Umaymah Shahid

July 1^st, 2015

Utopias: What is the point?

Utopias exist in “no place” but are “good place(s)” according to Thomas More. Studying Utopian fiction for the first time, I am skeptical of the idea of a peaceful, loving, communal, and almost perfect society which pleases all (or so we believe). Yet, while reading Utopian literature, questions nagged at the back of my mind: what’s the point? Why write a story about a perfect society that could never replicate itself in real life.  What were the authors trying to achieve by writing these narratives? To answer these questions, I look at Jacob McCleese’s “No Place is a Good Place”, Kristine Vermillion’s “Problem Solvers on Steroids”, and Hannah Wells’s “Utopia: what is it good for?” 2013 midterm submissions and discover the purpose of the Utopian genre.

Each essay had a common point: the Utopian genre’s purpose is to create social awareness and to reflect on current issues and problems of the societies the authors lived in (McCleese). Often citizens of a society do not see the problems within their communities until pointed out by someone from the outside or a thinker within. As Jacob McCleese points out that the purpose of the Utopian genre is to create social awareness, so the question begs to be answered: how does a text accomplish that goal? The Utopian narrative becomes a “safe space of a story that allows us to follow where these ideas might lead…because ideas have consequences” (Vermillion). Instead of literally creating a society without any men (i.e. Herland), it is safer to toss the idea in a novel and weigh the probable results of such a society. A story format allows us to play with ideas and to analyze whether such an alternate society would work. To follow up on the purpose of Utopias, Hannah Wells summarizes the genre as “an ideal world created by authors to reflect current issues and problems” and to “build a perfect community where larger problems can be scaled down and dealt with on the human level”. Bringing all three essays together, Utopias allow readers and authors to experiment with alternate societies to address the best way to solve the social ills of the time. The three writers further address how certain particulars of the genre help authors fulfill this purpose that I will now further review.

Jacob McCleese’s midterm essay points out how the utopian genre works with history, sociology and psychology in order to create meaning to the literature, and does a phenomenal job of breaking down the various disciplines that work with the genre. He discusses Black Nationalism as a historical movement which probably prompted Callenbach to create the “Soul City”; the conversations between the men and the women in Herland as a sociological understanding of two various societies; Walden Two as a psychological study with the experimentation of Behaviorism on children. Of the three disciplines Jacob explores, I found the sociological disciple of most interest. The idea of sociological improvement is explored by analyzing how Herland has a discussion of two various societies, American and Herland. Without having to directly point out of flaws in 20^th century America, Gilman uses the Herland women to use a “question and answer format” to get the men to come to the conclusion of the inadequacies of their country. Similarly, we understand the various social structures of societies such as Ecotopia and Utopia through the genre’s informative narration prompting discussion amongst readers of whether the society is a suitable alternative to the society the author is writing in. While I do at times get bogged down with the question of “why read Utopian literature?” Jacob’s essay reminds me that the genre reaches far beyond the literary analysis and into various disciplines to help spark the change needed to improve as a society, making authors visionaries of their time.

As Jacob hinted in his essay about the authors of utopias as catalysts for social change, Kristine Vermillion’s 2013 midterm essay moves a step further and labels utopian authors as “reformers” and “problem solvers” of their time who, through writing, call attention to social issues present in the societies they live in. She explores how through the common conventions in the genre such as “a traveler, a guide and a discussion” as well as “millennial themes” such as peace, freedom from war, poverty, and the like, authors make change because it is through these shared conventions and themes an audience is attracted. However the most intriguing aspect of the essay is Kristine’s questioning of the roles of the male and female gender in all three texts: Herland, Anthem, and Ecotopia. I never thought to stop and ponder over the absence of “typical societal ills like that of prisoners, religion, hierarchies within family and government, and war policies” in Herland. Not only does Kristine make such a profound discovery but she goes even further to associate them with the presence of the male sex. Through the various authors read in this class, Gilman is the only one that eradicates these societal ills along with an entire gender. In Utopia and in Ecotopia wars are fought to either secure Independence or protect citizens, and present in both texts exists the idea of imprisonment in the form of slavery (Utopia), prison or fines (Ecotopia). Herland’s women on the other hand have not known violence or punishment nor have they known imprisonment. The country has no pollution, no poverty, and no problems of race or religion (Vermillion) and perhaps this is because there are no males who bring such ills along with them.

