Jan Smith

Utopian Struggle

When I began visiting Utopian writing, I brought very little with me. Stepping into the pages of the books, I noticed that my traditional approach to the material, by way of critical analysis, was a bit stale. I was too stiff. Confused by unfamiliar content, conflicting variables within each story (ideology, historical context, and stylistics) and change-ups in conventional usage were wearing me out. I was unable to find a cohesive network of themes drawing the pieces together.  This was going to be a bumpy ride so I decided to adopt a more relaxed mindset. I gave way to imaginative reflection and openly entertained some new ideas and approaches. I let my natural curiosity lead me. My thoughts transitioned from a structured static approach to a more organically designed way of thinking about genre and Utopian Text. It was in that moment I realized my relationship to Utopian literature was reflective of characters in Herland and Ecotopia. I was, and still am to some extent, much like Van and Will. I am a stranger in a new land wrestling with my level of consciousness. And much like these characters, I found it necessary to make changes in my thought patterns; I needed to adapt to survive in my surroundings. So I looked through a wider lens at the characters, trusting their insights into historical context and conventions, while at the same time, I adjusted my attitudes towards class discussions and web reviews in an attempt to broaden my perspective. By far the biggest impact upon my thinking came from the model assignment. At first these posts overwhelmed me. But with time, they became “feasts of information”, providing me the insightful nourishment I needed to sustain myself throughout the assignments. Not only that, these writers are still providing me with the reading material necessary for acclimating into this microcosm of a literary-utopian environment. Therefore I not only survive and progress; I thrive.

My own experience is similar to the ideas discussed in Sarah Coronado’s 2011 Midterm titled Human Progression in Utopian and Dystopian Literature. It seems that human progression is a common theme within Utopian text.  She defines it as “The movement away from a destructive or stifling society to one that is more positive and constructive.” In utopian texts, the reader observes a character who is building up the society and moving towards an ideal.  In the event of dystopia, the protagonist is tearing down an unhealthy system and pulling away from the corrupt system that functions to suppress its members. Coronado refers to this as the “optimization of social structure”. In both instances, utopia and dystopia, the individuals are seeking a better way of life through organizing or reorganizing the society. At this point in my journey, I must say that I agree with Coronado’s statement. I am constantly changing and or adding to my own personal beliefs while allowing other ideals to pass away. I don’t claim this to be so for everyone, just myself.  She provides several examples from texts and directly quotes sources providing support for her claim. Not only does Coronado discuss the assimilation and accommodation innate in human progression, she also writes about human progression as constant struggle. In other words, we never quite reach the end of the rainbow, so to speak. It’s as if Coronado is saying the perfect Utopian novel has yet to be written. So until that time, there will always be struggle. My favorite part of the essay comes in her discussion of “conflict of conversion” (Coronado 2011). Coronado believes that the author is able to engage and entertain the reader’s attention “by way of following the main character as they accept or reject the new society”(Coronado 2011). I tend to agree. I rather enjoy a narrative, like Anthem, with a plot, rather than a tract, like More’s Utopia, that reads like an encyclopedia. Herland offers up a textbook example of “conflict conversion” and how it engages the reader. Gillman’s satirical token male, Terry, and his misogynistic outlook on women gave me something to reel about while reading the novel. In all honesty I read ahead to see if Terry got his just deserves and found the ending to be quite satisfying. Overall the article is well organized and insightful. It was rather long towards the end in that she quotes too often. I felt like the overuse of quotes and long explanations stretched the assignment too far. But overall her midterm was deep, engaging, and well organized. In all confidence, I would rather have more information than less of it.

