Patrick Locke

Suspending Disbelief in Exploring Utopias

In a 2009 posting titled “The Value of Evaluation,” Kathryn Vitek argues that utopian narratives should be acknowledged as stories having aesthetic shortcomings. As stories, the limitations of these narratives in meeting certain expectations about character, plot, and conflict are instructive in a study of literature. For readers who prefer to be entertained, utopian narratives may appear too didactic.  However, readers should look beyond this feature to reevaluate the role of these elements in interpreting a text and add another model for criticism by acknowledging the influence of social theory in a fictional context.

The influence of constructed social factors outside of a fictional context is often underestimated. Instead, free will is often credited with many decisions made in and out of a fictional context.  While individuals are free to act in any system with an awareness of consequences, there is a tendency in freer systems to underestimate how certain norms have been codified and cultivated over time through legislation, institutions like the church and school, and the culture industry (art, film, music, and books). Individuality may appear to be a series of conscious choices, yet some of our motives are part of an unconscious process. Utopian narratives may be unrealistic or ineffective, but they do point out aspects of our lives that can be easily manufactured and become part of social assumptions. In utopias, actions and motives are transparent because they are performed to support the group.

My interest in utopias stems from their ability to serve as a critique of social structures outside the text. Utopian narratives shift away from a process putting the individual at the center of the narrative, changing the emphasis to a communal identity shaped consciously by institutions. The heroic is embodied in the strength of the group not in the effort of the individual and with a special emphasis on location.  Thus, the focus of the utopian narrative on the collective behavior is critical to the stability and longevity of the utopia.

The function of education is one area in which a social system perpetuates a certain way of life beneficial to the group. A look at the state of our education system in which “no child is left behind” seems to beg the question: Why should any child be left behind?  And, what has happened to those who have already fallen behind?  Education under this policy seems to reflect part of a systemic approach where the process of learning is sacrificed for short term results.  

In Ernest Callenbach’s novel Ecotopia (1975), the narrator, journalist William Weston, sets off to Ecotopia for a six week investigative visit.  Ecotopia, located in the Pacific Northwest, seceded from the United States. For twenty years, it has remained “closed off and increasingly mysterious during its decades of independence” (Callenbach 1).  Weston dispatches a series of observations about different aspects of Ecotopian society, which follows the objective precepts of journalism. In addition, he maintains a diary which is a more impressionistic account of the elements of this society he witnesses and his feelings.  From the moment he arrives, he has to reconcile his bias, the demands of his job, and the realities that he encounters. He notes, “everything in Ecotopia . . . is full of contradictions” (15) Weston has ample opportunity to express his skepticism based on the appearance of some Ecotopian social elements. This incongruity is true when he examines the schools in Ecotopia.

Weston is surprised by what he discovers about the schools, and he describes them as “being the most antiquated aspect of Ecotopian society” (126). The schools function as private enterprises, and they are collectively owned by the teachers. In Ecotopia, the schools look like farms. Class periods vary, there are no bells, and students spend about an hour each day under direct teacher supervision.  Weston describes a hands-on environment with lots of activities. Students spend part of the day working in gardens or workshops. In the workshops, they work on projects in which geometry and physics concepts are applied.  The system looks unregulated, but the students are always engrossed in what they are doing.  He remarks, “the system is intended to teach children that work is a normal part of every one’s life, and to inculcate Ecotopian ideas about how work places are controlled” (127). The Ecotopian school is not presented as a perfect model. From appearances, “chaotic and irregular though they appear at first, thus, the Ecotopian schools seem to be doing a good job of preparing their children for Ecotopian life” (131).

In literary and historical utopias, the narrative depends on a long view of time; however, the idea of place transcends time. When the narrative is utopian, the account is driven to confirm the strength of the group’s utopian achievements. In a dystopia, the struggle for change starts with an individual frustrated by restrictions. Dystopian narratives are more apt for instruction in a culture that values the concept of individual will. In contrast, utopian ethos may best serve a society with socialist tendencies or aspirations. It is unreasonable to overvalue the individual resolve and society’s role in any topos because a balanced proportion is needed for any society to function in relation to itself and the world at large. Most societies seem to struggle with certain aspects of profit motives supportive of industry and individual rights.