          When looking at the utopias with the presence of the male sex, social ills such as prisoners, hierarchies, and war resurface. In Rand’s Anthem, Prometheus renames The Golden One as Gaea after their escape from the dystopia and in essence becomes the “authority in her life” and she becomes “the subject of man” as she remains the quiet pregnant wife who will populate her lover’s future utopia (Vermillion). This disturbing unfolding of events baffles the reader because he/she assumes Prometheus will reign this new utopia with his lover beside him; instead she stands behind him and as Kristine points out, the vicious cycle of women as subjects to men begins afresh, which is absent in Herland. The subjection of the Golden One in this new Utopia is even more shocking because not only is Rand a female author, but she was writing after women had received constitutional equality. Similarly although women enjoy equal status, jobs, and the ability to choose their lovers and mates in Ecotopia, they are “playthings for the men and for Weston in particular” (Vermillion). One sees Marissa as only a lover and a being described in physical or sexual terms and never as an individual character. Women in Ecotopia are usually seen with men in sexual settings, going behind the bushes after a war game or making love after city fairs. Even Weston’s nurse is made love to! As Kristine puts it, women are portrayed as the “stereotypical sexy cheerleader and provocative nurse”, and that is very disturbing, considering the revolution of sexual freedom.

Such romances and adventures experienced by Weston in Ecotopia and the young men in Herland are not in the Utopian texts by accident but to create interest in the narration. Hannah Wells’s 2013 midterm essay explores how Utopias are valuable study because of the rich “genre, conventions and techniques, and historical context” it provides. A point of interest she raises is that without the blending of different genres, the utopian genre would fall short of being literature that both pleases and improves the reader. Genre blending is a topic I have not given much thought but I would have to completely agree. The purpose of the genre is to inform the audience of current societal ills or alternate societies. However, if these authors did not blend Romanticism for example in the texts, very few would read them. In both Herland and in Ecotopia the vivid descriptions of the flowers, the trees, and the nature around the people allure the reader. Weston’s sexual escapades and the fond love between Van and Ellador exemplify the blend of romantic and adventure genres. This blending of genres makes the reading less a literature of ideas and more a literature of ideas and pleasure, ringing true to the Utopian motto of making work pleasurable.

Each of these midterm submissions has not only reinforced the idea that the Utopian genre is a catalyst for change in a society, but that the genre extends beyond just literary analysis. Utopias deal with various disciplines to give us a holistic approach to the various issues around us (McCleese), the impact of various changes in humanity (Vermillion), and the blending of genres to create a pleasurable experience in the reading (Wells). Although this genre brings about a perfect world, it is far from perfect but just trying to be more perfect than the times they are written in.

Umaymah Shahid

July 1, 2015

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the Utopian Genre

Before taking the Literary and Historical Utopias class, I was not very familiar the with utopian genre, as my reading of the genre only consisted of A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, which I had read back in high school. Like many readers, I have had greater exposure to dystopian fiction such as: Animal Farm, 1984, Hunger Games, and the list goes on. When I discovered that the focus of the class was specifically utopias, I became intrigued. What would this literature entail? Would we read about perfect societies? I must admit that reading about perfect societies is nice for a change from the dark and repressive narration of dystopias. Halfway through the summer semester I realized that these Utopian texts could replicate on a small scale such as Twin Oaks and Celebration, but they could not possibly be implemented in a whole country! However, I quickly realized that the genre’s goal was not to replicate in real time but to warn of possible dangers societies were headed into and social issues that needed attention. Through my readings I begin to appreciate authors of the Utopian genre as proponents of activism and social change, inspiring readers by giving them an alternate world where problems in their societies do not exist. One of the beautiful aspects of the Utopian genre is the commonality in the genre in all the texts whether they were written in the 16^th century or the 20^th century. The Utopian genre has conventions that are good, bad, and ugly. Gardens, secluded settings, and the blend of various genres are some conventions that make the genre enthralling. On the other hand, the dry narrative structure and lack of character development and individualism repel the reader.  

One of the main shared conventions of utopian settings is the presence of nature, or specifically of gardens. When reading Utopian literature I feel refreshed because of the relaxing and peaceful setting that gardens, trees, and forests insinuate. When the three men in Herland fly over Herland in their biplane, Van describes the place as “a land in a state of perfect cultivation, where even the forests looked as if they were cared for; a land that looked like an enormous park, only it was even more evidently an enormous garden” (1.130). Weston observes, in Ecotopia, the trains being full of “hanging ferns and small plants” (8), the streets “occupied by bicycle lanes, fountains, sculptures, kiosks, and absurd little gardens” (12), and the spiritual tree worshiping common amongst Ecotopians. The gardens and forest suggest the oneness the utopians have with nature and how they strive to go back to their roots unlike in modern societies where pollution and urban developments eradicated acres of greenery. Thus, in order to be at one in society, people need to be at one with their surrounding.

When forests, mountains, oceans, and plains become the surrounding of utopias, the societies become secluded, which is another important setting convention of the genre. All of the utopias read in the class were set in a secluded area, usually through some natural seclusion. For example Utopia in Utopia stands as an island of which “the channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck” (2.1). Gilman’s fictitious country Herland resides in a tropical mountainous landscape where the young boys have to take a biplane to visit. Similarly Callenbach’s Ecotopia takes its setting in the northwest of America bordered by the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Rand’s Anthem is set in an isolated area surrounded by the Unchartered Forests. These settings serve as a prerequisite to having a Utopia because they allow the authors to explore various sociological problems in a controlled setting without interference from non-utopians.

