What Just Happened... ? (Chapter 16/ Pages 217-229)

"And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand."

~ Brave New World, page 221

So, whenever my friends and I are watching a movie, we play a game. We call it "The Twist Game," and what happens is that after something happens in the movie, someone will yell "twist" and say some outrageous, virtually  impossible scenario that could happen next and change the whole plot. Or if a twist actually arises, we all get really excited and start yelling enthusiastically. It sounds stupid, I know, but it's quite entertaining, especially if you are watching a slow or predictable movie. Anyway, this is pretty much what happened to me during this chapter.

When Mustapha Mond (whose name sounds like Mufasa from The Lion King, by the way :) ) took John, Helmholtz, and Bernard to his office, I expected him to be angry. I expected him to make some great big speech about how they think they have the world figured out, but they don't know anything - he does, and he will show them how cruel the world can actually be, then he would torture them or get rid of them or something, and then the novel ends tragically with a warning to future generations about over-stabilizing their communities and so on (that is one long run-on!). But, alas, no. Mustapha is actually a pretty cool guy. He appreciates literature and art, he's religious, and he had crazy ideas just like they do. But then we find out that he is selfless - he sacrificed his own happiness so that everyone else could be happy and live in blissful ignorance. Now, that's what I call dedication. The whole time I've been reading the book, I have had a rebellious outlook against the government, and I thought that they were the antagonists. Now I know that they are just giving people what they want, and I can respect that, even if I still don't agree with it and think it's wrong. I bet right after Aldous Huxley wrote that chapter, he reread it and said, "My God, I am good."

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this twist is so good that it beats Letters to Juliet when we found out she was dating her cousin - and we had a field day with that one.