Utopia: Book 2

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to see the good ol' Ninja Turtle Raphael nor the gallant knight Thomas (confused?.. refer to the Note in Book 1's post). Instead I got stuck with this putrid description that stretched for miles of a delicious, crescent-shaped island called Utopia. Putrid as in 'nasty,' in the good way... like "Whoa! That was one nasty touchdown, kids!... just roll with me dawg. This island is freaking huge, and the imagery is just down right amazing. More had literally outdone himself when describing this island, because I wanted to stop reading... and jump right on into the setting myself! Then again, there were some problems with it. Let us go ahead and analyze this baby with a hefty, detailed passage and then follow up with a similar paragraph reacting to the former. Get excited now, because here we go!...

The Passage
During the well-developed passage that describes the scenic island of Utopia, with its fifty-four large and well built cities, More explains that it was Utopus that conquered it (formerly Abraxa) and brought the rude and uncivilized inhabitants into a good government and politeness. He also ordered a deep channel to be dug fifteen miles long in order to separate them from the continent. So the natives would not think they were his slaves, he had his soldiers help with the labor.

All the cities are relatively close to one another and once a year, each city sends three of its wisest Senators to Amaurot, the chief city, to consult their common concerns and the ways to go about them. No country family has fewer than forty men and women in it, besides two slaves. There's a master and a mistress set over every family; and over thirty families there is a magistrate; over ten magistrates there is another magistrate. The magistrates choose a Prince from a list of four fitting candidates; the Prince is in store for life. There is also a Supreme Council.

The people of Utopia are always to remain working unless sleeping. They are often out and about cultivating or running the trade. Although they do have free time, they cannot remain idle and must be doing something for the better of Utopia. Women are considered weaker of the two sexes, thus the ruder jobs are given to the males. Each family must be between ten and sixteen members. Each city cannot exceed six-thousand families, besides those of the country around it. The girls of the family marry out into the country, whereas the men stay with the family for all of there life. Wives serve their husbands, and children their parents, and always the younger serves the elder. Every ten years the families change houses; it's like musical chairs, but everyone gets a chair. There is no currency here, nor property rights, so you can take what is needed and walk into someone's home as if it were your own. Whenever an individual wants to break free and travel the country and have aquired the appropriate documents, they are free to roam. They take only a wagon and a slave, who drives the oxen and looks after them, yet they carry no provisions. If they wish to stay in another home, they must not be idle, thus working for the home and obeying by their rules.

They have a logical exporting of their surplus goods to the poor of other countries, except the view iron as a much greater commodity than gold and silver. They use gold and silver to make chamber-pots and close-stools, but also chains and fetters for their slaves, as a badge of infamy. Thus, anyone who wears these metals are discouraged.

As for religious views, they believe that the soul of man is immortal and that God of his goodness has designed that it should be happy and rewards for good virtuous actions, and punishments for vice, to be distributed after this life. Happiness is found in pleasure, and lesser pleasure might not stand in the way of a greater.

The Reaction
Alrighty... now that that's out of the way, we can get to being repulsed/delighted. Utopus conquering the island sounds alot like the foundation of America, and that can even tie into the whole slave thing. I do not like that they had slaves, but I'm kinda glad they got to work with gold and silver chains.. all pimped out and whatnot. These people were pretty advanced with all their thought processes. I mean, they held their records of the island's history and have a Senate, Supreme Council, and several cities that are under the jurisdiction of the chief city; like a capitol of a state. The problem here is that it gives a good ol' communistic feeling to the whole "Utopian society." It's just not 'free' enough because everyone has to be working; no one is ever idle, or else they became slaves. Most of my life is being spent idle, like right now. Their work is just monotonous, wearing crappy clothing all over the place, reporting to someone higher than them and laboring for the better of their society. It does not seem like anything bad can go on there, which would get really boring. Even if they aren't idle, they gotta be bored! I mean, the government controls how many families are in each city as well as how many children they can have. Now what's this about women being weak? I know plenty of girls that can kick some ass. If I were them, I'd get a passport and have my slave drive us and the wagon off that great cliff in the beginning and onto the sharp, pointy rocks. They have to be freaking insane to live in such a world that is perfect. "Utopia" my ass!