WEBVTT - Brave New World (Part 1) 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.200 Hey, they're Popcorn Book Club listeners. Oh my god, that's 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.040 a mouthful. That's uh p B PBC listeners. PVC ears 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:14.920 we should have a nickname, but it's lame to give 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.400 yourself a nickname. Colonels? Are we colonels? Oh god, that's 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.640 even more embarrassing. I forget I said anything. Sorry, super 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:25.680 caffeinated starting over. Hey, they're Popcorn Book Club listeners. I know. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:27.960 One thing I'm fond of saying is that the show 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.640 is not English class. There's no required reading or watching 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:34.560 for that matter. But this week we are diving into 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.600 our first piece of bonifide, bonafide English Lit required reading, 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.320 Elvis Huxley's Brave New World. There's a pretty good chance 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:46.280 you already had to read this in eleventh grade, and 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.160 we are reading it now because it has been adapted 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:52.800 into a series on Peacock, the NBC streaming service. But 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:56.360 trust me, this will absolutely not be a high school 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.160 English class discussion. In terms of the sex, it is 0:00:59.200 --> 0:01:01.800 one of the book with like the most amount of 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:06.840 sex but also the least sexy sex. Yeah. I mean, 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.640 when the only sound effect is zip zip, it doesn't 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:12.959 sound very sexy to me, in my opinion. Like they 0:01:13.000 --> 0:01:15.479 all want to. They're all horny for zippers. It feels 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:18.400 like they're going to be horny for zippers. I finally 0:01:18.480 --> 0:01:24.080 feel seen, Melissa. I mean, listen, no shade to anyone 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:27.560 who's into zippers. Welcome back to Popcorn Book Club. I'm 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:30.560 joined as always by our co host Jennifer Wright, Tantran, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:36.000 Melissa Hunter, and Karladon Quall Los Angeles. You're all looking 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:45.120 quite pneumatic today. No, no, bros. Perfect transition to say 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.280 that we are talking about Brave New World. The I 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.680 Think two book by Alice Huxley, which has recently been 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:57.000 adapted into a television series on Peacock, which Jennifer was 0:01:57.040 --> 0:01:59.280 just telling us, is very very different from the book. 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:05.320 They've made the television series a lot more action. I 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:07.560 watched one episode and I was like, what is this. 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:10.359 I'm reading this and I don't know what's going on. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:13.920 I mean, I'll say that the book doesn't really have 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:16.440 until the end, which is action pact. At the beginning, 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.399 like the first chapter is just a slow tour through 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.600 a laboratory. I hated it so much. Okay, wait, I 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:26.919 love the beginning of this book. It does feel very 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:32.560 like Network executive bait in terms of the like future 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.280 dystopian work, but very like, oh, this is The executives 0:02:36.280 --> 0:02:38.480 that wanted their own West World were like, what about 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.440 Brave New World. It's it's ninety years old, but it's 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.600 relevant right now. So it makes that's like actually, word 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.960 for word the pitch from the executive producer, it was me. 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.480 I was the executive producer, Melissa, you've caught me. O, 0:02:51.560 --> 0:03:00.880 my god, Cora, I missed that deadline announcement. I used 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:03.920 the pseudonym. The question I was curious about is which 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:06.639 of it? Have any of you read this book before now? 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:09.519 Because I read this book when I was in high school. Yeah, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:12.000 and I had barely remembered it. But I read this 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.639 eighth grade. M I remember not caring for it at 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:19.119 all at the time. I liked it a lot more now, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:23.160 maybe because I'm more familiar with some of the topics 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.240 that they're talking about, and I don't think that men 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.160 like organs and by peeing into you, as I be 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:36.040 impressed they did when maybe more I also we have 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:40.960 a more bleak worldview. Also feels very early to read 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.800 this book in terms of the themes, and like does 0:03:44.840 --> 0:03:48.520 everyone fucking each other and you know all of that stuff. 0:03:48.840 --> 0:03:51.880 Everyone belongs to everyone else. In terms of the sex, 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:54.200 it is one of the books with like the most 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:59.280 amount of sex but also the least sexy sex. Yeah, 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:03.040 just know, I had six women last week. Great, I 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:07.480 don't care. It's never been so bored by constant fuckingly, 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:12.600 particularly pneumatic. But it's sex without any longing. That's what's 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:15.360 so interesting about it that whether or not sex is 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.920 still sexy if there are no barriers to obtaining it. 