Brave New World by Aldous Huxeley and THX 1138 - Essay Example

Brave New World by Aldous Huxeley and THX 1138 The advancements in science and technology in the contemporary world have influenced the progress ofliterature and film which reflect the themes and topics of these developments. With the development of science fiction, literature as well as film industry has found a new way to represent the issues concerning humanity in the background of scientifically and technology advanced world. Many often, literature and films deal with themes and topics such as sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space which are tied into topics like control and freedom. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and THX 1138 by George Lucas offer two best examples of how these themes are represented in literature and film and how they are connected to control and freedom. A reflective analysis of Brave New World and THX 1138 confirms that both the works effectively deal with several pertinent themes of the modern world including sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space which are closely tied into human control and freedom. This paper makes a comparative analysis of the novel by Aldous Huxley and the film by George Lucas in order to determine the importance of control and freedom in human life. In a profound analysis of Brave New World and THX 1138 realizes that both the works essentially deal with similar themes including sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space and these are closely tied into human control and freedom. Aldous Huxley, in his famous novel Brave New World (1931), effectively expresses his expectation of the advancements that can take place in reproductive technology and sleep-learning which can change the society in a drastic way. In a similar way, the science fiction film by George Lucas, THX 1138 (1971), is concerned with a dystopian future of humanity. In this society, individuals are faced with a high level of control which is the result of the enforced use of drugs that hold back human emotions including sexual desire. Another form of control over the human beings is that of the ubiquitous, faceless, machine police officers. The scenes from the movie THX-1138 offer a very surreal and frightening depiction of a possible future which is marked by unparalleled control by machine police officers and everyone everywhere experiences control and power. The director presents the society as affected by indifference and passivity and he is effective in portraying a very classic conflict of the individual versus society. The use of technology has been very important in the director’s strategy to present control over human beings and control is related to sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs etc in the movie. In the second part of the film, when the control is exhibited through technology such as ‘mind lock and arrest’, this connection between control and technology becomes lucid. “The problem with being off the drugs is that THX can no longer perform his duties at work. In the middle of a dangerous operation, THX drops some radioactive material. Instantly, those in control measure his biological signs and recognize that he has a severe sedation depletion, which requires a “mind lock and arrest.” The short-term problem is that by putting THX in a mind lock, he can’t pick up what he dropped and an explosion is imminent until they release the mind lock.” (Glettler, p. 3). Therefore, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and THX 1138 by George Lucas deal with several pertinent themes of the modern world including sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space which are closely tied into human control and freedom. In his Brave New World, Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), who has been recognized as an important writer and social satirist, makes a serious criticism about the uncontrollable faith in the benefits of scientific advance and mass production. This is his fifth novel and first attempt at a dystopian work and the novelist is effective in producing a satirical piece of fiction which deals with the essential issues concerning human society in the contemporary world. In this work, Huxley is concerned about producing a great work of literature rather than a scientific prophecy. Here, the central attention of the author is to suggest his points through the use of literary techniques such as themes and the author effectively conveys his ideas through the use of these themes. One of the most important themes of the novel is obviously the use of technology to control society, and the author warns the readers of the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. In the novel, the theme of the use of technology to control society is illustrated by the severe control of reproduction by the use of technological and medical intervention and these measures include the surgical confiscation of ovaries etc. There are also other ways of control such as the construction of complicated entertainment machines and other medical, biological, and psychological technologies. “Still leaning against the incubators he gave them, while the pencils scurried illegibly across the pages, a brief description of the modern fertilizing process; spoke first, of course, of its surgical introduction… continued with some account of the technique for preserving the excised ovary alive and actively developing… passed on to a consideration of optimum temperature, salinity, viscosity; referred to the liquor in which the detached and ripened eggs were kept…” (Huxley) The author deals with the various medical, biological, and psychological