Kristine Vermillion

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A Collective of Individuals

The utopian collective identity versus the myriad of individual identities of its members is a subject of particular importance, and Sarah Coronado does a good job investigating the psychological realities of this utopian convention that deals with the general names and/or the renaming of its participants in her research post titled “A Look at the Members:  Collective and/or Individual Identities.” We have mentioned in class the unmemorable names of the women in Herland and the generic names of the citizens in Anthem. Coronado’s research into how cults work to suppress individual identities in order to instill the new collective identity through psychological manipulation is very interesting, and the application of it to our study is engaging. This renaming process made me think of Louis Althusser’s “Ideological State Apparatuses.” In many ways the utopian community, like a cult, operates as an ISA, and “Ideology Interpellates Individuals as Subjects.” Regardless of the ISA a person is involved in, Althusser reasons that the way individuals are interpellated—a term he used to identify the actual calling out and naming process—determines what type of subjects they will be. A good example of this from our reading is when Prometheus renames Liberty 5-3000 the Golden One and then Gaea. Her original name was one that was non-descript and general. The name determined the subject’s status in the society, which was that of a general cog in the social wheel. Her interim name identified her as a beautiful individual. Her final name, given within the parameters of Prometheus’ new ISA, determined the kind of subject she would ultimately be, i.e. a mother.

Only when the problem of the individual is dealt with can the true idea of “human progression” that is at the heart of the utopian genre be realized.  Healthy individuals make healthy societies.  This idea is at the heart of Sarah Coronado’s Midterm titled “Human Progression in Utopian and Dystopian Literature.”  In it she points out that, for example, Anthem is a dystopia for precisely this reason. In the destruction of the word “I” to make a utopian society, they castrated and made their community static and lifeless. How they named, i.e. interpellated, their people determined what type of subjects they would be. This utopia failed to account for the fact that a society is made up of individual parts, and when the individual parts are sniffed out by the idea of the “greater good” there is only regression on every front. This is why Equality 7-2521 has to be renamed. On the other hand, in Looking Backward, Coronado points out, via the example of Julian West, that when there’s a conversion story and the character can go through the motions and intelligently deduce that the “greater good” is in his best interests and that it actually serves to meet the individual needs in a way that helps all, the prerequisite need of the individual is met. The beauty of the story of Herland is that it shows that the travelers truly have a choice to make between various societies, therefore maintaining the idea of freedom. Terry is free to leave, Jeff was allowed to stay and Van was able to take Ellador with him.

The question of identity and the relationship between the individual and the collective brings us straight into the heart of religion and philosophy. Once again this leads me to thinking about the power of literature and its function in culture and society. These utopian literary pieces deal with fundamental questions of individual worth and how to order society, and the application of ideas through literature seems to wield great amounts of power. Coronado discussed this idea of the power of literature and language. Her first observation dealt with Anthem and the source of the power within that dystopia: the power of language. The philosophy/religion of the land was regulated via words. They erased the language of the individual and replaced it with the language of the social. This is why Rand’s work is important.  She uses a story to create a speculative fiction to show where this idea might ultimately lead. It is also quite relevant to the study of literature and literary theory because this idea is at the forefront of most of the philosophical inquiry that the university is steeped in. We explore in theory the semiotics of language and man’s use of it, and the post modern move has been toward destroying individual identity, creativity and authorship and replacing it with different types of social hypotheses. While their work might not be nefarious in its intent, Rand imagines where this tendency might ultimately lead. It is obvious she doesn’t think highly of it.   

The second point of power Coronado discussed is the power of the utopian narratives to take the reader on a conversion experience along with the fellow traveler in the fiction.  “The conversion conflict also brings us in as readers, because unconsciously, we attempt to be converted as well.  It is hard to shake our political ideas and beliefs and when we read these alternative societies, we cannot help but take part in something similar to a political debate.”  The mere exercise of reading a utopian fiction warrants individual inquiry into social forms and potential modifications and variations. For this reason alone, in my opinion, it is a particularly powerful genre, especially if it helps steer us away from making dystopias but rather helps us to build better societies, and this is ultimately a process deeply involved in the interpellation and development of individuals within the collective.