While Coronado’s discussion pertained to human progression within Utopian contexts as an attempt to optimize social structure, Kathleen Breaux’s 2009 midterm titled Utopia: Ever in Sight, Ever Out of Reach, views progress as a struggle for perfection. She would redefine utopia not as a place, but as a way of being.  She takes the ideal of progression and puts a red, white, and blue spin on it giving support to the claim that American values are reflective of Utopian values.  Breaux’s brand of utopian struggle is defined as “a gleaming emblem of perfection” and goes on to say it is “the driving force of both utopian and dystopian literature, either to convey its achievement and functionality or to prove that it is ultimately unattainable.” The article has a distinctive patriotic flavor to it. And while I am very much a proponent of the USA, Breaux’s reflections tend to come off as more nationalistic rather than humanitarian. To Breaux the most prevalent conflict in utopian literature “is the inherent human desire to be [an] individual”. She tends to use the Ayn Rand philosophy of individualism as a defense against every Utopian convention except individuality struggles and man and female relationships. Her essay does refer to the “struggle for individuality” and in that case I can see her perspective of human progression as the struggle of an individual to carve out their place and establish their beliefs within society. That is one of the best parts about living in the USA. No one tells us what to believe. But her discussion is limited to the utopian issues of individuality and parenting with no regard to other conventions.  For example she mentions the conventions of “gardens, millennial events, and communal dining”. Then goes on to say they “arise with variation in utopian literature”.  But then she immediately falls back to the argument: “the element of relationships, particularly marital or eternal unions, [are the] most relevant in studying the difficulties that arise in literary utopias” (Breaux 2009).  Her dismissal of other utopian conventions leaves her looking rather one-sided.  On the other hand, I agree with her claims with regards to family relationship in utopias and dystopias:

"Unlike the nuclear model so prevalent in Western society, its utopian counterpart reflects a model in which traditional practices have been altered to create a more expansive, communal system of parenting” (Hopkins).  Utopian literature struggles to not only control the human’s desire for individualism, but also the human’s desire to love and to procreate. (Breaux 2009)

I find it disturbing that most of the literature displaces the parent-child relationship in some form or another. I am of the opinion that too many cooks spoil the broth. Kids need consistency and structure. Too many parents and too many philosophies creates confusion and dissension. Let me allude to Goldings’s Lord of the Flies for a moment and say that children don’t need Ralph, Piggy, and Jack all raising them at one time. There needs to be a central Simon figure who holds the standard for living. Even pack animals in nature have what I would refer to as an alpha female.  While I found this aspect of the article to be agreeable, other parts left me wanting more information. Yet overall, Breaux does address the struggle so inherent in the utopian gene even if it is only directed towards the individual. I sense the struggle for progression bubbling just under the surface of the essay and want to argue more about it with her.

While Breaux sees the individual’s struggle as the biggest problem in Utopian text, Keri Wellborn struggles with the opposite problem. Her midterm titled Utopia: Ideal Perfection uses Objective 4e and asks if Utopia is too simple a term to classify the various concepts, phenomena and struggles that fall under the title of Utopian literature. Her struggle seems to come about from the idea that Utopian literature deals with so many issues that it is hard label the struggles within the stories as exclusively utopian. Take, for instance, her discussion of Bellamy’s Looking Backward. This utopia is an idealistically perfect society where education, industry, poverty, and money issues are eradicated and society has adjusted for the greater good.  So for the most part the struggles within the society are elevated. The narrator, Julian “[sees] the reformation of the world as the save all for all the problems he found in society” (Wellborn 2005).  With only brief awareness of the text (class discussions and web reviews), I can say that Wellborn’s essay makes me want to read the book. Yet her discussion doesn’t lead me to the conclusion that utopia is an insufficient term for the character’s struggles. She writes more to give information rather than defend her position in her thesis. However, I found the ending of Looking Backwards especially poignant. In the end, Julian’s perfect society, where human problems had been eased, was not something that his wealthy friends saw as a solution to Victorian’s societal ailments.

I looked around the company, saw that, far from being stirred as I was, their faces expressed cold and hard astonishment. . . . what was plan and so important to me was to them meaningless.” (Bellamy 227 -9)

This passage gives weight to Sarah Coronado’s claim that “the struggle to reach a better life is never quite found” (2011). In Julian’s case there was a solution in the future, but the people who could initiate the change were simply uninterested.  As I continue to change and grow in my lifetime, I am ultimately faced with the conundrum that human progression is not always a priority for others, especially if the change makes them uncomfortable. Rather than grapple with the struggles of life most men would rather “lead lives of quiet desperation” – Henry David Thoreau.

