Austin Green

08 March 2019

Part 1. Web Highlights: Allocating Ideas

          The Web Highlights section of our midterm is asking us to review past examples of assignments, not only to see how fellow students completed the task, but to help our own understanding of what the assignment is looking for. My fear in doing these web highlights is always seeing an idea or two being written about that I was planning on using too. While looking over these midterms, I also want to pay attention to see how they handle offering up the same information, and touch back on my finding to conclude. I decided for my highlights to stick with the midterm assignment, and wanted to do no more than one from any given class period. I read work from students Umaymah Shahid, Hannah Wells, and Jenna Zucha.

          I picked these three for a very simple reason. They all started off with really relatable or captivating first sentences. Umaymah Shahid’s 2015 midterm “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of the Utopian Genre,” began with “Before taking the Literary and Historical Utopias class, I was not very familiar with the 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.” While I have read a little more than just Brave New World, it was nice to see I was not alone in not being any sort of expert on the subject before entering the class. On a similar note, Hannah Wells’ 2013 midterm “Utopia: What is it Good For?,” began with “As a devotee to the genre of dystopian literature, my exposure to utopian works was seriously limited.” I connected with her idea and appreciated the separation of utopian and dystopian ideas (both of which I will elaborate my own thoughts on in my midterm).  Moving back to 2011, Jenna Zucha’s “Utopia as a “Literature of Ideas”: The Search for an Ideal World,” began by stating, “The conception of utopian literature stems from the human’s need, however futile, for the ideal. Prior to this seminar I regarded utopian literature as a naïve, optimistic, sub-genre to Science Fiction.” Jenna wastes no time in powerfully making claims about utopia and ideal before jumping into her thoughts of the genre as a whole prior to the course beginning. I am wondering if the starting sentence was something added in afterwards to help tie the idea running through her assignment together. All three of these started strong, by offering an olive branch for a fellow classmate or reader to connect with, or by making claims confidently to grab your attention.  

          All three midterms also signified the importance of how Utopian literature can be used today as a method to inform. Shahid notes that, “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.” Wells joins the conversation and agrees, adding, “Utopia, then, is an ideal world created by authors to reflect current issues and problems.” Zucha sums up the idea eloquently stating, “Even though the utopian society has yet to be obtained in its complete form in reality, many of the ideas proposed in such texts, when removed from context, have the ability to function in the real world or at least as an attempt for human progress. Instead of discarding these texts as an impossible fabrication it is beneficial to society and future generations to classify utopian literature as more than a “literature of ideas.”(Objective 1C).” When discussing the goal and power of Utopias in my own example, I plan on following the example set here, noting the importance that this genre can have regarding the issues being discussed, even if the overall idea may be unachievable. Bonus points for Zucha for tying it back to class objectives, another note to aim for when writing my own midterm.

          Lastly, all three midterms close well, offering a glimpse into either their own interests in the genre as a whole, or looking forward to the second half of the class. Shahid concludes with “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.” I appreciate the personal touches and opinions mixed with ideas about interdisciplinary relevance and course objectives. I always find it a little jarring to see criticism like the “tad bit boring,” but by tying this claim back to an objective that is asking about aesthetics and entertainment, it does not feel out of place or unwelcome.  Wells states near the end of her midterm that, “My personal interest lies in the genre study possible in utopian literature and opportunities for reading and analysis in the high school. If Sir Thomas More created the term utopia from the Greek for “good place,” then paradise may be more attainable than utopian fiction proposes.” Again concluding with references to personal interest in the genre, and adding a little glimpse or suggestion moving into the second half of the course that maybe utopia could possibly be achieved, just maybe not in the way fiction suggests. It’s an idea I wish was elaborated a little more, but maybe this was done on purpose. As we have seen before, Zucha brings in class objectives while concluding, noting that “Utopian literature is popular and continues to grow as a genre because people need to exhaust all possibilities of what might function as a perfect world or ideal community as a means to survive and progress. (Objective 3) This investigation of the novels presented in this seminar over utopian literature shows that early works focus on the education and philosophy, a “literature of ideas,” while later and modern texts successfully combine pleasure with purpose.”  While our own course is just scratching the surface of the more modern examples, I think this brings up an interesting, and likely ongoing conversation we will have in our own class the second semester; the differences between utopia novels then, and utopian novels now. I will definitely be bringing these ideas up in my own midterm conclusion as well, while looking forward to what is to come.

          Overall the web highlights I read gave me a better understanding of what the midterm was looking for, and calmed my slight fears that I may just be saying the same thing everyone else is saying. I think these three midterms did share a ton of the same information, but it was in the presentation and voice of the student that allowed each one to stand as unique. When the class is so discussion based, and were all really going over the same materials, it is bound to happen that answers are similar. In basing my midterm in terms of my own specific understanding and thoughts and journey, instead of maybe trying to aim for a general widespread all-encompassing version, I can still provide information being sought after, but do so in a way that is uniquely my own.

Part II. Midterm Essay: The Cloaked Utopia

When I first saw a class titled Utopia was being offered, I was honestly pretty excited. I was not excited because I was some expert in the genre, I was sort of the opposite. I read the same few books people repeat when discussing Utopias and Dystopias, 1984 and Brave New World, in high school like many of my classmates. I had a small understanding that utopias were supposed to be perfect societies, but I was also familiar with the “every person's utopia is someone else’s dystopia” idea. I was excited that we would be offered the opportunity to dive into this genre of literature for a semester.

