Dystopia. BNW/BR (1 Viewer)

[beckxoxo]

Been given an assesment and am quite stuck. Any help would be SOOO appreciated!!

Task:
You have been invited to speak at a Literary Conference "Composers and thier context". It is advertised as a chance to examine important literary works that reflect the changing nature of the 20th Cent. and out concerns for humanity and our relationship with the natural world and its rhythms.

The session you are to address is:
DYSTOPIA. From Aldous Huxley to Ridley Scott..A 20th Cent. progression n the loss of the wild?.

Your purpose is:
To examine how the effects of the social, cultural and historical context of each composer has been reflected in the production of thier text and the values they explore.

To show how the changing context of the 20th Cent. has been reflected in the ways in which Huxley and Scott have constructed their visions of the future and the relationship of humainy to nature

To show how literary or film techniques have been used to reveal composers concern with the relationship between humanity and the natural world and its rhythms.

(It's a 6 min. speech)

Please help with ANYYYY ideas.

 

[Wilmo]

Both Aldous Huxley and Ridley Scott present a dystopic view of the world in their respective texts; the novel, Brave New World and the film, BladeRunner. Although these texts are fiction, they present to their audience a possible future world based on the context and values of their times. This was a powerful tool used to warn of the direction their societies could head in.

In Aldous Huxley's time, there were many fears and concerns that he satirised in BNW. World War II had just ended, and people adopted the ideal of hedonism, living for pleasure. An example of this in Huxley's dystopia is the need participants in the Brave New World have for promiscuity. Eugenics was also another issue in Huxleys time as one of Hitlers claims to fame was that he was trying to create a "master race" and he contributed a lot to embrionic research. Huxley presents a chilling view of what the future could be like if, like the rest of science, it continued to grow rapidly.

Similarly, the time of Bladerunner's creation was also in a time of rapid change. People feared a possible nuclear war with Russia, and the devistating effects of the loss of the environment (the 80's was a time when people started to value plant and animal life more). Ridley Scott plays with this idea, not only does the BR world look as if a nuclear bomb has destroyed everything, but more obviously and importantly there is a complete void of anything natural. There are no plants or animals except what has been replicated. Consumerism also took over in the 80's with globalisation making it onto peoples radars. What science and technology is in BNW, consumerism is in BR. The Tyrell corperation had become so powerful it even replaced government... not only that but Tyrell became godlike himself and was the figured head of the consumerism religion.


Im sick of writing now... but there is soooooo much more you can say. Theres a bazillion common links between both texts and all of them are related to the concerns and contexts of their composers times.

 

[sig]

BNW was published in 1932

World War II ended in 1945

I don't think Hitler's ideas were popular during Huxley's creation?

 

[Wilmo]

meh... i knew it was after one of the wars

But eugenics was gaining popularity... it was a chilling prediction of what hitler would try and do

 

[Arell]

that context needs allot of work, nuclear war with Russia, the atom hadn't even been split yet, so people where'nt exactly scared of it.
However, it was during a depression (low consumerism), after the creation of the production line, Hitler was gaining power (as where other fascist countries) and so to was the soviet union

 

[the_archduke]

I've found whole heap of 'conspiracy theories' relating to what Huxley and Scott are actually trying to say.

BNW:
- Either Huxley is bagging out religion through the parody of the Church in the form of singeries etc. or he is commenting on the fact that Bernard's identity is pretty much influenced almost solely by everyone else's identities.
- He is definitley commenting on the rise of dictatorship in Europe
- The rise of sexual liberation in the 30s was a worry to Huxley which is probably why his dystopia is rife with promiscuity


BR:
- There is a lot of religious connotation in the film which refers to the concept of redemption ie. Roy saving Deckard, knowing that he, as a Replicant, would die soon
- Scott comments on social hierarchy with Tyrell being the God-like figure and everyone else being fairly poor
- The environment is one of Scott's main concerns. The origional version from 1982 ended with Deckard and Racheal driving through a countryside. The Director's Cut does not feature this, providing a more gritty vision of a future without any nature.