To: left that other site
117 posted on
02/21/2013 7:15:19 PM PST by
Publius
To: Publius; ConorMacNessa; yorkie
I can't go to DU or Huffpo without making sure I have a five gallon drum of Muriatic Acid for the Cleansing Job to follow. (The local bricklayers are generous when i need them to be).
During FR's absence,I Read "Brave New World", and read several analyses on line.
Not a SINGLE one of these geniuses mentioned an incredibly interesting point that Huxley made in the VERY last sentence of the book.
John the savage is found hanging in the Lighthouse. His body hangs there and turns:
Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-south-west; then paused, and, after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east.
What the literary critics failed to mention was that John, who was raised by Indians in the Southwest was, even in death, PRAYING. In Native American Spirituality, Prayer is initiated by turning to the Directions, North, South, East and West. Prayer is often ended this way too. It is analogous to the Catholic practice of making the Sign of the Cross at the beginning and end of a prayer.
In 1932, when Huxley wrote the book, little was known of how Indians prayed. Yet, Huxley had this as the close of his book. Of all the synopses I read, NOBODY mentioned this. Did I catch something nobody else caught? The Literary Critics were full of info about B.F. Skinner, Operant Conditioning, Hypnopedia(sleep learning) and the varieties of Psychotropic drugs that were like "Soma", but nobody seemed to "get" the very last sentence of the book. Am I imagining this? Have I discovered another aspect of this book that was written before I was born?
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