technologies such as the Bokanovsky Process, hypnopaedic conditioning, etc to indicate the use of technology to control society. Therefore, the novel is one of the best illustrations of how human life can be controlled by the state through the use of technology and the author deals with the dangers of giving the state control over new and powerful technologies. Similarly, the film THX-1138 deals with a very surreal and frightening investigation of a possible future where human beings will be controlled by the omnipresent, faceless, machine police officers as well as the compulsory use of special drugs that hold back emotions. In this movie, as in the novel Brave New World, control and freedom of human beings attain central focus, through the important themes of the film. George Lucas’s instant classic of dystopic angst, THX-1138, can be best comprehended as an impassioned howl against the dehumanization of modern society. THX 1138 has been recognized as an idealistic film that draws from the Huxley-side of science-fiction and the director makes an emotional scream against the dehumanization of modern society. A reflective analysis of the plot of the movie clearly suggests how the pressure of the state makes the eponymous hero of the movie eager for freedom. The fact that there is simply no villain in the movie makes the horror of THX-1138 very much all-enveloping. State makes use of several means to control human beings and the theme of large-scale passive societies dominates the film. It deals with a future situation where the subjects of the society have given up their enthusiasm to take active part in their lives. Therefore, George Lucas’ movie can be comprehended as a dystopian film which deals with a highly controlled underground city, and the hero’s (THX-1138) desire to disassociate from the domination points out the importance of freedom in human activities. In a reflective analysis of the major themes of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and THX-1138 by George Lucas, it becomes lucid that both the works are concerned, essentially, with the topic of control and freedom. In the movie as well as the novel, subjects such as sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space are emphasized by the creators, and these themes are, ultimately, tied into control and freedom. THX-1138 by George Lucas makes an important attempt to suggest that the future technology produces totalitarianism by creating irresistible social control and it depicts a world where organizational scale and the drive for material productivity have achieved the consequences predicted for capitalist society. In the movie, one identifies the various essential forms of social control such as the rationalization of physical space, monitoring of every human activity, manipulation of human biochemistry etc. Therefore, the movie by George Lucas deals with all means of control used by the state to restrain freedom to the people of the future world, and subjects such as sexuality, technology, drugs, and space are tied into control and freedom in the movie. Similarly, the use of technology to control society is the most pertinent theme that Aldous Huxley underlies in his famous novel Brave New World. The novel, like the movie THX-1138, presents a startling view of the future in which the one-world government takes away people’s freedom, which is illustrated by the state control over new and powerful technologies. The novelist makes important predictions about the future world, including greater sexual freedom, over-population, brain-washing or sleep-teaching, and the use of mind altering drugs. Therefore, the movie as well as the novel deals essentially with the topic of control and freedom, through the various subjects such as sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space. However, there are various essential differences between the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the movie THX-1138 by George Lucas. Both these works belong to different modes of expression with different style and tools of depicting the topic of control and freedom. Significantly, the movie THX-1138 obviously draws from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, as well as George Orwell’s 1984. “However, it is in the details and the presentation that THX-1138 is makes it mark as a horrible prediction… In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, life is controlled through drugs and genetic breeding, and society is driven by needless consumerism. In this society, pleasure was required through both drugs and sex… It would seem that THX-1138 was not on the surface much more than an amalgamation of other previous works. However, it is not so much the narrative story that makes THX-1138 so powerful, but the audiovisual context in which it is presented.” (Glettler, p. 5-6). In conclusion, there are various similarities and differences between the novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and the movie THX-1138 by George Lucas, although both the works essentially deal with the topic of control and freedom. Several critics argue that THX-1138 can be understood as a derivative of the dystopian story Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, along with others. Therefore, both the works deal with subjects such as sexuality, technology, reproduction, drugs, and space, which are closely connected to control and freedom. References Glettler, James. THX-1138: A lost film.” Mit.edu. p. 6. Retrieved 30 October, 2009, from http://www.mit.edu/~glettler/resume/undergrad/hist285_THX-1138.pdf Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Retrieved 30 October, 2009, from http://www.huxley.net/bnw/ Read More