LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Midterm Submission 2007
Gordon Lewis
Objective 1c, 3, 3a, 3d
Utopias: A Profusion of Cogitation
“A Literature of ideas . . . [that] allows readers to experience a better world vicariously and . . . compare the . . . differences within the utopian society to their own,” is an apt definition of utopian literature that is certainly germane to a consideration of the impact of utopian literature on America (Mayo 1). Historically, it has been very difficult to impact on the thinking of Americans who have clung to a series of beliefs that by definition assert the righteousness of their position. As an example, many early immigrants fled to this country to worship according to a theology that they believed was more righteous than the alternatives available in their homelands. The rightness of their political thinking led to the Revolutionary War.
Alexis de Tocqueville, in his seminal work, Democracy in America, wrote, “The inhabitants of that country look upon literature . . . with a kind of disapprobation . . . . The spirit of the Americans is averse to general ideas” (Book 1, Chap 17). However astute Tocqueville was, his statements are not absolute. There are numerous opposing examples where Americans have welcomed new ideas contained in literature, and frequently, these have occurred when the literature was formatted as Utopian or Science fiction. The science fiction genre is considered by many as a derivative of utopian literature. A case could be argued that when ideas were introduced as speculative or fictional, the American audience was more receptive to a discussion of the idea.
Often, ideas introduced initially through fiction ultimately appeared as a product, law or concept that has become mainstream. It is not always possible to establish a direct correlation between the appearance of an idea in literature and its later appearance in the society. Some have attributed the development of their ideas to a fictional source, and it is certainly reasonable speculation that others may have been influenced in the development of their thinking by exposure to an idea at an earlier date, either directly or indirectly. An internet site named Technovelgy attempts to identify the appearance in literature of an idea that has later become a concept within the society, and they begin with a novel by Francis Godwin published in 1638 entitled, The Man in the Moone, in which the first description of weightlessness, later further developed by Jules Verne in his novel, From the Earth to the Moon, appears.
Bellamy, in Looking Backward, predicts both the appearance of the credit/debit card and large scale retailers like Walmart or Sam’s (57, 66-70). Huxley’s Brave New World, although a dystopia and a satire of utopian literature, is still full of technological predictions that were eventually realized from the Osprey aircraft introduced a few months ago by the Marine Corps to advances in cloning and the development of embryos that were discussed in the tour of the Hatchery. Many scientists, including the developer of the cell phone and the engineers at NASA, whose first Space Shuttle was named ‘Enterprise,’ have acknowledged William Shatner and the Star Trek series as inspiration for their ideas and careers (Linux Electrons 1). Likewise, Orwell’s 1984, is so full of predictions of policies and gadgets that eventually were adopted, and continue to be adopted, that references to 1984 became commonplace in conversation.
Historically, the utopian novel that had the greatest influence on American thinking is Bellamy’s Looking Backward. During time periods of substantial change, oftentimes people are more receptive to a discussion of issues that are contributing to an upheaval in their world. During the latter part of the nineteenth century substantial social and economic changes were taking place, fueled in part by the Second Industrial Revolution which featured the development of electrical power, the internal combustion engine, steel manufacturing, and the growth of railways and steam ships (“Second Industrial Revolution”). This growth in industrialization led to great wealth which primarily accrued to the benefit of the capitalists and labor conditions were abhorrent in comparison to modern standards.
During this era the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ widened with the growth of great family fortunes and monopolistic power on one side and wide spread poverty, child labor, and families virtually living in factories on the other. It was also an era of competing economic theories with Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, published in 1867, on one side and capitalism on the other side. Max Weber, author of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, writing in 1905 identified Puritan ethics as the principal influence on the development of capitalism (“The Protestant Ethic”).
Bellamy dropped Looking Backward into this social milieu with no thought of impacting social reform. He wrote an article in The Nationalist in which he stated that when he was writing his novel he thought he was writing a literary fantasy. Instead, his utopian vision exploded in the society with unanticipated consequences including the establishment of more than 150 Bellamy Clubs to discuss his ideas, the translation of the book into more than 20 foreign languages, the publication of more than a dozen books written in support or opposition to his views, and his elevation to a status among the intelligentsia to a point where Looking Backward was identified by intellectual leaders such as John Dewey, Charles Beard and Arthur Morgan in the early twentieth century as one of the two most influential books published in the last 50 years (Peyser 1).
Although it is difficult to summarize a complex novel, several points highlight Bellamy’s treatise. In the early chapters, Bellamy relates a parable of a coach to describe conditions in the nineteenth century. In his parable, the wealthy ride in or on top of the coach in seats that they may pass on to their heirs while the ‘toilers,’ hungry, miserable, occasionally in agony, faint or trampled, pull the coach under the worst conditions (7-8). When the protagonist awakes 113 years later in the year 2000, he is in a society where wealth is equally distributed and ownership is vested in the government. In this new society, “the worker is not a citizen because he works, but he works because he is a citizen” and “the worker’s income is the same in all occupations” (87-89). Society has risen to a new plane of existence and in this society, “by requiring of every man his best, you have made God his taskmaster and honor the sole reward of achievement . . . .” (105).