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.760 I mean, when the only sound effect is zip zip, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.320 it doesn't sound very sexy to me in my opinion, 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:26.680 like they all want to they're all horny for zippers. 0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.160 It feels like they're going to be horny for zippers. 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:35.279 I finally feel seen, Melissa. I mean, listen, no shade 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.039 to anyone who's into zippers. Um. At the time that 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.400 this was being written, though, a lot of people were 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.640 transitioning over to using zippers, because there had been months 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:47.920 before and zippers were considered by like serving Christian groups 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.279 in the nineteen thirties to be this tool of satan 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.880 that would enable licentiousness for everybody because you just be 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.920 able to zip. So yeah, you wouldn't have to get 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.200 laced in or up in yourself in anymore. It's also 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.080 very like technology. It is very amazing because like I 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.479 don't know how zippers work, becos are amazing. I feel 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.920 like I do know how zippers work. What sticks them together? 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:17.440 The zipper zip? It's like two it's teeth, it's teeth. 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:21.240 Here's my question. Could you make a zipper? Given plastic? 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:25.120 Could you construct a zipper? Could I made you anything 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.800 that I understand? And you handed me a raw chicken, 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.280 I don't know if I could cook the chicken like 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:32.960 I mean, I could, but I don't know if it 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.160 would be good. And I've been eating chicken for a 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.160 very long time. In COVID times. You need to step 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:42.359 up for meals. I am cooking my own meals, just 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.920 not a lot of chicken because I'm scared of salmonella. 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.960 I will say, reading this book and then remembering it 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:53.279 was written in does make it like, oh, he didn't 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.160 understand what genetic engineering was, but he nailed genetic engineering, 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:02.039 yeah in a scary way. Goot on you for figuring 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:06.800 that out before he understood genetic engineering completely. Yeah. One 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:08.960 of those things I loved about the introduction to this 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:12.480 book where they're talking about creating these embryos and using 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:16.440 different mechanisms to make the embryo stronger and better. Um. 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:19.760 I've been going through IVF for the past year, and 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.440 you end up thinking about your body in this incredibly 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:25.680 mechanical way. I was like, all right, I can't have 0:06:25.760 --> 0:06:28.360 any hot pass this week because this is the week 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.719 where such and such chemical process has to happen, and 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:34.160 therefore I can't have any best and this is why 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:36.599 I can't have any mercury, so I can't eat any fish. 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.920 And this is the problem that could result if you 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:43.120 have teese. So UM, in a way, I wish I 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:46.479 could just have a detachable womb where they could just 0:06:46.600 --> 0:06:51.880 put all the chemicals into it. Because you do. Maybe 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:56.800 it is because, um, because I'm going through VF and 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.960 because I just didn't have sex and then you get pregnant. 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:05.200 It has started to feel like an unbelievably mechanical process 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.640 to me, which is exactly the way they portray it here, 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:14.960 where yeah, it's just all chemicals and a big metal womb. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.040 I wonder what old A Hucks would feel about IBF. 0:07:18.280 --> 0:07:23.360 Was IVF around in the sixties when he no, not 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.800 even that's not that different. I feel like everybody looked 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:32.560 at me, like, but it didn't become like a thing, 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:34.120 you know what I mean. Like it maybe was a 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:36.320 thing that like labs were doing, but it didn't become 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:39.360 like a thing people were doing until like the eighties 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:44.120 or nineties. Right. But he's he's clearly invested in the 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.800 medical field and in science and technology, so um. He 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.160 Also I don't know if you guys read the same 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:53.520 version as I do, but my version has like interviews 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:56.400 and a biography and stuff. He wanted to be a doctor, 0:07:56.640 --> 0:08:01.520 but he was nearly blinded for two years and that yeah, 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.560 he just like went blind because that's a thing that 