1. Introduction.
For centuries there has been the controversial debate between idealists and practicalists on the feasibility of a utopian state. Stemming as far back as the year 1516, the term ‘Utopia’ was first coined by English writer and philosopher Sir Thomas More with the intent to outline the ‘perfect imaginary world’. Since the arrival of the notion of a Utopia, it has been both largely praised, applauded and explored but also criticized and dismissed through its counterpart, otherwise known as, a Dystopian society; a state that is characterized by widespread suffering, a totalitarian government, poverty, war, disease, pollution, oppression and more. The polar opposite of a utopia. Many practicalists believe that a utopian future ceases to be viable due to the fact that it is a concept with many flaws and because until this day the construction of a utopian society has failed to occur.
In this essay, I aim to evaluate the reasons as to why a utopic state cannot be realized using my chosen artefact Utopia by Sir Thomas More and will further explore this through found literature, experiments and modern film such as the film What Happened to Monday (2017). This topic is of great relevance because utopian and dystopian futures are a recurring topic in modern film and animation and are still largely explored and interpreted in different ways by different people such as in fictional worlds constructed in those works.
2. Deconstructing More’s Utopia. Breaking apart More’s Utopia. Establishing what made More’s Utopia a success.
The island of Utopia, womblike matrix and mother, originates in a violent gesture aimed at the earth itself; its birth is work of no less violence. The narrative produces a new tension or ambivalence as a result. On the one hand is offered to us the image of a welcoming enclosed space, tranquilly situated about a center that is to be both vacuum and fullness. On the other hand, we see war and violent aggression opening up space. It detaches and separates. Utopus is the male, the father; Utopia is the lunar island, enclosed and warm, the mother (Marin, 1984: 108).
There are various reasons as to why Thomas More’s utopia is so successful, part of that success being that it is the perfect construct of ambiguity and juxtaposition. He created a theoretical place that differs from the real world in such a way that it becomes believable, with a way of life that appears preferable. He did this by creating a plausible justice system, economy, law, sense of control and education, all to support his multifaceted vision. More ingeniously incorporates knowledge from Plato’s’ Republic and elements of the biblical paradise, the Garden of Eden, which both assisted in the moulding of his utopian city. Speaking on the quote by Luis Marin, he creates a juxtaposition from More’s utopia when he describes it as being a place that manifests ‘tranquillity’ but also ‘violent aggression’. Oppositions such as equality and inequality, community versus privacy, order versus disorder, all occur throughout the course of the book as he attempts to deliberately detach the island from the rest of the world creating a perfect sense of isolation and further disconnecting what we know as the real world from his genius concoction. The island is known to take the shape of a ‘crescent moon’ (More, 1516: 79), in many traditions and ancient folklore alike such as that of the Celtics and Native Americans, the crescent moon symbolizes femininity, fertility and balance, the latter being things More describes the island as being within its capacity to provide in abundance. In his writing More creates a sense of order when he describes the geography of the island stating that the ‘fifty-four cities’ that make up the island are ‘all large and well built, the manners, customs, and laws of which are the same’, this theme of order and being identical extends down to what the citizens wear, allowing the only distinguishable difference to be clothing where all males wear one attire and females wear another. I believe that this recurring theme of identicality creates an emphasis on the role and importance of equality between sexes and how that helps to further create a balance that enables the sustainment of a utopian society. Should everyone be virtually the same and have everything the same as another man, no sole person would feel the need to rebel due to something that may be deemed an injustice such a male being valued over a female and vice versa. Strangely enough in the utopia equality is still maintained regardless of there being some sort of gender constructs when More hints at there being jobs that are more inclined to females ‘which suit best with their weakness’ (More, 1516: 93) and those for men that take the shape of ‘ruder trades’ (More, 1516: 93). This leads me onto another factor that allows his utopia to thrive, I feel as though there are multiple consistent elements he used to build the foundation of his utopia two of the main being conformity and his mission to abolish privacy and endorse a wider community, he achieves this in ways that I believe jeopardize individuality.
Failed Utopias.
The first instance of a failed utopia is the mythical paradise: The Garden of Eden which entails the story of creation from Genesis the first chapter in the Bible, where God creates his paradise. In this narrative, it is described as being a time prior to when things went wrong and pain and suffering surfaced. Much like More’s utopia, the Garden of Eden also carried specific characteristics that helped create the foundation for the most perfect world consisting of a higher deity which takes the form of God who is at the heart of the utopia, then humans, then animals, creating a hierarchal system and the need to abide by the law he set in place. God said ‘let us make man in our image’ and by doing this and allowing man to be above every other animal he has granted humans the power to be a complimentary counterpart of God who is the center, the stabilizer, the almighty. The disruption of the equilibrium which creates the imbalance in the utopia is when Adam and Eve violate the boundary of the only ultimatum God set for them to abide to which was “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die”. This is a great example of how people purposely disregard an instruction in order to have control over their own lives, this is the psychological concept of reactance (cite this), not only that but it is also an example of a human’s natural sense of curiosity creating an impulse to want to carry out the action regardless of the consequence. This simple act of Eve eating the forbidden fruit
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