Well before the fall of the Soviet Union, the dream of the ideal society had acquired sinister connotations. The 20th century's many experiments in social engineering, whether it be political and economic totalitarianism, architecture, or eugenics have taken all lustre out of the perfect society. Charmingly naive at best, the quest for utopia has also been the ultimate proof that good intentions can pave the road to hell. How can one person, usually a writer, possibly design an optimal society that maximises the happiness of all citizens? We humans have a difficult enough time solving the three-body problem. Never has the gap between rationality and human nature been wider than when people are slaughtered to achieve perfection. You can only make an omelette by smashing all who stand in your way.
Ever since the late 1970s, most science fiction scenarios are post-apocalyptic dystopias. Think The Island, Dark City, Dark Angel, Mad Max, The Matrix, Waterworld, Terminator, Children of Men, Blakes' 7, The Road, and Logans Run. But in the late 18th century and most of the 19th century, there was an earnest but innocent longing to leave all behind and start again, seduced by Rousseau's noble savage.With this year's release of George Claeys' Searching for Utopia: The History of an Idea, readers can have a tour through history's most (in)famous imaginary utopias.
More than a decade ago, John Carey also compiled and edited an overview of literature's utopias in The Faber Book of Utopias from ancient Egypt to modern literature and encompassing all the well known examples from Plato, More, Swift, and Huxley, etc. An ABC podcast of John Carey discussing utopias can be heard here.
A summary of John Carey's book of Utopias follows...
Definitions: Carey begins with a discussion on definitions: utopia means “no place”, not good place (Thomas More)
Dystopia: deliberately and obviously undesirable
Anti-utopia: ostensibly desirable but a fatal flaw inverts the value judgement.
Eutopia: positive utopia
Outopia: fictional utopia
Heterotopia: mix of real and imaged possibilities
Common themes & issues in the history of utopias:
Elimination of money and property
Conditioning to selflessness through education (no crime)
State centralised control according to a set of principles
Abolition of the family (arbitrary social groups)
Subsuming the individual for the 'good of the whole’ (i.e. humanity, society, civilisation, nobility, Hive Mind)
Eugenics, culling of the unfit
Heaven on Earth: is it better to satisfy all human cravings (food, sex, etc) or take the initial cravings away, or add new ones? If all wants are catered for (no work, no diseases, no pain, no crime) then what to people do all day (the dilemma of heaven)
Absolutist / totalitarian regimes and ideology (Secular religions)
18th century utopias: paradise, universal politeness, vegetarianism, beauty, friendly rules, luxuries on tap
One-sized fits all or allowing for diversity e.g. parable of the spaghetti sauce (Gladwell's TED talk) i.e.difficult, if not impossible, to fine-tune a monoculture that satisfies all
Status anxiety:
If people get happiness from being above everybody else, and you grant all their wishes, then no one is above anybody and everybody is miserable. This is the paradox of utopian equality, revealing an inherent incompatibility with human nature (i.e. nice theory, wrong species).
Satisfaction of desires:
A utopia can deal with the satisfaction of desires in several ways
(a) Satisfy the desires in an conventional manner i.e. simply grant them by manufacturing/engineering/supplying the particular object/person, etc that is desired
(b) Engineer the humans (directly via genetics or through society) to remove the desire in the first place.
Which is easier, (a) or (b)?
(c) Suppress the desire via draconian punishments or through distractions (Prolefeed, soma, drugs, bread & circuses, etc)
Heaven on Earth: is it better to satisfy all human cravings (food, sex, etc) or take the initial cravings away, or add new ones? If all wants are catered for (no work, no diseases, no pain, no crime) then what to people do all day (the dilemma of heaven)
Absolutist / totalitarian regimes and ideology (Secular religions)
18th century utopias: paradise, universal politeness, vegetarianism, beauty, friendly rules, luxuries on tap
One-sized fits all or allowing for diversity e.g. parable of the spaghetti sauce (Gladwell's TED talk) i.e.difficult, if not impossible, to fine-tune a monoculture that satisfies all
Status anxiety:
If people get happiness from being above everybody else, and you grant all their wishes, then no one is above anybody and everybody is miserable. This is the paradox of utopian equality, revealing an inherent incompatibility with human nature (i.e. nice theory, wrong species).
Satisfaction of desires:
A utopia can deal with the satisfaction of desires in several ways
(a) Satisfy the desires in an conventional manner i.e. simply grant them by manufacturing/engineering/supplying the particular object/person, etc that is desired
(b) Engineer the humans (directly via genetics or through society) to remove the desire in the first place.
Which is easier, (a) or (b)?
(c) Suppress the desire via draconian punishments or through distractions (Prolefeed, soma, drugs, bread & circuses, etc)
Overview of the history of utopias:
The history of utopias reflects developments throughout history:
Age of discovery – islands (e.g. Tahiti, M Mead, etc)
Human foetus is an island (surrounded by water)
French revolution – political utopias
Marxism/Maoism/Communism – social utopias
Industrial revolution – technological utopias, nature utopias
20th century – genetics, population size control
19th century utopias: Egalitarian, inclusive, optimistic (inspired by French Revolution & Enlightenment principles e.g. Robert Owen.
