VOICE:

Ladies and gentlemen, the distinguished author, Mr. Aldous Huxley.

HUXLEY:

"Brave New World" is a study of the future as it may be unless we are extremely careful. It depicts a society in which man has replaced nature by science, morality by drugs, individuality by total conformity. It is a hideous prospect, yet we seem determined to follow this path of self-destruction. But "Brave New World" need not be our future. The choice, after all, is always in our own hands.

MUSIC:

BRIEF INTRODUCTION ... FUTURISTIC

VOICE:

CBS Radio, a division of the Columbia Broadcasting System and its two hundred seventeen affiliated stations, present THE CBS RADIO WORKSHOP, radio's distinguished series dedicated to man's imagination -- the theater of the mind.

MUSIC:

BRIEF TRANSITION

VOICE:

Tonight, Part Two of two half-hour programs devoted to one of the world's most shocking and famous novels, Aldous Huxley's terrifying forecast of the future, "Brave New World." And we are proud to once again have Mr. Huxley as our narrator. Original music is composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION ... THEN BEHIND HUXLEY--

HUXLEY:

This is Aldous Huxley. In the garden outside the London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, it was playtime. Naked in the warm June sunshine, six or seven hundred little boys and girls were running with shrill yells over the lawns or playing games or squatting silently in twos and threes among the flowering shrubs. And strolling across the smooth turf came the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning, followed eagerly by a group of new students.

SOUND:

PLAYTIME BACKGROUND ... MURMUR OF BOYS AND GIRLS

DIRECTOR:

And here we have playtime for our little tots. Notice the games all carefully constructed to use as many mechanical devices as possible. In olden times, children used to play simple games using only a ball and a bat. Ha! Madness! Nothing was added to increase consumption. Then came Our Ford. He taught us the principle of mass production in the assembly line many centuries ago and changed all that.

SOUND:

STUDENTS MURMUR "OUR FORD" TO THEMSELVES

CONTROLLER:

Good morning, Director!

DIRECTOR:

Sir! What an unexpected pleasure! (AN INTRODUCTION) Boys, this is the Resident Controller for Western Europe. This is his fordship Mustapha Mond. Boys!

SOUND:

STUDENTS MURMUR GREETINGS ("Good morning, sir!")

DIRECTOR:

I was just showing the students the children, sir.

CONTROLLER:

Lovely children; busy as bees at their unrestricted play.

DIRECTOR:

Controller, if you have the time, I wonder if you might tell the students something about the bad old days.

CONTROLLER:

I might. Where are you taking them?

DIRECTOR:

To the Hatchery and Conditioning Center to see the manufacturing of the babies.

CONTROLLER:

Very well, I'll walk along with you.

DIRECTOR:

(PLEASED) Ah.

SOUND:

CHILDREN FADE OUT DURING FOLLOWING ... REPLACED BY SIMPLE OUTDOORS BACKGROUND (BIRDS TWITTER, ET CETERA)

CONTROLLER:

(TO STUDENTS) Yes, in the old days children lived in a place called "home" -- a rabbit hole with suffocating intimacies. Maniacally, the mother--

SOUND:

STUDENTS GASP

CONTROLLER:

Uh, please don't be shocked at that word. The mother brooded over her children. Her children. Our Ford, or Our Freud -- as for some inscrutable reason he chose to call himself whenever he spoke of psychological matters -- our Freud was the first to reveal the appalling dangers of family life.

SOUND:

STUDENTS WHISPER UNHAPPILY AMONG THEMSELVES

CONTROLLER:

Unpleasant as they may seem, students, these are facts. People used to be viviparous -- gave birth to their children. What were the consequences? A world dominated by mothers and fathers was a world full of every kind of perversion from sadism to chastity. There were also husbands, wives, and lovers.

DIRECTOR:

(SENTENTIOUS) Now everyone belongs to everyone else. Thank Ford for progress!

SOUND:

STUDENTS SAY, "THANK FORD."

CONTROLLER:

Actually, we still preserve a few outmoded ethics of pre-stable societies in our savage reservations. Did you ever visit a reservation, Director?

DIRECTOR:

Yes, I once went to look at the savages in New Mexico. Oh, that must've been
twenty-five years ago. Mothers, fathers, marriage -- oh, very repulsive.