Wellborn states that Gillman’s utopia is centered on feminist issues relative to the 19^th century. Other societal concerns such as overpopulation, hygiene, and sanitation are also given weight. She names these issues in the essay but doesn’t explain their relevance until her discussion of the men in Herland.  Wellborn points out that the male counterpart of the story is crucial to identifying much of the “human progress” we observe in the narrative. It is through their eyes that you really see how far the society has advanced. Through Terry, Van, and Jeff we see the full humanity and diversity within Herland. The essay supports, in great detail, how Herland constructs a society to where mothers bear children in the midst of ongoing education. “Motherhood is an art and raising children was seen as an education” (Wellborn 2005). I really enjoyed the explanation of the mother’s contribution to society. Learning from the mother was regarded as good for the common interest and served to better the community. All in all Wellborn presents a unified essay and I found her discussion well-rounded with relation to her character development. But I found the discussion on the struggle to define Utopia a bit overlooked. In the end she decided that the standard definition for utopia was too broad a term to encompass the genre so she decided to create her own definition. Way to strike out on your own, Keri Wellborn. Through your own struggles you proved Coronado’s utopian theory of human progression: we seek to find something better than what is at hand.

The struggle continues. Progressing through the essays, I uncovered a clearer definition of historical as well as literary utopias. In addition to the exposition, I found several dynamic insights that I didn’t get from classroom discussion. Most importantly I was able to conclude that utopias are as multifaceted as are the people that read them. Each person has a different perspective, a different illumination, relevant to the text. It was necessary to spend time with each author and get a feel for their struggles. This helped me to connect to the collective works and feel more like a participant rather than an observer.  With that being said I have concluded that grappling with text, confronting your bias, and having a sense of humor about yourself seems to be part and parcel to mastering utopian literature.

Hopkins, Yvonne.  “The Elusive Concept of Utopia.”  LITR 5737: Literary and Historical Utopias.  18 June 2007.  24 June 2009.  <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5439utopia>

Utopia

Upon entering this course I knew very little about utopian literature. A few utopian novels had fallen into my reading chair and appealed to me. But after taking this class, I see, more often than not, conventions of Utopian seeping into my reading life. Moving through the selections, I began to see unity among the texts: struggles, relationships, change. I eagerly awaited the next book to see if it related to the last one. Through a compilation of ideas I was able to process a working definition for Literary and Historical Utopias.

Utopia (noun):

represents as a place built for an ideology. That ideology serves as the basis for a system of life. Some systems are closed while other systems are open. Regardless of this fact, all utopians live within the system, at times struggling and at other times progressing.   

 Utopian literature often portrays societies working as a collective for a common purpose. The participants willingly give up personal comforts for the greater good. This is a common convention of utopian literature.  In Ecotopia, the inhabitants have given up a life of consumption to live in a “stable-state” ecosystem. One that uses ecologically friendly resources like wood-based plastics, car-less living, and alternative sources of energy to name a few. To the Ecotopians, this is a wonderful life. Yet to others in Western society, this lifestyle could be seen as taxing, giving up personal wants for a more environmentally friendly life is something they do once in a while. Some may see these changes as devaluing to the quality of life, believing it to be a threat to national commerce.

