Welcome to the circus, ladies and gentlemen! Feast your eyes!

" 'I've had it nearly three months.'

'Chosen as the opening date of the new era.'

'Ending is better than mending; ending is better...'

'There was a thing, as I've said before, called Christianity.' "  (Page 52)

      I am exhausted! This chapter drained me. For the entire last half of the chapter my brain was playing the classic circus theme song that musically presents chaos. Here's an example for you:

     Take this classic song and speed it up until it is so fast you feel like your head is spinning. That is the background music my dear brain played for me while reading this chapter. I could practically see the three-ring circus. How appropriate too, in a stretch of dialogue that includes three separate scenes: the conversation between Lenina Crowne and Fanny Crowne, Mustapha Mond's monologue, and the dialogue between Henry Foster, the assistant Predestinator, and Bernard Marx. Like a three-ring circus, the events in each ring of the story correlated with one another. Mond spoke of the importance he saw in a civilization that values an extremely social community in which "every one belongs to every one else." Lenina and Fanny simultaneously spoke of the dangers in Lenina's presently monogamous relationship with Henry Foster, and the three men spoke of Lenina in a way that does not promote monogamy in any way. And when the adages that all children learn in their sleep started mixing themselves into the dialogue, the simple sayings corresponded to what the women were discussing, namely buying new clothing often. The conversations wove themselves around each other in a way that was barely possible to follow, but I persisted.

     In this chapter, I was also presented with various relationships. Lenina and Henry are currently friends with benefits (for lack of an easier explanation), Bernard Marx has some sort of feelings Lenina who, until recently, completely disregarded him. Fanny and Lenina are friends ( just remember they are friends in Huxley's new world, not ours), and Lenina is comfortable with Henry to a point of danger. Bernard Marx hates the two men he is forced to listen to in the equivalent of a men's locker room. Finally, the story has reached a point I can take a serious interest in.