How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Part.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Yes, a little too able; they were right. A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect. Too little bone and brawn had isolated Bernard from his fellow men, and the sense of this apartness, being, by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation. (4.2.15)
We would really like to comment on this… except Huxley doesn't leave much room for interpretation. This is "Direct Characterization," a.k.a. "Blatant Telling (Not Showing)" at its best.
Quote #5
"Are you?" said Helmholtz, with a total absence of interest. Then after a little pause, "This last week or two," he went on, "I've been cutting all my committees and all my girls. You can't imagine what a hullabaloo they've been making about it at the College. Still, it's been worth it, I think. The effects…" He hesitated. "Well, they're odd, they're very odd."
A physical shortcoming could produce a kind of mental excess. The process, it seemed, was reversible. Mental excess could produce, for its own purposes, the voluntary blindness and deafness of deliberate solitude, the artificial impotence of asceticism. (4.2.22-3)
Helmholtz is just like Bernard, except more attractive and less insecure. The second paragraph makes that pretty clear. The first one is interesting, though—it provides some insight into just how tight a leash the World State has on its citizens.
Quote #6
And when, exhausted, the Sixteen had laid by their saxophones and the Synthetic Music apparatus was producing the very latest in slow Malthusian Blues, they might have been twin embryos gently rocking together on the waves of a bottled ocean of blood-surrogate. (5.1.19)
Solitude really is an anachronism in this world. From Henry and Lenina's date we get a sense of routine—they basically do this every night, just with different partners. So between the workplace and their socializing, individuals can never be alone. They can never think or look inward or examine; they just exist.