Year: 2024
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: The utopia of Wells's 1905 A Modern Utopia is not just an enclave, or an island but a whole world, a parallel universe in which Earth is governed by a World State constructed very much along the lines of Wells's earlier utopian works Anticipations (1900) and Mankind in the Making (1903).Here, fabulous mass transport systems and mutual recognition of every human's shared biological origins have eradicated the need for notions of national sovereignty and the nation state.Since the narrator and his botanist friend did not originate there, they find themselves rootless in this meticulously ordered world, and are set to work as manual labourers.In order to be registered to work, the narrator must give his thumbprint to the authorities.Tracing the thumbprint allows the identification of Utopia's parallel version of H. G. Wells, who of course possesses an identical thumbprint.This Wells, however, is not a writer, but an administrator, one of this Utopia's "samurai," the "voluntary nobility" that is utopia's ruling elite.This physical reconstitution is a form of ego projection on the writer's part, as a physical comparison of the two Wellses reveals.The protagonist is described in the prologue thus:The Owner of the Voice you must figure to yourself as a whitish plump man, a little under the middle size and age, with such blue eyes as many Irishmen have, and agile in his movements and with a slight tonsorial baldness-a penny might cover it-of the crown.His front is convex.He droops at times like most of us, but for the greater part he bears himself as valiantly as a sparrow.Occasionally his hand flies out with a fluttering gesture of illustration.And his Voice (which is our medium henceforth) is an unattractive tenor that becomes at times aggressive.Him you must imagine as sitting at a table reading a manuscript about Utopias, a manuscript he holds in two hands that are just a little fat at the wrist.The curtain rises upon him so.(Wells, A Modern Utopia 7)
Authors: James, Simon J., Hardey, Mariann
Institution: Durham University
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6987967912
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