Grant Law

9 May 2019

Old vs. New: The New Utopian Mold

Utopian fiction has been in an existential flux of identity since the initial entry of Utopia by Sir Thomas More. This conflict of identity for the utopian genre stems from the various implementations seen in diverging genres of literature use of the utopian mold or ideals as seen in The Dispossessed, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Oryx and Crake. When compared to more conventional examples of utopian literature that we discussed in the first half of the course such as Herland and Ecotopia, although one could argue Ecotopia embraces a more postmodern implementation of the utopian form, there is a dichotomy between the bodies of text discussed in the two halves of the class. The later texts embrace more literary and novelistic standards that utilize the utopian genre as a mechanic to explore more significant societal problems, whereas the earlier texts feature more standard conventions of the utopian mold such as Socratic dialogue, cataloging, and one-dimensional assertions on how to improve society.

In Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed the novel explores the dangers of political and economic systems that have established themselves as destructive forces within the real world outside of the page. Furthermore, in addition to the poetic prose implemented by Le Guin, the novel situates itself in a more literary field through utilizing both dystopic and utopic societies that blur the lines between what would be for a conventional, pure utopian novel a black and white case of good and evil. The best example of the liminal presentation of the dystopic city of Urras and utopic city of Anarres is in the opening paragraphs of the novel: “Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were on” (Le Guin 1). The ambiguity and two-faced presentation of the wall functions symbol for the two societies within the novel. Depending on an individual's perspective, either societies could be viewed as either as a utopia or dystopia. Ursula K. Le Guin uses the two opposing societies as political forces to lead the reader to their conclusion of what makes a productive society.

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale utilizes the dystopian genre to explore the exploitation of female bodies, destructive religious fanaticism, and critique the restrictive forces of a patriarchal society. Throughout the novel, Offred is subject to ridicule, bodily exploitation, and restricted autonomy all in the name of both religious and governmental rule in the Republic of Gilead. The subject of certain women being relegated to nothing more than bodies as vehicles of breeding is an extreme metaphor for the marginalization of female bodies that took place during Atwood’s writing of the novel as well as today. Therefore, due to the overwhelming influence of feminist theory and themes, Atwood’s novel breaks from the utopian or dystopian conventions as it explicitly addresses the unethical treatment of marginalized bodies.

In contrast to the feminist reading from The Handmaid’s Tale, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s novel Herland perpetuates the same patriarchal exploitation of bodies featured within Atwood’s novel. Certain women in Herland are given the job of childbearing, however, even in a more extreme case of internalized misogyny, the society of Herland utilized a system of eugenics to weed out undesirable traits they felt were unfit for the women of the society. Naturally, Atwood’s society in The Handmaid’s Tale is more extreme as it features direct patriarchy. However, Gilman’s society still perpetuated the patriarchal conditioning of female bodies that Atwood combats.

In Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood continued to explore more significant societal problems through the vehicle of the utopian and dystopian genre. However, unlike her previous novel, Oryx and Crake tackle the ethical dilemmas of science and environmental ruin. The world of the novel is an apocalyptic vision of a society shredded to near oblivion due to the over-mechanization of the society that preceded the novel. However, what the novel does which many novels within the utopian mold fail to address adequately is explore a world without the arts. Throughout the novel, Snowman finds artifacts of literature, even to go as far as a copy of The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, and through this discovery, the utility or futility of the arts is debated between the cast of characters. Ultimately, it is the arts that prevail as the novel illustrates that science, if brought to its furthest extreme, is a dangerous, exploitation force fueled with greed.

Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia has many similarities with Oryx and Crake. Both novels have an intense focus on ecological ruin and environmental hazards, but, much like the exploration of the arts in Atwood’s novel, Ecotopia examines a utopic society through the journalistic lense of its narrator. William Weston’s journal entries provide what could be argued as a memoir or even gonzo journalism documentation of his stay within the confines of the society that is Ecotopia. Unfortunately, unlike the heralding of the arts in Oryx and Crake, the over saturation of the arts within Ecotopia (as the arts are a presented more as hobbies or crafts within the novel) leads to the aesthetic ruin of the arts. As mentioned earlier, the novel has postmodern elements which are featured primarily in the narrative framing of the novel, a break from the conventions of typical utopian reporting.

The novels featured in the latter half of the semester function in a more literary realm which expands their thematic, critical, and social range in regards towards the Utopian genre. The Dispossessed easily falls in line with Marxist criticism as the novel explores the abuse of the proletariat and features a society profiting from a proletariat uprising. The Handmaid’s Tale examines the exploitation of marginalized bodies and provides a jarring and painful satire of the treatment of women and marginalized individuals within an authoritarian society. Oryx and Crake offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of science and the possibility of it being a vehicle of environmental destruction as well as calls for the needs of the arts. While novels such as Herland and Ecotopia attempt to create a critique on the society in which the novels reflect they ultimately fall short due to their adherence to the antiquated conventions of the utopian genre. The three novels featured at the end of the course inhabit a more critical space that examines societies as mechanizations of humans that can lead to good, however, on the other hand, also can lead to an absolute terrifying evil.

