered god who keeps killing people. The New Testament seems to suggest that if you are nice to people and go round doing good you will end up having a public and excrutiatingly painful death.Stick to Harry Potter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted May 1, 2012 Author Share Posted May 1, 2012 When I was about 7 I asked if I could have a bible. We hadn't got one at home as no one was religious. I was bought one and actually read some of it. My Dad had been christened catholic and has nothing but bad to say about it. And my eldest son asked one fine day if he could visit the church in our french village. So off we went and I gave him a simple explanation as to what it was all about.More books for me to read after Brave New World, I'll give Harry Potter a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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