Archive for September 9, 2010
Community, Identity, Stability.
Posted by: Emily Carroll
Book: Brave New World (purchase on Amazon)
“Embryos are like photograph film,” said Mr Foster waggishly, as he pushed open the second door. “They can only stand red light.”
And in effect the sultry darkness into which the students now followed him was visible and crimson, like the darkness of closed eyes on a summer’s afternoon. The bulging flanks of row on receding row and tier above tier of bottles glinted with innumerable rubies, and among the rubies moved the dim spectres of men and women with purple eyes and all the symptoms of lupus. The hum and rattle of machinery faintly stirred the air.
First of all: hi again! I’m really excited about joining the blog here, and very much looking forward to contributing more of Brave New World. A big thank you to Meg for giving me the opportunity (& to the other artists as well, for sharing such lovely things to look at)!
With this picture I’m going back to Chapter 1, where the reader joins a group of students taking a tour of the Central London Hatchery & Conditioning Centre. In the reality of Brave New World, the cultivation of humans is an industry, and everything about an person’s future is pre-determined at conception. Embyros are bottled, labeled, and occasionally stunted in order to slot them into rigid social castes (which, of course, they will later be conditioned to accept quite happily!).
Being rather partial to red in general, I thought this was a good place to kick things off. Hope you enjoy!
Announcement: Emily Carroll joins in the fun!
Hi everyone, just a brief note from Meg here– this summer’s been topsy-turvy for many of our contributors so please forgive our posting! We’re very happy to announce another contributor to ‘tag-team’ in and keep the flow of storytelling going– please welcome Emily Carroll!
Emily contributed to our Short Reports series with a lovely scene from Brave New World, and will be continuing that story with a post later today. If we run into snags where contributors are having trouble keeping to the schedule, I’d like to open this up to another additional contributor or two, so our roster may change over the coming weeks. And of course, more Short Reports are coming– if you are interested in being a contributor or adding to the Short Reports, please feel free to email me.
Thanks for sticking with us and please enjoy the work of our lovely new contributor!
