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All of upper-caste London is wild to see the Savage who fell on his knees before the D.H.C., who promptly resigned. But no one is at all anxious to see Linda, who was decanted and so not so much a mystery. More importantly, she's sickening, having lost her youth, her complexion and her figure. The best people are determined not to see Linda, who'd rather not see them, either. Instead, Linda lies in bed taking one soma-holiday after another. The doctor tells Bernard the soma, in such excess, will finish her off in a month or two. When John objects, the doctor says they may be shortening her life in one sense, but they're lengthening it in another, since every soma-holiday is a bit of what the ancestors called eternity. Moreover, the doctor is grateful for this opportunity to study senility. Bernard is flooded with requests to see the Savage. Important people come to his parties, and Bernard finds he can have any women he wants, whenever he wants them. The success goes to his head, and Bernard suddenly feels reconciled to the world around him. When he confides to Helmholtz about the six girls he had last week, Helmholtz listens in a silence so disapproving Bernard is offended and determines never to speak to Helmholtz again. Bernard, bolstered by his new importance, begins pointing out some of the flaws he sees in society. Because of the Savage, he's politely listened to, though his guests shake their heads behind his back and say he'll come to a bad end—there won't be another Savage to help him out a second time. But the mere politeness makes Bernard feel gigantic, and he sends reports to Mustapha Mond, agreeing with some of the Savage's ideas—specifically that infantility is too easy, or not expensive enough. The Controller is at first outraged and then laughs; the idea of Bernard lecturing him about the social order is too grotesque. He decides he ought to teach Bernard a lesson, but not at the moment. Meanwhile, Bernard takes John on a tour of civilized life, showing him a factory for helicopter lighting-sets operated by identical Gammas and Deltas, and the Eton School, where John observes students laughing at a geography film showing savages confessing their sins to Jesus and whipping themselves. He asks the Provost why they're laughing, but the Provost himself is laughing and says it's because it's just so extraordinarily funny. Bernard uses the opportunity to make a date with Miss Keate, the Head Mistress. Although Lenina has received her share of fame, she feels a little like she's getting something under false pretenses, since everyone assumes she's had the Savage. When she tells people she hasn't, they don't believe her, and even Lenina can't figure out why she hasn't. She likes John, more and more, and every so often she catches him looking at her in the way a man does when he likes a woman. But John won't touch her. Tonight, though, Bernard has an unexpected engagement and has asked her to take John to the feelies—her opportunity, she thinks. At the feelies, Lenina and John watch a story about a Negro who, having fallen on his head, becomes obsessed with a Beta. He kidnaps her, keeping her hovering in the sky in a wildly anti-social three-week tryst, until she's rescued by three handsome young Alphas. During the story, Lenina shows John how to use the metal knobs on his chair to feel all the sensations the story characters feel. John is alarmed and disgusted by the sensation of kissing and the distorted lips of all the viewers participating in the public spectacle. He tells Lenina afterward that it was horrible and base and, looking down at her, he's obscurely terrified Lenina will cease to be something he's unworthy of. When the taxi copter lands at Lenina's apartment, John abruptly leaves her. Lenina is so disappointed she takes three half-gramme soma tablets to help her sleep. Bernard experiences a brief period of social acceptance, his only real desire. Bernard's views may differ from those of the State, but he's too afraid of isolation to voice them without the relative safety he perceives in his new status. The fact that the Controller and everyone else recognize this makes it clear that Bernard's success will be short-lived. However, through Bernard, we understand what it feels like to be different—the State has not completely eliminated the square pegs from the round holes. The only question that remains is what's done with them. John is obviously a fish out of water in the New World. He's also a public spectacle. No longer called by name, he's referred to as "the Savage," an attempt by the conditioned masses to classify him as they classify themselves. While John tries to assimilate what he sees and make some sense of it, the others, who have never been taught to make meaning, simply view him as a new form of entertainment. In this sense, the people of the New World remain throughout their lives as simple as children. This is intentional—infantilism is the standard, again taking to an extreme the common adult desire to return to childhood. By contrast, no one wants to see Linda, who, as a corrupted product of the New World, represents a kind of nightmare-vision, an ugly reflection of everyone else. The people's inability to look at her is an inability to confront their own humanity without the aid of technology, the World State and soma. Ironically, Linda is still a perfect representative of her society. Despite all the hardships she's suffered as a result of her differing values on the Reservation, she has clung to her conditioning, and now she's grateful to be able to finally retreat into a permanent soma-holiday. The tension caused by the conflict between Lenina's conditioning for promiscuity and John's opposing sexual values is rising. John is not only monogamous—a value taught on the Reservation—but he's also influenced by the Shakespearean plays he treasures. These have resulted in a strict code of behavior that directly opposes the New World's values. John is disgusted by the feely, and desperately tries to retain his idea of Lenina as a symbol of purity.
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