Utopia Sir Thomas More
Ok, lowkey a banger. Very interesting book and absolutely not what I had in mind. A couple things. First, I love how More splits the book into One and Two. Book One does not touch upon the society at all, and instead describes the premise of More meeting Raphael the explorer. The first conversation they have largely touches on the responsibility More believes Raphael has to advise rulers on the best course of action given he is so knowledgable of different societies. Raphael spurns this responsibility claiming that no ruler would listen to him and he would not be taken seriously because his ideal society (his Utopia) would necessitate the ruler giving up significant power and going against cultural norms. It's interesting that this book was published almost contemporaneously with Machiavelli's The Prince, as that book is designed to be a handbook for a cunning ruler. Book Two is Raphael's description of the island nation of Utopia, there were wild parallels between his description and my own life. For example, the dominant religion in Utopia reads astonishingly similarly to Vedanta Hinduism ("the greatest number... believe in a single divinity, unknown, eternal, infinite, inexplicable, diffused throughout the universe not materially but by his power in a manner that is beyond human understanding. They address him as their parent.") Also, they cherish "beauty, strength and agility as special and pleasing gifts of nature." Utopia also does not have money and there is no ownership in their society. It *is* a communist society, and it makes me wonder if Marx had read this book before? One of the funniest bits is at the end of Raphael's description in Book Two. More recounts: "When Raphael had finished his account, I was left with the sense that not a few of the practices which arose from Utopian laws and customs were patently absurd." I find that quite funny considering Raphael's entire account is just More's imagination. I also appreciate that More includes mock letters before Book One describing correspondences between him and proofreaders of the book. I get the sense he does this to make the account more realistic (reminds me of Shelley's Frankenstein). In this vein, he also includes a poem, ostensibly written in the Utopian alphabet, and a 'map' of Utopia. The subtitle of this book is also interesting: "On the best state of a Commonwealth and on the new island of Utopia". This to me, gives the same sense that Machiavelli gave, it seems like More wants this manuscript to serve as a quasi-guide for rulers to take lessons from. I would be curious to learn how much of the details in this book found their way to policy within England (More was Undersheriff of London at the time of publication). Ok that's a lot, but these are my thoughts! There is also a very interesting debate between Utopia and Eutopia which is not well managed (I believe) in my Penguin Classics edition of the book.