Aside from sharing setting and scenery, utopias share a unique blending of genres, which make the texts more readable. Utopian literature calls for an informative essay/tract writing, which makes reading them dull. This narrative style gives readers information about social settings and happenings of the society being visited by the narrator. However, several texts blend genres to give relief from the boring narrative. Callenbach’s creation of a hybrid Ecotopia by combining both the informational writing with journal writing proves a prime example of the blending of genres (Obj. 1a). The news articles written by Weston give the readers an outside perspective of how Ecotopia functions, its economics, agriculture, woods, population, education, towns, etc. Weston’s journal writing at the end of each entry provides a relief from the formal writing and allows the reader a behind the stage view of life in Ecotopia. The reader experiences the sexual escapades, shouting matches, the Opposition party, and Weston’s thoughts about Pam, his children, and Francine. The Romantic genre (journal) blends with the informational narrative (news reports) to give an account of the romance between Weston and Marissa, Marissa and the trees, and the friendships between the Cove members and Weston, especially during the ritual wars, thus captivating the reader. Callenbach also flirts with the adventure genre through Weston’s travels and when Weston planed to escape from the secluded Japanese commune the Ecotopians had taken him to restore his thinking.

A Romantic genre blend in Herland takes form as well with the sisterly and motherly love between the women, the love between Jeff and Celis, and the love between Van and Ellador. These love affairs transcended from the physical to the spiritual where everyone loved each other for their wisdom, kindness, laughter, and care, which is why Terry felt out of place because he was drawn to the sexual more than the spiritual. Gilman’s exquisite writing intertwines the romantic genre while still fulfilling the purpose to inform, thus fulfilling Jefferson and Horace’s purpose of Literature: to entertain and educate (Obj. 1e).  

While setting and the blending of genres add to the beauty of the utopian genre, certain conventions detract from it. A drawback of the utopian genre is the lack of character development or of relatable characters. Readers flock to fiction because fictional stories develop relevant characters, which the readers find easy to sympathize with. However, in utopias where everything stands to perfection and the collective is encouraged, the creation of relatable characters seldom happens. The reader primarily interacts with the narrator who informs the reader of the society he visits, while other characters are described but not developed. This is seen in Utopia with the character Raphael whom we only know as a very wise traveler who assumes the role of ambassador for Utopia. Similarly in Herland, no individual character develops except for Terry who many readers can associate to because of his individualism and refusal to stay in a place that tells him how to live. Gilman does not share any individual characters aside from basic surface description of the women’s motherliness, patience, and efficiency.

Ecotopia however pushes this bar a little higher. The reader derives a basic understanding of the journalist Weston through his journal entries. However, aside from Weston no other character develops at a deeper level than the physical. For example, Weston’s lover Marissa is known to the reader as someone who is probably Italian, loves trees, has a brother, and can perform great sex. Aside from the physical, Callenbach fails to provide a more holistic character of her that the reader could possibly relate to.  

In contrast to the aforementioned texts, Equality 7-2521 in Anthem has somewhat of a character development, which the reader mostly deduces through the character’s monologue. The writing style of Anthem differs from that of other utopian writings because it reads as a fiction genre with adventure, romance, conflict, and just an overall plot. In this Utopia, Equality 7-2521 becomes an individual, which then makes the world he lives in a dystopia. Because Equality 7-2521 fights the system and seeks to fulfill his agenda of gaining knowledge, his character is developed and he becomes more than just the ‘we’ in utopian societies. He becomes an ‘I’.  Throughout the class readings I have seen character development in those characters that fight the system or seek to break away from it. These rebellious characters are no longer in the grasp of the tightly communal, shared, everybody-love-everybody type of community that is so common in utopian societies.

The lack of character development leads to the lack of individualism, which takes from the pleasure of reading the genre. When individuals do not exist, conflict, plot, and character development cease to exist. In Utopian societies everything is done together. Of the long list, a few communal traditions are: everyone has sex with each other, everyone raises everyone’s children, everyone mates at the same time, and everyone wears the same clothes. It becomes a tyrannical repression of individualism. The repression of the individual is not only repressed in fictitious utopias but in modern utopias such as Twin Oaks. That is why the utopian community of Celebration really appealed to me as a Utopic community because everyone shared a community but they still had the privacy of their own homes. Perhaps it is because we are raised in our homes with private amenities that we cannot fathom the idea of sharing everything.