 Senator Joe Barton from Texas is as an example of someone with strong opinions on environmental ideologies. He would most likely argue that alternative energy sources, such as the ones presented in Callenbach’s book, Ecotopia, “won’t work”. Notice Barton’s response to evidence on climate change:

During Former Vice President Al Gore's testimony to the Energy and Commerce Committee in March 2007, Barton asserted to Gore that "You're not just off a little, you're totally wrong" (climate scientists have refuted Barton's assertion[29]), stating that "Global Warming science is uneven and evolving."[30] (Wikipedia)

Barton has interests in the oil-based economy throughout Texas. It is easy to see how alternative solutions to combat CO2 emissions and limiting petroleum production might come as a threat to the interests Barton represents.  In this case the solutions presented in Ecotopia becomes the Senator Barton’s dystopia. Taking a look at power sources “like solar energy, earth heat, tides, and wind [that] can be tapped indefinitely without affecting even the local biosphere” can be seen as a threat to the America commerce. (Callenbach 112). On the flip side, Senator Barton’s dismissal of climate change could be interpreted as a dystopia for an Ecotopian.

Senator Barton's response mirrors a prominent convention in dystopian texts, the dismissal of relative knowledge by an oppressive bureaucracy.  I am reminded of Equality 7-2521, in Anthem, as he defends his discovery. In variably The Council refutes his discovery saying how it is a “great evil for men” and, if utilized, will cause them to “alter the plans” of society. (Rand 73-74). Often times, the solutions or improvements to worldly problems are met head-on in dystopian fiction resulting in struggles or the “conflict of change” for the main characters.(Coronado 2011). What you have here is life imitating dystopian fiction. In this case one man’s utopia is another man’s dystopia.-a common mantra within the utopian world I live in.  This cyclic behavior of utopian/dystopian literature can be a good mental exercise because it makes you aware of the different points of view at work both inside and outside the utopia.

One of the most attractive things about Utopian Literature is the communal aspect of life. In Ecotopia, the inhabitants take place in a war game ritual as a way of dispelling unwanted aggression. This activity also serves to rally the groups together in a type of animalistic bonding experience.  

In Twin Oaks, they use a communal form of government.  When there is a problem with matters such as sharing the work load or conflicts with managerial decisions, the individual can appeal to the community. The appeal is heard by a panel of individuals. If that is not sufficient, the member can then appeal and voice their concerns to a completely different panel of members.

 In Herland, Gilman structures a society to where the home is part of the economy and domestic labor benefits the nation as a whole. Mothers design and determine what’s best for their own bodies and the children. This is seen as part of education in Herland and every woman gets an education. In More’s Utopia, the inhabitants use a division of labor based on production and consumption. The more people that work the less labor for all. They all work for the greater good of the community. 

Communal life infuses every aspect of living. Groups eat together, work in close surroundings, share partners, take turns with the children, and divide the work load. In Ecotopia, the most impressive part to me was the school. -no walls, out of doors and kids are fully engaged in their learning. Best of all, no teachers, no administration, and no tax base breathing down their throats. It was wonderful. The cooperative grouping between the older and the younger really impressed me as an instructor. But the greatest aspect was how the learners directed their own education with the help of the older kids. I spend countless moments creating a safe working environment for my students encouraging them to talk and rely on each other for direction. Peer tutoring and shared work projects are an integral part of my day to day.  Knowing your limits, mostly temperaments, and allowing others to blow up or celebrate according to their needs. 

Identifying shared conventions within utopian texts helped me draw parallels between characters in the fictional stories. One easily identifiable convention of Utopian fiction is the inner conflict of the main character. But in Utopian novels, the struggle is specific to the environment.  

When I think of a struggling character in utopia, Terry immediately comes to mind. Terry struggles with just about every aspect of Herlandic society. Terry comes to learn how the women faced extinction and literally put life back together by making life without men. They have survived and evolved through a process called pathogenesis. They have evolved a sustainable food-source, engineered trees that all bear fruit, have a controlled sound economy, and no pollution. Yet he continually asks, “Where are the men?” unable to believe “that women constructed all this”.(Herland) To him, Herland is a dystopian construct. Unlike the other men of Herland, Terry never evolves in his understanding of life within the country. He never converts. As such he represents the patriarchal consciousness so prevalent in 19^th century USA. 

