A Brief Discussion on Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World from a Perspective Based on Futurism and Translation
Literature is like a dough that has been kneaded for centuries. It is a representation of life from different perspectives (Sarı, 2020). In other words, we may have the opportunity to see all kinds of human beings in literary works. Just like the human being has been affected by various events or political movements, literature has, also, been affected by various artists or art movements based on different thoughts and philosophies. When we take a glance at the history of written literature, it is not a coincidence that there are many different movements such as expressionism, impressionism, realism, naturalism, etc. Besides those movements, there are different genres that emerged, and maybe the most known one is novel. Not only various genres, but also novel types emerged. One of the most famous novel types that emerged is dystopian novels and dystopian literature. Hassouna (2019; 73) described the emergence of dystopian literature as “Dystopian literature appeared with the beginning of the 20th century and increased with the materialistic society where it is believed that a utopian society is a myth.” There are many widely known dystopian works, and one of them is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It is a spectacular example of dystopian literature. In this book, there is a highly civilized and automatized world that is divided into social classes with the help of classical conditioning, which begins while people are just embryos. This world has high-technology devices to travel, to communicate, and to socialize. In other words, it is a world in which technology plays a crucial role even in basic human needs. These aspects of the work and the time it was written are too close to an art movement that also shares the same timing with the emergence of dystopian literature: Futurism. Beyond its literary and philosophical dimensions, Brave New World also raises important questions for translation studies. As a text deeply embedded in cultural, technological, and ideological contexts, its interpretation and transmission across languages require more than linguistic equivalence; they demand an awareness of underlying movements such as futurism that shape meaning.
The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (1989) defines futurism as “a movement in art and literature that abandoned tradition and sought to express the energy and growth of a modern mechanized lifestyle.” The birth of futurism in the literary world begins with the work The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in 1909, in a newspaper named Le Figaro, in Paris (Lawton, A. M., & Eagle, H., 1988; p. 1). In this manifesto, it can be understood that futurism is not something open to negotiation, and, moreover, it tries to impose itself (Lawton, A. M., & Eagle, H., 1988, p.1). With all the quotations about dystopian literature and futurism above, this paper aims to examine Huxley’s Brave New World from a futuristic perspective and tries to bring a new understanding about the work. Understanding these ideological and stylistic elements is also crucial for translators, as they influence how meaning, tone, and cultural references are conveyed in different languages.
As previously mentioned, Brave New World takes place in a highly technological world. In this world, some societal norms are no longer given importance. For instance, monogamy, family, and value of the past, etc. If we look at the polygamic relations in this work, this statement shows everything to us: “But everyone belongs to everyone else,” he concluded, citing the hypnopaedic proverb. (Huxley, 1946; p. 46). This situation is proof of how the institution of family is violated through the highlighting of polygamical relations. The mentality of everyone belongs to everyone is something false from its roots. Yet it is not the only problem. Another problem is the role of women in this polygamous society. The following quotation is a good example of it:
“I shall spend the evening at the Club playing Musical Bridge. I suppose you're
going out?"
Lenina nodded.
"Who with?"
"Henry Foster."
"Again?" Fanny's kind, rather moon-like face took on an incongruous expression of pained and disapproving astonishment. "Do you mean to tell me you're still going out with Henry Foster?" (Huxley, 1946; p. 45).
As it can be easily seen above, even in a polygamous society, the burden of the relationship is on the shoulders of women. In other words, the male character, Henry Foster, is not accused because of having a monogamic relationship with Lenina by Fanny. Even in a polygamous society, the guilty is a woman even though the man does, exactly, the same thing. If we carefully analyze this situation and remember Marinetti’s Manifesto of Futurism, we may be able to obtain information about parallelism between the Brave New World and futurism in terms of women’s role in society. In his manifesto, Marinetti stated that “we will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman.”[1] (Marinetti, 1909/1973). As can be clearly seen from the end of the previous quote’s sentence, futurism does not give importance to women. Instead, it seeks to look down on women. Thus, both attitude of Fanny and the futurists’ view about women explicitly show a parallelism between Brave New World and futurism.
Along with the institution of family and monogamy, another issue not given importance in Brave New World is the past (or history of humans). In his work, Huxley created a world in which all world classics and every other thing that belongs to times before Ford’s T-Model are eradicated. In other words, every single aspect of the past is hidden from view. For instance, Shakespeare’s works, plays, poems, or religious books such as the Bible are unfamiliar things to Brave New World’s society. Moreover, a campaign against the past is mentioned in the book. The following quotation below is the most explicit proof of it:
"Accompanied by a campaign against the Past; by the closing of museums, the blowing up of historical monuments (luckily most of them had already been destroyed during the Nine Years' War); by the suppression of all books published before A.F.150." (Huxley, 1946; p. 60).
