fabrisse | A Fanfic Challenge

*blinks* Wow . . . I never really expected anyone else to be interested in this. I'm focusing on the train of thought from The Republic -> The Prince -> Utopia -> 1984.

What about dystopias which are presented as utopias either to the reader (Lost Horizon) or to the participants (Brave New World)? Will Gulliver's Travels have a place?

Are we striving for utopias or are we as a species merely doing our darndest to avoid the dystopias out there?

Basically, here's what I'm writing about: Plato writes TheRep. Fast forward, then the Prince is written. Then More writes 'Utopia' as a satire in response to the Prince, combining ideas from TheRep. and The Prince. This is then furthered by Orwell, [in 1984] by showing what it would be like to live in Utopia.

It's not a great paper, but it's not too bad.
- I'm not really mentioning G's Travels, but I am including Candide.
- I'll choose door #2: we as a species are merely doing our darndest to avoid the dystopias out there

Basically, here's what I'm writing about: Plato writes TheRep. Fast forward, then the Prince is written. Then More writes 'Utopia' as a satire in
response to the Prince, combining ideas from TheRep. and The Prince. This is then furthered by Orwell, [in 1984] by showing what it would be like to live in Utopia.

Yes, I am interested. My particular interest is how western dis/utopian writings (and movements!) have shaped the current state of political rhetoric. Or put another way, "Why has 'utopian' become an insult? For how long has that been the case?"

For what are you writing this paper? Is this an on-going interest, or a one-off for you?

Are you in the Boston area, by any chance? BTW, you can extrapolate my email address by taking my username and emailing to it at mixolydian.org.

I had not heard that More's Utopia was meant as a satire. That may be because I live under a rock. Or is this a theory of your own? (See, this is why I should get out more.)

Ù

What about dystopias which are presented as utopias either to the reader (Lost Horizon) or to the participants (Brave New World)? Will Gulliver's
Travels have a place?

One of the things I've discovered is that "utopias", as a topic, is something of a camel; once you've let the nose into the tent with you....

Personally, I classify something as a utopia or a dystopia based on whether the author thought it was one or the other. Personally, I'm more interested in utopias right now, because I feel it's quite different as a writing genre than dystopias. Utopian writing, by its very nature, has to be somewhat completist. In presenting a utopia, one is depicting an idealized society, and to do so one must show all of its parts. That is the difference between a utopian writing and a fantasy which merely fiats "this is an idealized society" as a setting for some other plot, e.g. Lothlorian is not a utopia.

But a dystopian writing needs only show us what is broken in society to criticize that society. 1984 is a great example of this; it has nothing to say about, say, childrearing in that society, or the production of food. It doesn't have to, to make its point.

Are we striving for utopias or are we as a species merely doing our darndest to avoid the dystopias out there?

That question is unanswerable on the species level, because it's a cultural question. It's theoretically answerable on the cultural level, but is largely unanswered. (That is why I am investigating it.)

The short answer is that various cultures -- and this has changed (remarkably so) in the mainstream US culture over the history of this country -- have various different attitudes towards the perfectability of man and the perfectability of human society. Within the US, there have been various cultural movements with utopian elements: think for a moment on the boom in communes in the 1970s. Also think on the various "war on poverty" efforts in the 1950s and 1960s (am hazy on precise timing) that built all those "projects" in big cities.

I highly recommend the book Cities on a Hill for a thought provoking look at four "intential communities" in the 1980s, and, in the final chapter, a great discussion of a previous period of utopian ferver in American history.

Which reminds me: if anyone can recommend any good books on the history of the Burnt-Over District, I'd be obliged for the pointer.

A Fanfic Challenge

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