LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias

Marisela Caylor

LITR 5439

Dr. Craig White

June 4, 2013

Twin Oaks Web Review

Intoduction to Twin Oaks

-          Twin Oaks is an ecovillage (socially, economically, and ecologically stable communities) and intentional community located in Central Virginia in Louisa, VA.

-          Initially a “behaviorist community” under the principles of behavioral psychologist, B.F. Skinner after his fictional 1948 novel, Walden Two.

-          Skinner modeled Walden Two after Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: A Life in the Woods (1854) which details Thoreau’s experience in a cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts over 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days.

-          Thoreau’s experience at Walden Pond included an exercise in self-reliance, self-sufficiency, and introspection.

-          Skinner’s novel depicted a fictional, hyperfunctional society that only worked 4 hours a day, where goods and services were free.

-          Based on the theory where you remove money from a labor system= “work for work’s sake”

-          Twin Oaks was first founded by eight individuals as a behaviorist community and quickly faded into an egalitarian community where equality was valued and labor was valued with number of credits, harder jobs earned more points, and the income went to the community.

-          Principles valued in community:

o   Cooperation

o   Sharing

o   Nonviolence-Conflict Management

o   Equality

o   Ecology

-          There is no group religion (website)

-          There is no central leader (website)

-          Twin Oaks has a self-supporting economy and partly self-sufficient

-          Members have their own private rooms but share communal areas; can watch movies, but no live television, does have internet and several other entertainment options.

-          Visitors are welcome on Saturdays to hear about the history and principles of Twin Oaks.