20th century dystopias: Elitist, exclusive, pessimistic (inspired by Darwin & Galton, overpopulation concerns, less worthy outbreeding worthy, impending ecological catastrophe, technology)
Carey’s list of identified utopias (cut & paste from a Word Doc, so formatting won't be consistent)
1. Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
i. Ancient Egypt – 1640BC+
ii. Stoicism, rejection of Earthly riches
2. Utopias can be future or distant past (Golden Age)
i. Land bore fruit without cultivation e.g. Tahiti (Breadfruit)
ii. Pre-agriculture i.e. hunter-gatherer lifestyle
iii. Ancient wisdom, i.e. pre-Fall of man
iv. Only surpassed in the Enlightenment
v. Heaven can be past or future – also called Elysium & Paradise.
vi. Myth of the four ages (Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron).
vii. Sources in Hesiod, Homer, Ovid.
3. Plato’s The Republic (360BC, written when Plato was 23)
i. Compulsion, authority, censorship
ii. Private property & families banned (offspring anonymous)
iii. Eugenics breeding program (children of superior parents raised by the state, and children of inferior parents to be disposed of in secret).
iv. Philosopher Kings
v. Zeno’s Republic is now lost (libertarian paradise)
4. Tactitus’s Germania (98AD)
i. Purity, spartan austerity, chastity, monogamy
ii. Roman historian using the Teutonic hordes to admonish Roman excess
5. Plutarch’s Life of Lycurgus (approx 100AD)
i. Spartan warriors – lots of training (Lamarckian theory of inheritance)
ii. Lycurgus lived in 600BC.
iii. Abolished inequality by dividing land equally, and abolished money
iv. Militarised caste society, stoic, honour, etc.
6. Bible (Book of Revelation by St John the Divine (and slightly mad)
i. 1,000 year Reich after Christ’s return (Devil cast out)
ii. St Irenaeus – agricultural bliss, lots of food.
iii. New Jerusalem built of gold, jasper, gem stones, precious metals, etc
iv. Spoofed by Lucian in ‘The True History’ of the 1st century
7. Tertullian’s De Spectaculis (Concerning Spectacles) (approx 200AD)
i. Enjoying watched the damned be burned and tortured, for ever
8. Tao Qian’s Account of Peach Blossom Spring (approx 400AD)
i. No reorganization or reforming of humans
ii. Living like you always have, in stasis
iii. Hidden away from the rest of the world in a secret time bubble
9. Thomas More’s Utopia (1516)
i. Based on Plato’s Republic
ii. Coined the phrase, published just before Magellan’s circumnavigation
iii. Difficult to discern how serious he was (deadpan humour)
iv. Happy, healthy, public-spirited communists – no money, no locks
v. Rotational of labour (on a roster) – except for intellectuals
vi. Labour is done as punishment for breaking rules - slaves
vii. Eating in communal halls, divorce is acceptable
viii. Priests can be men or women and both can marry
10. Francis Godwin’s Man in the Moon (1638)
i. Popular after Thomas Harriot’s & Galileo’s telescopic observations of the moon in 1609/10
ii. Carried to the moon by 25 swans on a tether, good analysis of weightlessness once clear of Earth’s gravity
iii. Inhabitants are Christians giants and dwarfs
iv. Music as language
11. Montainge’s Essay On Cannibals (1580s)
i. Superiority of man in his natural state (e.g. Brazilians)
ii. No sickness
iii. Polygamy reward for valour (and encouraged by women)
iv. Inspiration for The Tempest i.e. Gonzalo’s Commonwealth speech
v. Caliban is an anagram of cannibal
12. John Donne The Sun Rising and To His Mistress Going to Bed
i. Woman as metaphor for utopia
13. Tommaso Campanella’s City of the Sun (1602)
i. Written in jail, and published 20 years later in 1623
ii. Solarians live in a city with 7 concentric circles around a temple
iii. Visual aid in education
iv. Birth control according to astrological principles
v. Eugenics: blending of traits e.g. fat men with thin girls
14. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis 1627
i. First Sci Fi novel set on a Pacific Island, Bensalem
ii. Scientific utopia including synthetic materials and robots
iii. Proto genetic manipulation of species i.e. transgenic
iv. Some discoveries have to kept secret from politicians
15. Samuel Gott’s New Jerusalem (1648)
i. Emphasis on education, along Jewish principles
16. Gerrard Winstanley’s Diggers/True Levellers (1649)
i. Egalitarian communists/pacifists
ii. Elimination of private property & money
iii. Political movement that originated as a divine revelation
17. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan 1651
i. Secretary to Francis Bacon
ii. Humans always act selfishly, even when appear to act altruistically (reputation, ulterior motives)
iii. Need a strong law/government
iv. Only when there is no war, can there be the fruits of civilisation
v. Confusion over whether current man is compatible with Nature or State (Natural Law)
vi. Must give up one’s individual right to self-defence to the State
vii. Hobbes’ society is totalitarian (sin=breaking the law)
18. Andrew Marvell’s Bermudas (1680s)
i. Romanticised Bermuda (until they became the centre of slavery)
19. Thomas Traherne’s Centuries of Meditation (1660s)
i. Here & now is utopia, if seen through the eyes of a child
ii. We should value the simple things: wonder at the sun, sky, etc.
20. Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World (1666)
i. First utopia by a woman (maid to Charles I’s queen, Henrietta)
ii. Endorses tyranny, aristocratic privilege, opulence.
iii. North pole is a portal to another world with a strong emperor
iv. Cavendish is a character in her own fiction
21. John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667)
i. Depiction of Adam & Eve in Eden.
ii. Vegetarian, naked, patriarchal
iii. Desire for air travel (common utopian theme)
22. Henry Neville’s Isle of Pines (1668)
i. Dutch sea captain Henry Cornelius Van Sloetten finds island and recounts story.
ii. Island inhabited by 12,000 descendents of George Pine who was shipwrecked with four women (2 maids, one teenager, one Negro). Class, race, and inhibitions are overcome.
iii. Order kept through the Bible. Disorder by ignoring the Bible, brought about by descendents of the Negro woman who had broken off into a rival tribe. Harsh penalties for breaches of island laws.
