Friday, August 21, 2009
"P" as in "Pneumatic"
After many texts and such, asking for the definition of "pneumatic," I decided to look it up myself. Apparently, pneumatic means air-filled or pertaining to gas or air. so why would Lenina call herself pneumatic? why would chairs, in the novel, be pneumatic? The citizens of the World State are not only content, but also, not plump, but well sized. Lenina is airy just like the chair mentioned. It seems as though a person being pneumatic, would be saying he or she is plump, but they're not in weight size, but in quality. The population have lost all possible humanity, that they are now considered pneumatic. lenina is no longer a human, moreso an item of comfort. The citizens of the World State are as human as an inflatable matress.
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You bring up a very interesting topic, since I too was puzzled when I came across that word. Huxley uses “pneumatic” multiple times throughout the novel, the actual definition is, as you stated, “filled with air” but if you looked at it metaphorically it could also define that she’s busty and basically sexy. The only odd thing about why Huxley purposely uses that word to describe someone’s physical appearance is that it’s a complicated term to comprehend. If someone was called pneumatic nowadays, it would merely confuse the person being called that word as to why exactly they’re “airy.” The actual meaning that was intended in this case was to show how numb and emotionless they were and that everything to them is meaningless.
ReplyDeleteAs you have already brought up, Lenina is air headed and doesn’t know what emotions are. She is the perfect epitome of what kind of women exists in Brave New World, the only difference as to why her existence is relevant to the story is to show how much her pneumatic quality can be shaken with a twist of experiences. Ever since John the Savage came along, Lenina’s world went upside-down. She was rejected of her sexual desires for the first time ever and this only created emotions that she’s never felt before to stir up in her mind. Coming from a previously “airy” mind to one that’s suddenly been thrown into all these unexpected turn of events. Huxley specifically uses that word to symbolize the citizen’s inhumanity.
Did you also notice this passage from the book before John died? When Lenina came towards John? "The young woman pressed both hands to her left side, and on that peach-bright, doll-beautiful face of hers appeared a strangely incongruous expression of yearning distress. Her blue eyes seemed to grow larger, brighter; and suddenly two tears rolled down her cheeks. Inaudibly, she spoke again; then, with a quick, impassioned gesture stretched out her arms towards the Savage, stepped forward." She actually showed emotion and cried, the only other person who cried in the novel was John which is peculiar considering that almost the whole population in the World State does not even know what emotion is…since they’re ever so pneumatic. What could you say about Lenina now?
So that is what Huxley meant by pneumatic! What's ironic is that I sat at my computer for 30 minutes trying to remember what p- word Lenina was constantly being referred to as because I had already returned my copy of Brave New World to the library. I never did figure out what word it was though. Through simply reading the book, I thought they were describing her as plump in size.
ReplyDeleteI think Lenina was pneumatic as in being 'sexy' and also air-headed. But then John came along, a savage with emotions and desires that's more human than any of the World State citizens, and by rejecting her, he brought out humanistic emotions in her. Maybe the citizens of the World State do have emotion, but they're deeply hidden under the layers and layers caused by hypnopaedia and conditioning. Lenina intimate interaction with John brought out those emotions because he rejected her, which, like you said Nicole, had never happened to her before.