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:08.800 happens to people. And uh, he recovered site later, but 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.760 always had site issues and it halted his dreams of 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:14.600 becoming a doctor. And that's how he sort of ended 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.320 up studying literature. That's sort of that's like one of 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.680 the stories that I feel like only happened in the 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:28.600 Victorian era and then it got better, Like just random 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.199 things like that happened. Well, it happened, and never have 0:08:32.320 --> 0:08:35.200 I ever to Davy. She couldn't walk for a year 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.520 and then she could walk. But also that is fictional 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:46.440 What it's not Bendy Kalin's exact life. Oh my god, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:52.160 mind blown. Yeah, that does actually inform the reading of 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:54.199 this book too, because it does feel like it's all 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:58.080 about predestination and things you can't control. Obviously there's a 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.880 lot of themes within that. But or someone who wanted 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:05.080 to be one thing but couldn't was like physically barred 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:08.839 from that. That makes sense. So let's I do want 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.560 to ask before we get into the plot and the 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.520 story of this book. The major theme at the beginning 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:18.240 is this idea that the eggs and the sperm are 0:09:18.480 --> 0:09:21.640 put together into an egg, and that egg is not 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.760 genetically engineered, but engineered through the scientific process that I'll 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:31.080 just actually, you know, fictionalize is too predestined, likes, dislikes, contentment, 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:35.560 happiness level, which to some degree I think kind of 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:40.320 exists naturally. Like this is a big philosophical question. But 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:42.720 where do you guys stand on the idea of nature 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:44.800 versus nurture and that sort of thing. Do you think 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.199 sort of the way you come out is the person 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:51.520 you are. Well, I mean again, in like the world 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.719 of ivf um, something that doctors do that I think 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:58.880 is not especially nice to do to women is to 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.120 make you feel lie. You know, if you have too 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.480 much sugar during this pregnancy, first of all, the baby 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.760 will probably die, but if it doesn't, then it will 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.720 be unhappy forever. Like that's been showing to increase the 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:15.560 rest of depression. I think. I don't know if anybody 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:20.400 else is on the nightmares fertility train yet, but if 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:23.000 you get on it, you will be made to feel 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:28.480 guilty for eating anything other than you greens and like 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.320 maybe a little broccoli for punch for the next nine months. Jennifer, 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.679 eat a cupcake. Your baby will be fine, and you're 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:44.040 it's gonna make her, don't. I mean, your baby is 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.280 going to be so sure. Every need to eat a 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:50.480 cupcake to give everybody else an advantage to catch up. 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:56.679 That's very nice. You're welcome. My friend is eight months 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.840 pregnant and she went to home depot pick up something 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.200 and like it was like dropped off to her car 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.000 and she got out and the woman who dropped off 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:10.480 was like, oh you oh, how how far are you along? 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:18.000 You're getting an epidural? Like immediately act within one second 0:11:18.120 --> 0:11:20.440 of seeing her, was like, are you getting an epidural? 0:11:20.800 --> 0:11:27.400 She's like Yeah, everyone has an opinion on pregnant women 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.360 and how babies are made. Yeah, And I think that 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:33.880 part of that opinion is like the unknown. Also, people 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:36.280 are just so scared and they want to control it. 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:39.280 But I feel like for every study that's like, don't 0:11:39.360 --> 0:11:41.560 do this, then there's another study that's like, oh, but 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:44.560 maybe if you do this, maybe It's like I feel 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:46.760 like the fact that we don't have clear cut answers 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.400 makes people more scared and more anxious to control it. 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:52.840 I feel like if men got pregnant, we would know 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.880 so much more. Let me, let me actually fix that. 