Critical Utopian Theory 101

Over the semester there has been a plethora of topics and issues discussed about the Utopian genre. However, I feel as though many of these topics explored in the class, historical, conventional mechanics of the genre, and the widespread accessibility of teaching the dystopian genre for high school students, have overlooked the critical and theoretical approaches that the Utopian genre has to offer. Admittedly, I have tried (and failed) to bring these critical and theoretical approaches in the form of my web highlights and midterm, but despite my attempts, I still feel there is a vast amount of theoretical framework that can be approached in the Utopian genre. I argue that despite the dull, lifeless aspects of the earlier pre-midterm novels that the novels discussed in the class provide a wealth of critical approaches, primarily in the field of Marxist and deconstructionist criticism, that opens new avenues for possible discussions of the Utopian genre.

Previously, I have explored the idea of utopias and dystopias sharing similarities with the Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetics. This aesthetic dichotomy appears as the utopian mold adheres to the Apollonian and the dystopian mold adheres to the Dionysian. In Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed this is all the more apparent as the Anarres, the utopic city, follows the Apollonian aesthetic and Urras, the fevered dystopian city, falls into the Dionysian aesthetic. However, what this theoretical framework adds to the critical discussion of how the conventions of utopias and dystopias affect the world outside the page is within the presentation of Le Guin’s political structuring of the two antithetical worlds. If both are taken to the logical extreme, as if one would take the logical extreme of the Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetic, these cities would operate within a feedback loop never contributing anything towards the greater good of humanity. However, if, as I argue one should handle the dichotomy of the Dionysian and Apollonian aesthetic, the two forms were to embrace each other, albeit idealistic, there could be a bridging of adversarial views and a creation of something new entirely that is not bound by rigid structures of hierarchical societies but also not bound by the infinite equitable sharing of the proletariat refuge.

Ultimately, the balance between the Dionysian and Apollonian aesthetic offers another form for the ideal utopic society. The embrace of the flux of capitalism but also the acceptance to the equality of communism could be a utopic landscape that would fuse the two antithetical ideas of governing, as both capitalism and communism is a utopia or dystopia depending on the individuals perspective. Through this critical examination of the utopian and dystopian dichotomy presented in The Dispossessed, there could be an out as shown in a system of government that operates in an ethical fashion balancing the societies of Anarres and Urras. This can be seen in the real world as China is balancing both capitalism and communism bringing about one of the most significant economic growths in recent years.

Mikhail Bakhtin was brought up in discussion in the class briefly, and for a good reason, his views on the inner workings and relationships of language illustrate many of the themes explored in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. Although Bakhtin’s idea of the dialogic is absent and antithetical to the dialogues seen in Utopia, Herland, and Anthem, the presence of dialogics is throughout Oryx and Crake directly relating it to the real world. The referentiality of Atwood’s novel presents a mimetic representation of the debate of the use of the arts within our world today. Ultimately, this posits the conflict between the arts and sciences, two forces that can be immensely influential in positive creations but also corrosive to society.

However, the references and dialogic loops in Oryx and Crake only service to mimic the debate of the arts and science, it is in Atwood’s description and use of ambiguous language that the novel illustrates a malleability of language that can be both destructive and productive. The issue of malleable language applies to another term by Bakhtin the unfinalizability. Essentially, Bakhtin posits that language is infinite in the interpretations of each word, there is no monologic truth within the spoken word, and, due to this fact, language presents an infinite problem with the classification of clear, concise meaning. This problem of interpretation best seen in Oryx and Crake is in the description of the Martha Graham Academy: “On problematics. Problematics was a word for people, so that was what Jimmy took. Spin and Grin was its nickname among the students. Like everything at Martha Graham it had utilitarian aims” (Atwood 188). Each word within the excerpt is infinitely malleable to fit the needs of whoever speaks them. However, Atwood adds that the term of problematics or “spin and grin” have utilitarian aims with clear purposed intentions. This is shown to be contradictory as illustrated by Atwood’s antithetical phrasing of words, problematics lead to problems and spin and grin offer the idea that there is a chance to warp the intentions of one's word. The malleability of language in this excerpt illustrates the gap in meaning and understanding through communication. Therefore, the use of words as both a connecting and destructive force becomes a mimetic representation of the feuding semantics of politics, arts, and cultures. 