SOUND:

STUDENTS MURMUR

CONTROLLER:

Yes. Well, here we are. I'll say goodbye.

DIRECTOR:

Goodbye, Controller, and thank you.

SOUND:

STUDENTS SAY, "THANK YOU, SIR!"

CONTROLLER:

You're welcome!

DIRECTOR:

And now, boys, if you'll follow me inside the hatchery.

SOUND:

STUDENTS' STEPS TO DOOR, WHICH OPENS, THEN INTO HATCHERY ... HATCHERY BACKGROUND

DIRECTOR:

And here we are! A hive of activity! Alphas superintending; Betas doing the skilled work; Gammas, in green, busy at routine jobs; and Deltas, in khaki, incapable of doing anything except sweeping the floor. Every member of society perfectly content to belong to his predestined caste, except for a few criminal exceptions. Which reminds me! One of those criminal exceptions is meeting us here at eleven. An Alpha-Plus, no less -- Mr. Bernard Marx.

STUDENT:

What has he done, sir?

DIRECTOR:

What has he done?! He refuses to participate in mechanical sports; he is lax; he--

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS

DIRECTOR:

Oh! Here he comes now.

SOUND:

BERNARD'S STEPS APPROACH

BERNARD:

(A LITTLE SMUG) Good morning, Director.

DIRECTOR:

(LIKE A CAT WITH A MOUSE) Missssster Marx! You and Lenina Crowne returned from the Savage Reservation last night, I understand.

BERNARD:

Yes, sir. We visited some of the places you told me about last week, Director. In fact, we--

DIRECTOR:

Silence!

SOUND:

CLAPS HANDS FOR ATTENTION

DIRECTOR:

(TO ALL PRESENT) Your attention, please! Everyone step this way!

SOUND:

EVERYONE PRESENT -- FROM ALPHAS DOWN -- STEPS TO THE DIRECTOR ... WE HEAR LITTLE GASPS AND MURMURS OF SHOCK AND DISAPPROVAL DURING THE DIRECTOR'S NEXT SPEECH--

DIRECTOR:

(TO ALL) If I have interrupted your labors, it is because a painful duty constrains me. This man who stands before you -- this Alpha-Plus, the highest level of society -- has grossly betrayed the trust imposed in him by his heretical views on sports and soma. By his scandalous refusal to be promiscuous, he has proved himself an enemy of society -- a subverter, ladies and gentlemen, of all Order and Stability, a conspirator against Civilization itself! For this reason, I am ordering his immediate transference to a Sub-Center of the lowest order. In Iceland, he will have small opportunity to lead others astray by his unfordly example. Bernard Marx, can you show any reason why I should not now execute the judgment passed upon you?

BERNARD:

Yes, I can.

SOUND:

GASPS FROM SHOCKED CROWD

DIRECTOR:

(SHOCKED, SLOWLY) What did you say?

BERNARD:

You told me you visited the Savage Reservation twenty-five years ago, Director, with a young Beta-Minus, I believe. You told me she was lost during a storm and that you returned without her. (POINTEDLY) I thought perhaps you'd like to see her again. (CALLS) Linda?!

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS ... GASPS FROM SHOCKED CROWD DURING FOLLOWING--

LINDA:

(TO DIRECTOR) Thomas! Thomas! Oh, Thomas, it's me! Don't remember? Your Linda! Oh, I knew I'd recognize you, Thomas -- you look just the same; no one ages here. Thomas, look at me; I'm Linda. Remember? (TEARFUL) Hug me, hold me.

DIRECTOR:

(INDIGNANT) What is the meaning of this? Who is this hag?!

LINDA:

Thomas! Oh, Thomas, it's Linda. Linda, your Beta-Minus. (CALLS) John, look, it's him! It's your father!

JOHN:

(WARMLY) Father! Father!

DIRECTOR:

What's the meaning of this disgusting joke? Who is this savage, and this dreadful woman? Take them away!

LINDA:

This isn't a joke! It's absolutely true! I'm his mother and you're the father!

SOUND:

BIG GASP! FROM CROWD ... WHICH MURMURS EXCITEDLY AND STARTS TO LAUGH, IN BG

JOHN:

(REASONABLE) Father, it's me, John. I'm your son.