Will, struggles from the moment he enters Ecotopia. His journals talk of being an outsider and how it felt to be the only one not having sex. Aided by his love interest, Marissa, he begins to change as the Utopian way of life rubs off on him. Callenbach writes portions of the text in italics as a way of showing us the inner struggles for acceptance and self-actualization. Will’s final conversion as the end of the book is a dynamic testament to the “break through” convention that takes place with the main characters.

Another breakthrough character is Equality 7-2125. In Anthem this freedom fighter is struggling with his own essence. Forced into a life of conformity and submission, he is only allowed to do things within a community that benefit his collective group. His entire life he has been punished for being difficult. When in all actuality he isn’t difficult, he is just smarter and more intuitive than the other members of the brotherhood. Equality it brave enough to listen to his consciousness and follows his own trajectory of thought. Through his discoveries he breaks away from the oppressive society to start a new life with Gaea. Self-aware, he becomes the ego-driven Prometheus. He represents the break through character that goes onto to start a new utopia.   

The presence or absence of a struggle helped me make distinctions between narrative utopia and the literature of ideas. Some Utopias read much like an instruction manual for living. Starting as far back as the creation myth in Genesis and into Hesiod’s Work and Days, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Plato’s Republic, these stories gave readers more of a philosophy of living. These early writings shared the ideas that the earth was a provider of sorts with mention of lush gardens and fruitful abundance. The structures within the societies, whether political or spiritual, needed to stay in balance. Harmony and peace were shared aspirations among these writings. Most of the stories accounts for the consequences of a world gone wrong and discuss ways in which society should strive to be a healthy state.  After Plato’s Republic, I became aware of how certain aspects of utopian literature use philosophical ideas to implement change to existing societal structures. This is most apparent in Plato’s argument of “healthy state versus the feverish state”. These selections, often referred to as Literature of ideas” represent what I like to think of as the white-beard Utopia. I imagine an older man in a toga standing amongst the throng of eager minds giving instructions on philosophy and reasons for the meaning to life.

Utopian fiction encapsulates so many emotions. Reading Anthem, Ecotopia and Herland was a lot like watching an action-movie. Perhaps it’s the movement of the characters through the experience. Every bit of instruction is taken in, assimilated, followed by the shift of ideas, falling away from convention, and the development of thought as they reason it out-loud for the reader to hear. It is powerful to watch a human being endure metamorphosis in front of your eyes. It’s even more spectacular to listen to their thoughts as they develop. I can only imagine what someone would say if they were inside my head. In Utopian fiction we see characters make tremendous leaps in development. I wanted to see Equality make it out of The Brotherhood. I struggled with the women as they wrestled Terry to the ground and anesthetized him. I changed myself as the characters changed. Human progression is a curious thing. Why do some of the characters move forward and others fail? Perhaps the utopian struggle is simply a reflection of our own struggles. The snapshot of our life in a moment. Each of us moving through our own place trying to make it out. Meanwhile, as we struggle, we dream of the place to come.

I had to go through that place, to get to this one.

                                                                                                           -Eminem  

An aircraft is about to crash. There are five passengers on board, but unfortunately only four parachutes. The first passenger says, "I'm Charles Darwin, the father of Evolutionary Theory. We have a survival situation on our hands. Science needs me. Since I am the fittest, I am taking this ". So he takes the first parachute and jumps. The second passenger, Ayn Rand, says, "I'm a famous writer in the United States. I developed the philosophy called individualism while writing my book Anthem. My ego doesn’t allow me to be altruistic". She takes one of the parachutes and jumps. The third passenger, George W. Bush, says, "I'm the President of the United States of America. I have a huge responsibility to sustaining Western policy. And apart from that, I am the most intelligent President in the history of the country and I must preserve the American way of life". So he takes a parachute and jumps. The fourth passenger, a priest, says to the fifth passenger, a ten year old schoolboy, "I'm already old. I've lived a good life, shared my resources, worked towards a greater good, and given my life for others.  I will give you the last parachute". The boy replies "No problem, there is also a parachute for you. America's most intelligent President has taken my schoolbag..."