In Bellamy’s Utopia, citizens now enjoy both equal wealth and equal opportunity and unequal opportunities in education and culture have been eliminated (102-3). Women are accorded equal status with men.
The concepts advocated by Bellamy were adopted by the Progressives and Populists, unionists, socialists and numerous others and much of what he advocated eventually found its way into legislation and law during the next century (Martin 225). Many of the advances in labor law, restrictions on child labor, the social safety net, equal opportunity legislation and the efforts to extend educational opportunities to the entire society are traceable to Bellamy and his fellow advocates of a more utopian society. Indeed, many of his principles are still being advocated. In a 1994 essay, “Planning the American Dream,” Todd Bressi, an urban planner, writes, “Community planning and design must assert the importance of public over private values” (Peyser 4).
The themes developed by Bellamy are common in utopian literature. Kirsten Bird, in her class presentation of More’s Utopia, utilized a quote from More to illustrate his support of education. “For if you suffer your people to be ill educated . . . and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them?” (Book 1, 10-11). Likewise, Matt Mayo made a class presentation highlighting his Master’s Thesis that compares Looking Backward to Twain’s, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and noted similarities including the motif of time travel, retention of the private household and the advocating of reform in the name of equality against the abuses of industrial capitalism.
Donny Leveston, in his class presentation about Looking Backward, discussed limitations in Bellamy’s utopia. Specifically, he called attention to the role of women which is still not equal to men. In describing women’s role in his society, Bellamy writes, “Women being inferior in strength to men, and further disqualified in special ways, the kinds of occupations reserved for them, and the conditions under which they pursue them, have reference to these facts” (167). Bellamy’s proposal is a kind of separate but equal type of division between men and women, not full equality. The role of women and the issues of education are central tenets of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel, Herland. Ann Lane in her introduction to the novel notes this by writing, “In Gilman’s work education-not formal education but the process by which values permeate an entire social fabric-evolves as a natural device in the creation of new people . . . . (xxii). Gilman continues to discuss education in various points in her novel and writes, “Their idea of education was the special training they took, when half grown up, under experts. Then the eager young minds fairly flung themselves on their chosen subjects . . . . little children never felt the pressures of the “forcible feeding” of the mind that we call “education” (95). The male visitors to Herland noted that the scientific and mechanical development, social consciousness, fair minded intelligence and health and vigor were equal to or superior to their own culture (81).
The fact that Bellamy and most other utopias were advocates of socialist systems did not go unnoticed. In fact, some of the response literature that appeared in opposition to Looking Backward was pro-capitalist or antisocialist or both. The dystopia or antisocialist novel that continues to be read today is Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Ayn Rand fled Russia and was an opponent of the communist regime. In her writings and philosophy, Objectivism, she celebrates the individual. In her character’s name, Prometheus, she celebrates the unconquerable human spirit, and the word that will never die, Ego, ‘I’.
Ayn Rand continues to be read today and all of her books are still in print. Bellamy, More, and Gilman are primarily read just when assigned in educational environments. One of the reasons for the success of Ayn Rand is that she began writing in the 30’s and 40’s after the collapse of Capitalism in the great stock market crash of 1929 and many in America and throughout the world were considering alternative economic systems including socialism and communism. The capitalists were in need of a literary defender, and as the cold war heated up in the late 40’s and 50’s, Ayn Rand was perfectly situated to be a celebrated advocate of Capitalism.
In Devon Kitch’s 2005 midterm essay, she writes, “Arriving at, or embarking toward, Utopia, is essentially an idealistic fantasy that can neither be wholly achieved in practice nor will it reach the state of perfection that lies within the mind or our literary texts. . . . Utopia is an ideal, like the ideal condition of perfect harmony and peace that is nirvana. We wish for it, but we do not wish to make the drastic changes necessary to reach it. . . . It is within the human nature, especially in America, that we find a desire to push forward, to strive for excellence, and to live the best life that we can.”
In America, which throughout the world is considered by many to be a utopia, we live in a society that does, as Devon states, celebrate individuality. Thus our society is closer to the ideals of Ayn Rand than to those of Edward Bellamy. However, we are not pure disciples of Objectivism. Probably, our world is closer to what could be called regulated capitalism where many of the issues raised by the utopians, including equal opportunity, child labor, advances in education, and a social safety net have been adopted.
The principal reason that utopian societies have not succeeded on a large scale is that they are dependent on a quality of citizen that is highly motivated to work at their highest level and receive the same reward as those who do not. As the pilgrims in New England found, these types of people are in short supply. Most people, who may not fit the ideal, are prompted to work harder when they reap the rewards of their additional effort.
Work Cited
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Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland. New York: Pantheon Books, 1979.
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Penguin Modern Classics, 1932.
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Martin, Jay. Harvests of Change: American Literature, 1865-1914. Englewood
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