While the class offered an invaluable amount of information in regards to the Utopian genre, I felt as though the addition of a theoretical and critical framework is an imperative one. The Dionysian and Apollonian aesthetic, combined with the utopian genre, leads to a possible political utopia given the embrace of the two dichotomized political spectrum of communism and capitalism. Bakhtin’s dialogism and unfinalizability of language emphasize the problem of reaching the utopian ideal through the form of communication. With these theoretical applications, I feel as though we can get a bit closer, fight the good fight towards a pseudo-utopia, and maybe find some semblance of agreeance in these tumultuous times. This idealism will probably not happen.

Utopian Conventions Within the Genre

          Many students tend to discuss the conventions and mechanics of the utopian genre in hopes to bridge and gap, and one could argue (myself), the antiquated genre of the pre-midterm novels. In Joseph Bernard’s final, the writer discusses how one could bring exciting and new readings to these pre-midterms novels to a disillusioned mass (in the case for Bernard bored high schoolers). The idea of modernizing or approaching these earlier utopian novels with modern critiques invites new readings and new discussions to continue what would otherwise, without these new insights, cause these older texts to drown in their dull prose. In Bill Clouse’s “Utopia? Well...at Least the Genre Works” a similar examination of the mechanization of the genre is explored to find a greater meaning, or more importantly a purpose. Lastly, Joan Gray’s “The ‘Other’ within Utopian Genre” explores these conventions; however, this examination is done in a more practical, near-cynical lens, that highlights the individuality of utopias both within the genre and an individual's perspective. All three articles examine the conventions of the Utopia genre and highlight the mechanizations that make them work while simultaneously critiquing the very same functions the genre is performing.

All three writers share diverging critiques of the Utopian genre. Gray illustrates the dangers of creating the other within the construction of a utopia and cites the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe as an example of individual overcome by the societal factors of personal and communal utopias. Juxtaposed against Gray, Clouse has a more optimistic realization that while there is an innate idealism behind utopias the historical examples examined in the class provide the case that within a society, regardless of size (although smaller), there can be an example of utopias within intentional communities such as Twin Oaks and Brook Farm. Bernard shares the optimism of Clouse as he readily states that he intends to “flesh out how utopian fiction... speaks to their desire for clarity in a world muddled with confusion” (Bernard). While there is a schism, the first critic being more critical than the latter two it opens an interesting divide between the examination of how the utopian genre operates and reinforces the idea that one’s utopia, or perspective of utopia, is another’s dystopia.

There is a similarity between Gray and Bernard as they both address the authoritarian elements that provide problems for the utopias within the novels explored this semester. As stated earlier, Gray discussed the socially isolating factors that can lead to destroying the individual self and in similar Bernard illustrates the society of Anthem as a similarly destructive force. Bernard’s interpretation of Prometheus’ desire for autonomy falls in line with Gray’s belief that there is an individual utopia, an idiosyncratic perspective driven utopia. For Bernard, this personal utopia is when Prometheus finds his freedom outside the oppressive society within the novel that restricts his rights and creative abilities. Following Bernard, Gray addresses Prometheus’s radical desire to change and comments that Prometheus becomes a critic of the very society he once embraced.

Clouse and Bernard both comment on Herland and the gender dynamics explored within the novel. However, these two critics go about a different approach. Bernard sticks to their initial goal of branching out new readings from these older texts trying to find new meaning within the novels. For Bernard, the fact the narrator was able to find love even in a foreign utopia such as Herland opens the question whether if it is possible for an individual in today’s society has the very same ability as the narrator to find love in these fragmented times. Clouse approaches the gender dynamics of Herland in a more traditional way citing that “Gillman’s presentation of the male protagonists symbolize society’s stereotypical view of women” (Clouse). For Clouse, the gender dynamics of the novel read more into the systemic issues of the treatment of marginalized bodies such as women whereas Bernard focuses on the potential examination of romantic pursuits. It must be addressed that the latter pursuit is a bit antithetical to a reading of gender dynamics as it reinforces the idea of the romance quest within a text that tries to break apart gender norms and expectations.

All three of these posts examine the conventions and aspects of the Utopian genre. While Joan Gray has a more realist examination of the texts and conventions of the genre, Joseph Bernard carries an optimistic tone in hopes to create new readings that might inspire future generations, and Bill Clouse offers a bit of both, albeit with a more in-depth discussion to the dynamics of what effects society at large, they all three examine the conventions of the Utopian genre. If anything these three posts illustrate the idea that any individuals perspective on what defines a utopia is subjective and personalized. While I hate to beat the dead horse and admit the class has been right the entire time, it is true that one person’s utopia is another’s dystopia.