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.000 Some men do get pregnant, yes, but if the majority 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.520 aready of people who got pregnant were men, I feel 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:05.920 like our research and our understanding of pregnancy and fertility 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:11.360 would be completely different. Yes. Absolutely. And when I when 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.120 I think of like nature versus nurture, I always think about, 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.840 like how when I was just coming out, I was 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:19.880 so obsessed with, like looking at all the research of 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.920 the gay gene because I was like wanting to have 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:28.719 an answer or like a definitive sort of like scientifically 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.520 backed reason as to why I was gay, or like 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.679 wanting to answer that. But like it just it feels 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:38.640 so Now as an adult, I'm like that just feels 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:43.920 so so so like just a singular mind to try 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.400 to think of things so explicitly in black and white 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:48.760 in that way that like that there can be a 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.520 gene to do that or like that everything you know, 0:12:51.600 --> 0:12:53.640 like all of that that there is just like a 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:58.720 nature side of things, and it is such essential ism 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:02.360 in a way. That's what that really um props up 0:13:03.000 --> 0:13:09.280 white supremacist patriarchal structures of like, oh, women are biologically assists. 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:13.320 Women are biologically designed to like stay home and take 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.960 care of their young or you know, they would use 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:20.280 that back in the day against like students of color 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.160 who are like, well they're just not as smart. And 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.000 you know, there's a lot of unpack in this book 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:33.360 about that, but it's like justifying all of that through. 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:37.960 It's just the biology of gender or race or ethnicity. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:46.000 It's it's all women's heads are just smaller, smaller. Wonderful. 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.520 I have this wonderful quote from the eighteen forties. Um, 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.200 my next book deals with medicine. In the eighteen I 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:55.000 was gonna say, you just have one of those, and 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.840 I was like, that's the most darling thing I've ever. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:00.320 It's my favorite quote because I've been saying it to 0:14:00.400 --> 0:14:04.240 Daniel um every time I forget anything. There's a doctor 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:08.400 who measured women's heads and found that a woman's head 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:13.680 is too small for intellect, but just big enough for love. Oh, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:22.400 that's the most adorable sexes. You know what I'm gonna. 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:24.840 I'm gonna cross stitch that onto a pillow for each 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:31.120 And I know what is your next book because I 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.840 am fast? Um Well, okay, first of all, I have 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:35.560 to sell it. Um so, if I'm working on the 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.640 proposal for all of quarantine, it's about Madame Rossell. She 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.520 was an abortionist in the eighteen forties and the first 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:48.240 female millionaire independently in America. Um so, she made a 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.720 massive fortune selling birth control pills and performing abortions. At 0:14:52.720 --> 0:14:56.680 a time point abortions were still legal. Uh and then 0:14:57.240 --> 0:15:01.080 the medical establishments started cracking down on them very hard 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:04.920 in eighteen fifty nine, in part because Madame Ristol was 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.560 just like buying a mention in New York. She was 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:12.880 unbelievably rich. She was a British self taught immigrant who 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.160 learned how to perform abortions, supposedly never lost a single 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:21.240 patient um got into a huge fight with the Catholic Church, 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.080 and the archbishop was planning to build a house right 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:28.720 across from the cathedral in New York, and Madame Rossell 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.640 I bedam for that lot by a hundred thousand dollars 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.760 and then built her mention there where she performed abortions 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:37.760 and she faked her own. She faked to ron gas 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:41.640 at the end. It's awesome, it's a great story. Question 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:45.840 she became a millionaire before Madame C J. Walker? Yes, 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.480 I interesting think so. I'm pretty sure c J. Walker 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:54.600 was like the eighteen seventies, right, I believe so because 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:58.000 she was born C J. Walker wasn't born ntil eighteen sixty. Yeah, 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:02.080 so Madame Rossell was eight and forties. This isn't Women's 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:07.480 Millionaire podcast. I know. Well, I think so going back 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.360 to the idea of like science and biology, I always 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.240 you know, the phrase a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.520 I kind of always thought that with like meddling in 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:21.240 genetics and like genetic engineering, where it's like I bet 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:26.120 if you get down to like the electron level, there 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.200 might be a way to understand these things. But until then, 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:31.800 like thinking we know these certain things and like playing 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:39.560 