23. Denis Vairasse’s History of the Sevarambians (1675)
i. Another Australian utopia – communist sun worshippers (deists) who denied the divinity of Christ.
ii. Liberal attitudes to sex, but regulated along eugenics/breeding lines. Religion non-existent as it breeds ignorance, cruelty, tyranny, etc.
iii. Uniforms clothes that cycle through colours (no fashion)
iv. Hard work done by people that break the rules (e.g. lying)
v. Senators/officials allowed several partners
vi. Allusions to depravity of the Catholic church (Christians laughed at)
24. Gabriel de Foigny’s A New Discovery of Terra Incognita Australis (1692)
i. James Sadeur shipwrecked in Australia (first use of that term)
ii. Achieve utopia by eliminating things that men quarrel over: money, possessions, women
iii. Nudists due to perfect climate
iv. Food is plentiful – no agriculture or cooking
v. Australians are hermaphrodites (any single gender children aborted)
vi. Giants (utopians are normally taller)
vii. Disdain for animal attributes (eating, sleeping, etc)
viii. Moral of the story is that the Pure Reason of the Australians is incompatible with happiness and love. Eliminating undesirable things also eliminates desirable things as a consequence.
25. Anonymous ‘Sophick Constitution’ (1700)
i. Alchemists turn base metals into gold, solving all revenue problems
ii. Hygienic clean safe garden towns with many public loos
iii. Any luxuries and ostentatious displays excessively taxed
iv. Puritanical austerity
26. Ambrose Evan’s Adventures and Surprising Deliverances of James Dubourdieu (1719)
i. Another shipwreck on an island (world not completely explored until about early 1900s).
ii. No money, private property, or clothes
iii. Monogamy, adultery unknown
iv. Vegetarian animals
v. Christian visitors rejected for Christianity’s violence
27. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719)
i. Defoe was a puritan that supported slavery, child labour, extermination of gays. He hated adulterers, sex for pleasure, opera, theatre, etc.
ii. Defoe invented some elements of tabloid journalism (advice column, gossip column and spoof reader letter). Begun journal
iii. The original novel had a lot of spiritualism in there, as well as materialism (difficult to reconcile).
28. Ambrose Philips’ Fortunate Shipwreck (1720)
i. Virtuous, rational Australian utopia
ii. All books published anonymously – so they’re based on merit
iii. Criminals banished far away in an inaccessible place (Cygnus Alpha)
iv. Utopians are devout Christians
v. Male adulterers banished.
vi. Female adulterers smeared with cream that induces ugly tumours
29. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
i. Noble rational Houyhnhnms (horses) v Vile emotional Yahoos (humans)
ii. No parent – children relationship
iii. Blending of comeliness in females and strength in males
30. Ludwig Holberg’s Niels Klim’s Journey to the World Under Ground (1741)
i. Niels Klim, a graduate of Copenhagen University, drops through a hole and orbits another planet
ii. Talking trees – rational, slow (ents)
iii. Metaphysics and theology are punishable offences
31. Robert Paltock Life & Adventures of Peter Wilkins (1751)
i. Castaway on an island marries a mermaid-like woman who has wings due to ribbed skin, which can double as a boat.
32. Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754)
i. Two problems that differentiate the noble savage (hunter gatherer) from civilised man
1. Private property, post agriculture
2. Specialisation of skills e.g. blacksmith, causes inequality as some are better than others.
ii. Two types of noble savage
1. Real reports from the Caribbean, etc
2. One invented by him – solitary happy noble hunter gatherer, superior in strength & agility. No language due to being solitary. Only values were food, females & sleep
33. Anonymous A Voyage to the World in the Centre of the Earth (1755)
i. Falls through Vesuvius crater
ii. Animal rights, vegetarian, all animals are friends
34. Voltaire’s Candide (1758)
i. Response to Leibniz’s ‘Optimism’ where everything happens for a divine purpose. Even evil is right. Optimism supported by Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man…Whatever IS IS Right.
ii. Lisbon earthquake featured – the ‘Boxing Day tsunami’ of its day, with a profound impact on religion during the Enlightenment.
iii. Candide and his servant Cacambo follow a subterranean South American River into an inaccessible valley: Eldorado. Isolated and separate from the rest of Earth.
iv. Gold and jewels are plentiful. Everyone lives in palaces. No money required. The king is informal and friendly. Everything beautiful and perfect. Paradise. No religion. Huge palace of science (with thousands of talented scientists
v. Voltaire probably believes that evil is embedded within mankind
35. Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas (1759)
i. Written in a week to pay mother’s funeral expenses
ii. Satire against hope
iii. Rasselas, Prince on Abyssinia, escapes the Happy Valley with his sister, Princess Pekuah, and the tutor/poet Imlac.
iv. People pretend that in distant places other people are happy, but where one actually goes there and asks them, they’re not.
v. Each believes happiness is possessed by others, in order to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for themselves.
