We

“Our duty will be to force them to be happy. But before we take up arms, we shall try the power of words.”

This statement in the One State newspaper at the start of the novel explains the purpose of the Integral. Poetry and literature written about the glory of the One State will be attached to the Integral rocket to convince civilizations on other planets to become part of the One State. On one level this statement seems peaceful and philosophical, reflecting the disavowal, at first, of violence as a way to make other cultures join the One State. However, the statement also reveals the deep arrogance and hubris of the One State, that it believes it developed the only viable solution to the question of happiness.

“She took her seat; she began to play something wild, convulsive, loud, like all their life then, —not a shadow of rational mechanism.”

As part of a state lecture on music, D-503 watches I-330 play the “ancient instrument” of the piano. This is supposed to demonstrate the inferiority of pre-One State music of the 20th century to the formally perfect music produced by the One State’s “musicometer”. Yet, despite himself, D-503 sees in this music and its performance a freedom and vitality lacking in One State music. It is this vitality that D-503 starts to associate with I-330 and forms the basis of his growing infatuation with her.