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A review by scrooge3
News from Nowhere by William Morris
1.0
And I thought Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy was a bland, didactic socialist utopia! At least Bellamy's arguments were well thought out and seemed at least plausible. Morris's communist utopia is full of half-baked ideas told in the most pedantic manner possible.
In Morris's world, everyone is happy just doing what they want to do, with no explanation as to why anyone would choose to do backbreaking menial tasks, and where mowing wheat is seen as a light, recreational activity.
It’s a world where education and books are shunned, history is happily ignored, and technological advances are actively discouraged. Money and government are nonexistent. Incredibly, communism leads to longer lifetimes and the elimination of ugly people (not to mention that women seem to blush a lot!) and, seemingly, people of color.
As opposed to Bellamy, Morris accurately predicts that a change to communism would not be without civil war, but naively predicts that everyone would miraculously realize the errors of their "master-slave" relationship and willingly lay down their arms for the greater good.
With its rambling lectures masquerading as dialog, reading this book took real fortitude. (I read the 1892 edition.)
In Morris's world, everyone is happy just doing what they want to do, with no explanation as to why anyone would choose to do backbreaking menial tasks, and where mowing wheat is seen as a light, recreational activity.
It’s a world where education and books are shunned, history is happily ignored, and technological advances are actively discouraged. Money and government are nonexistent. Incredibly, communism leads to longer lifetimes and the elimination of ugly people (not to mention that women seem to blush a lot!) and, seemingly, people of color.
As opposed to Bellamy, Morris accurately predicts that a change to communism would not be without civil war, but naively predicts that everyone would miraculously realize the errors of their "master-slave" relationship and willingly lay down their arms for the greater good.
With its rambling lectures masquerading as dialog, reading this book took real fortitude. (I read the 1892 edition.)