I would like to first state a surprising fact I found. As I was driving to campus with my roommate, I was telling her I was reading Utopia by Sir Thomas Moore. She replied, as she went to Catholic school, that Thomas Moore was a canonized Saint in the Roman Catholic church as a martyr of the reformation. I found this intriguing as we refer to Saint Benedict and Saint Augustine by their canonized titles, but not Moore. I guess all of Moore's other accomplishments, such as his role as Lord Chancellor and his classic works outweigh his sainthood. So do we look at Utopia from a religious perspective the same way we look at City of God? I would inherently say no, but I think his religious background perhaps comes into play as he describes Utopia. Utopia is not Heaven and I do not think Utopia is a religious text at all, but I think elements were definitely taken from it.
For example, Moore places men in the characteristic head of household saying that "wives are subject to their husbands" and that "the head of household looks for whatever his family needs" (50). We discussed earlier how in past days, the head of households were not only responsible for taking care of the household but also their salvation. It would not have made any sense for Moore to exhibit other views about women at the time, though women did contribute to society in that they had assigned work. Even though Moore did use the phrase "weaker sex" on page 42, I will of course forgive his sexism because of those olden times he lived in. When he also mentions the religion of the people of Utopia on page 60, it sounds very similar to the Christian tradition; monotheistic, there is an afterlife, and good deeds on earth pay off in the end.
Anytime we talk about Utopia and whether it is good or bad, of course our morals come into play. I think there are a lot of good things in Utopia that we can all agree are good. Required farming so everyone has food seems pretty okay to me. Having people not covet money seems awesome! Venerating those that did not choose the academic life and instead chose trades and appreciating their contributions to society is something we talked about on the first day. Sure enough, this is discussed early on in the text. Moore obviously chose the way the people of Utopia lived based on what he deemed a morally good society. For him, and many others that are of Christian faith, these morals come from what their higher power deems right and wrong. Most of us being brought up in the society we live in which is bombarded with similar morals, whether we are believers or not. It does not suprise me that people genuinely like Utopia and think it is a cool place.
I am interested when we move on to sci-fi and more godless societies to see how our morality comes into play with liking or disliking the texts. Until then, I will think on the crescent island and its unreachable "perfection".
I think this goes along well with the theory that we write what we know. Why change Christianity if it's something that you believe in and it currently works for you? I agree that I do not think of this as a religious text, but that there are obviously threads of Christianity interlaced throughout. The writing is interesting because it is clearly Moore's philosophy on how society currently is and how it should be, but it's hidden neatly into a story so that nobody can truly point the finger at him and accuse him of going against what that time and England stood for. It seems to be a smarter text for this purpose as well. While in previous texts from this class we have heard a lot of complaints about dry material and endless lists of commands, Moore is wise enough to know that a story will read better and be more interesting to anyone who picks up his book. We are still being persuaded and learning how one person wants life to be lived, but we are not as aware of it. We don't feel like a certain culture or religion is being shoved down our throats. We get so swept up in the story that we sit back and decide what we do and don't like about the society without anyone really asking us to and that's exactly what the point is. Moore wants us to simply reconsider and start questioning everything it is that we know.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you and with Logan; I know we've discussed it in class as well, but it can't be stressed enough that everyone's idea of a perfect society is different based on their beliefs. For More, there would be no reason to stray from Christianity, just bring everyone else to it.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a real shame that the guy ended up dead because of this, especially after trying his best to distance himself from the book for that reason. Clearly freedom of speech is something More would include in his updated Utopia.