How not to read Brave New World
For the distant reading project, I chose Aldous Huxleyâs Brave New World. Huxleyâs novel was published in 1932; however, it is set in London in the year 2540. I selected this novel, obviously because I have never read it, but also because it is near the top of my âto-read list.â Also, because it seems to keep popping up in various conversations in the past year. I primarily used Voyant for this project because there were far more details and data to dig through than were offered with Wordle. (Plus Wordle only wanted to work when it felt like it, rather than when I actually needed it to workâwhich may have just been a Java issue.)
After the elimination of the common stop words, character names were most commonâBernard, Lenina, Linda, et. Also, âsavageâ occurs 189 times in the novel. After skimming through the results for about 10-15 minutes and noticing a few connections, I decided to read a brief summary of the novel, in which I discovered that âsavageâ actually refers to a character, as well as a group of peopleâfrom my understanding of the summary. It is interesting that âsavageâ is used so many times to refer to these people or person. Are these people really so different that they must constantly be referred to as savage? Apparently so, considering the vast majority of the population is technologically produced in laboratories rather than through natural reproduction like the âsavageâ population. Who are the real âsavagesâ in this world?
There also seems to be a recurring use of the words that can relate to the human bodyâwords such as eyes, face, voice, hand, feet, blood, age, old, young, man, woman, boy, girl. âVoiceâ is used 105 times and âeyesâ is used 101 times, âsaidâ is also the most frequently used word in the novel once the stop words are eliminatedâit occurs 315 times. At first glance, both âsaidâ and âvoiceâ would seem to solely suggest that there is a large amount of dialogue in the novel; however, Iâd like to suggest that these word frequencies show that communication is important within this society. Even more important is the way that the characters speak to one another. It seems to matter if a character speaks in a lowered voice or a demanding voice. The tone of voice seems to be important, in order for the author to use it with such frequency throughout the novel, most notably in the concluding chapters. Also, âeyesâ is one of the most frequently used words after âvoice.â From this data, I am thinking that the things that characters say, how they say them, and what they see is a large part of the novel.
I also get a sense of separateness, as well as an escape from something. First, there is the use of âsavageâ which refers to a character, or group of people, that is set apart/separate from society. As I looked through the word list, I noticed the word âsomaâ which is used 61 times. I had never seen this word before so searched and found that, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, soma is an âintoxicating drink holding a prominent place in Vedic ritual and religion.â The drinking of soma produces immortality in the Vedic religion. Also, according to the OED, in Brave New World, soma is âa narcotic drug which produces euphoria and hallucination, distributed by the state in order to promote content and social harmony.â Later, once I read the summary of the novel, I found that the characters actually take soma in order to escape from society. If something is not going their way or they are not having the best of days, soma seems to be their solution. While this may promote social harmony, I see it as a disconnect, a way to separate oneself from the world.
The distant reading exercise is an excellent way to look at how words work within a text and exactly what the frequency of certain words can reveal about the text. This is something I would like to play around with more and use novels that I have and have not read.
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