Utopia by St. Thomas More, Part 4

This is the fourth and final post in a series on St. Thomas More’s Utopia. 

You can find the first post here.

Second post here.

Third post here. 

 

This brings Utopia to a close with my Goodreads review.

Goodreads Review

 

Ultimately this grew to a rating of three and a half stars but I rounded down.  It grew to that (it could have been lower) because I think I finally understood it, but even now I have some lingering doubts.  Even if I do understand it correctly, I think there is an inherent flaw that prevents me from a higher rating.

First, it was only after I understood Thomas More’s life leading to the writing of Utopia did I find that so much of his prior experiences are developed in the book.  He spent part of his early life living with religious clerics and even at a monastery, and he writes of the Utopians’ religious practices.  He was well educated, especially in the classics, and he writes of the Utopians’ love of education and classical philosophy.  He was a member of parliament, and brings up the Utopians’ civil organization.  He was a sheriff and lawyer, and he brings up the Utopians’ justice and jurisprudence.  He was a legal representative for merchants across international barriers, and he speaks of the Utopians’ trade policies.  He was in midlife at the time of the writing, having married, fathered four children, and lived through the passing of his wife in childbirth, and he writes on the Utopians’ household, marital, and social conventions.  The only aspect of life he describes that he personally did not seem to personally experience was of the Utopians’ military practices.  One assumes, though, that a man at the service of the king and parliament would have picked ideas on warfighting.

The key to understanding the book I think lies in understanding the mouthpiece for all of the Utopian practices.  Despite Thomas More the author creating the character Thomas More in the book, the mouthpiece for the advocacy of Utopian life is the character Raphael Hythloday.  Do Raphael Hythloday’s opinions and values represent the author’s?  Or is Raphael Hythloday just a foil for More the author to knock down and satirize?  The fact that he does not have his stand in be the mouthpiece should tell us something.  Clearly there are passages that could not rationally be supported by More, but then there are passages that might.  The ambiguity is perplexing.

Even the name Raphael Hythloday is ambiguous.  Raphael alludes to the archangel, and so on one hand his name may be suggesting the bringing forth of divine wisdom.  But Hytholday means (I am told) in classical Greek “speaker of nonsense.”  So which is it, wisdom or nonsense? 

I’m not going to get into the details here in a summary review but one over time can only come to the conclusion that Hythloday is at best an eccentric and at worst a kook.  He advocates the Utopian practice of being married naked, and checking the body of one’s spouse as a prospective buyer checks out a horse.  He advocates limiting the size of cities to a specific population, and that you need a passport to travel within the country.  He says the Utopians economy is built on agriculture but yet most of the people don’t actually work, and those that do only work six hours per day.  In what farming community could that possibly be true?  It’s impossible.  It’s nowhere! 

So what are we to make the book?  The book fails for me because it is impossible to distinguish what are serious propositions to improve society and what are “nonsense” ramblings of an eccentric old man, and if all is to be taken as nonsense ramblings, to what end?  “Utopia” means “nowhere.”  So why should we read about this nonexistent and not even possible ideal?  Ultimately then it would be a farce, but the tone of the work doesn’t feel like a farce.  Why should we go through a 134 pages of silly notions?  Is More satirizing the Utopians?  Is he satirizing the exploration writings that was becoming a formal genre in his day?  Or is he satirizing philosophic treatises with kooky old Hythloday as a silly savant?  Ultimately I can’t tell.

But on a second read, I have to admit, I was entertained.  Once I came to the conclusion that Hythloday is just an oddball not to be taken seriously I enjoyed the zaniness of the monologue.  As a philosophic work, Utopia has its issues.  As a tongue-in-cheek farce I found it a worthwhile read which allowed me to raise the rating.

Utopia by St. Thomas More, Part 3

This is the third post in a series on St. Thomas More’s Utopia. 

You can find the first post here.

