BNW & V

So about "BNW" and "V" — I found our class discussions last week and the week before, about the book and the movie, and especially about how the book relates to the movie and vice versa, especially interesting. I read BNW early in my senior year of high school for an english class, but I don't remember looking at it and discussing it in the ideological context that we did in this class and we didn't devote nearly as much discussion to it as we should have. And as far as "V" goes, I had heard it was a good movie but didn't really have any idea what it was about until we watched it a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, I think we pretty much hit the nail on the head in class, in terms of which society is more secure and which is more free. As Natalie and Maggie and I mused before the large class discussion, the people in BNW are more secure and the people in V are more free, based on the latter group's ability to think for themselves and their memory and knowledge of what life was like not long ago, before the fascist ruling body took over. The basic difference is that the society in BNW was genetically controlled and kept in check biologically their whole lives. I would say they were brainwashed, but it was more than that. But in V, the people, even children, knew that most of the state's actions were complete bullshit (they even knew the media was lying to them, evidenced by the cries of "bullocks!" at the TV during the evening news) but they were powerless to do anything about it. That is, until V came along.

One of the most interesting comments in our class discussion (I can't remember who said this) was when someone brought up the fact that the character V would never exist in BNW, let alone be able to mobilize that society against its government, since no one is born or lives organically in BNW — they are created through genetic engineering and go through a series of treatment to guarantee their status in society, and above all, their satisfaction with it. V himself would never have been dissatisfied with his place in BNW, and neither would anyone else.