36. Anonymous’ Private Letters from an American in England (1769)
i. Set at the end of the 18th century – power transferred to the USA
ii. England depopulation, contents of British Museum sold off for food
37. Louis Antoine Comte de Bougainville Voyage Around the World 1766-1769 (translated by John Reinhold Forster 1772)
i. Tahiti – Romanticised as paradise, garden of Eden, Arcadia
ii. No shame, no Christian guilt etc, plentiful food, pre-Fall, etc
38. Louis-Sebastien Mercier’s The Year 2440 (1771)
i. In the future, avarice, vanity ostentation are no more
ii. Temple of Clemency where the Bastille stands
iii. People become public-spirited, reasonable and where simple clothes
iv. City of Paris is pedastrianised (no carriages for nobility)
v. Only honour is for public service (saving lives)
vi. No slums, air pollution, fountains can be drunk from, clean hospitals dispense free care to all, fragrant roof gardens.
vii. Obsolete is slavery, Catholic Church, and colonialism
viii. Free press (no censorship)
ix. Everyone is an author (i.e. his writings/soul is read upon death)
x. History books are banned
xi. Theological volumes used a weapon of war against enemy states
xii. A study of science/physics is synonymous with deistic religion
xiii. Women are subservient (female wit is shunned as it annoys men)
xiv. Criminals can choose whether they are killed or shunned
xv. Voluntary, grateful, non-compulsive payment of taxes
39. Marquis Jean-Antoine-Nicolas Caritat de Condorcet’s Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795)
i. Memory of Voltaire’s Philosophs and the Encyclopaedia project
ii. Belief in human perfectibility, facilitated by reason/science
iii. Thomas Malthus responded with ‘Essay on Population’ 1798
iv. Condorcet was arrested and committed suicide in his cell
40. Marquis de Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795)
i. Liberated in the Bastille 1789
ii. Human nature doesn’t need justification – relativist morals.
iii. Subjugation of women right, because men are stronger
iv. State run brothels, right of access (not of possession)
41. Francois-Noel Babeuf’s Communist Manifesto 1793
i. Executed in 1797 after stabbing himself
ii. Criticised the conservative usurpation of power after Robespierre died
iii. Criticised inheritance, alienability (giving up land inheritance) and differing values for labour (watchmaker v farmer).
iv. Champion of the proletarian workers (realised in USA 1938)
42. Anonymous Libellus or A Brief Sketch of the Kingdom of Gotham (1798)
i. Eye for eye penal punishment – death for murderers, burning for arsonists, castration for rapists, etc
43. James Lawrence’s Empire of the Nairs (1811)
i. Nairs are a free-love Hindu caste where men have no hold over the women (system attractive to free-thinkers). Maternal society (not paternal).
ii. Marriage opposed to as unnatural
iii. Property passes along female lines
iv. All mothers are single mothers – paid for by the state treasury
44. Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon’s Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva (1802)
i. Founder of Socialism – workers ran society
ii. Power transferred from the idle rich, titled, clergy (all called drones).
iii. Science, arts, crafts elevated as a ‘religion of Newton’ or a cult of reason – a secular priesthood called ‘savants’.
iv. Envisioned the unification of Europe
v. Elaborate plan for political & bureaucratic organisation of society
vi. Was arrested and released. Depressed because his ideas didn’t catch on. Shot himself in the head seven times but survived. Died in 1825.
45. Robert Owen’s A New View of Society 1813
i. Actually put his ideas into practice
ii. Acquired and ran a cotton mill in New Lanark Scotland along utopian lines
iii. Was humane for the day, but still used child labour
iv. Blank slate view of human nature – infinitely malleable
v. Socialism – profit-sharing, no private property, co-operation, no money
vi. Labour notes – acquired for time spent on work and exchangeable for goods.
vii. World tour in 1818 – setting up Owenite communities throughout the USA and co-operatives throughout England. Rational Society, meetings attended by Engels.
46. Charles Fourier’s Harmony 1808
i. Precursor to Marx & Freud
ii. Erotic freedom, non-compulsory work
iii. Utopia is called ‘Harmony’ – divided up into Phalanxes (Phalanstery)
iv. Passions should be fostered – there is enough diversity within humanity that, if passions are fostered, everyone can do what they want (even psychopaths can do useful things in being a butcher).
v. 810 common personality types + 410 mixed/ambiguous ones
vi. Each personality type can correspond with an occupation
vii. Top down pairing off, frequent lovemaking while working
47. John Trotter’s Travels in Phrenologasto (1829)
i. Comic utopia based on phrenology
ii. Shaved heads, brain surgery etc.
iii. No free will due to fixed personalities
iv. Financial penalties for crimes
48. Alfred Tennyson Lotus Eaters (1832)
i. Homer stopped in the land of Lotos eaters on the way back from the Trojan war
ii. Antidote to duty, responsibility & social conscience
49. John Etzler’s Paradise Within the Reach of All Men (1833)
i. Utilisation of the environment (e.g. wind power) so that no work has to be done. Solar power – all work done by the Earth.
ii. Mountains levelled, rivers altered, deserts irrigated, etc.
iii. People housed in centrally heated palaces of 7,000 each
iv. Machinery will meet every need – so no crime, poverty, taxation, work
v. All live in comfort
vi. Thoreau read it, rejected it, and responded to it with Walden
50. Etienne Cabet’s Voyage to Icaria (1839)
i. Written in the British Museum reading room while in exile.
ii. Icaria – symmetrical, clean, convenient, right-angles, efficient transport
iii. Law covers all aspects – even hats, etc.
iv. Perfect equality – everyone works same number of hours
v. Centralised state knowledge and regulation – all information shared.
51. Henry Forrest’s A Dream of Reform (1848)
i. Just need to eliminate dirt and ignorance
ii. 200 years in the future – sparkling, sanitised, crime-free England
iii. Water purifies all
iv. Wealthy people limit their wealth
v. Voluntary paradise – cricket, philosophy, cheer, etc.
