Brave new world, aldous huxley 1932

Brave New World
Chapter One
A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over
The main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON
HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a
Shield, the World State’s motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY,
STABILITY.
The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards
The north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for
All the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light
Glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some
Draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic gooseflesh,
But finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly
Shining porcelain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to
Wintriness. The overalls of the workers were white, their
Hands gloved with a pale corpse-coloured rubber. The
Light was frozen, dead, a ghost. Only from the yellow
Barrels of the microscopes did it borrow a certain rich and
Living substance, lying along the polished tubes like
Butter, streak after luscious streak in long recession down
The work tables.
“And this,” said the Director opening the door, “is the
Fertilizing Room.”
Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers
Were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and
Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing
Silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle,
Of absorbed concentration. A troop of newly arrived
Students, very young, pink and callow, followed
Nervously, rather abjectly, at the Director’s heels. Each of
Them carried a notebook, in which, whenever the great
Man spoke, he desperately scribbled. Straight from the
Horse’s mouth. It was a rare privilege. The D. H. C. for
Central London always made a point of personally
Conducting his new students round the various
Departments.
“Just to give you a general

idea,” he would explain to
Them. For of course some sort of general idea they must
Have, if they were to do their work intelligently-though
As little of one, if they were to be good and happy
Members of society, as possible. For particulars, as every
One knows, make for virtue and happiness; generalities
Are intellectually necessary evils. Not philosophers but
Fret-sawyers and stamp collectors compose the backbone
Of society.
“To-morrow,” he would add, smiling at them with a
Slightly menacing geniality, “you’ll be settling down to
Serious work. You won’t have time for generalities.
Meanwhile…”
Meanwhile, it was a privilege. Straight from the horse’s
Mouth into the notebook. The boys scribbled like mad.
Tall and rather thin but upright, the Director advanced
Into the room. He had a long chin and big rather
Prominent teeth, just covered, when he was not talking,
By his full, floridly curved lips. Old, young? Thirty? Fifty?
Fifty-five? It was hard to say. And anyhow the question
Didn’t arise; in this year of stability, A. F. 632, it didn’t
Occur to you to ask it.
“I shall begin at the beginning,” said the D. H. C. 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 insulated
Door he showed them racks upon racks of numbered testtubes.
“The week’s supply of ova. Kept,” he explained,
“at blood heat; whereas the male gametes,” and here he
Opened another door, “they have to be kept at thirty-five
Instead of thirty-seven. Full blood heat sterilizes.” Rams
Wrapped in theremogene beget no lambs.
Still leaning against the incubators he gave them, while
The pencils scurried illegibly across the pages, a brief