BERNARD:

(LAUGHS TRIUMPHANTLY) And now--! Now who is guilty of antisocial behavior, Director?!

DIRECTOR:

(HORRIFIED) Oh, no. (MOVING OFF) No, no, no, no, no, noooooo!

SOUND:

DIRECTOR'S RUNNING STEPS AWAY AS CROWD ROARS

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

HUXLEY:

A father as Director of Hatcheries; it was out of the question. The Controller asked for his resignation and all upper-caste London was wild to see the Savage and his mother. Bernard Marx became a hero and even Lenina Crowne had her share of reflected glory.

SOUND:

LAB BACKGROUND

FANNY:

Good morning, Lenina.

LENINA:

Oh, good morning, Fanny.

FANNY:

Well, you certainly seem pleased with yourself.

LENINA:

Yes, I am pleased. Bernard called up half an hour ago. He has to go to a party at the Controller's and he asked me if I'd take the Savage to the feelies this evening!

FANNY:

Oh, lucky girl. What's he like, Lenina? I've heard he's terribly good looking.

LENINA:

Oh, he is. But so very odd.

FANNY:

In what way?

LENINA:

Well, the day Bernard and I left the reservation, the Savage came into my room; I'd taken a soma, so I didn't notice him until suddenly I awakened and there he was bending over me.

FANNY:

What happened?

LENINA:

Well, naturally, I assumed something was going to happen, but instead of that, he just ran out of the room!

FANNY:

Well, how odd. What a terribly ungentlemanly thing to do. Doesn't he like you?

LENINA:

Oh, I'm sure he does, so I can't make it out. And please don't tell this to anyone, Fanny. It upsets me, because I like him. I mean, I really like him!

FANNY:

(GASPS) Lenina!

LENINA:

I know it's immoral, but I just can't help myself. I do like him!

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

HUXLEY:

The days passed. Success went fizzily to Bernard's head. His diffidence turned to bumptiousness, his nonconformity was forgotten, and he became completely orthodox. The Resident World Controller appointed him official escort for the Savage and asked him to make regular reports on the young man's reactions to civilization. This Bernard did -- assiduously.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

BERNARD:

(A REPORT) Today I sent the Savage to the feelies with Lenina Crowne. The feature was "Three Weeks in a Helicopter." Instead of holding the knobs on the chair arms thus enabling him to experience the sensations of the lovers on the screen, the Savage refused to participate. Lenina tells me he called the film "vulgar and indecent."

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

BERNARD:

(A REPORT) The Savage refuses to take soma and seems most distressed because the woman, Linda -- his M-O-T-H-E-R -- remains permanently on soma-holiday. In spite of her senility and the extreme repulsiveness of her appearance, the Savage frequently goes to see her and appears much attached to her.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

SOUND:

DOOR SLAMS

BERNARD:

(ANGRY) What do you mean you refuse to come down to dinner?

JOHN:

(MISERABLE) Bernard, I'm sick. I've eaten civilization and I'm sick.

BERNARD:

Do you realize that I've invited the most important people in London tonight? The Ford Chief Justice is here. The Arch-Community-Songster of Canterbury has flown in just to meet you.

JOHN:

(BEAT, QUIETLY) You've changed, Bernard. You used to feel the way I do about things. I talked to Helmholtz Watson. He says you've changed, too.

BERNARD:

(UNCONVINCING) I haven't. (PLEADS) Listen, if you don't come downstairs for my dinner party, I'll be the laughing stock of London.

JOHN:

(RESIGNED) I'll come. Just let me read this to you first.

BERNARD:

Hm?

SOUND:

BOOK OPENED, PAGES FLIPPED

JOHN:

One day many years ago I found this book in my mother's room. One of the Indians had found it in a cave. It must be hundreds of years old.

BERNARD:

Hmm. It's called "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare." Oh, I've heard of him. We don't allow it. Smut.

JOHN:

But he says all the things I feel about Lenina. Listen to this.

BERNARD:

Hm?

JOHN:

(READS)
"Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away:
Delay this marriage for a month, a week--

BERNARD:

(LAUGHS, MOCKINGLY) Marriage! (LAUGHS) Ford, no!

JOHN:

Bernard--

BERNARD:

(LAUGHS) Oh, marriage -- that's too good, really. (LAUGHS)

JOHN:

Bernard, stop it.

