Check the post below for the homework (from More's Utopia and Woody Allen's Sleeper, 90min, available on YouTube). Now on to the questions!
Q1 (Demi): In Raphael's description, King Utopus said that he "suspected that God perhaps likes diverse and manifold forms of worship and therefore deliberately inspired different people with different views" (Utopia, 580). What are some of the beliefs of the Utopians? How does King Utopus's statement jive with the depiction of More in A Man for All Seasons that we watched in class this week?
Q2 (Annie): At the end of Utopia, the character of "More" says this: "when Raphael had finished his story, I was left thinking that not a few customs and laws he had described as existing among the Utopians were quite absurd. Their methods of waging war, their religious practices, and their social customs were some of these, but my chief objection was to the basis of their whole system, that is, their communal living and their money economy" (588). Why does he say this? How closely should we take the character of "More" to resemble the actual views of More, the author?
Q3 (Jason): What is the Utopians' take on the relationship between pleasure and an ethical life? And how does it compare with the ways in which pleasure is depicted in Sleeper?
Q4 (Jill): More inarguably designed his island of Utopia in response to social / political / moral problems he saw in early 16th-century England. Based on what you saw in A Man for All Seasons, what are the principle problems he tries to address in Utopia?
Q5 (Kate): Golden chamberpots?! In Utopia? Why?!
Q6 (Rachel): Why is slavery so essential in Utopia?
Q7 (Tina): What exactly is More's argument about the fictionality of Utopia in his final letter to Peter Giles, pp. 589-90?
Q8 (Vicky): If More's Utopia was designed in response to the problems and preoccupations More saw in early 16th-century England, then we can fairly safely say that Woody Allen's Dys-topia in Sleeper was written in response to certain 1973 American problems and preoccupations. Based on what you've seen in that movie, what were Americans worried about and obsessed with at that time?
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回覆刪除This is Demi answering question 1.
回覆刪除Before answering the questions, I would like to interpret the quotations above. My interpretation for the quotation in question 1 may be: everyone in Utopia chooses what he or she wants to believe. That’s why there are many kinds of beliefs in Utopia. They can believe in the sun, the moon, or any other planets. However, they all suppose a supreme power, Mithra, as the first place in their mind. It is Utopians, themselves, create so many Gods for them to devote to. In fact, this way of their religion, believing in what they worships but still have a mono-power above of all, is obviously a restriction on religious thinking. By finding this controversial phenomenon, Utopus thus decided to release the freedom on religions. And he indeed put it into practice.
What contradicts to the movie is the attitude toward religions between Utopus and Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons. Utopus hold an open attitude toward accepting all kinds beliefs in Utopia which resembles Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons, who wanted to be independent from the Catholicism. Both of them admit and pursue for the freedom on religions. On the contrary, More remained, to be more accurate, sticks to, being a Catholics, kept single belief, until his death. As his last line went, “to die the king’s good servant, but God’s first”, he at last still choose a single system, that religion is prior to the authority.
This is Kate trying to figure out Q5.
回覆刪除To the golden chamber pots, I think it has something to do with the Utopians’ concept of wealth. In Utopia, people have special values and social institutions which are so different from real society. For the Utopians who do not use money themselves, keeping the treasure (money) is only “a protection against extreme peril or sudden emergency”, “a contingency which may or may not actually arise” (p.558). And they are glad to share or exchange their surpluses to other countries which do need it. It seems they have no so much desire for money and just keep money for peace by making the wealth less important and be only useful for buying goods or bribing those nations against the war.
Meanwhile, the Utopians have a sensible judge to gold and silver which are so precious to our people for their rareness while the Utopians make more emphasis on the iron which is more useful in daily life. Referring the gold as those kinds of “all vain and unprofitable things”, the Utopians use it for chamber pots and all humblest vessels which are normal but nasty in every common or private place and even for the chain and heavy fetters of slaves. To the Utopians, those golden and precious decorations are used to “punish slaves, shame wrongdoers, or pacify infants” (p.559). And they also regard diamonds and garnets as a kind of toy for babies. Those things become a childish, shameful, dislike sign, “a badge of contempt” to be slave or inferior status then no one would want to steal it, or wear it to show him off and get robbed. These plain ideas can eliminate not only the excessive value of those goods but also the desire making people struggling for them and the possibility of fighting which may bring harm among people.
This is Rachel answering the question 6.
回覆刪除“Why is slavery so essential in Utopia?” In my opinion, I cite what the author says to answer this question, “Slaves, moreover, are permanent and visible reminders that crime does not pay.” (p. 571) And “As they deter people from crime by penalties, so they incite them to virtue by public honors. They set up in the marketplaces status of distinguished men who have served their country well, thinking thereby to preserve the memory of their good deeds and to spur on the citizens to emulate the glory of their ancestors.” (p. 572)
In the text, we can find out the slavery in Utopia relates to many topics such as euthanasia, marriage, crime, and laws etc. when I read through all of them, I find out that the Utopians almost emphasize on the natural beauty and good will/heart of humans. They do not believe in or rely on pacts or treaties. Therefore, because there is no explicit instruction to constrain people, they have to use the slavery to urge the moral and honorable deeds in society. And I think it can respond to what I cite above: the Utopians use the slavery and distinguished models to keep running their ideal society “Utopia” and that’s the reason why the slavery is so essential in Utopia.
