Utopia turned Dystopia Flashcards

Utopia vs. Dystopia

• Utopia:
  • Term coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516.
  • Derived from Greek words eu (good) and ou (no) + topos (place).
  • Utopian fiction explores the potential for human society to achieve perfection through advancements in technology, philosophy, and social structures.
  • These advancements hypothetically lead to ideal or near-ideal communities in distant lands or future settings (Sisk 2).
• Dystopia:
  • Derived from Greek words dys (bad) + topos (place).
  • Dystopia is not merely the opposite of utopia.
  • It is not simply a society that is either completely unplanned or deliberately terrifying.
  • Instead, it is a utopia that has gone wrong or a utopia that functions beneficially only for a specific segment of society (Gordin, Tilley, and Prakash 1).

What Makes You Happy?

• Consider what should be the focus of an ideal world.
• Consider what should be eliminated from a society to function as an ideal place.

One Size Fits All - Unlikely

• The idea of a single, perfect solution for all is unlikely to work in reality.

Predecessors

• Plato's Republic:
  • Discussion of the state as a reflection of the soul.
  • Clear class system with defined roles.
  • Egalitarian society led by an aristocracy of the best men.
  • Education focused on producing perfect soldiers or leaders.
  • Abolition of family.
  • Regulation of sexuality.
  • Population control through communal rearing of children and infanticide.
  • No private property.
  • Philosopher kings as rulers.
  • Inspired by the Spartan ideal.
• More's Utopia:
  • Egalitarian state with a communist ideal.
  • Social mobility based on merit and skill.
  • No private property.
  • Conservative family units.
  • Regulation of sexuality.
  • Democracy.
  • Simple clothing.
  • Precious metals and gems used as toys for children.

Predecessors (2)

• 19th Century:
  • Often optimistic and egalitarian in nature.
  • Karl Marx: "From each according to ability, to each according to need."
  • William Morris: News from Nowhere.
  • Samuel Butler: Erewhon.
• Beginning of 20th Century:
  • More pessimistic and exclusive visions of utopia.
  • H.G. Wells: Modern Utopia.
    • Concerned with overpopulation and its effects on the planet.
    • Proposes population control, suggesting not everyone should reproduce.
    • Advocates for a World State.

Historical Context and Scientific Discoveries

• Economy:
  • Mass production (Henry Ford).
  • Thomas Malthus and ideas of population control.
• Politics:
  • Rise of totalitarian regimes:
    • Bolshevik Revolution in Russia (1917).
    • Mussolini’s fascist regime in Italy (1920s).
    • Nazi Party movement in Germany (1930s).
    • Franco regime in Spain (1939).
    • Stalinist regime in Russia (1920s onwards).
• Biology:
  • Genetics and eugenics (Mendel).
  • Evolution and survival of the fittest (Darwin).
• Psychology:
  • Neo-Pavlovian conditioning.
  • Freud’s Pleasure/Pain Principle.
• Technology:
  • Advancements in automobile, airplane, radio, cinema, television.

Authors

• Aldous Huxley (1894-1963):
  • From an influential family.
  • Well-educated at Eton and Oxford.
  • Experienced blindness for 2 years due to an eye infection.
  • Visited the US in the 1920s.
• George Orwell (Eric Blair) (1903-1950):
  • Born in India.
  • Educated in England at Eton.
  • Returned to the colonies (Burma).
  • Participated in the Spanish Civil War.
  • Worked for the BBC during WWII.

Novels

• Brave New World (1931):
  • Themes of Community, Identity, Stability.
• 1984 (1948):
  • Themes of War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

Features of Brave New World vs. 1984

• Brave New World:
  • Absence of conflict.
  • Nightmare of technology.
  • Social stability achieved through consumerism.
  • Focus on the Pleasure Principle and Happiness.
  • Manipulation and conditioning of the population.
  • Restriction of independent thought and freedom.
  • Worship of a figurehead or concept.
  • Dehumanized state.
  • Conformity and uniformity.
• 1984:
  • Focus on ideology and politics.
  • Social stability achieved through control.
  • Use of fear as a tool.
  • Panopticism (constant surveillance).
  • Propaganda.
  • Restriction of information, independent thought, and freedom.
  • Worship of a figurehead or concept.
  • Constant surveillance.
  • Conformity and uniformity.

