Joseph Bernard

Bringing Utopia to the Masses

          As the seminar closes, I find myself looking back on the intense analysis of utopian texts and the fruitful discussions held in class with pragmatism. It was exhilarating to participate in intertextual dialogue with colleagues, linking More’s ideas to Gilman’s and so forth, but I believe the question in my mind boils down to what I can do with the knowledge so graciously granted. Seeing as teaching literature is my profession, I find that remaining in the realm of the abstract does not build the bridges necessary to instruct the leaders of tomorrow, who instead desire to interact with the devices of today. To capture the minds of my students, I intend to flesh out how utopian fiction not only speaks to their desire for clarity in a world muddled with confusion, but also how it can encourage them to never stop engaging their mind.

          To the typical high school student, names such as Gilman or Rand will tend to bring only eye rolls and the complaint that “we never read anything modern enough!”(modern of course being within the past ten minutes). However, if one were to highlight how Gilman plays with gender roles in Herland or the boldness of Prometheus in defying the council and setting up his own world that he would fight for to the death, students may perk up. Instead of the stilted gender-specific roles that students are familiar with, they can see how Gilman’s utopia encouraged deep and meaningful relationships, as the narrator points out in relation to his love for Ellador: “I think it was only as I grew to love Ellador more than I believed anyone could love anybody, as I grew faintly to appreciate her inner attitude and state of mind. . .” (Gilman ch.10). One could easily point to how the narrator finds love in a foreign land, apart from the conventions of the society he lived in, which begs the question of whether or not the society students live in today can encourage the same kind of love. Is love superficial today or not? Can love only be found like this in a utopia, a fictional land of make believe or can meaningful relationships flourish in the face of tradition? Such questions have the potential to provoke discourse among students and lead them to exploring the text further to see if this utopian love survives, which can only engender further discourse about why Gilman would establish a utopia revolving around women and what that could say about gender roles today.

          Bringing something to the attention of authority figures only to be silenced as a fool would be a topic that, if brought into the fold through the lens of Anthem, could lead to a broader dialogue about intellectual discovery and how seeking one’s own “utopia” in life is a valid and fruitful exercise. Prometheus is cast aside as a street sweeper, a menial worker that begins to work on a project that could better the society he lived in. He was convicted of his work so much that he proclaimed: “We think that the Council of Scholars is blind. The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who will seek them.” (Rand 3.2) This notion of seeking out knowledge that others are not aware of can spark meaningful dialogue about whether or not to pursue forbidden knowledge, if seeking out a way to better society and potentially being rejected is better than conforming to the conventions of the society one already occupies. Pushing this notion forward, one can look to the end of the novel and the triumphant proclamations of Prometheus as one who will establish his own utopia of freedom and ask quite simply if seeking one’s happiness (the utopia symbolizing one’s happiness) is a worthy sacrifice or is the safety net of cultural security an overriding desire over one’s journey to establish a personal utopia.

          Hitting on a more realistic context in terms of geographical location, Ecotopia can challenge students to stretch their minds and attempt to wrestle with the practicality of utopia. Rand and Gilman’s concepts are fun to discuss in an abstract sort of way, seeing as both of those works are fictional and can seem far away to students, but Callenbach’s novel hits close to home due to its setting and strikingly realistic descriptions of Ecotopian life. By sifting through Will’s news columns and private recollections, students are treated to the inner workings of a possible utopia, both on the macro and micro level. This could serve as a rather droll exercise, but when the novel is framed to students in the form of potential reality, their minds will want to “tear the novel apart” and find the inconsistencies. While they will find them, instructors can facilitate moderated discussion by asking how the utopia influenced the structure of Will’s personal reflections and news stories or what could actually be lifted from the novel as ideas that could be applied today. I also believe that a valid path to take would be to ask students whether or not they would want to live in Ecotopia and how they would deal with the issues at hand. Presenting such a task may appear to be too “fluffy” on the surface, engaging their minds with this question points them naturally back at the text and forces them to apply their understanding to matters of society today. Objective three deals with this concept, stating that one must “get over the routine dismissal of utopias”. This is a truism, seeing as most teenagers will want to reject any notion that utopians can work. Using Callenbach’s work, one can vault over that hurdle and engage students in not only picking apart why the utopia wouldn’t’ work, but how it could work and why Callenbach would experiment with the elements he presented in his novel.

          Falling in line with the “realism” of utopian fiction, More’s Utopia can be taught as the ultimate guide to practical utopia. Although the work is framed in a rather ancient context when relating it to young adults, the form is still worth considering when analyzing it in light of seeing what could work and what couldn’t work in today’s culture. A potentially rewarding avenue of discussion for students could be exploring Raphael’s role as discoverer of the land of Utopia and how he interacts with it. He is a journeyman, someone that traveled around the world and experienced a land he had never frequented before, giving him stories to tell about exploits, expanding and fulfilling his mind. In the same way, Raphael’s journey can serve as the archetypal journey of traveling for students, who can be encouraged to explore different countries and regions, to soak in whatever knowledge they can in order to find a location that can serve as their land of utopia, a place they admire, respect and wish to spread word of to their peers. The specifics of utopia are, as previously referenced, can be explored thoroughly, but More’s Raphael adds a personal layer to the journey. I also believe one can incorporate traveling as a utopia in and of itself, not attaching the self to one location and experiencing all that the world has to offer without being tied down to a physical place, just as the nomadic peoples mentioned in my second research post do today. They are building a cultural utopia and so can students if they choose to travel just as Raphael did.

          Utopian fiction can be a subject that teachers may want to avoid simply because it may not be “worth teaching” or not “stimulating enough” for students of today. I object to these notions and propose that teaching utopians texts successfully all depends on the framework one places them in. Gilman and Rand can transform from texts that speak of strange lands and fictional characters to advocates for meaningful relationships and seeking out personal happiness regardless of what conventional society think. Lists of practicality that More and Callenbach write transfigure into challenges to the student’s frame of mind, engaging them by asking them if this society could function within the confines of today. Through these texts, the mind of the student can seek their own personal utopia with clarity and direction, all the while engaging their mind for the rest of their days.