Second post here: 

 

As I look at More’s key life experiences prior to the writing Utopia, you can connect a number of the subjects he brings up in the book to his life.  He brings up the Utopians’ religion and rituals; he lived a good deal of his life with religious clerics and even at a monastery.  He brings up the Utopians’ organization of towns and population; he was a member of parliament and presumably charged with the responsibility of civil management.  He speaks of the Utopians’ sense of justice and jurisprudence; well, he was both a lawyer and a sheriff.  He speaks of the Utopians’ trade policies, and he was a legal representative for merchants across international barriers.  He speaks of the Utopian’s household arrangements, and marital and social conventions; he was a man in midlife, having married and fathered four children, and by the writing of the work a widower.  He speaks of the Utopians’ high level of education and value in philosophy, and More himself was a well-educated man in classical philosophy. The one aspect of the work where the connection back to his life is tenuous, if actually nonexistent, is with that of the Utopians’ military organization and war-fighting doctrines.  There doesn’t seem to be any military service in More’s life.  But nonetheless as a parliamentarian and servant to the King he must have come into contact with issues of warfare.  

Now when I say in the paragraph above that More “writes” of these aspects of Utopians’ life, he puts those words in a character’s mouth.  There are several characters in Utopia and one of them is Thomas More himself as a fictional character.  It should be noted that More the author does not put those words in Thomas More the character’s mouth.  It is not More the character who is speaking of and praising the Utopians; it is a character named Raphael Hythloday.  And this is where I think the difficulty lies in understanding the intent of Utopia.  Do Raphael Hythloday’s opinions and values represent the author’s?  Or is Raphael Hythloday just a foil for More the author to knock down and satirize?  Clearly there are passages that could not rationally be supported by More, but then there are passages that might.

Even the name Raphael Hythloday is ambiguous.  Raphael alludes to the archangel, and so on one hand his name may be suggesting the bringing forth of divine wisdom.  But Hytholday means (I am told) “speaker of nonsense.”  So which is it, wisdom or nonsense? 

More the author makes Hythloday a strange character.  He’s a bearded old man, a Portuguese sailor, and explorer who traveled with Amerigo Vespucci where he learned of many cultures and where he found the perfect in the Utopians.  He is certainly an eccentric in that he prizes the strange aspects of Utopian life.  Perhaps “eccentric” is putting it too mildly.  Perhaps we, the reader, are to look at him as an oddball or a kook.  He speaks at length in what must have been several hours of rambling.  I found his support for the marriage customs hilarious:

 

Before marriage some grave matron presents the bride, naked, whether she is a virgin or a widow, to the bridegroom, and after that some grave man presents the bridegroom, naked, to the bride. We, indeed, both laughed at this, and condemned it as very indecent. But they, on the other hand, wondered at the folly of the men of all other nations, who, if they are but to buy a horse of a small value, are so cautious that they will see every part of him, and take off both his saddle and all his other tackle, that there may be no secret ulcer hid under any of them, and that yet in the choice of a wife, on which depends the happiness or unhappiness of the rest of his life, a man should venture upon trust, and only see about a handsbreadth of the face, all the rest of the body being covered, under which may lie hid what may be contagious as well as loathsome.  (p. 94, Kypros Press. Kindle Edition.)

 

Now that is an example of Hythloday as a kook, and More the author lampooning the values of the Utopians.  In other places it’s not so clear.  For instance, here Hythloday explains the nature of the Utopians’ laws.

 

“They have but few laws, and such is their constitution that they need not many. They very much condemn other nations whose laws, together with the commentaries on them, swell up to so many volumes; for they think it an unreasonable thing to oblige men to obey a body of laws that are both of such a bulk, and so dark as not to be read and understood by every one of the subjects. (p. 98)

 

Well, that sounds rather practical, a body of laws that are short and to the point.  Who could be against that?  All in all, it’s not always clear whether More is satirizing or conceptualizing an ideal. 

Perhaps the one notion that is a sticking point to modern day readers is what appears to be Hythloday’s endorsement of communism, and, because in this case it doesn’t appear to be satire, coming as an endorsement from More the author.  More the character himself at the end leaves open the possibility of such an endorsement. 