BERNARD:

And - and mother! (LAUGHS) "O sweet my mother"! (LAUGHS) Oh, it's positively vulgar.

JOHN:

You stop it.

BERNARD:

Wait till I tell Helmholtz about this! (LAUGHS)

JOHN:

Stop it or I'll hit you!

BERNARD:

Oh, come now, where's your sense of humor?

JOHN:

Bernard--

BERNARD:

Can't you see how funny it is?

SOUND:

SCUFFLE AS JOHN PUSHES BERNARD TO THE DOOR, IN BG

JOHN:

Get out! (THREATENING) I said leave me alone.

BERNARD:

(NERVOUS) I - I'm leaving, John, I'm leaving.

SOUND:

DOOR OPENS AND SHUTS AS BERNARD EXITS

JOHN:

(BEAT, QUIETLY INTENSE) "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in it!"

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

HUXLEY:

The next morning, a pneumatic young girl, crisply clad in a Beta-Minus viscose-linen suit, stood outside the door of the Savage's apartment and somewhat nervously rang the buzzer.

SOUND:

FUTURISTIC DOORBELL ... DOOR OPENS

JOHN:

Wha--? Lenina?

LENINA:

You don't seem very glad to see me John.

JOHN:

Not glad? Oh, if you only knew.

LENINA:

May I come in then?

SOUND:

LENINA'S STEPS IN ... DOOR CLOSES

JOHN:

May I kiss your hand, Lenina?

LENINA:

My hand?!

JOHN:

(LOVINGLY) Admired Lenina. Indeed, the top of admiration, worth what's dearest in the world. I wanted to do something first, to show I was worthy of you.

LENINA:

What are you talking about?

JOHN:

Lenina, tell me something! I'll do anything you tell me -- anything at all! I'd sweep the floor if you wanted!

LENINA:

But we've got vacuum cleaners here; it isn't necessary.

JOHN:

(PATIENTLY) No, of course it isn't necessary. But some kinds of baseness are nobly undergone. I - I'd like to undergo something noble -- just to show you how much I love you, Lenina.

LENINA:

(A LITTLE GASP) Do you mean it, John?

JOHN:

(SLOWLY) Yes, but I hadn't meant to say it; not until I-- Listen. Lenina, on the reservation, people get married--

LENINA:

Get what?!

JOHN:

For always. They make a promise to live together for always.

LENINA:

What a disgusting idea. (BEAT) Answer me this question, John. Do you really like me or don't you?

JOHN:

(BEAT, DEEPLY FELT) I love you - more than anything in the world.

LENINA:

Well then, why on earth didn't you say so? Come here to me, John. Hug me.

JOHN:

Oh, but, Lenina--

LENINA:

(SINGS) "Hug me till you drug me, honey, / Kiss me till I'm in a coma--"

SOUND:

SCUFFLE AS LENINA HUGS JOHN WHO RESISTS

JOHN:

Lenina? What are you doing? No. No! Get away from me! Don't come near me!

LENINA:

Hug me, honey!

JOHN:

You - you strumpet!

LENINA:

A gram is better than a damn!

JOHN:

Get out!

LENINA:

But don't you want me?

JOHN:

(EXPLODES) Get out of my sight--!

SOUND:

JOHN SLAPS LENINA HARD

LENINA:

(SHRIEKS) John!

JOHN:

(QUIETLY) --before I kill you.

SOUND:

LENINA'S HURRIED STEPS TO DOOR, WHICH OPENS BEHIND--

LENINA:

Why, he's mad! He's gone mad!

SOUND:

LENINA'S STEPS OUT ... DOOR SHUTS

JOHN:

(BEAT, QUIET ANGER) "O thou weed, who art so lovely fair and smell'st so sweet that the sense aches at thee." (CURSING) Impudent strumpet, impudent strumpet, impudent strumpet!

SOUND:

FUTURISTIC PHONE RINGS ... RECEIVER UP

JOHN:

(INTO PHONE) Hello? -- Yes, this is Mr. Savage. -- Who's ill? -- Linda? My mother, dying? -- Yes. Yes, I'll come at once.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

NURSE:

(CHEERFUL) Welcome to the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying. You've come to see someone in the Galloping Senility ward?

