LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Final Exam Submission 2005

Matt Mayo

06-30-05

Question # 1

Notions of Time: Progress versus Stability

What is time, and what are the origins of existing temporal constructs? Briefly speaking, the nature of “time in relation to human purpose or mission” may be demarcated into two dichotomous groupings: the Genesis-Apocalypse linear narrative, and the Evolutionary narrative. While the evolutionary narrative offers no definite end of time, Christianity promises the faithful entry into the Kingdom of Heaven, a “good place,” as well as, “no place:” phrases that essentially define the word Utopia.

The Biblical narrative gives definition to time, identifying a specific beginning and end to time: “I am the Alpha and Ome’ga, the first and the last” (Rev 1:11, 22:13). According to Genesis, “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day” (Gen 1:5). Thus, according to the Bible, with the creation of night and day, the hands of time began ticking. Upon salvation, God’s children are assured that, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light” (Rev 22:5). As evidenced, Heaven is described as a place with no days or nights, and is thereby a place that is absent of time.

Twin Oaks, a small cooperative farming community in Virginia, can accurately be called “no place.” The commune’s mission is to “escape from middle class values, create a better and more peaceful society, one more rooted to the earth than contemporary society.” Twin Oaks members share the belief that progress-oriented capitalist culture is destroying the environment, and adhere strictly to the philosophy of “enough people.” Twin Oaks limits its membership to 100 persons, and of that, only 15% may be children. Women in Twin Oaks are “strongly discouraged” from having more than one child. Similarly, Heaven is inhabited by “the hundred and forty and four thousand which are redeemed from the earth” (Rev 14:3). By agreeing to these principles, Ecotopians, such as the resident of Twin Oaks, seek to halt the frenetic pace of progress, and find a balanced existence in harmony with the earth. The only progress Twin Oaks desires is a complete independence from progress, or time.

Communities such as Twin Oaks did not originate from thin air. Instead, they are resultant of the long line of Utopian “Literature of Ideas.” Twin Oaks’ philosophy closely resembles the ideas expressed in the novel Ectopia, by Ernest Callenbach. Ecotopia portrays a determined reporter called Weston, who is sent by the U.S. government to report on the goings on within the recently seceded nation-state of Ecotopia. While traveling to San Francisco on the Ecotopians’ magnetic bullet train, Weston immediately notices a complete absence of the normal consumerist beacons: “there wasn’t a billboard in sight, and not a gas station” (Callenbach, 10).  Ecotopia has abolished all harmful, environmentally destructive industry. Ecotopian cities are quaint places to live, and the countryside is farmed in an environmentally friendly manner. Like Twin Oaks, Ecotopia is working towards stability, instead of working for progress. Weston befriends an Ecotopian, Bert, who articulates this vision of stability, “it [stability] means giving up any notions of progress. You just want to get to that stable point and stay there, like a lump” (33). Bert and his fellow Ecotopians envision a society where humans live in harmony with the planet, and view time in more geologically aware manner, as opposed to the often environmentally short sighted visions of progress and wealth.

If this Ecotopian vision is prophetic, if progress and overpopulation are leading humankind towards its destruction, then Octavia Butler’s paints a horrifying image of that destiny in Parable of the Sower. The story’s heroine is a young girl, Lauren Olamina, who has an unusual condition known as hyper-empathy: she can literally feel other person’s pain. This is a difficult affliction to have in 2024 Los Angeles, California. Progress has created a chaotic world, where global warming has stopped the rain, where pollution has choked the cities and waters, where starving multitudes wallow in the starvation associated with gross overpopulation. In terms of Parable, the evolutionary narrative does have a definite end: the destruction of our world caused by unchecked progress and greed.