What has surprised me the most so far of the texts we have read is how similar the format has been. Journey to new place, and then learn about new place. There are variations of this, like the story of the place being told instead of the journey there, but the texts still become a sort of guide book, checking off different ways each utopia lives their lives. And yes, the idea of each utopia having hidden dystopian elements is apparent in each story we have read so far. I feel like it is these elements that make it easy for Utopian literature to be dismissed as speculative/genre fare, and not given any real weight.

“They just don’t work.”

I think this idea of dismissing them as not working is sort of missing the point of these novels. It is easy to be dismissive. The important role that Utopian literature offers both the author and the reader is to see reflections of our own world and our own issues being presented. The larger, entire country or region utopias presented in our texts may not be possible, but the issues they are showing should not be ignored just because the text does not offer the perfect solution.

One of the more interesting places our course has taken is to discuss real world attempts at Utopian societies. While all of these societies may have growth as one of their goals, the main goal they all have is just to exist, to last, to continue onward. They acknowledge that the real world utopias being created are not meant to exist for everyone. They may be open to everyone, but many instead focus on creating a mini self-contained and focused society away from the real world issues and problems they do not like. Celebration is not trying to spread to cover the globe, they just wanted a pocket for like-minded individuals. Twin Oaks is not solving all of the world’s issues by existing, but they are trying to create a perfect world for themselves, in the space they have. The main issue facing these type of real world attempts at utopias are finding people dedicated enough to make them their own new reality. Disney gave up on Celebration in less than a decade, and Twin Oaks may be successful now, but what happens if the next generation are more interested in the outside world? These intentional communities can fall apart as fast as they are created.

Utopia should be defined as a perfect society. By this definition, a utopia works when everyone in the utopia has all their needs, including happiness, covered. Where this definition runs into issues is when looking at who decides what the perfect society is, or what each person’s needs are. The idea of someone else being able to decide this is what will make you happy, and that now you are happy is a sort of terrifying thought. We see a version of this battle play out when looking at Herland and Anthem. In Herland, the members of the utopian society welcome new ideas and are interested in how they can use them. In Anthem, however, individual ideas or thinking would very much so not be welcome. Advancement is purposefully denied. Both texts present versions of utopia, but would not align with each other, and the members of each society at all.

“Dystopias are for short attention spans, Utopias for long”—Dr. White

This twist of a perfect utopia not being possible opens the genre door to dystopia, the reverse of utopia, where a society is not perfect, or where a utopia has become inverted. The people not in the place of power in utopias are either presented as mindless non-individualistic beings who are happy with their place in society, or they are the ones living in a dystopia. From discussion, it seemed to be generally agreed upon that dystopian fiction may be a better or easier read than utopian fiction. It is tough for a utopia novel not to come off as self-righteous or moralistic. The basis of the text is to explain how the society being presented is perfect. It has to be sanctimonious. If the text does not support its own utopia, then it becomes a dystopian novel. It is almost always more interesting reading about a flawed something than a perfect something. Even while reading these utopian novels, it still becomes a game to point out where things might not appear so perfect. What if one does not want to switch or share homes? What if one does not want others to raise their own children? These ideas are glossed over in a utopian text and the reader is left with a society that just accepts these ideas, and others like them, as normal.

Most of the Utopian authors we have covered so far in class have one other thing in common; being an author was not their primary vocation. Charlotte Perkins Gilman could easily be labeled as an author, thus taking her out of this conversation, but she was not a writer of fiction foremost. Even her wikipedia page cites her as a humanist before listing her as an author.  The same site lists Sir Thomas More as “English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist,” with author being listed third. Ernest Callenbach was an editor and film critic. Ecotopia was his first novel. Ayn Rand was the only author who has her main occupation routinely listed as being author. Even she was also known as a philosopher (with a wide, varied range of opinions on her work).

One of the more appealing aspects for the course was the idea of being able to spend time not just with utopian literature, but dystopian as well. While I have the experience with dystopian literature, as previously mentioned, that is probably similar to many readers, I am a huge fan of dystopian film. Movies like Brazil, Escape from New York, and The Warriors would all rank highly in my own list of favorite movies. Being able to explore this in my first research post, looking into the dystopian projection of Detroit that Robocop presented in the 1980s was fun and informative. I was planning on going down a similar path for my next research post, but something brought up in class struck a chord with me and I may venture off the path I was previously on. I had never thought of looking at a pre-colonized America as a sort of Romanticized ecotopia, as one of the pages on the course site described (see: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5439utopia/research/HistUtopUSA.html) . My interest in the historical attempts at utopia is larger than I would have assumed before our discussion. Even the idea of suburbs as utopia-like kept me invested throughout the discussion.  Researching the pre-colonization Native American societies in regards to course objective 3 frames that world in a light I had never thought to look at it under.

“Speculative fiction allows big ideas.”—Dr. White

Moving forward, I am ready for our texts to evolve to allow for more fiction in place of the texts reading more like nonfiction. My hope being that those complaints or issues a reader may have with utopian texts either being too preachy, or too uninteresting when compared to dystopia, are alleviated with the introduction of what strong fiction can provide. I am curious to see if the utopias presented, even if more fiction is introduced, still fall into the familiar pattern of journey, then guidebook.