Brave New World, Aldous HUXLEY, 1932

Brave New World, Aldous HUXLEY, 1932                                                2

“I shall begin at the beginning,” said the D.H.C.1 and the more zealous students recorded his intention in their notebooks: Begin at the beginning. “These,” he waved his hand, “are the incubators. » And opening an insulated2 door he showed them racks upon racks of numbered test-tubes.  

“Bokanovsky’s Process,” repeated the Director, and the students underlined the words in their little notebooks.

One egg, one embryo, one adult-normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud3, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress.

“Essentially,” the D.H.C. concluded, “bokanovskification consists of a series of arrests of development. We check4 the normal growth and, paradoxically enough, the egg responds by budding.”

Responds by budding. The pencils were busy.

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 « [We create ] identical twins – but not in piddling5 twos and threes as in the old viviparous days, when an egg would sometimes accidentally divide; actually by dozens, by scores6 at a time. Scores,” the Director repeated.

But one of the students was fool enough to ask where the advantage lay. 

“My good boy!” The Director wheeled sharply round on him. “Can’t you see? Can’t you see?” He raised a hand; his expression was solemn. “Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!”

Major instruments of social stability.

Standard men and women; in uniform batches. The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg.

“Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines!” The voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm. “You really know where you are. For the first time in history.” He quoted the planetary motto. “Community, Identity, Stability.” Grand words. “If we could bokanovskify indefinitely the whole problem would be solved.”

1. DHC  Director of the hatcheries (couveuses) and conditioning   2)  Insulated = isolante   3)  Bud = bourgeonner ; here = divide     4) Check = stop      5)  Piddling = small and not important    6)    A group of 20

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