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3.07 AVERAGE
3.07 AVERAGE
This book was very interesting. I think people who like politics and trying to guess what would happen if different leaders have been chosen might like this book. It has some great ideas, on paper. And it definitely would be wonderful if it could happen. It's one of those books that make you think. Its very wordy!
Vuonna 2000 on mielenkiintoinen kuvaus siitä, millainen vuoden 2000 täydellinen maailma olisi erään 1800-luvun lopulla eläneen kirjailijan mielestä. Lukemisesta teki mielenkiintoista toisaalta kirjailijan positiivinen usko ihmisluontoon ja toisaalta menneen maailman ajattelun värittämän tulevaisuuskuvan vertailu nykymaailmaan. Esimerkiksi kirjallisuuden ja musiikin tulevaisuuden loistokkuuden kuvailua oli hauskaa lukea, kun arvostaa noita taiteenmuotoja mutta tietää, miten ne ovat omassa todellisuudessamme jääneet visuaalisen median varjoon.
Kaunokirjallisena teoksena Vuonna 2000 ei kuitenkaan ollut kummoinen. Tarina oli lähinnä tekosyy esitellä uutta uljasta maailmaa ja välillä pitkät monologit tulevaisuuden maailman edistyksestä olivat uuvuttavaa luettavaa. Suosittelen kuitenkin kirjaa kaikille utopiakirjallisuuden ystäville. Vaikken ehkä haluaisikaan elää aivan niin yhteisökeskeisessä maailmassa kuin Vuonna 2000 -kirjassa kuvataan, tuli kirjaa lukiessa kuitenkin sellainen olo, että maailma voisi olla kovin paljon parempi, jos ihmiset oppisivat olemaan.
Kaunokirjallisena teoksena Vuonna 2000 ei kuitenkaan ollut kummoinen. Tarina oli lähinnä tekosyy esitellä uutta uljasta maailmaa ja välillä pitkät monologit tulevaisuuden maailman edistyksestä olivat uuvuttavaa luettavaa. Suosittelen kuitenkin kirjaa kaikille utopiakirjallisuuden ystäville. Vaikken ehkä haluaisikaan elää aivan niin yhteisökeskeisessä maailmassa kuin Vuonna 2000 -kirjassa kuvataan, tuli kirjaa lukiessa kuitenkin sellainen olo, että maailma voisi olla kovin paljon parempi, jos ihmiset oppisivat olemaan.
Julian West, a well-to-do man of 30 years, falls asleep in May 1887, only to awaken in December 2000, on the cusp of the 21st Century (the book rightly places the year 2000 in the 20th Century). West is found and revived by Dr. Leete. This sets up a prolonged dialog between the two as Dr. Leete explains how the socialist utopia of his time came to be and how it works. The dialog really is an excuse for long monologs by the author through the mouthpiece of Dr. Leete as to why socialism is so much better than the miserable conditions of his own time.
Almost every conceivable political and social facet of the socialist utopia is discussed, from how goods are manufactured and distributed, to how courts work, to schools, and much more. The government owns all businesses, and workers are assigned jobs when they turn 21. They work until they are 45, move into semi-retirement (i.e., on call if needed), and full retirement at 55 when they are able and encouraged to explore their interests to the fullest. Everyone receives the same “salary” (money has been abolished); less desirable jobs made more enticing by shorter working hours.
The book fails to mention much of anything about technological changes or other aspects of 20th Century life such as fashion, entertainment, or dining. There is a brief mention of how music is transmitted remotely into homes using telephonic equipment, and how the music can be synced automatically with a clock to wake one up in the morning.
There is an interchange from the book I found most interesting:
"In my day," [West] replied, "it was considered that the proper functions of government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace and defending the people against the public enemy, that is, to the military and police powers."
"And, in heaven's name, who are the public enemies?" exclaimed Dr. Leete. "Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, and nakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightest international misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizens and deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death and mutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; and all this oftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims. We have no wars now, and our governments no war powers, but in order to protect every citizen against hunger, cold, and nakedness, and provide for all his physical and mental needs, the function is assumed of directing his industry for a term of years. No, Mr. West, I am sure on reflection you will perceive that it was in your age, not in ours, that the extension of the functions of governments was extraordinary. Not even for the best ends would men now allow their governments such powers as were then used for the most maleficent."
I think this is an excellent argument of why things like welfare, health care, and some other government functions are worthwhile.
As to some of the other sentiments expressed in the book, I think that the author was a bit too optimistic about human nature. His socialist utopia might look good on paper, but the frailties of man would block its reality, at least in any foreseeable future.
As a primer on socialism, Looking Backward is probably more understandable than an academic paper. As a novel, though, it is mostly a tough slog.
Almost every conceivable political and social facet of the socialist utopia is discussed, from how goods are manufactured and distributed, to how courts work, to schools, and much more. The government owns all businesses, and workers are assigned jobs when they turn 21. They work until they are 45, move into semi-retirement (i.e., on call if needed), and full retirement at 55 when they are able and encouraged to explore their interests to the fullest. Everyone receives the same “salary” (money has been abolished); less desirable jobs made more enticing by shorter working hours.
The book fails to mention much of anything about technological changes or other aspects of 20th Century life such as fashion, entertainment, or dining. There is a brief mention of how music is transmitted remotely into homes using telephonic equipment, and how the music can be synced automatically with a clock to wake one up in the morning.