God is uh a nightmarish? Eventually I think Ford, yes, 0:16:39.720 --> 0:16:43.600 I'm so sorry playing forward of course Edith nightmares. You 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.120 can pick your baby's I color now well, which was 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:52.680 so fascinating playing, but only out of the colors if 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.440 you if you want, and if you want to play 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.280 an extra ten thousand dollars because you really came, they 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:01.280 can Testie Brieus that you have and they can tell 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.800 them all of the eye colors. So if you really 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.600 want a blue eyed baby, you couldn't pick the one 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.880 that has blue eyes. But again, only only if you 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.840 Jennifer and Daniela has recessive blue. I'm not getting a 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:18.600 baby that because I immediately said, okay, I'll hit ask 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.240 for ten thou dollars. I want violet eyes like Elizabeth Taylor. Violet. 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:25.159 That's what I'm going for. And it was explained to 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:27.800 me that that is not an option. It's a little 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.800 bit it's a little bit uh Jurassic Park like just 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.480 because they thought whether they could, they didn't think whether 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:38.720 they should. Well, look, I mean it immediately, okay, if 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:42.120 they can do that, um, I think when they told 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.520 me they could do that, I immediately said so like 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:48.600 theoretically can you tell me which one will be told 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.000 if if we take a boy like he's there going 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.760 to be one that's six four um. And they explained 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:58.600 to me that it was both illegal and entirely unethical 0:17:58.720 --> 0:18:07.520 to do that. But yeah, but my question is why 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:13.160 is high color ethic but height isn't. And so as 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:16.639 soon as that's possible, don't we think on ethical? People 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:21.760 will pay you extra for it, like the yeah, I'll 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:35.040 kid that can wear bangs. This is Popcorn Book Club. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:43.960 We'll be right back after this quick break. Okay, we're 0:18:44.000 --> 0:18:48.720 back with Popcorn Book Club. All right, but let's get 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:52.320 into the plots. So yes, all right, Karama, you want 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:54.560 to take the first The first act of the plot 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.400 introduced us to the cast of character. Great. First of all, 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.520 this book really has no ptagonists. A thing that pissed 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:07.960 me off. Everyone is bad is trying hard, but she's 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.159 has a protagonist and more just a flat female character 0:19:11.320 --> 0:19:15.400 at any resolution that pissed me off a lot. I literally, 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.440 no one is the main character in this book. So 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:22.800 we enter in a factory tour, as was previously established, 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:25.480 and that's sort of how we get the world that 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.960 we're in. We understand that things have changed. We are 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.719 using a different time system. It's the year after Ford. 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.000 It's like six hundred something after Ford. And the Ford 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:39.680 seems to be Henry Ford of model t Forward fame 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.720 and Built Ford Tough fame, um. And these babies are 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.720 indeed built Ford tough. They Ford is also the inventor 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:51.720 of the modernissembly line, which yes, correct, um, which is 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:54.240 how they make the babies. They are built Ford Tough. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:20:00.840 And they have these different classifications or casts, and they 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:05.600 which is a fun, fun entry into the deep world 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:09.000 of racism that exists in this book. Uh So they 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:13.080 have these different casts, and they create different casts in 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:15.920 these bottles. And you find out that there is this 0:20:16.080 --> 0:20:19.720 method that they use to bud these embryos so that 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.760 they create dozens and dozens of twins. And page nine 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.200 is when we get our first real, sort of very 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.520 racist explanation of this birth thing where it's like, oh, well, 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:32.919 we are able to create this many but in Mombassa, 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.119 which is for those of you who don't know, Uh, 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:40.000 in Mombassa they're able to make so many more. But 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.520 have you seen a Negro egg? And I was just like, oh, okay, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:46.359 this is where we're at. And I'm glad that it 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.480 came up on the ninth page, but also I'm terrified 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.680 that it came up on the ninth page. So does 0:20:52.720 --> 0:20:55.680 it keep coming And you're like, yes, yeah, that was 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.040 my first yikes that I highlighted. I'm so excited for 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.439 all of the yikes. I