BNW1 - Moodymoodmood

"And in effect the sultry darkness into which the students now followed him was visible and crimson, like the darkness of closed eyes on a summer's afternoon. The bulging flanks of row on receding row and tier above tier of bottles glinted with innumerable rubies, and among the rubies moved the dim red spectres of men and women with purple eyes and all the symptoms of lupus. The hum and rattle of machinery faintly stirred the air." (Brave New World, pg. 11) This first chapter of Brave New World puts the reader into a mysterious mood. The building we explore is unknown and futuristic to us. The creepy rooms, such as the one above, augment the elusive mystery of the society in which the characters exist. I see this society as a parallel universe that went astray. While the existence of such a society is possible, its probability of existence is much lower than the one in which we subsist. The mood makes the society seem to be a cross between the Dark Ages and scientific advancement - a seeming paradox. But the author is effective in setting an appropriate mood for this dark story.