There is an interchange from the book I found most interesting:
"In my day," [West] replied, "it was considered that the proper functions of government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace and defending the people against the public enemy, that is, to the military and police powers."
"And, in heaven's name, who are the public enemies?" exclaimed Dr. Leete. "Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, and nakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightest international misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizens and deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death and mutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; and all this oftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims. We have no wars now, and our governments no war powers, but in order to protect every citizen against hunger, cold, and nakedness, and provide for all his physical and mental needs, the function is assumed of directing his industry for a term of years. No, Mr. West, I am sure on reflection you will perceive that it was in your age, not in ours, that the extension of the functions of governments was extraordinary. Not even for the best ends would men now allow their governments such powers as were then used for the most maleficent."
I think this is an excellent argument of why things like welfare, health care, and some other government functions are worthwhile.
As to some of the other sentiments expressed in the book, I think that the author was a bit too optimistic about human nature. His socialist utopia might look good on paper, but the frailties of man would block its reality, at least in any foreseeable future.
As a primer on socialism, Looking Backward is probably more understandable than an academic paper. As a novel, though, it is mostly a tough slog.
Not so much a novel as it is an essay on a socialist Utopia, but entertaining and worth reading nonetheless.
A lot of the interest here is historical. A book few people read now, even among socialists, but one of large readership and enormous influence in its day. Looking Backward spurred dozens of novels in response, positive and negative. And while very didactic, the novel demonstrates there is clearly value in incorporating abstract ideas into a fictional setting.
The book was interesting, but it really isn't that great. Peter and I got to know each other because of this book, because we had to a presentation over it. So to me, this book will always be special.
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888) surely bears great responsibility for the reputation utopias have for being didactic. Even those with a high tolerance for idea-driven fiction and the trope of a stranger being shown about a strange land may find this book too light on storytelling. In Bellamy's work, the protagonist arrives 100 years in the future and much of the utopian setting he arrives at is explained to him as he recovers from his shock. He does some exploration later, visiting a shop and a common dining hall, but a great deal is told to him by a single other character as he stays at home. The book includes a long sermon (literally the protagonist listens to a sermon piped into the room he sits in). It's a passive, inactive explanation of a utopian society.
That said, there are interesting ideas in this book about how to consider and organize society — many of these are common across utopian literature. It seems that while there is some general agreement about the kinds of things that would improve society, there are very few thoughts about the best way to arrive — other than by accidental transport to a secluded society in an isolated location.
Read this for: anyone interested in utopias, utopian-thinking, societal change
Pairs well with: Aldous Huxley's Island, Samuel Butler's Erewhon, Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (the shared phrase and discussion of "industrial armies"). Also, on an unrelated note, to An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke (Bellamy is a New England writer)
Quotes:"But did they think only of themselves? you ask. Was not their very luxury rendered intolerable to them by comparison with the lot of their brothers and sisters in the harness, and the knowledge that their own weight added to their toil? Had they no compassion for fellow human beings from whom fortune only distinguished them?"
"'In my day,' I replied, 'it was considered that the proper functions of government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace and defending the people against the public enemy, that is to the military and police powers.' 'And, in heavens name, who are the public enemies?' exclaimed Dr. Leete. 'Are they France, England, Germany or hunger, cold, and nakedness?'"
"...but service of the nation, patriotism, passion for humanity, impel the workers as in your day they did the soldier."
"The failure of my age in any systemic or effective way to develop and utilize the natural aptitudes of man for the industries and intellectual avocations was one of the great wastes, as well as one of the most common causes of unhappiness in that time."
"Equal education and opportunity must needs bring to light whatever aptitudes a man has, and neither social prejudice nor mercenary considerations hamper him in the choice of his life work."
That said, there are interesting ideas in this book about how to consider and organize society — many of these are common across utopian literature. It seems that while there is some general agreement about the kinds of things that would improve society, there are very few thoughts about the best way to arrive — other than by accidental transport to a secluded society in an isolated location.
Read this for: anyone interested in utopias, utopian-thinking, societal change
Pairs well with: Aldous Huxley's Island, Samuel Butler's Erewhon, Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, and The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (the shared phrase and discussion of "industrial armies"). Also, on an unrelated note, to An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Brock Clarke (Bellamy is a New England writer)
Quotes:"But did they think only of themselves? you ask. Was not their very luxury rendered intolerable to them by comparison with the lot of their brothers and sisters in the harness, and the knowledge that their own weight added to their toil? Had they no compassion for fellow human beings from whom fortune only distinguished them?"
"'In my day,' I replied, 'it was considered that the proper functions of government, strictly speaking, were limited to keeping the peace and defending the people against the public enemy, that is to the military and police powers.' 'And, in heavens name, who are the public enemies?' exclaimed Dr. Leete. 'Are they France, England, Germany or hunger, cold, and nakedness?'"
"...but service of the nation, patriotism, passion for humanity, impel the workers as in your day they did the soldier."
"The failure of my age in any systemic or effective way to develop and utilize the natural aptitudes of man for the industries and intellectual avocations was one of the great wastes, as well as one of the most common causes of unhappiness in that time."
"Equal education and opportunity must needs bring to light whatever aptitudes a man has, and neither social prejudice nor mercenary considerations hamper him in the choice of his life work."
super interesting but then the boys start talking about eugenics um
slow-paced