After the walled cul-de-sac where Lauren and her family, along with their neighbors, lived is finally breached, and their homes are subsequently torched by the desperate and depraved masses, Lauren is forced to set out on a perilous journey with a handful of followers, in attempt to form a new Eden. Lauren, after many weary miles, thinks, “God is change. I hate God” (Butler, 141). Lauren seems to understand the plausibility of an evolutionary notion of time, while still maintaining the resolve to shape God by avoiding the mandatory death sentence of the impending apocalypse: “Tomorrow we’ll begin to prepare a living garden . . . it’s time we began to build a shelter . . . build something better, something fit for human beings” (292). Therefore, the essence of Lauren’s new faith – Earthseed - is to create a living Ecotopia called “Acorn.” Like Acorn, the Utopia and Ecotopia are societal visions of harmony; a place where God can be shaped, a place where progress is a means to the end of stability; a figurative Garden of Eden where cooperation may someday create a Heaven on Earth, a Utopia: no place.

The concept of time is relevant to notions of toil (pain), destruction and progress.   When the Lord cast Adam and Eve out of the Utopian Garden of Eden, He said to Adam: “in sorrow shalt thou eat of it [food] all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall bring it forth to thee” (Gen 3:17,18). Adam and Eve, and their offspring are sentenced to lives with specific beginnings and ends, and must labor, drawing their sustenance from the Earth itself. Naturally, over time, Humans have endeavored to make all manners of labor less intensive, and to make their existences more comfortable: progress.

The idea of progress dominates Western culture, and is antithetical to a Utopian existence. Progress is equated to time, as each passing epoch of man is marked by its artistic and technological innovations, or progress. In America, huge metropolises, with their towering skyscrapers, are seen as shining benchmarks of capitalism’s success. However, this progress has been attained at a mighty cost to the environment. In response, The Ecotopia, by definition, seeks to halt the destruction of the environment through progress, and overpopulation. By doing so, in a sense, the Utopia stops time in a manner similar to the Bible’s depiction of Heaven.

Information or Entertainment: What is Utopian Literature’s Purpose?

The Roman poet Horace declared the purpose of Literature is to “inform and entertain.” A good novel imparts meaning to its readers more effectively when it the primary message is accompanied with a compelling plotline and interesting characters combined with a good dose of action and suspense. A novel such as Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower entertains and informs, meeting both of Horace’s literary criteria. However, the action and suspense of Sower climaxes with the formation of the Utopian society; the novel’s intense drama is played out in and is resultant from the terror that revolves around escaping the impending apocalypse. 

 Starting with Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Utopian Literature normally informs far more than it entertains. Atypical Utopian texts read much like travel Literature: lush descriptions of a harmonious and strife-free culture. In contrast, much of what we call ‘art’ is an expression or reaction to the struggles and impediments of life: with our heroes usually overcoming these obstacles. A skilled novelist unveils depth of character slowly, and through struggle, the audience should grow to love, or hate, a well-developed character by novel’s end. Unfortunately, most Utopian works lack powerful characters. Instead, Utopian characters too often seem like cardboard, making it difficult for the audience to develop any emotional attachment to them.

            Ayn Rand’s Anthem presents the unhappy Prometheus, a man desperate to escape the Dystopian society that oppresses him. The plot of Anthem is really not the problem, it is rather straightforward and predictable. But, unlike More’s Utopia, Anthem does have a plot. Prometheus is forbidden to fall in love, but he falls in love anyway, with the no-dimensional Golden One. He also invents electricity, and presents it to the ignorant scholars, who reject him summarily, consequently forcing he – and eventually Golden One as well – into the wild to seek out their new existence. His escape is really the high point of the story, as his character, and the novel’s action, erodes considerably from that point. Instead of revealing the depth of Prometheus’ character once he discovers the elusive “I,” Rand etches out a portrayal of an extremely selfish, and downright un-likeable, man. Prometheus is overjoyed that the Golden One “shall follow you wherever you go” (Rand, 82). The vapidity of the Golden One overshadows the despicability of Prometheus. When Prometheus oversees his new land, and proclaims his dominion, one can only wonder about the true prospects he has in mind, albeit not for long!

