BNW13 - Elegy

"Yesterday's committee,
Sticks, but a broken drum,
Midnight in the City,
Flutes ina cavuum,
Shut lips, sleeping faces,
Every stopped machine,
The dumb and littered places
Where crowds have been:...
All silences rejoice,
Weep (loudly or low),
Speak-but with the voice
Of whom, I do not know.
Absence, say, of Susan's,
Absence of Egeria's
Arms and respective bosoms,
Lips and, ah, posteriors,
Slowly form a presence;
Whose? and, I ask, of what
So absurd an essence,
That something, which is not,
Nevertheless should populate
Empty night more solidly
Than that with which we copulate,
Why should it seem so squalidly?" (Brave New World, pg. 181)
Helmholtz wrote something absurd in his time - an elegy. He was nearly fired for it! The elegy was a mournful reflection on loneliness. But such a reflection was considered blasphemy. It was a nice poem that could bring one comfort - but thats what soma is for. I thought the elegy was effective because it showed that life wasn't perfect, even in the utopian society. Again, it shows the dark side of conditioned response. I like Helmholtz - he's a true character.