Excellent Storytelling

"One cubic centimetre cures ten gloomy sentiments," said the Assistant Predestinator citing a piece of homely hypnopædic wisdom.

"It only remained to conquer old age."

"Damn you, damn you!" shouted Bernard Marx.

"Hoity-toity."

"Gonadal hormones, transfusion of young blood, magnesium salts …"

"And do remember that a gramme is better than a damn." They went out, laughing.

"All the physiological stigmata of old age have been abolished. And along with them, of course …"

"Don't forget to ask him about that Malthusian belt," said Fanny.

"Along with them all the old man's mental peculiarities. Characters remain constant throughout a whole lifetime."

"… two rounds of Obstacle Golf to get through before dark. I must fly."

"Work, play–at sixty our powers and tastes are what they were at seventeen. Old men in the bad old days used to renounce, retire, take to religion, spend their time reading, thinking–thinking!"

"Idiots, swine!" Bernard Marx was saying to himself, as he walked down the corridor to the lift.

This is an exert from Aldous Huxley's A Brave New World--my summer reading book.  In this section, I wish to highlight the use of the repeating dialogue which the narrative uses to portray multiple conversations happening at the same instant.  Some novels struggle with progression; however, this section portrays time so effectively that it becomes fluid, encompassing, and much more realistic.  At the same instant, multiple people are shouting, talking, and walking, thus creating a more omniscient reader who is not limited to one dialogue or scene alone.  Furthermore, with the use of multiple lines, the narrator hands over control of the novel to the “Assistant Predestinator” who becomes an ominous narrator within this 3^rd person narrative; thus, this passage’s structure and delivery, debatably, almost begin to reflect the sort of the “control” theme that exists in many forms in the novel itself.  With all this said, I think that this passage is a prime example of excellent and innovative storytelling.