JOHN:

(SAD) Yes. My mother.

NURSE:

(DISGUSTED) Oh, how vulgar.

JOHN:

You know who I mean. Linda.

NURSE:

(CHEERFUL AGAIN) Oh! Oh, yes! Room Forty-Three, Bed Sixteen. She'll be dying any minute now! This way, please.

SOUND:

THEIR STEPS DOWN HALL, IN BG

JOHN:

Is there - any hope--?

NURSE:

Well, of course not! Or else she wouldn't have been sent here. Through these doors.

SOUND:

HOSPITAL DOORS OPEN

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

SOUND:

BACKGROUND OF CHILDREN PLAYING, MURMURING

JOHN:

What are these children doing here?

NURSE:

Death conditioning, of course. It starts at eighteen months. Every tot spends two mornings a week in a hospital for the dying. All the best toys are kept here and they get chocolate ice cream on death days. They learn to take dying as a matter of course. This way.

SOUND:

THEIR STEPS TO LINDA ... BACKGROUND OF CHILDREN FADES OUT

NURSE:

Ah, here we are. Well, I must go. I've got my batch of children coming. (MOVING OFF, MERRILY) Time for their chocolate ice cream.

SOUND:

NURSE EXITS ... JOHN'S STEPS SLOWLY TO LINDA

JOHN:

Linda?

LINDA:

(EXHALES)

JOHN:

Linda, it's John.

LINDA:

(EXHALES)

JOHN:

Your eyes are open, but you don't know me, do you?

LINDA:

(EXHALES)

JOHN:

It's John, your son. Linda?

LINDA:

(EXHALES)

JOHN:

Linda, don't you know me?

LINDA:

(EXHALES, PAUSE, WEAKLY) "Hug me till you drug me, honey. Kiss me till I'm in a coma." (GASPS)

JOHN:

Linda? (NO ANSWER) Linda?

LINDA:

(FINAL BREATH)

JOHN:

(TEARFUL) Mother? (BREAKS DOWN AND WEEPS)

MUSIC:

MOURNFUL TRANSITION

HUXLEY:

The menial staff of the Park Lane Hospital for the Dying consisted of one hundred and sixty-two Deltas, eighty-four redheaded female twins, and seventy-eight identical mongoloid male twins. At six, when their working day was over, the two groups assembled in the vestibule of the hospital and was served their daily soma ration. It was into this crowd that the Savage walked, so overcome with his grief and his remorse that he did not realize he was shouldering his way into the gathering throng.

SOUND:

HUNGRY THRONG MURMURS ... CONTINUES IN BG

ALPHA:

(TO THRONG) All right, here it is -- soma distribution! In good order, please! Oh, hurry up there! Stand in line for your soma!

JOHN:

(TO HIMSELF, IN DESPAIR) Linda. Linda died because of this.

ALPHA:

(TO THRONG) Oh, now don't grab! There's enough for everybody! One gram for an evening's delight! Two for a trip to the gorgeous East! And four for a weekend in paradise!

JOHN:

(TO HIMSELF, GRIM) "How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in it!" (UP, TO THRONG) Stop! Stop!

ALPHA:

(SURPRISED) Ford! It's the Savage!

JOHN:

(TO THRONG) Listen, I beg you! Lend me your ears! Don't take that horrible stuff! It's poison!

ALPHA:

(MILDLY ANNOYED) Mr. Savage, please! The people are waiting!

JOHN:

(TO THRONG) You're slaves, all of you! Don't you want to be men?! Don't you want freedom?!

ALPHA:

Freedom? Ford Almighty, call the police!

MUSIC:

POLICE SIGNAL ... A SLIDE WHISTLE ... THRONG CONTINUES IN BG

HUXLEY:

From somewhere behind the milling angry crowd, Bernard Marx saw the Savage. He and his friend Helmholtz Watson had been searching for John. Now they hurried forward.

BERNARD:

Helmholtz, he's mad. They'll lynch him. Oh, Ford help us.

HELMHOLTZ:

Ford help those who help themselves, Bernard. Come on!

BERNARD:

Where are you going?! Come back!

HELMHOLTZ:

(MOVING TO JOHN) It's a fight! A real fight! I've been waiting all my life for this! Men at last!