52. Charles Dickens’ Noble Savage (1853)
i. Published in Household Words
ii. Inspired by visiting Zulus – more of an anti-utopia
iii. Bebunks the notion of a noble savage – prefers the least civilised man
53. John Ruskin’s Modern Painters (1856)
i. Slow time – faster isn’t necessarily better
ii. Objected to railroads and faster pace of life (modern day equivalent is the Long Now Foundation and Slow Food Movement, Downshifting, activism for reduced working hours/days, less light pollution at night, less noise pollution, etc.
iii. Worthy things aren’t mass produced
54. Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address (1863)
i. Famous quotes: four-score and seven (1863-1776), government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish.
55. Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Heaven Haven (late-1860s)
i. Monastic ideal
ii. Asceticism – purification of the body
iii. Mysticism – elevation of the mind
iv. Monasteries are small utopian community – bound together with rules
56. Edward Lear’s The Jumblies (in Nonsense Songs) (1870)
i. Perilous voyage, land of plenty, tall stature, return to old world
ii. Rejection of religious dogma, social conventions
57. Edward Lytton’s The Coming Race (1871)
i. Vril-ya live deep beneath the Earth’s surface (access via mineshaft)
ii. Larger, more intelligent, possess a magic fluid Vril
iii. Automata robots do all the work
iv. Females superior to males and dominate society
58. Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1872)
i. Dystopian satire of religion, Victorian hypocrisy
ii. Deterministic view of human nature – the sick are punished and the criminals “cured”, which Butler argues makes about as much sense as the opposite, curing the sick and punishing the criminals (as Butler argues that crime is involuntary).
59. Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme of the Social Democratic Party (1875)
i. From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs
ii. No more antagonism between mental and physical labour
iii. Labour is the prime necessity of life (without compulsion)
iv. End goal is the abolition of the state – it’s wither away in the final phase
60. Anthony Trollope’s The Fixed Period (1881)
i. Set in Britannula, off NZ
ii. Forced retirement at 67.5 and then “euthanized” 12 months later
iii. Babies have Date of Birth tattooed on their backs.
iv. Depicted in the film “Logan’s Run” – Malthusian anxieties
61. Walter Besant’s Revolt of Man (1882)
i. Sexist – future society (mis)ruled by women in the House of Peereses
ii. Blasphemy & open atheism attract the death penalty
iii. Reversal of gender roles, but society is in ruins
iv. Hard sciences have been abolished (too difficult for women) and replaced by bogus “theoretical” subjects
v. Justification is that women don’t contribute to the arts, sciences, etc.
vi. Conclusion is that men are the natural leaders (brain & muscle)
62. Richard Jefferies, After London (1885)
i. Earth Abides scenario – nature reclaims London when most of the population is wiped out
ii. The spot where London was becomes a toxic swamp best avoided by the survivors of the catastrophe
63. W.H. Hudson’s A Crystal Age (1887)
i. Utopia accessed by falling through a hole in the Earth
ii. Typical Late-Victoria Utopia: rural paradise, vegetarians, home-spun clothes, no cities, arts & crafts, effeminate men, complete equality, passionless clones
iii. Things he’s in the past, put it’s actually the future (like Terminal in Blakes 7)
iv. Degeneracy from promiscuous breeding avoided by beelike system, regulating reproduction
v. Suicide by potion that turns rejects into statues
64. Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888)
i. Influential utopia – let to movements, parties, manifestos, translations
ii. Credit card for work, redeemable for goods
iii. No rich or poor
iv. Industrial army (like national service) – retire at 45
v. Extra work gets honours, women choose on talent of workers, not wealth.
vi. Penalties for criminal found guilty are double if they plead not-guilty
vii. Life span 85-90, no wars, no crime due to lack of inequality.
viii. Set in the year 2000 (originally set in the year 3,000)
ix. The President is a good labourer from the ranks of labourers
x. Humans are essentially book, but corrupted by social institutions. Faith in education
65. Elizabeth Corbett’s New Amazonia (1889)
i. Set in 25th century – Ireland repopulated with women
ii. Once again, utopia leads to tallness – 7 foot height
iii. Hard coercive eugenics – cripples aborted & euthanized
iv. Long lived and beautiful – by rejuvenated by using animal nerves
66. Edward Martyn’s Morgante the Lesser (1890)
i. Founder of Sinn Fein
ii. Aesthetic movement: anti-Enlightenment, anti-Socialist.
iii. Despises shallow newspaper-reading masses
iv. Misogyny – woman are materialistic
v. Agathopolis: Utopian island without women: Catholic, benevolent despotism, no vice, Greek language, sculpture & art, but no photography
67. Oscar Wilde’s Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
i. More anarchism rather than socialism
ii. Attacked moderate capitalism as perpetuating the fundamental problems
iii. Main problem is the abolition of poverty
68. William Morris’ News from Nowhere (1890)
i. Despite coming from a privileged life, he organised the Socialist League
ii. Ugliness of the modern world e.g. machine-made goods
iii. Preferred handicrafts, rustic bliss, folk festivals, female servitude
iv. Romanticised the Middle Ages – left out feudalism, plague and famine
v. Narrators wakes in the future/past where there is no railway, suburbs
vi. No money – shops give away goods, no penal code, etc.
vii. Vague about nitty gritty issues – naïve idealism
viii. Response to Bellamy’s Cockney utopia that relied on technology
69. Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar’s Column (1891)
i. Donnelly advocated Bacon-theory of Shakespeare & Marlowe
ii. Founded Populist Party –
iii. Set in New York in 1988: overcrowded, massive gaps between rich and poor, society ruled by corrupt Jewish businessmen. Brotherhood of Destruction, using airships and poisongas destroy society in order to rebuild a newer one in Uganda.
iv. Mass suicide is a social problem (due to bodies decomposing in waterways).
v. State organised industrial scale assisted suicide
70. Elizabeth Wolstenholme’s Woman Free (1893)
i. Menstruation is a consequence of millennia of rape/abuse by men
ii. Enlightenment values – elimination of menstruation
iii. She supposedly had evidence that menstruation could be eliminated
71. Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book (1894)
i. Natural law, chivalry, loyalty, sportsmanship, etc.
ii. Allegory for imperialism? Racial superiority?
72. Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities of Tomorrow from Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform (1898)
i. Each garden city is self-sufficient – optimal population is about 32,000
ii. Open country & farmland between the cities
iii. 5/6th of each city – green
iv. Ring roads, central parks, public buildings, etc – all laid out
v. Low Police costs – as citizens naturally law abiding
vi. Elected Board of Management – regulates retail outlets (to finetune competition so there’s not wasteful duplication, nor monopolies)
73. Joseph Conrad’s Youth (1898)
i. Romance of Youth
ii. Coal catches fire on ship off the coast of WA – rows/sails to Java
74. HG Wells’ Anticipations (1901)
i. Pessimistic, apocalyptic, environmental disaster, many races must die
ii. Overpopulation (Catholic Church & lack of birth control) is gravest threat
iii. Elimination (or sterilization) of the weak, insane, dark skinned, dirty white, etc. Seems to be advocating genocide of the “unfit”.
iv. New Republic – set in 2000
v. Strict conditions to be satisfied before permission is granted in becoming a parent (China’s one-child policy)
75. HG Wells’ A Modern Utopia (1905)
i. Swiss hikers – parallel world.
ii. English universal language
iii. Earned income is acceptable
iv. Unemployed forced to work by the state and paid subsistence wages
v. Ill, weak, insane, criminal – segregated to prevent breeding
vi. Destruction of current society necessary to bring in Utopia (analogous to longing for the Rapture)
vii. Ideal planetary population is 2 billion
76. John Brown’s Riallaro, Archipelago of Exiles (1897) and Limanora, Island of Progress (1903)
i. Chancellor of the University of NZ.
ii. Technology combined with spiritualism (quasi-Christianity)
iii. Nothing bestial, regressive or irrational allowed e.g. animals & plants
iv. Food manufactured in laboratories
v. Undesirables outcast: lechers, liars, socialists, orators
vi. Highly evolved beings: quasi-angels: fly, teleport, ESP, etc.
vii. Defective brains are operated on by electro-magnetic waves
viii. Philanthropy undesirable as it hinders upward progress
ix. This utopia once-again motivated by overpopulation and concerns over racial degeneration
77. Gabriel Tarde’s Underground Man (1904)
i. In the 25th century, the sun suddenly cools, obliterating most of humanity and driving the few remaining survivors underground where they carve out caverns in the frozen oceans
ii. Energy source is the Earth’s internal heat, frozen food in the oceans
iii. Utilitarianism (old world) replaced by aestheticism (new world)
iv. Artistic geniuses are head of society (geniocracy)
v. Population growth strictly controlled to maximise geniuses
78. Charlotte Gilma’s Herland (1915)
i. Female dominated utopia in remote mountainous region (like Candide)
ii. Athletic, beautiful, rational, dignified, sexless women
iii. Men were wiped out 2,000 years ago – women became capable of virgin births (parthenogenesis by willpower)
iv. Population size controlled – and optimal for the resources of the land
v. Rural lifestyle with some technology. Food is vegan and there’s no alcohol.
vi. Religion is a maternal pantheism
79. Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1920)
i. Banned in Soviet Union – premeditates Stalinist Soviet Union
ii. Worst of all dystopias – inspiration for Brave New World & 1984
iii. No names – all people are numbers that live in literal glass houses
iv. Ultra totalitarian – state control, all conversations monitored
v. Nature banished – food comes from a laboratory
vi. Criminals interrogated and asphyxiated in a bell glass jar. Executions by The Machine, that extracts the water from a person via electrocution
vii. Mathematician falls in love with a female Rebel. He is brainwashed and betrays her to the system and watches her execution.
viii. Human imagination eradicated by brain operation – announced as the perfectibility of the species.
ix. Reference to the Taylor System i.e. Frederick Taylor, inventor of time-and-motion studies, Ford’s mass production factory assembly line
x. Humans little more than robots or automata (Matrix’s batteries)
80. William Yeats’ A Vision (1925)
i. Compiled vision of utopia from the ravings of his mad wife, who claimed she was contacting the spirit world
ii. WB Yeats preferred the period of Justinian Byzantium (527-65AD)
iii. Sailing to Byzantium – from the poem The Tower, which begins ‘That is no country for old men’
iv. Convergence of art, religion, and practical life – non-individuality – subsumed into the fabric of society
81. Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Somoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation (1929)
i. Pendulum swings the other way from extreme biological determinism to extreme cultural determinism
ii. Worked with Ruth Benedict under Franz Boas. Compare relationship of Louis Leakey with Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas.
iii. Huge bestseller – free love, etc.
iv. Samoan women claimed they lied to Margaret Mead and she didn’t realise it (uncovered by NZ Derek Freeman). Many claims and counter-claims – e.g. conversion to Christianity may account for the changing attitudes to sexuality.
v. Just about every observation and conclusion was the opposite.
