A question about Bernard and Helmholtz

[healthyalt]

I have a question about Bernard and Helmholtz. Near the end of the book, where His Fordship tells them they'll be sent to an island where other likeminded people have been sent. Do you think they were actually sent to an island where they would be free to indulge in their thoughts, write poetry and do scientific experiments? Do you think there really are other people, interested in forwarding technology, living on other islands? Do you think it's odd the His Fordship asked Helmholtz what sort of environment he'd like to live in to realize his goals?

I would really like to know what other people think about this. Because I find it hard to believe, in light of their existence with soma and free sex and conditioning from before birth and so on, that there would be such islands.

[maretard]

I completely agree with you.
Personally, I think His Fordship is just sadistic, and wanted to find out the deepest desires of the people he killed; I think Helmholtz was a dead man walking.
I mean, in a society that tolerates no deviations from perfection, an anomaly this large could only be solved "efficiently" in one way - Execution.

[motherhubbard]

I disagree, I think they were sent to an island. These independent thinkers were far and few between. All of the conditioning and careful planning in society was all derived at creating a fully functional society in which all of the citizens are happy. That is why they use the soma, why they avoid relationships that are too intricate, why they condition and create different caste. Soma relieves their anxiety, anger and other strong emotions. Relationships of any kind can be very perplexing- parents, siblings, lovers all fight. An Alpha would never be happy doing the work of a Gamma. I think they did go to the Island of their choice. I also think that Helmholtz ends up loving his experience because he loves experiences. I think that Bernard never finds happiness because happiness must come from within and he just doesn’t have it.

[Mrs. Dalloway]

I disagree... I also think that they were sent to an island. I think they were sent there because in a way the Controller believe that human being needs something else which is not in his society. In a way Mustapha agrees with John, Bernand and Helmholtz and that's why there is an island where you can go an "be free".

I think tha Bernand will be happy there. In the society of Mustapha Bernard is not happy because he's rejected. He is rejected because he is different from the other people. In the island there aren't these kind of prejudices, so I think Bernard "won't" be rejected there and he'll be happy.

[gwfhegel]

I find no textual evidence that they were executed, rather than sent to an island. Doesn't Mond himself say that he was nearly sent there?

(If you think about BNW in the context of Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor, and the choice between happiness and freedom [which Huxley does in the Mond-John the Savage interchange], then the islands become little spaces for freedom.
(Mond strikes me not as cruel or bloodthristy, but as like the Grand Inquisitor: people wish happiness, except for a very few ....)