pneumatic

Not so much about the chapters themselves but this was bothering me.

So Huxley keeps describing some of the girls as "pneumatic" and I have no earthly idea what he's talking about.

Pneumatic is defined as "containing or operated by air or gas under pressure" or "relating to the spirit." But Huxley seems to use it in conjunction to describing the girls' weight, but even then i cant work it out.

In the orgy porgy scene in chapter 5 he says "But [Clara] was really too pneumatic. Whereas Fifi and Joanna were absolutely right. Plump, blonde, not too large." But in the conversation with Lenina and Bernard in chapter 6 they say "“Every one says I’m awfully pneumatic,” said Lenina reflectively, patting her own legs." ... " She looked up with a certain anxiety. “But you don’t think I’m too plump, do you?”

So I'm getting that he's using pneumatic to mean they girls are a little heavy but what might that have to do with being operated by gas under pressure?

Riordon wrote:Not so much about the chapters themselves but this was bothering me.

So Huxley keeps describing some of the girls as "pneumatic" and I have no earthly idea what he's talking about.

Pneumatic is defined as "containing or operated by air or gas under pressure" or "relating to the spirit." But Huxley seems to use it in conjunction to describing the girls' weight, but even then i cant work it out.

In the orgy porgy scene in chapter 5 he says "But [Clara] was really too pneumatic. Whereas Fifi and Joanna were absolutely right. Plump, blonde, not too large." But in the conversation with Lenina and Bernard in chapter 6 they say "“Every one says I’m awfully pneumatic,” said Lenina reflectively, patting her own legs." ... " She looked up with a certain anxiety. “But you don’t think I’m too plump, do you?”

So I'm getting that he's using pneumatic to mean they girls are a little heavy but what might that have to do with being operated by gas under pressure?

He is playing off the machine term, I think, to suggest that they are, like you said, plump. Mmm... interesting observation. I assumed that it was a positive term. - Myette