82. D H Lawrence’s Etruscan Places (1930)
i. Name of planned utopia: Rananim
ii. Ultimate misanthrope – hated all of humanity no matter where he lived (widely travelled)
iii. Called Australians “almost imbecile” after visiting Australia in mid-1922 (Sydney May 28-29)
iv. Also visited Sicily, Ceylon, Polynesia, America, and then Italy.
v. Romanticised the long-dead Etruscans
83. James Hilton’s Lost Horizon (1933)
i. Enduring myth of the Oriental paradise – originated from Marco Polo’s time perhaps?
ii. Coined the term Shangri-La (to join the names of other utopias: Xanadu, Arcadia, Paradise, Heaven, Elysium, Nirvana, Eden, Atlantis, etc)
iii. World destroyed from war machines in the air
iv. Located in Tibet (Buddhist monastery called lamasery)
v. Food bountiful, priceless artworks, combination of beautiful old antiquities and modern technology such as central heating
vi. Protagonists trapped there to protect isolation
84. Katharine Burdekin’s Swastika Night (1937)
i. Nazi dominated 26th century
ii. Hitler worshipped as a god, history revised (alternative history)
iii. Extreme paternalism/misogyny
85. Newman Watt’s The Man Who Did Not Sin (1939)
i. Southern England wiped out by enemy bombs & gas
ii. Cecil Mackay is in hibernation in a bomb-proof box and awakes 225 years in the future (year 2164)
iii. Christ had returned in 1960, wiping out an evil dictator. Christ runs affairs from Jerusalem and appears on TV regularly. He doesn’t always use his omnipotence to sort out problems.
86. Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1924, translated 1939)
i. Typical condemnation of the “masses”: gutter tabloid journalism, cinema, American materialism, democracy, banality
ii. Praises high art: Greek, opera, Shakespeare, Rembrandt
iii. Green values: rural life, vegetarianism, raw food, abundant resources
iv. Utopia set in the Ukraine, planned during the Russian invasion
v. The fall of Hitler bought to an end large scale Utopian planning
87. B.F. Skinner’s Walden Two (1948)
i. Light industry, labour saving devices, 4 hour workday, menial labour for all, goods & services are free, no money, no family structures
ii. Communal living, children reared communally, all adults are parents
iii. No competitiveness, no hero worship, no fear, hate, cult of leadership
88. George Orwell’s 1984 (1949)
i. Inspired by We, BBC Propaganda, Stalinist Russia, St Cyprian’s Prep School
ii. The world is divided into Oceania, Eurasia, Eastasia. (Britain, now Airstrip One, is part of Oceania).
iii. Big Brother, Thought Police, Thoughtcrime, Doublespeak, Selfcensorship, Ingsoc (English Socialism), Newspeak (& new editions of the Dictionary)
iv. 85% of the population are ignorant ‘Proles’ living in squalor (not monitored, but propagandised to and distracted with Prolefeed aka ‘Bread ‘n Circuses’).
v. Continual war, Two Minutes Hate, public executions, etc.
vi. Ministries: Peace, Truth, Love, Plenty
vii. Not accurate: Starvation & rationing
viii. Accurate: Universal surveillance, enemies become friends, political spin.
ix. Love of English countryside (seems to be universal)
x. Forced to betray lover by being confronted with the “worst thing”
89. Kurt Vonnegut’s Player Piano (1952)
i. Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel (published under Utopia 14 title)
ii. Harmful social consequences of automation and computerisation
iii. Set in Ilium New York after WWIII
iv. Stratified society:
1. Elite engineers, technocrats & scientists
2. Machines & computers
3. Homestead: unemployed (breakdown of family, vie, crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, high divorce & suicide.
v. The majority are unemployed and are lucky if they can do state-run menial work
vi. Identity card – complete medical history, etc.
vii. Resistance movement builds up in the elite – acknowledging the plight of Homestead
viii. Resistance ultimate fails (except to give hope) – leaders surrender
90. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932)
i. Inspired by trip to USA in the 1920s: repelled by shallowness
ii. Babies produced in test tubes – state hatcheries
iii. No families – eliminating unhappiness caused by family ties
iv. Grades of humans (by varying supply of oxygen)
1. Alphas
2. Betas
3. Gammas - clones
4. Deltas - clones
5. Epsilons – clones (no more frustrations at thwarted ambitions as the ambition itself is removed)
v. Distractions:
1. Sexual promiscuity is fine (but no breeding)
2. Feelies – movies that stimulate all the senses
3. Soma – anaesthetic, mildly hallucinogenic drug. Suppressant?
vi. No diseases, no pain, no hunger, no want, no infirmity
vii. From Huxley’s point of view, Brave New World may very well have been utopian, but to most non-Etonians, it’s obviously dystopian
91. Aldous Huxley’s Island (1962)
i. Tropical island called Pala
ii. Suppressant called Moksha inspired by mescalin – for obedience.
iii. Similar features – no family, no conception, etc.
