Chapter XVI - Summary

Bernard, John the Savage, and Helmholtz were ushered to the World Controller Mustapha Mond's office. Helmholtz begins to laugh and falls into one of the most luxurious chairs in the office. Bernard is devastated and sits in one of the most uncomfortable chairs in hopes it would cause him to get less punishment for punishing himself. John is pacing around the room and is staring around the room. He notices a book about "the Ford" and flips through it. Uninterested by the book's contents, he replaces it and Mustapha enters.

Mond comments to John that it seems that he (John) does not seem to like their civilization. John thought about lying but decided to be truthfully and firmly told him that he did not. Bernard was horrified that he was being labelled as the friend of a Savage that did not like civilization and declared it so openly. Bernard was about to protest but Mond silenced him.

John continued to say that some things in the civilization aren't so bad, such as the constant music in the air. Mond recalls a quote from Shakespeare, making John excited and asks Mond how he knows Shakespeare, as he thought he was the only one. Mond tells the Savage that he is one of the very few as it is prohibited. He makes an offside comment about how he is allowed to break the laws because he makes them, which makes Bernard even more miserable.

John asks why Shakespeare is prohibited in the first place. The Controller told him that there is not a need for something so old, no matter how beautiful it is, in society. Beauty is a distraction, and there is no need for the people in society to be distracted by old beautiful things when they are wanted to be attracted to new things.
John believes that the new things are horrible and stupid and feels deep hatred for them - especially the feelies films.

Both Helmholtz and John want to know why they can't create something that is new but is like Shakespearean plays - created with beauty and is new but in understandable terms for the rest of society.

Mond tells them that it is impossible - if you created something Shakespeare, like Othello, nobody would understand it, no matter how new it was. And that if it were new, then it couldn't possibly be like Othello.

Helmholtz and John are curious as to why that is while Bernard, who has not forgotten the severity of the situation they had thrown themselves into with the violent outbreak, sat growing greener with the anxiety.
Mond explains that the world is not the same as Othello's - everything is stable in their world while in Othello's world there were tragedies which can only be made with instability. Their society is well off -
"they are not afraid of death; they're never ill; they're blissfully ignorant of passion and
old age; they're plagued with no mothers and father; they've got no wives, or children
or lovers to feel strong about; they're so conditioned that they practically can't help
behaving as they ought to behave. And if anything should go wrong, there's soma."

John was silent for a while and then commented that Othello is better than the feelies.
Mond agrees but says that is the price to pay for social stability. Sacrificing 'high art' for stability brought the scent organ and the feelies in its place. John says that it is idiotic and Helmholtz, who is one of the distinguished Emotional Engineers that created them, agrees with John. They feel that it is all horrible to have to try to create art out of practically nothing.
Mond points out that it seems horrible because stability is not even close to being as spectacular as to something unstable. The glamour of it all is destroyed as there is no conflict or struggle.

John agrees but feels that stability is overdone with the horrible and repulsive Bokovansky's twins. Mond states simply that those twins are the foundation for the stability of the society as a whole. John does not understand why they don't just create everyone as Alpha Double Pluses. The very thought makes Mond chuckles as he explains that the Alphas are born with the instinct for being in open places. Being placed in a factory would cause them to go crazy and begin a path of destruction - "Alphas can be completely socialized - but only on condition that you make them do Alpha work".
He describes a time when there was once an experiment on that very thought - Alphas were given agricultural and industrial equipment and left to handle their own affairs. The Alphas became chaotic and within six years they were beginning a civil war. When nineteen people were killed, the survivors begged for the World Controllers to resume permanent control over them and that was the end of the only all Alpha society the world had ever seen.

This made John sigh heavily and did not understand why society was happier being controlled and 'below the water' than being above it and not having to do, in his opinion, all that awful work. Mond explains that society likes that 'awful' work. They work seven and a half of exhausting labour and then get rewarded with soma, feelies, and random sports.
There was another experiment conducted when they gave the lower ranks only four hours of labour a day, and they found that they were restless and there was a large increase in the consumption of soma. In conclusion, they basically found no happiness in the extra three and a half hours of leisure. Over working the society would have a similar effect - "every change is a menace to society". Even science is treated as a possible enemy.

John did not know what science was exactly as Shakespeare and the old men of the village did not specify nor talk about such a thing. He thought of it as something that helped prevent old age. Mond continues to say that science is dangerous and it must be controlled and hidden from the world lest it create complete chaos.

Helmholtz pops in puzzled and astonished. They have always been taught that science is everything in the hypnopaedic teachings (which occurs three times a week between thirteen and seventeen states Bernard randomly).

Mond asks him what kind of science are they taught exactly? There is no scientific training so to speak, and if there were there would be no way to prove it as they do not even know what it is. Mond confesses that he was a great physicist once upon and that he began to realize that science is just like a large cookbook that there are theories you do not question and recipes you do not add unless specified by the head cook. He states that he is now a head cook and experimented with unorthodox and illicit cooking. He confesses that he was almost sent to an island, just like they (Bernard, John, and Helmholtz) were going to be.

The thought of being sent to an island rattled Bernard and he began to claim it was not at fault, that Helmholtz and John the Savage were the ones responsible. He was an innocent in the whole ordeal. Sobbing, he begged the Controller not to send him to Iceland.
Mond tried to make Bernard, but to no avail. He rang his secretary to send three men to give Bernard a soma vaporization and to put him in a bed.

Bernard was taken and Mond tutted as he continued to say that being sent to the island is in fact an award. They were going to meet the most interesting set of men and women, who had all been a too self-conscious individual to fit into society, to be found anywhere in the world. They were "everyone, in a word, who's anyone", and confesses that he envies Helmholtz for being able to go.
Helmholtz laughs as he asks why the Controller just does not go to the island himself. Mond states that he is more satisfied with controlling over the society than going to island. He was faced with the two choices and he chose to let science go. He regrets the science, even though it brings truth. It is a public menace however, and is dangerous as beneficial.
Mond continues to say that it is interesting that back before "the Ford", people would write about scientific progress and how they would imagine that it would be allowed to go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else in the world. Knowledge was held as the highest good and truth being the value with the most worth.
In their society, the "Ford" shifted from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Still, scientific progress was still allowed and truth and beauty were talked about as if they were goods. However when the Nine Years' War occurred, truth and beauty were taken out of the picture, for what good are such things when there are anthrax bombs being dropped everywhere. After the War, science was controlled for the main result of a quiet life. They had been controlling ever since.

Happiness had to be paid for - one cannot have something for nothing.
The Controller turns to Helmholtz and claims that since Helmholtz has been paying too much attention to beauty he has to pay, just as the Controller had to pay for his over interest in the truth.

After a long silence, John broke the silence by stating matter of factly that the Controller didn't actually go to the island. Mond just smiled and stated simply that that was how he paid; he chose to give others happiness instead of his own.

Mond asks Helmholtz if he would like a tropical climate. Helmholtz asks for a rather rough climate, probably for more inspiration for writing. The chapter ends with Helmholtz stating that he will go check up on poor Bernard.