texted my friend and I 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:05.840 was like, I feel like, if you are a person 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.160 of color and you read a book that gets weird racially, 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.960 you should be able to stop at the first point 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:15.120 that it gets weird and then say to everyone, yes, 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:17.560 I did read that book, Like I feel like I 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:19.560 could have read nine pages and then told everyone I 0:21:19.600 --> 0:21:23.240 read the book. I also want to remind everyone that 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:25.359 that Ford was the type of guy who had a 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:28.360 newspaper called the Darborn Independent. And there's a very famous, 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.920 a very famous headline, UH from the Forward International Weekly 0:21:33.440 --> 0:21:39.440 UH called the International Jew colin the World's Problem. So 0:21:39.560 --> 0:21:42.440 he is not a great guy in a lot of ways. 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.200 That's sort of like his famous, like big headline. Because 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.600 that's so terrible. I can't even make any of the 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:49.880 jokes that I would want to make if it were 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:55.000 like it's so bad. It's like and the chapters are 0:21:55.080 --> 0:21:59.520 like exactly the type of things that people on like that, 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.000 like the neo Nazis on Twitter, uh, talk about where 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:07.080 they're like how Jews always played the victim, like you know, 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.600 how Jews took over the world, how they are not 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:12.159 American and like you know, like all the dumb like 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:17.120 greatest hits. So yeah, I mean is bad. I think 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:22.000 there's also a problem. One of my my prior books 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.480 was about treatment of diseases and it's and it's about 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.679 heros the bottom um and what do you read about 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:34.000 doctors practicing from I'm gonna say, like, do not thank 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:37.880 you thirty is fucking impossible to find ones that are 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:42.840 not at least enthusiastically interested in eugenics and what you 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:47.760 can do. Um. It felt like I kept going along 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:50.280 and I would be like, oh, this is great, like yeah, 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.280 they're they're working with orphans and oh ship, no, they're 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:58.720 sterilizing the note they're in Eugenicist No one. Alexander Graham 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:03.160 Bell was a eugenicist. Everybody to eugenis. They're all eugenicis. 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:11.000 It's bad. But so in this world we have the 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.679 director of the or is the director different from Henry 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:19.040 I couldn't figure that out. Yeah, I think, oh, yeah, 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:21.199 Henry the director is the one who then leaves at 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:23.199 the end. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. So there's this 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:26.760 guy named Henry. He's introduced, Uh, we are introduced this 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.000 woman named Lenna who has lupus. That's super casually thrown 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:36.880 in there. Dude, we say Lenna. I was saying Lenina 0:23:37.400 --> 0:23:39.679 on the show, they say Lenina, but in the audio 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:43.720 book that I listened to make this bearable, they said Lenna. 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.920 So I've been conditioned that comes up later to say Lennon. 0:23:48.119 --> 0:23:54.440 I think it's considered it's after Lennon, And yes, it's 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:59.960 not exactly veiled. No, it's not. No, it's very very 0:24:00.080 --> 0:24:02.760 clearly stated. And I was like, oh, okay, that's where 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:05.760 we're at. So we meet Lenina or Lenina however you 0:24:05.760 --> 0:24:07.600 want to say. It is correct. She's not real and 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.199 she sucks anyway, not as bad as everybody else, but 0:24:10.280 --> 0:24:17.520 she sucks at She's passive. She's just look, she wants 0:24:17.560 --> 0:24:20.440 to get laid and travel and that's it. She's like, 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.080 she's like Daisy Buchanan and that she is just the 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:25.680 representation of the system, you know what I mean. She 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:27.760 like Daisy is actively bad in a lot of ways. 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:30.159 But when we do our great get of somebody in 0:24:30.240 --> 0:24:33.000 the future, we will talk about her. But so we 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:37.160 meet Lenina or Lenina, we meet Um, we meet Henry, 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:41.119 and uh, we are realizing that this world is different 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:44.760 from ours, and that there's this conditioning that happens, this 0:24:45.000 --> 0:24:49.960 um sort of hypno what did they call it? Paid it, Yeah, 0:24:50.080 --> 0:24:54.840 hypnopedic hypnopedia, where it's basically like sleep training with sound, 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:59.119 where they tell you these platitudes um, and they enforce 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:01.600 the cast syst um where it's like, well, I'm so 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:04.520 glad that I'm not an epsalon. I would never want 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.040 to play with those children. They wear khaki or the 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:13.480 Gamas hate khaki. Ya, isn't it They reinforce racism in 0:25:13.520 --> 0:25:17.240 your sleep. Yes, also a hatred of khaki, which feels unfair, 0:25:17.560 --> 0:25:20.119