How to Build a World
Utopia (More)
Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
A Satire Perspective on the concept of Utopia
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Utopia promotes freedom but controls citizens in a way
Suggests that a person's ideal Utopia may not be an Utopia for someone else
Social commentary on England's style of government
Makes a lot of parallels/contrasts to England's government
Ex: People are raised to believe that farming is essential to life
They are taught things in school that are vital to the government's goals (ex: farming)
Women were restricted to certain jobs because of their physical stature
Would have strict punishments for lazy workers
A world where clone people are harvested for their organs
Kids are raised/brainwashed in Hailsham
Taught that they are only valued for what they produce
Strong stigma to clone race
Form of racism
Eventually told truth, all clones accept their doom faith
Dehumanization
clones are seen as only tools
Clones don't value their own lives
systematic racism
oppression
Omelas (Le Guin)
Omelas: A City of Happiness
Utopia
A place with no problems
Focus on Happiness and Suffering
However, Narrator contemplates how the readers will react to this imaginary plave
Constantly changes it to satisfy others
Let's people's desires take control of his world
Example of no such thing as a Utopia
The One Who Stay and Fight (Jemisin)
Dystopia
Explains the culture of Um-Helat
Heaven symbolism
"the children of the city come forth, most wearing wings" (Jemisin)
Utopia (Narrator's opinion)
No discrimination
All work forces are cherished
"Um-Helat’s farmers arrive, invited as always to be honored alongside the city’s merchants and technologers." (Jemisin)
Accepts all types of people
"The citizens of Um-Helat are so many and so wildly different in appearance and origin and development" (Jemisin)
Fifth Season (Jemisin)
Tells the life of Essun the orogene
orogenes
Face systematic racism
Form of slavery
Dystopian World
Oppression
Symbolism African American Racism In America
White supremacy
Sanzed Equatorial Affiliation and Guardians
Underground Railroad (Whitehead)
Tells Cora journey of escaping slavery
Racism
White Surpremacy
Systematic Racism
Dystopia
Brainwashing
Dehumanization
A lot of Slaves can't imagine themselves as free people
slaves are treated like products
Fights the corrupt system
The Ministry for the Future (Robinson)
Zero Sum
Zero Sum
Global Warming
Asks the question: How can one improve a government
Promotes Socialism
"Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one can fall; also a ceiling above which no one can rise." (Robinson 16)
Bring an end to social inequality
No more rich people or poor people
Zero Sum
“Possibly some of the richest two percent of the world’s population have decided to give up on the pretense that “progress” or “development” or “prosperity” can be achieved for all eight billion of the world’s people.” (Robinson 16)
Great hate for orogenes
“The result of this ambient hostility is the sense that the whole of the Stillness opposes Essun and her kind” (Kearse 36)
“The orogenes of the Fulcrum serve the world” (Jemisin 34)
Dehumanization
"That we’re not human is just the lie they tell themselves so they don’t have to feel bad about how they treat us” (Jemisin 354)
"you'll start to donate your vital organs. That's what each of you was created to do'’ (Ishiguro 72)
“I was pretty much ready when I became a donor. It felt right. After all, it's what we're supposed to be doing, isn't it?” (Ishiguro 207)
" they use all possible methods to infuse, very early, into the tender and flexible minds of children, such opinions as are both good in themselves and will be useful to their country" (More 73)
"reminder that she is only a human being for a tiny moment across the eternity of her servitude" (Whitehead 29)
"To escape the boundary of the plantation was to escape the fundamental principles of your existence: impossible" (Whitehead 7)
Hypocrites
Will abuse a deformed child in order to continue their happy city life
"to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed" (Le Guin)
"I fear that Omelas so far strikes some of you as goody-goody. Smiles, bells, parades, horses, bleh. If so, please add an orgy" (Le Guin)
Humans benefit out of abuse of clones
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Utopia
The whole nation shares their goods
"for among them there is no unequal distribution, so that no man is poor, none in necessity" (More 77)
“an unjust capitulation to the demands of an oppressive social order” (Levy 4)
“Kathy's lack of rebellious impulse is still frustrating but understandable when considering the monolithic social forces pressuring her to relinquish her personal freedoms” (Levy 4).
To maintain utopian state, they limit the growth of their people (ex. limit on certain knowledge)
"But some knowledge is dangerous." (Jemisin)
They kill any person that shows a sign of evil (treat evil like it is a disease)
"they share the idea. The evil . . . spreads" (Jemisin).
Use orogenes like tools
Dystopia
States idea that a Utopia cannot exist or at least last for long
"hope I made clear that dystopia and utopia are a dialectical pair [that] can’t be pulled apart. Nothing’s fixed forever" (Lewis and Robinson)
People need to work together in order to save the world
Utopia is the representation of a rational, perfect, and happy society "opposed to an irrationally ruled Europe, vitiated by horrible absurdities and injustices, and torn apart by the most incredible enmities that ingenerate devastating wars." (Piredda)
This brings forth a question of Omela's ethics and political practices
"Given the fact that the ethical dilemma posed by the child's suffering is the basis of the social contract, it is also necessarily a political dilemma." (Tabone)
"the defining characteristic of Um-Helat is ultimately that 'every soul matters, and even the idea that some might not is anathema'" (Tabone)
There is always figure looming over the orogenes like a predator watching over a child
African Americans being slaved around in the fields.
A Perfect City of Technological Advancement
A perfect society that feeds off the suffering of one
The clone kid are only liked for the organs they can offer
A Perfect Society where everyone works towards one goal
One side of humanity is thriving due to wealth, while the other side is suffering due to the lack of wealth