 

When Raphael had thus made an end of speaking, though many things occurred to me, both concerning the manners and laws of that people, that seemed very absurd, as well in their way of making war, as in their notions of religion and divine matters—together with several other particulars, but chiefly what seemed the foundation of all the rest, their living in common, without the use of money, by which all nobility, magnificence, splendour, and majesty, which, according to the common opinion, are the true ornaments of a nation… (p. 133)

 

So “many things” of the Utopians seemed rather absurd but not the living in common and the elimination of money.  Is More really endorsing that?  Is More the character in lock step with More the author?  On the one hand, what is being conceptualized is the Benedictine rule of living in common.  On the other hand, the Utopians apply it not to a monastery, where individual bachelors of a single gender choose such a life, but across a nation where families form the basic unit of society.  More the author and married man would realize that a monastic lifestyle could not work in a lay society because the family would no longer be the basic unit.  Indeed, I know of no example of one where it has.  Unfortunately the tone of the writing is not indicative of the author’s intent. 

As one thinks about it, however, the entire economic concept propounded in the book through the Utopians is absurd.  Families living together?  The majority of people idle, and yet agriculture being the primary means of sustenance, where the few that do work only labor six hours a day?  In what farming community could that possibly be true?  It’s impossible.  It’s nowhere! 

So what are we to make the book?  The book fails for me because it is impossible to distinguish what are serious propositions to improve society and what are “nonsense” ramblings of an eccentric old man, and if all is to be taken as nonsense ramblings, to what end?  “Utopia” means “nowhere.”  So why should we read about this nonexistent and not even possible ideal?  Ultimately then it would be a farce, but the tone of the work doesn’t feel like a farce.  Why should we go through a 134 pages of silly notions?  Is More satirizing the Utopians?  Is he satirizing the exploration writings that was becoming a formal genre in his day?  Or is he satirizing philosophic treatises with kooky old Hythloday as a silly savant?  Ultimately I can’t tell.

But on a second read, I have to admit, I was entertained.  Once I came to the conclusion that Hythloday is just an oddball not to be taken seriously I enjoyed the zaniness of the monologue.  As a philosophic work, Utopia has its issues.  As a tongue-in-cheek farce I found it a worthwhile read. 

I thought this was a very informative video on St. Thomas More and Utopia.

Utopia by St. Thomas More, Part 2

This is the second post in a series on St. Thomas More’s Utopia.  

You can find the first post here.

In trying to understand Utopia I felt I needed to understand Thomas More’s life, and so I put together a time line of his life in bullet form.  I could not find such a timeline on the internet.  Various sites, such as Wikipedia, summarize his life, but none of the websites seemed to include everything.  I don’t think anyone site I came across was truly comprehensive.  This is not comprehensive either.  I left some more minor details out in an effort to not create clutter.  These are what I see as the major details of his life, and below it I add More’s major literary works in a time line.  Between these two timelines, I think we can put Utopia into his biographical perspective.  More on that below.

 

Thomas More Timeline

 

1478 Born in London to Sir John and Agnes More

1490 Placed under tutelage of Cardinal John Morton

1492 Oxford to study law

1494 Admitted to Lincoln Inn Law Society

1496 Enters Law School

1501 Admitted to Bar as “Utter Barister”

1503 Falls into King Henry VII’s disfavor

1504 First entered Parliament

1504 Marries Joan Colt, who bears him four children

1509 King Henry VII dies

1509 Rises to prominence as a lawyer

1509 Represented London merchants in Antwerp

1510-8 Served as Under Sheriff of London

1511 Wife Joan dies in childbirth

1514 Becomes Master of Regants

1515 Appointed to delegation to revise Anglo-Flemish commercial treaty

1517 Resolves Evil Day Mob riot in London

1518 Resigns from City government to work for King Henry VIII

1521 Knighted

1521 Made Under-Treasurer of Exchequer

1523 Becomes Speaker of the House of Commons

1525 Becomes Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

1529 Becomes Lord Chancellor

1532 Resigns Lord Chancellor

1535 Executed

 

Major Literary Works:

1513-18 History of Richard III

1516 Utopia (Latin)

1523 Response to Luther

1528 Dialogue Concerning Heresies

1529 Supplication of Souls

1531 Confutation of Tyndale

 The landmarks of his life which I think are pertinent to his writing of Utopia are these: (1) Childhood spent among the vowed religious.  (2) At the age of twenty-six and three years after entering the bar he enters parliament, right around the time he falls in the disfavor of King Henry VII.  (3) More marries Joan Colt that same year.  (4) At the age of 31, he represents London merchants in Antwerp, ostensibly the setting for the Utopia discourse.  (5) He publishes Utopia seven years later, More being 38 years old, and one can presume he was writing it at some point in the intervening years.   (6) His wife dies giving childbirth two years after representing London at Antwerp, and five years before publishing Utopia, More being 33.  So at the time of the publishing of Utopia, More is a mature man, experienced marriage, political success and disfavor, the birth of four children, and the tragedy of his wife’s death.

Utopia by St. Thomas More, Part 1

We’re reading Sir St. Thomas More’s Utopia.  More speaking in first person, narrates a fictional discussion with a fictional character named Raphael Hythlodaeus.  Raphael tells him of a certain island that has formed a perfect government.  In my edition, the description of Utopia starts on page 45, which a more than a quarter of the way through the entire book.  Here, Raphael is speaking, starting his description:

“The island of Utopia is in the middle two hundred miles broad, and holds almost at the same breadth over a great part of it, but it grows narrower towards both ends. Its figure is not unlike a crescent. Between its horns the sea comes in eleven miles broad, and spreads itself into a great bay, which is environed with land to the compass of about five hundred miles, and is well secured from winds.  In this bay there is no great current; the whole coast is, as it were, one continued harbour, which gives all that live in the island great convenience for mutual commerce. But the entry into the bay, occasioned by rocks on the one hand and shallows on the other, is very dangerous. In the middle of it there is one single rock which appears above water, and may, therefore, easily be avoided; and on the top of it there is a tower, in which a garrison is kept; the other rocks lie under water, and are very dangerous. The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck. For even they themselves could not pass it safe if some marks that are on the coast did not direct their way; and if these should be but a little shifted, any fleet that might come against them, how great soever it were, would be certainly lost. On the other side of the island there are likewise many harbours; and the coast is so fortified, both by nature and art, that a small number of men can hinder the descent of a great army. But they report (and there remains good marks of it to make it credible) that this was no island at first, but a part of the continent. Utopus, that conquered it (whose name it still carries, for Abraxa was its first name), brought the rude and uncivilised inhabitants into such a good government, and to that measure of politeness, that they now far excel all the rest of mankind. Having soon subdued them, he designed to separate them from the continent, and to bring the sea quite round them. To accomplish this he ordered a deep channel to be dug, fifteen miles long; and that the natives might not think he treated them like slaves, he not only forced the inhabitants, but also his own soldiers, to labour in carrying it on. As he set a vast number of men to work, he, beyond all men’s expectations, brought it to a speedy conclusion. And his neighbours, who at first laughed at the folly of the undertaking, no sooner saw it brought to perfection than they were struck with admiration and terror.”  [Sir Saint Thomas More. Utopia (p. 45-6). Kypros Press. Kindle Edition.]

The book was originally published in Latin in 1516, when More was thirty-eight years old.  It is interesting and not surprising that so much literature of the time had to do with remote countries and exotic people.  This book was published only twenty-four years from Columbus’ crossing of the Atlantic.  I wonder if More’s book was the first such genre of literature.  An English translation was first published in 1551, some sixteen years after More’s famous beheading.

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Kerstin Commented:

I suppose in those days one could really let the fantasy roam and describe a place that was for all intents and purposes terra incognita.

To me the description of the island serves to point out how inaccessible and remote it is. Only in this isolation a utopian society can emerge.

My Reply:

Good point. I've been trying to see if this genre has a name. I would call it Voyage Literature. Sort of a voyage to a strange and exotic land. As I think of it, this genre has never gone away. It's now voyaging to strange and exotic planets as part of science fiction.