As is seen, in Brave New World, a war that destroyed every historical value of humankind is depicted. This situation, just like the similarity in their views on women, also shows parallelism with Marinetti’s manifesto. In his declaration, Marinetti emphasized the fighting with the past and its values. The futurist manifesto states that “We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice.” (Marinetti, 1909/1973). To put it in a different way, Marinetti’s following statement about museums should be considered to understand their anger towards the past and its values:
“Museums: cemeteries! … Identical, surely, in the sinister promiscuity of so many bodies unknown to one another. Museums: public dormitories where one lies forever beside hated or unknown beings. Museums: absurd abattoirs of painters and sculptors ferociously slaughtering each other with color-blows and line-blows, the length of the fought-over walls!” (Marinetti, 1909/1973).
The intention of futurists towards values of the past and Huxley’s Brave New World are completely compatible with each other. Thus, it may be said that the biggest evidence about Brave New World’s futuristic nature is found at the lines above. Moreover, Marinetti’s statement is another piece of supporting evidence about the point discussed in the previous paragraph. Apart from the social issues mentioned so far above, the general frame of the Brave New World is like a compliment to futurism’s main basis: praising technology through speed. Marinetti, in his futurist manifesto, pointed out this situation as below:
“We affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing car whose hood is adorned with great pipes, like serpents of explosive breath—a roaring car that seems to ride on grapeshot is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.” (Marinetti, 1909/1973).
While praising speed, futurists also dream of a mechanized world that is dominated by machines, trains, ships, etc. The following quotation below is the evidence of their wish about a mechanized world: ““(..) we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing with violent electric moons; greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung on clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke; bridges that stride the rivers like giant gymnasts, flashing in the sun with a glitter of knives; adventurous steamers that sniff the horizon; deep-chested locomotives whose wheels paw the tracks like the hooves of enormous steel horses bridled by tubing; and the sleek flight of planes whose propellers chatter in the wind like banners and seem to cheer like an enthusiastic crowd.” (Marinetti, 1909/1973).
If we look at the place of technology in Brave New World, it is not a coincidence to see a parallelism between futurism and it. As it is stated at the beginning of this paragraph, the general frame of this book is cut out for praising technological development. For instance, speed, the main element of futurism, and machines are often praised in the book. The following excerpt about a trip of Henry Foster and Lenina is one of the best examples for this situation:
“The machine shot vertically into the air. Henry accelerated; the humming of the propeller shrilled from hornet to wasp, from wasp to mosquito; the speedometer showed that they were rising at the best part of two kilometres a minute.” (Huxley, 1946; p. 72).
Moreover, the importance of machines and how crucial they are in Brave New World is explained as “The machine turns, turns and must keep on turning—for ever. It is death if it stands still.” (Huxley, 1946; p. 48).
To sum up, this paper examined the parallelism between Aldous Huxley’s famous dystopian novel Brave New World and futurism, a striking art movement of the 20 century. As it is said at the very beginning, this paper aimed to bring a new understanding to Brave New World from a futuristic point of view. Thus, Brave New World is studied in terms of the institution of family and polygamic relationships to show a futuristic attitude towards women and ignorance of the past and hatred for the values of the past to highlight the futuristic nature of the work. Moreover, the general structure of the work and its honorific attitude towards speed and machines are discussed to strengthen the possible connection of the work to futurism. From a translation perspective, recognizing these connections becomes essential. Translating Brave New World is not merely a linguistic task but an interpretive act that requires sensitivity to futurist ideology, cultural context, and the socio-political implications embedded in the text.
References:
- Apollonio, Umbro, ed. Documents of 20th Century Art: Futurist Manifestos. Brain, Robert, R.W. Flint, J.C. Higgitt, and Caroline Tisdall, trans. New York: Viking Press, 1973. 19-24. Retrieved from https://www.italianfuturism.org/manifestos/foundingmanifesto/
- Eagle, Herbert. & Lawton, Anna.(1988). Russian futurism through its manifestoes, 1912-1928. Ithaca : Cornell University Press
- Hassouna, M. M. (2019). Dystopian Egypt before the Arabian Spring: Critical Review on Ahmed Khaled Towfik’s The Knife. Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol, 42(3), 71-83.
- Hornby, A. S., (1989), Futurism. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current
- English (4th ed., p. 503). Oxford University Press
- Huxley A. (1946). Brave new world. Harper & Row. Retrieved from https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6504102M/Brave_new_world#editions-list
- Sarı, V. (2020). From George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant to Civilized Evil of Literature: Imperialism. Journal of English Language and Literature Club, 2(2), 12-15. Retrieved from https://dergi.ingilizedebiyati.net/cuidek/article/view/265