            Like Anthem, the characters in Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward are not really all that exciting. Julian West, the main character is slightly more compelling that the soporific Dr. Leete, and his beautiful, but shallow as a puddle, daughter Edith. Dr. Leete gives marvelously long-winded descriptions of his Utopian society, with the good Doctor’s description of the Warehouse in Chapter 17 being especially tedious and drawn out. While being full of interesting and intriguing ideas, Looking Backward simply lacks plot. This primarily arises from the Utopian narrative’s resistance to plot and characterization, since there is no strife in the Utopia, and due to complete equality, people are more or less the same. Bellamy seems to grasp this conundrum in one of the books stronger passages, when, through Weston, Bellamy appears to accept the supposed literary limitations of the Utopian genre: “reading Penthesillia [a novel of the Utopian society] . . .what impressed me was not so much what was in the book as what was left out of it . . .excluded [from] all effects drawn from the contrast of wealth and poverty [no Romance]” Despite this, Weston ultimately sees value in the educational and informative nature of Utopian Literature, “The reading . . . was of more value than almost any amount of explanation would have been in giving me something like a general impression of the social aspect of the [Utopia]” (112).

            Contrary to Weston’s discovery, Utopian literature, especially that which is charged with a millennial theme, can be very exiting. Immediately, injection of the millennial theme gives plot, character and suspense. This is because of the incredibly interesting Book of Revelation, which is full of action and suspense. Revelation is very similar to the modern horror or action movie, with its cinematic descriptions of terrible monsters, volcanic eruptions juxtaposed with blood and gore: “Death and Hell . . . kill with sword, and hunger, and with death;” “there followed hail and fire mixed with blood;” “torment of a scorpion” (Rev 6:8, 8:7, 9:5). This suspense is followed by a climactic supernatural battle: “And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon” (Rev 12:7). Finally, the conflict is resolved with the promise of salvation, and the subsequent ascendance of the righteous into Heaven. With all of these plot driven and dramatic elements going on, whether one is Christian or not, Revelations is hard to put down simply because of its spectacular imagery.

            Octavia Butler re-creates the drama of Revelation in the novel Parable of the Sower.  The plot is carefully thought out, and features a very intriguing main character, Lauren, who the audience is able to watch grow into adulthood, transforming into a fearless and bold visionary, and her subsequent founding of a new religion based on “God is change,” called Earthseed. The plot is very compelling because it involves an escape from the apocalypse, and while the company of Earthseeders is struggling for their survival in the California countryside, they are assaulted my men, beast and elements. Butler is a very descriptive author, and the story’s plot and character is further enhanced by this ability. For instance, Lauren is not shallow; she reacts in complex way to different stimuli, and not always as expected. Lauren makes the tough decisions, and executes them logically. This aspect of her personality is careful crafted though her relationship with her Baptist preacher father, her little-brother-gone-bad Keith, her subsequent lover Bankole, as well as the other supporting cast. After escaping their destroyed community, the characters interact, argue, disagree and compromise issues regarding their course of action, thus affecting the novel’s plot. Butler’s depiction of a raging fire makes the book’s conclusion very exciting: The fire roared and thundered its way past us . . . singeing our hair and clothing, making breathing a terrible effort” (277).

Like The Bible, Sower has a definite and satisfying conclusion: Lauren and most of her companions survive to form a new Ecotopian colony, Acorn. Even the name of the community exhibits Butler’s literary prowess, as the reader recalls that particular thematic element from the book’s introduction. As Horace, the best literature should “inform and entertain,” and ideally, Utopian novels would be more compelling if they could do the same. Butler’s Sower succeeds in achieving an interesting plot mixed with compelling characters, however, there is plenty of strife for Butler to work from, as the book primarily deals with a harrowing escape from the apocalypse, with the Utopian aspect of the story being its conclusion. However, this is not an indictment of all Utopian literature. It is difficult, possibly impossible, to create a compelling plot, complete with a cast of interesting characters, in a perfect, Utopian setting.  Utopian literature’s primary value is its ability to stimulate new ideas within its reader. Utopian literature, at its best, forces its audience to consider the integrity of his or her existing social order, and consider alternatives. As Weston (Bellamy) suggested, perhaps “what is not there” is the true value of Utopian literature.