JOHN:

(TO THRONG) I'll make you free whether you want to be or not! Give me those soma boxes!

SOUND:

SOMA BOXES GRABBED

ALPHA:

Sir! Mr. Savage, no!

SOUND:

WINDOW OPENED ... SOMA BOXES THROWN OUT, IN AGREEMENT WITH FOLLOWING--

ALPHA:

Stop it!

JOHN:

Helmholtz! Join me?!

HELMHOLTZ:

Yes!

JOHN:

(WITH EFFORT, THROWING BOXES) Throw the poison pills away!

HELMHOLTZ:

(WITH EFFORT, THROWING BOXES) By all means, throw them away!

ALPHA:

Stop it!

JOHN:

(TO THRONG) Freedom! Be a man and be free!

MUSIC:

POLICE SIGNAL ... A SLIDE WHISTLE

ALPHA:

(TO POLICE) Over here, officers! This way!

JOHN:

(TO THRONG) Freedom!

HELMHOLTZ:

Throw them away!

ALPHA:

(TO POLICE) Give them the soma spray!

SOUND:

HISS! OF SOMA SPRAY ... CONTINUES IN BG

JOHN:

(INCREASINGLY OVERCOME BY SOMA, SLOWLY) Free--! (COUGHS) Stand up as men! Win - your - freedom--

HELMHOLTZ:

(ALSO OVERCOME, REALIZES) Soma--! Soma spray!

JOHN:

Win--

HELMHOLTZ:

John?

JOHN:

--your--

HELMHOLTZ:

John?

JOHN:

--freedom--

ALPHA:

(TO POLICE) Take them to the Resident Controller's office!

SOUND:

HISS OUT ... HAPPY THRONG MURMUR RESUMES BEHIND--

ALPHA:

(TO THRONG, SOOTHING) All right, all right, it's all over. We're all happy now. We're so happy, we all love each other, don't we? Oh, yes, we all love each other. Line up for your soma!

MUSIC:

TRANSITION

CONTROLLER:

So you don't much like civilization, Mr. Savage?

JOHN: No, I don't.

BERNARD:

(GENTLE WARNING) John, you're talking to the Resident Controller.

CONTROLLER:

We don't need your comments, Mr. Marx.

JOHN:

I think civilization is horrible.

CONTROLLER:

And yet people are happy. They get what they want and they never want what they can't get. They're well off, they're safe, they're never ill, they're not afraid of death. They're blissfully ignorant of passion and old age. They're plagued with no mother or father. They've got no wives or children to feel strongly about. They're so conditioned that they practically can't help behaving as they ought to behave. And you ask them to chuck this all away? For liberty? My good boy--

JOHN:

All the same, it seems quite horrible to me.

CONTROLLER:

Of course it does. Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And being contented has none of the glamor of a good fight against misfortune. Happiness is never grand.

JOHN:

They call this happiness? Working at an embryo assembly line, manufacturing babies?

CONTROLLER:

Science, my boy! Besides, they like it. Well, Mr. Marx, the time has come. You are being sent to an island.

BERNARD:

To - to an island? Oh, please, sir, don't send me to Iceland. I promise I'll do what I should. I'll conform to the rules!

CONTROLLER:

One would think he was going to have his throat cut whereas if he had the smallest sense, he'd understand his punishment is really a reward. He'll be sent to an island where he'll meet the most interesting set of men and women in the world -- all the people who weren't satisfied with orthodoxy. Everyone, in a word, who's anyone.

JOHN:

Then why didn't you go to an island yourself?

CONTROLLER:

Because, finally, I prefer this. Sometimes I regret it. Happiness is a hard master -- particularly other people's happiness. (BEAT) Well, gentlemen, there are many islands available. Which climate do you choose, Mr. Watson?

HELMHOLTZ:

Well, I should like a thoroughly bad climate. I think I'd write better if I had to contend with difficulties.

CONTROLLER:

How about the Falkland Islands?

HELMHOLTZ:

That would be fine.

CONTROLLER:

Good. You may leave now. You, too, Mr. Marx.

JOHN:

(SADLY) Goodbye, Helmholtz. Goodbye, Bernard.

HELMHOLTZ:

Goodbye, John.

BERNARD:

Goodbye, John.