This Jason answering question 3!
回覆刪除No matter how deliberate the description in Utopia is, it only makes me feel it is a society in beautiful disguise which creates the fake image of everyone and everything is equal. Then, after watching “Sleeper”, I feel may be I am a supporter of dystopia!
It seems everything just work perfectly in Utopia. They don’t need strict laws because they know they have better follow the regulations made by themselves. Every regulation is set by negotiation among them which serves to their benefit. For example, they tend to prefer the punishment to be slavery than death penalty, since being slaves have productivity for the whole society. But, the first thing come to my mind is, how do they sure the punishment is severe enough to prevent criminals from committing crimes? Don’t they ever imagine a condition that if there are more slaves than other class of people, the only thing to come is extreme chaos?
It seems a little unrealistic on their regulations, so do their take on relationship between ethical life and pleasure. Although they are allowed or also encouraged to pursue pleasure, they are being monitored. May be they feel the restrictions are reasonable to accept, which says they cannot pass the strict bounds set by “nature” and “reason” through the process of searching pleasure. But, what is nature, and what is reason? Let’s make this weak assumption collapsed by asking a simple question: if a person considers his nature as evil to steal and kill, isn’t he follows his own nature as they say? Another more complex problem is, under the disguise of giving freedom to the people to pursue their own pleasure with some slight restriction, may cause the people to totally believe the governing group and do not have the ability to judge whether they are performing their own concept of value or of the governing class.
Although without subtitle makes it a little bit hard to catch up for me, I do like “Sleeper”! The main assertion of Dystopia is the vanity in human mind when living in such society. This is well illustrated and mocked in the scene of Luna reading her poem. This is the first time I may dare to say I can write a poem better than someone else, since she even confused with the relationship of butterfly and caterpillar! If there is really a Utopian place, it would just look like a society in which people think them live well but never aware the fact that their individual thinking is lost forever. That’s why dystopian works always need some “primitive” one to save them!
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回覆刪除This is Vicky answering Q8
回覆刪除Woody Allen’s Sleeper is set in a future city which is totally mechanized. We might consider the future world supposes to be good and convenient, but it’s beyond our imagination. In the movie, we can see that Woody Allen tries to touch or operate the machine, but he falls down in a dramatic way. It points out the electronic city is not always suit for human beings. Also, the movie contains a lot of funny scenes that makes people feel the future world is absurd and totally a disaster. The main critic for the future world is people are overly relay on the machine and it turns into a bad influence: they do not know how to live without the machine. There is a connection between Woody Allen’s Sleeper and the American problems in 1973: the oil crisis. Before the oil crisis, most people believe their life in the future would be great, it’s a faith to the technology. But after the first oil crisis in 1973, people sense the unstable life they might encounter and the future is not fit with their wonderful imagination. That’s why, I guess, Woody Allen provides this funny also crazy movie in 1973.
This is Jill trying to figure out Question 4:
回覆刪除I suppose that the principle problem More trying to resemble in Utopia is the over emphasize of materials. He says that people in Utopia do not take gold and any metal seriously, for they think that they are useless compared with the essential elements like air and light. More stated that natural give us the most precious thing equally but hide the things which we do not use that often at remote, so it is foolish to take this things that natural deserted as treasure. He also mentioned that the Utopians thinks that pearls are the toys for children and these values of redemption on gold and metal are owing to the difference of culture and value perspectives of the Utopians. Besides, he also showed the aspect about pleasure in Utopia. The pleasure which come from heart and spirits are deemed highest among all sorts of pleasures which Utopians had defined. In addition to that, he mentioned about the phenomenon which the priests are the most respectable job in Utopia. He calculated it to the reason that the Utopians count the spiritual pleasure as the highest and since their prelists are all well-chosen and educated, it is not surprising at all to see them being regarded as the highest. Above are the points which I conclude More wanted to expressed his anxious of people regarding materials and carnal pleasure too much. I assume that More may think that if we the real people can be immersed in the environment of Utopians' grow up, we will be like them. However; I can not agree with his over simplification of the actual conditions. Gold and metal are rare not only because they are rare but also are the result of multi-factors of culture and material. After all, spiritual or culture perspective are not the only cause of bringing about the realities which we live in.
This is Tina trying to figure out Q7.
回覆刪除To this question, I am not sure what exactly his argument is so I just express my opinion. In the letter, More told Giles about a very sharp man posed the dilemma about his Utopia. The man said he saw a number of absurdities in it. And then, in the middle of the letter, More retorted “Aren’t there any absurdities elsewhere in the world?” From his answer, I judge Utopia, as a composition, is a reflection to early 16-century England. It’s not just a fiction. Besides, he later mentioned that he gave hints to the more learned which would enable them to see what he was about. What he said supported that he implied to criticize the situation of his country. As a historian and philosopher, he wanted to make contribution of his country. He perceived the unrest of his country but he couldn’t criticize it apparently for fear of getting trouble. Then, he chose to create a wonderful world and made it to be a sharp compare and contrast to early 16-century England. Besodes, from the introduction, we can see that utopia, a world seemingly free of inequality, economic exploitation, dynastic squabbles, and legal chicanery that More observed everywhere around him. More criticizes the social polity of his own country. From utopian’s way of life and belief, the great irony formed between people of two worlds.