iv. Some scientific benefits – efficient agriculture
92. E.L. Doctorow’s Book of Daniel (1971)
i. Dystopian view of Disneyland – middle-class culture
ii. Everything fake – plastic, thin veneer
93. Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities (1972)
i. Venice – as relief/contrast to imaginary cities
ii. Marco Polo in conversation with Kubla Khan
iii. Rat cities, swallow cities
94. Freeman Dyson lecture on J D Bernal (1972)
i. Bernal’s The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1929)
ii. Biological engineering (what Venter is advocating in 2008) – industrial as well as medical applications
iii. Growing trees on comets and using comets (not planets) as habitats to support life throughout the galaxy
95. Naomi Mitchison’s Solution 3 (1975)
i. Sister of JBS Haldane, and friend to Aldous Huxley
ii. Dystopia dedicated to Jim Watson who first ‘suggested’ it
iii. After WWIII, biological engineering solved overpopulation
iv. Cannabis is the anti-aggression ‘soma’ suppressant – encouraged
v. Homosexuals are normal, heterosexuals ‘deviants’ – reducing breeding
vi. Children from cloned cells from selected ‘wombs’
96. Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time (1979)
i. Typical modern feminist utopia: peaceful anarchy, ecological reverence, sexual permissiveness, elimination of the “male”
ii. Mental patient uses her medium powers to contact and travel to an alien civilisation in the year 2137
iii. Combination of peasant lifestyle and advanced technology
iv. Rulers chosen by lot for one year
v. Not much crime. Those that are found guilty are sent to the mines
vi. Gender androgenised – PC language – person
vii. Another human hatchery that controls breeding
viii. Three parents need permission for a child. Tradition family abolished
97. Julian Barnes’ A History of the World in 10.5 Chapters (1989)
i. Last chapter is called “The Dream”
ii. Protagonist wakes up in heaven – granted anything that he wants by Angel
iii. Eventually those who desire nothing but hedonistic lifestyles are the first to “opt out” – that is euthanize themselves or suicide, voluntarily rejecting an eternal life of bliss. Other wish for pain and things to go wrong.
98. Barbara Goodwin’s Justice by Lottery (1992)
i. Choosing political representatives by lot
ii. Inspired by Jorge Borges’ Lottery in Babylon’
iii. Utopia is Aleatoria, formerly known as the UK.
iv. No more lifetime job allocations – now regular rotation
v. Everyone is therefore highly educated – as opposed to having large percentages of the population in dead-end jobs
vi. Universal standardised high-level tertiary education: Competition and rivalry have died out because students now realise that their talents are not deserved, and that their successes are chance events.
vii. No more status based on birth, breeding, occupation or other accidents.
99. What Women Want – Large scale survey in 1995
i. Equality, freedom, respect, ecological sensitivity
ii. Abolition of Size 0 model syndrome, etc.
100. Professor Jim Dator – University of Hawaii
i. Asks students to design/describe a utopia in 15-25 pages
ii. Goals/.
iii. Behaviour encouraged and discouraged
iv. Use of technology in new institutions
v. How is stability ensured?
vi. How is progress monitored? Benchmarks?
Variables / parameters of utopias:
Goal? Maximise happiness? Knowledge? Progress? Stability? Expansion?
Gender relations? Absolute equality or differences celebrated? Monogender utopias or patriarchal/matriarchal?
Paradise utopia Are all desires satisfied? If so, how (by engineering the desires or by satisfying them)? What do inhabitants do now?
Work? Rotational? Specialisation? Equal pay? Menial jobs by criminals, robots, rotation? Hours credited for rations?
Population size? Is the utopia segmented into manageable population size centres (towns)? How are births controlled (if at all) and balanced with environment / resources? Top down regulation?
Genetic engineering? Are the utopians human or some abstract simplified ideal?
Private property? Money? Inheritance? Credit? Inequality?
Equality v Liberty – where on the spectrum?
Libertarianism v authoritarianism? Does the government stop at the front door? Religion? Corporate monopolies v totalitarian government? Centralised, top down, or spontaneous bottom-up anarchy? Can people opt out? Can others join? How sensitive to correction?
Economy? Are their corporations? Trade with non-utopian civilisations?
Family? Genetic engineering? Other family models tolerated?
Culture? Diversity celebrated or is it a monoculture (we know what is right for you?). Elitism? Prols?
101. Michio Kaku’s Visions (1998)
i. Optimistic projections of the future
ii. By 2020, microprocessors will be as cheap & ubiquitous, running everything
iii. Personal DNA codes to tailor medicine, assess risks to disease
iv. Overly optimistic about AI, cars that drive themselves
v. Intelligent transport system, intelligent houses, offices, etc.
vi. Internet via glasses (heads up display)
vii. All medium instantly on demand
102. Professor Lee Silver’s Remaking Eden (1998)
i. Human cloning by 2050
ii. Gattaca – Affluent parents can have ‘superior’ children creating a genetically based stratification
iii. Men redundant as sperm not needed for reproduction (feminist utopia)
iv. Eugenics via parental ambition, not totalitarian state control
v. All full realized in the year 2350: Naturals v GenRich (genetically enriched)
vi. Eventually, the two tiers might grow into separate species (e.g. Eloi v Morlocks)
vii. Synthesized humans? Computer engineered from a genetic blueprint with no parents? E.g. all mutations, junk DNA removed
Other utopias/dystopias not in John Carey’s Utopia book:
Xanadu (Mongol Khan’s palace city as described by Marco Polo)
Elizabeth Nietzsche’s Nueva Germania (New Germania, Neue Deutschland)
Founded with husband Bernhard Foster in Paraguay 1888
Inspired by Wagner’s anti-Semitism in “Religion & Art”
William Lane’s New Australia (1893 Paraguay)
Jim Jones’ Jonestown (Guyana mid-1970s)
Waco, Amish, Mayflower Pilgrims, Jamestown
Global Trap: 80/20 rule (20% are active in society such as working, planning, decision-making, while 80% just subsist and consume Prolefeed).
Metropolis (1927 film)
Ark of Golgafrinchans: Douglas Adam’s comic dystopia of useless occupations (the deadwood of society)
A Clockwork Orange
V for Vendetta, Brazil, The Island
Ayn Rand’s Anthem
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