Questions to Consider

• How did the State come into being?
• Where is this society located (time & space – history/out of history – present/past/future – terrestrial/extraterrestrial)?
• How is social stability ensured (through natural or artificial processes)?
• Is there a pattern of dominance? Does the individual have any power in the decision-making process? What is defined as criminal behavior?
• What is the attitude towards science and technology? How advanced/productive/pure is science?
• How clearly are the societal sex roles differentiated? What is the attitude towards marriage (monogamous relationships) / family/ children/ motherhood/ fatherhood?
• What are the central tenets of this society? What central myths, beliefs, and symbols are there?
• Is the narrator of the story conforming to the rules of this society?

Quotes

• Brave New World:
  • "‘Bokanovsky’s Process,’ repeated the Director, and the students underlined the words in their little note- books. One egg, one embryo, one adult—normality. But a bokanovskified egg will bud, will proliferate, will divide. From eight to ninety-six buds, and every bud will grow into a perfectly formed embryo, and every embryo into a full-sized adult. Making ninety-six human beings grow where only one grew before. Progress. ‘Essentially,’ the D.H.C. concluded, ‘bokanovskification consists of a series of arrests of development. We check the normal growth and, paradoxically enough, the egg responds by budding.’ (Huxley 3-4)"
  • "‘Can’t you see? Can’t you see?’ He raised a hand; his expression was solemn. ‘Bokanovsky’s Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!’ (Huxley 4-5) Standard men and women; in uniform batches. The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg. ‘Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines!’ The voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm. ‘You really know where you are. For the first time in history.’ He quoted the planetary motto. ‘Community, Identity, Stability.’ Grand words. ‘If we could bokanovskify indefinitely the whole problem would be solved.’ Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons. Millions of identical twins. The principle of mass production at last applied to biology. (Huxley 5)"
• 1984:
  • "The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall. It depicted simply an enormous face, more than a metre wide: the face of a man of about forty-five, with a heavy black moustache and ruggedly handsome features. Winston made for the stairs. It was no use trying the lift. Even at the best of times it was seldom working, and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preparation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Winston, who was thirty-nine and had a varicose ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift-shaft, the poster with the enormous face gazed from the wall. It was one of those pictures which are so contrived that the eyes follow you about when you move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran. (Orwell 1)"

Quotes (2)

• Brave New World:
  • "But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
  • "In fact," said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy."
  • "All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I’m claiming the right to be unhappy."
  • "Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen to-morrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."
  • "I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
  • Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You’re welcome," he said. (Huxley 211- 212)
• 1984:
  • "Under the table Winston’s feet made convulsive movements. He had not stirred from his seat, but in his mind he was running, swiftly running, he was with the crowds outside, cheering himself deaf. He looked up again at the portrait of Big Brother. The colossus that bestrode the world! The rock against which the hordes of Asia dashed themselves in vain! He thought how ten minutes ago-yes, only ten minutes—there had still been equivocation in his heart as he wondered whether the news from the front would be of victory or defeat. Ah, it was more than a Eurasian army that had perished! Much had changed in him since that first day in the Ministry of Love, but the final, indispensable, healing change had never happened, until this moment. (…) He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother. (Orwell 251- 252)"

Characteristics of Dystopian Protagonists & Controls

• Protagonist:
  • Trapped within the dystopian society.
  • Struggling to escape.
  • Realizes that something is fundamentally wrong with society.
  • Acts as a lens for the reader to understand the dystopian world.
• Controls:
  • Oppressive.
  • The state controls the population through various means:
    • Products and advertisements.
    • Technology.
    • Ideals.

Other Dystopian Novels

• William Golding – Lord of the Flies (1954)
• Anthony Burgess – A Clockwork Orange (1962)
• Alasdair Gray – Lanark (1981)
• Doris Lessing – The Fifth Child (1988)
• Peter Ackroyd – The Plato Papers (1999)