U-tops and Dys-tops

I love Dystopias. I love Utopias. I did a course at uni about utopian and dystopian literature, and i've been obsessed ever since. I think it was the only course I actually read every single book on the reading list, plus more. I think what fascinated me the most was how the line between utopia and dystopia is not so clear cut, and how one can so easily merge into the other. It raises philosophical and moral debates that sometimes, you just can't answer. Happiness at the price of freedom anyone?

This is my list of my favs. Read them!

The Republic, Plato. OK, was made to read this one at uni. And I know what you're thinking. Plato? WTF? But this is the bedrock of all Utopian Lit. Plato has created his 'perfect' society. But is eugenics, sterilization, heirarchys and an intellectual elite really a Utopia...?

Gulliver's Travels, Swift. As Gulliver encounters all these weird and wonderous different worlds, each questions our own society and our own ideals, and actually whether our pursuit of perfection comes at a price. A master of critique and satire. Now let's extract sunbeams from cucumbers! Loved this book ever since that TV version in the 90's.

Erewhon, Samuel Butler. An anagram of 'nowhere', this Victorian satire presents a backwards place where for eg. criminals are treated as ill and the ill are treated as criminals. The most amazing part of the book is the last section, 'Book of the Machines' which is a scarrily accurate pre-curser to A.I - all machines have been destroyed as they thought they would develop a consciousness and take over...! You start to believe it. Now relevant more than ever. So glad my brother got this for me from the school library clearout. Good brother.

The Time Machine, H. G. Wells.  Set in the future in a world full of perfectly beautiful 'people' (the Eloi), but hiding a sinister underbelly, literally. 

1984, Orwell. BIG BRO IS WATCHING YOU.

Brave New World, Huxley. Artificial, drug induced happiness at the price of personal freedom? Very similar to Plato's Republic (yeah I wrote one of my dissertations comparing these two) - but one classed as a utopia and one as a dystopia. Which side are you on?

News From Nowhere, William Morris. Written in 1890 and set in London around NOW (!), this is Morris' ideal socialist utopia where London is a big happy rural place, no money, just trading, and the houses of Parliament are a place to store horse manure (lols). Would this ever work, or is it just a rich arty farty man's dream? Would you want it to work?!
 
Metropolis, Thea Von Harbou. A seemingly beautiful urban city full of the elite, yet powered by down-trodden workers. Echoes of The Time Machine. What is the price of creating a Utopia? Lots of Hitler overtones. The 1920's film by Fritz Lang is fantastic, with Von Harbou, his wife (aw bless), writing the screenplay. 

Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Women only world. No men! :-O So no war, no dominance, no conflict, no angst, and lots of artificial reproduction. A feminist paradise. But, of course, dark and questionable undertones.

The Trial/ The Castle, Kafka. Anything by Kafka is disturbingly dystopic. These two novels are perfect examples of the consequences of extreme bureaucracy, and one man's plight against the system. A nonsensical system that is.

WE, Yevgeny Zamyatin. This book inspired Orwell and Huxley to write their dystopias. The Daddy of the modern Dystopia. Love how everyone lives in completely glass flats, so everybody can see everything. You get dedicated 'sexy time' where you're allowed to close the blinds hehe. *Awkward much*


I really want to read:

The Drowned World, J G Ballard. Another novel set in London, this time in a Global-Warming heated up world. London is a tropical swamp, no polar ice caps, no-one lives around the equator. The Sun is close to earth in a sci-fi take. I think it's not so much as a utopian or dystopian social critique, but is definitely a dystopia!

The Island, Huxley. Huxley's take on a Utopia this time. Wonder if it'll stay a utopia... doubt it.

The Sleeper Awakes, H. G Wells. A man wakes up in the future, just like Morris' News From Nowhere.

Fatherland, Robert Harris. If Hitler had won the war. Hitler obviously was wanting to create a utopia by eliminating all what he deemed 'unsavory' within society. I imagine this finalised vision, and if you imagine it in real life, would be a perfect example of an extremely dystopian 'utopia'. When you think of trying to create a utopia in real life as opposed to fiction, it really is quite a terrifying concept. Paradise at a high price - a price that any sane man or women would never pay. I just don't think creating a complete utopia is ever possible. You have to destroy and eliminate too much, and there is absolutely nothing perfect about that.