Aside from the lack of character development and individualism, punishment and feminism are two aspects of utopian societies that have intrigued me and provided prompts for my research posts. Often times in utopian societies the idea of punishment is dodged, and in my research post “Crime and Punishment”, I explored the idea that capital punishment does not seem to exist (at least as we know it). Jail for life, solitary confinement, none of the punishments of our justice system seems present in the utopian societies, but they do have varying punishments for varying crimes. Despite the fact that utopians are peaceful loving people who believe in equality for all, they still fought wars and punished transgressors, all except for the Herland citizens. Ellador at one point teaches Van that the justice system of Herland does not punish but takes “preventive measures, and cures; sometimes have(ing) to 'send the patient to bed,' as…part of the treatment” (10.40). In Utopia people are subject to slavery for crimes such as adultery, travel violations, and crimes that harm the society in general. Seldom is the death penalty given to the citizens of More’s Utopia unless in extreme offenses. In Ecotopia, pollution, embezzlement, fraud, and the like are punished with time in prison which has a unique rehabilitation program of having the prisoners work in the day as to integrate them into the social system instead of keeping them locked up, making it more likely for them to commit a crime again and be locked up repeatedly. This rehabilitation system seems very unique and effective. Yet the problem is not in having a justice system but that utopian literature does not touch upon the justice system enough. It gives it a brief paragraph and then moves on, and fails to realize that even in utopian societies human beings will be human beings and not perfect. At some point I want to further explore the “dystopian” side of the utopias and find answers to what are the reasons people commit crimes in such a perfect society? How many people do societies imprison? How many people become slaves? Is this utopia a criminal’s dystopia?

Another topic I hope to further study, and perhaps take on as my next Research Post, is the role of women in utopian society (Obj. 3c). Firstly, there are no female narrators in all of the texts we have studied thus far, which limits the reader to just a male narrative. Gilman and Rand are female writers but the narrators of their texts Herland and Anthem are male. Almost every text has made women into an object of man’s desires or kept them in their traditional hierarchy. Utopia does not dwell much on the gender roles but it does point to the traditional thinking in the 16^th century of women as the weaker sex, and so in the country of Utopia, “women, for the most part, deal in wool and flax, which suit best with their weakness” (2.7) and they “generally do little” because they “are the half of mankind”(2.8c). Such terminology is reminiscent of the time More lives in, but as a 21^st century woman, it is hard to swallow. Isn’t a utopian world supposed to have equality for both genders? However, an important point to remember is that even though the treatment of women in Utopia might not seem equal, it is fair according to the notions of gender roles at the the time. The logic being, that since women are the “weaker sex” they should do what requires less strength and men should do the more physically demanding work because they have a stronger body makeup. This thinking addresses the physical needs and creation of the different sexes. However, when thinking progresses and women gain equal status to men, will Utopias treat them as equal human beings?

Ecotopia was written after women had constitutionally achieved rights and the free love and hippie movement became prevalent in society. At first Ecotopia seems like the pinnacle of equality, a model for other societies, at least in regards to gender equality. Women and men are treated equal, can choose their own jobs, and have equal access to government position. However as the novel moves forward, an underlying objectification of the female sex in an already hypersexualized society becomes more and more noticeable. For example, women are seen as the prize after the war games when the winning team leaders go “off with women into the bushes” (79). Similarly the relationship between Weston and Marissa, as I mentioned earlier is mostly physical. Although they do go out and explore the town and meet people, Weston’s narration of Marissa consists mostly of desires for love or the fulfillment of his sexual appetite, with an occasional deeper love thrown in the mix. What the reader knows about Marissa, aside from the fact that she is hypersexual, is that she loves nature. At one point the journal entry took a revolting tone when Marissa went off to the bushes after the first war game causing Weston to become jealous. He narrates that when they went back to the hotel he “more or less raped her” because of his jealousy that she had gone off with another man (82). This narration borders on psychopathic love especially since Marissa seemed to “have expected this” kind of behavior from Weston. However it does not just stop there, but the objectification of women continues when it comes to the sexy, flirtatious nurse who takes care of Weston when hospitalized after the war game, and Weston wonders if he will be “considered well enough to leave just at the point [he] is well enough to really [make love to] her” (154). It is this illustration that women are just sex partners that aggravates me. No concept exists of friends without benefits or mutual companionship, except that everything leads to sex, to the point where I thought Weston was going to have sex with the President of Ecotopia when he met her! Of course at times the women initiate the act but Callenbach does not seem to develop other characteristics of women except as independent human beings with the ability to give men great sex.

The Utopian genre has given me a lot to think about in regards to using literature as a means of bringing change to a society, its interdisciplinary relevance, the insightful discussions it prompts even if the reading itself might be a tad bit boring (Obj 1.e.), and finally the beautiful blend of various genres to give a holistic reading. Although I did not know what to expect when I began reading Utopian literature, I am sitting half way through the summer term glad that I got a chance to experience these more or less perfect worlds.