SOUND:

HELMHOLTZ AND BERNARD'S STEPS TO DOOR, WHICH OPENS AND SHUTS AS THEY EXIT

JOHN:

(BEAT) One more question.

CONTROLLER:

Of course.

JOHN:

Where is God in this scheme of yours?

CONTROLLER:

It's a subject that has always had a great interest for me.

SOUND:

DRAWER OPENS ... BOOK REMOVED AND OPENED, PAGES FLIPPED, BEHIND--

CONTROLLER:

You've never read this, of course -- the Holy Bible, New and Old Testaments. We've got quite a few revolting old books like that here.

JOHN:

But if you know about God, why don't you tell the people?

CONTROLLER:

This book is old. It's about God hundreds of years ago. Not God now.

JOHN:

But God doesn't change.

CONTROLLER:

Men do, though. No, my friend, call it the fault of civilization. God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness.

JOHN:

But when you're alone it's natural to believe in God -- when you're quite alone in the night, thinking about death.

CONTROLLER:

But people are never alone now. We make them hate solitude and we arrange their lives so that it's almost impossible for them ever to have it. (BEAT) No solitude, no God.

JOHN:

Is that why there's no self-denial here? No God, no reason for it?

CONTROLLER:

Of course. Industry and prosperity are only possible when there is no self-denial. If there were, the wheels would stop turning.

JOHN:

But God's the reason for everything noble and fine and heroic.

CONTROLLER:

My dear young friend, civilization has absolutely no need for nobility or heroism. You're conditioned so that you can't help doing what you ought to do. And what you ought to do is, on the whole, so pleasant. So many of the natural impulses are allowed free play that there really aren't any temptations to resist. Anybody can be virtuous now. No temptations, no inconveniences.

JOHN:

But I like the inconveniences.

CONTROLLER:

We don't. We prefer to do things comfortably.

JOHN:

But I don't want comfort. I want God. I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness! I - want sin.

CONTROLLER:

In fact, you're claiming the right to be unhappy.

JOHN:

(CONCEDES) All right. I'm claiming the right to be unhappy.

CONTROLLER:

Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent. The right to have cancer. The right to have too little to eat. The right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow. The right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.

JOHN:

(BEAT, DELIBERATELY) I claim them all.

CONTROLLER:

(CHEERFUL) You're welcome.

MUSIC:

SOBER TRANSITION

HUXLEY:

Bernard and Helmholtz left for their islands, but the Savage was not allowed to go with them. The controller wished to continue the experiment. Three weeks later the Savage ran away. After some days of wandering he took refuge in an abandoned lighthouse, but his desire for solitude was not to be fulfilled. His hiding place was discovered. There were articles in the papers; sightseers came by the thousands. One Sunday, Lenina Crowne came for a picnic with three of her latest boyfriends. The day after her visit, two young reporters came to call, hoping for an exclusive interview. The door of the lighthouse was ajar. They pushed it open and walked into a shuttered twilight. Through an archway on the further side of the room, they could see the bottom of the staircase that led up to the higher floors. Just under the crown of the arch, dangled a pair of feet. They called. No one answered. They saw him. At last, the Savage had found solitude. He was alone, quite alone.

MUSIC:

SOMBER CURTAIN

VOICE:

Thus concludes "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. We wish to thank Mr. Huxley for appearing on these broadcasts as our narrator. And, uh, we would also like to thank you, our listeners, for your enthusiastic response to this new series. This is William Conrad inviting you to join us again next week when we present George Stewart's dramatic account of one of nature's most terrifying phenomena, "Storm." The following week, listen as Dr. Frank C. Baxter interviews William Shakespeare -- presented on THE CBS RADIO WORKSHOP.

MUSIC:

TRANSITION ... THEN IN BG, UNTIL END

ANNOUNCER:

THE CBS RADIO WORKSHOP is produced and directed by William Froug. "Brave New World" was adapted for radio by Mr. Froug. Featured in the cast were Joseph Kearns, Herb Butterfield, Bill Idelson, Gloria Henry, Charlotte Lawrence, Parley Baer, Doris Singleton, Jack Kruschen, Vic Perrin, and Lurene Tuttle. Original music composed and conducted by Bernard Herrmann.

America listens most to the CBS Radio Network.