Tell me of any sort of utopian or dystopian books you've read and would recommend! Any books that are set in a world that might seem perfect or really really awful. And, if at any point you thought 'actually, this bad world ain't too bad' or 'this ain't perfect you dumb ass!'

I read normal books too. I've read Twilight.

Lucky charms and starlight wishes

My nan died on new years eve last year. She lived in a scarily huge house in the center of Canterbury - stunning to look at yet crumbling on the inside. Ever since I was a kid the house has simultaneously mesmerized and terrified me. The grand staircase, the humungous portraits lining the yellowing walls, the labyrinthine corridors with secret hidden stairways leading to secret hidden rooms. Apparently there's a room without windows or doors somewhere in the middle that no-one has ever been inside. (Yeah wtf?) There used to be a huge dolls house in one of the upstairs bedrooms - when I was little I would creep in, re-arrange the delicate furniture, but after a short while run out spooked by the eerie silence... or maybe a creaking floorboard... or a spider. Wouldn't help coming face to face with this dark and sinister portrait of Napoleon that used to lean on the wall on the way to the bathroom, his eyes following me as I sprinted past, heart racing. Freaky shit. Anyway, the last 5 months my mum and her brothers and sister have been trying to clear the house.  The lady who came to take some things for auction apparently said to my mum "The only other house I could compare this with is Windsor Castle". LOLS. I'm trying to paint the picture of the size of this place, so when I tell you that the whole place, from top to bottom, was filled with a lifetimes collection of antiques, you'll understand the sheer scale of STUFF that was crammed in. The amount of 'antiques' that filled that house is ridiculous. It's a bit like those hoarder people's houses that've been on TV recently. Pretty sure they propped up the walls and that's the only reason it hasn't crumbled down yet. A lifetime of belongings that a lifetime of traveling and luxury has provided. In the process of riffling through the plethora of things, Mum brought back a few little things she found for me. This is one of my favs:

It's a chip from a Monaco casino where my nan and her hubby went on their honeymoon in the 40's. I don't know how much it's for - whether its a huge amount or not, but it's really beautiful. It has a lovely pearl shimmer to it, lined with little gold bits. I've sort of adopted it as a new lucky charm. Lady Luck. I wonder if it brought luck to my nan? Maybe that's why she kept it? A souvenir of an extravagant night on the Cote d'Azur. I want to turn it into a necklace or a bracelet, but of course would rather not poke a hole in it.

I'm not really a 'lucky charm' sort of girl, but since this transplant doo-dah I can't help but hold on to and wish upon little belongings for luck. I also end up creating and looking out for omens, signs and weird coincidences that may point to when i'll get the call. Apparently Freud used to be very superstitious when it came to numerical coincidences - he used to add up, divide, multiply important dates, meaningful numbers to determine when things might happen... including his death. Freud was sure he was going to die when he was 62. (Coincidentally, or not, the last two digits of his phone number). I did get a bit "oooh ahhh"-y when 40 days and 40 nights had passed - I couldn't escape all the Biblical connotations. Also when Prometheus the movie came out. The titan Prometheus stole fire from Zeus to give to mankind so as punishment he had his liver picked out by an Eagle everyday for eternity... Livers. Ooh. You can find patterns and meaning in anything if you're desperate enough!

I'm not religious - never have been. But it's times like these where you realize just why religion can be so important to people. The security it provides is unmeasurable; the comfort and support it can bring to people when they're unsure or worried or crave some feeling of being looked after is priceless. I've found myself wishing upon stars.  

Star light star bright first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight

 

It brings some sort of control to the uncontrollable, and that your life is not governed by luck or fate, but instead there is a higher power looking out for your every need. It's almost enviable to have complete faith and belief in something. Life might not seem to scary if you have faith that you're being watched over. I don't want to be religious - I hate what religion has become and what it does to families, to communities, to countries, to the world. My parents are both Northern Irish, and have seen what it can do. Religion as a social structure is not something I want to be apart of. But if from time to time I want to put my fate into another's hands, I choose the stars. It's a bit magical. They're eternal, but their beauty seems so ephemeral - so fleeting, so delicate. The way they glitter, the way you can't see them sometimes, but always know they're there. I know my little rhyme won't change anything, but I like going to sleep thinking maybe, just maybe...

It worked for him goddammit!