Page 290 - BRAVE NEW WORLD By Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
P. 290
Brave New World By Aldous Huxley
his facequenchlessly laughed while, pale with a
sense of outrage, the Savage looked at him over
the top of his book and then, as the laughter still
continued, closed it indignantly, got up and, with the
gesture of one who removes his pearl from before
swine, locked it away in its drawer.
"And yet," said Helmholtz when, having
recovered breath enough to apologize, he had
mollified the Savage into listening to his
explanations, "I know quite well that one needs
ridiculous, mad situations like that; one can't write
really well about anything else. Why was that old
fellow such a marvellous propaganda technician?
Because he had so many insane, excruciating things
to get excited about. You've got to be hurt and
upset; otherwise you can't think of the really good,
penetrating, X-rayish phrases. But fathers and
mothers!" He shook his head. "You can't expect me
to keep a straight face about fathers and mothers.
And who's going to get excited about a boy having a
girl or not having her?" (The Savage winced; but
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