          Ayn Rand’s dystopian novel Anthem (1937) describes a place on the verge of decay.  Anthem includes plot and character elements that the utopian genre often under develops. The novel is driven by an individual voice establishing a conflict that is in the present.  Unlike Ecotopia, there is a sense that something has to be resolved. The narrator, Equality 7-2521, speaks with urgency stating “it is a sin to write this” (17). The novel is not a dry description of the place and grievances; the anxiety of Equality 7-2521 is direct. The story sets up moments of conflict propelling the narrative toward actions of consequence.  While central to the narrative, the place is only one aspect contributing to the narrator’s struggle. The narrative is driven by his awareness that he can no longer contain the doubts he has about the place. Much of the narrative moves on an edge desiring change.

          A dystopian topos requires an awareness and sensitivity of the individual to act with the goal of achieving long-term change. In dystopias, there is dissatisfaction with much of what constitutes that society. It requires a critical mindset to not accept things because they come down from above or have the weight of history. Like narrators in a dystopian text, multicultural texts and voices recalibrate the weight of history. As a push for validation, these texts make demands on the topos to redefine the borders of the utopia or to stakeout a place to validate their own vision. Their vision of utopia may not be any different in principle. These endeavors, particularly in the case of the Back to Africa movement of the pre-civil war era described in my first posting and the Israeli kibbutz in my second posting, are taken up in response to conditions denying acceptance and diversity. Utopias are often homogeneous enterprises because they are often a response to social ostracism targeting a specific group.  Multicultural text or dreams argue for a larger case about a shared humanity but at times this is only possible in isolation. Western civilization may do a better job promoting a favorable Western historical record, but it is hard to imagine that an ideal society is exclusively a Western narrative.

It is essential to value the contributions of Western Civilization to the certain cherished ideals. However, it may be disingenuous to promote it as the sole heir of enlightenment. Western civilization privileges the text in ways that other societies did not. Consequently, the Western canon has a built-in bias favorable to texts that are part of a long running discourse. Because great texts build on the foundations of earlier text, there is the risk that an extended absence represents intellectual inferiority. Olaudah Equiano’s narrative (1789) builds a case for including outside voices in the utopian narrative.  The risk is worth taking to strain the utopian concept by including similar examples of multicultural texts. In his narrative, Equiano recalls his native Guinea in Africa with utopian imagery. He recalls a place “remote and fertile” in which “every one contributes something to the common stock” (http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/UtopTexts/AfAmtexts/equiano.htm). He reflects on the recognition of a harmonious environment supportive of a group’s well being.  A comparison of his experience in Africa and transit to the New World are so far apart in reality that one is certainly a preferred experience to look forward to. What he knows about Africa is absent from the things he experiences on the ship. Equiano has to balance the experience of dystopia to the place he left behind.

          Like Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech (1963), Equianos’s narrative compares parallel worlds in time and space.  King’s comparison looks back in history to touch on promises of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation. He envisions a new beginning and future in this space and time working toward a new possibility. The speech is not a detailed plan of how to proceed; it stirs the imagination to act. Although the speech is given in a public place and may even qualify as propaganda, it does not promote divisiveness. The speech is an inspired call that has the cadence and rhetoric of a sermon. Members of a utopian environment are often confident about the correctness of their vision. The utopian world acknowledges and remedies issues that often contribute to poverty of the mind and body. One way to skirt what often ails a society is through cooperation “at the table of brotherhood” (http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/texts/UtopTexts/AfAmtexts/kingdream5737.htm).  Utopias are often homogenous endeavors and Dr. King is proposing a beginning that includes all who believe in the American Dream.

If the reluctance to believe in the plausibility of a utopia is momentarily set aside, the allure of being included in the utopian dream is irresistible whether it is monocultural or multicultural.  The commitment to a shared ideology in the utopia not the homogeneity of the people sets it apart. In these utopias, all ideological needs appear to have been anticipated and met because the utopia promotes a framework based on the interest of the collective. Consequently, the shared vision about all the aspects beneficial to the society has been resolved and the future is much like the present without internal conflict and contradictions. However, voices or texts outside the circle may represent accounts of misrepresentation or underrepresentation. These texts do not diminish the integrity of the ideals. They strengthen the vision by highlighting blind spots.