About Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited
I started reading Erewhon, by Samuel Butler, published in 1872, because I read somewhere that it contained a dystopian view of technology. It does, but this is a relatively small part of the entire thesis proposed by the author. The wikipedia article on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erewhon) calls it a Satirical Utiopian novel. I ultimately read and enjoyed the whole book and the requisite sequel “Erewhon Revisited” as well.
My impressions are below, essentially as I recorded them in my journal as I was reading.
The version I read was “Transcribed from the 1916 A. C. Fifield edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk” and downloaded free from the Gutenberg Project on to my iPad and iPhone. Thus, there were no illustrations (except for a bizarre map of a temple rendered with ascii characters in Erewhon Revisited ).
Review of Erewhon , Erewhon Revisited
By Samuel Butler
Written in the late 1800’s.
Story located in some unnamed country, not England, maybe New Zealand or Australia.
The time is the late 1800’s.
Overview
Higgs, the main character discovers a new civilization in the remote regions of the country he is exploring. This civilization is called “Erewhon”. Erewhon is as developed as England in most ways but have some very distorted views on human values and beliefs. For example, illness or other physical disabilities are punished with prison terms but emotional or personality flaws such as “having a bad day” or “being dishonest” is treated as a passing but somewhat debilitating condition that deserves sympathy and can be treated by a “straightener”, much like a doctor only who administers floggings and financial fees to correct. Acquiring wealth is seen as a sign of obvious contribution to society and is highly respected. Also, society has completely abandoned the use of machines of any kind, including the pocket watch, for fear that their development would eventually lead to a society subjugated by technology. (Remember, this was written in the late 1800s)
These views are disrupted but not entirey corrected in the second volume “Erewhon Revisited”. In this volume, society invents and (not universally) adopts a new religion, called “Sunchildism”, partially to correct the failings described in the first volume. The result is a deep schism between the new engineers and the new religions hierarchy.
The possible parallels and similes with English society and politics at the time is evident but I don’t know enough English history to fully grasp this theme.
Regarding Higgs and the authors barely constrained elitism
According to the preface to “Erewhon Revisted” Higgs “is a typical middle-class Englishman, deeply tainted with priggishness in his earlier years, but in great part freed from it by the sweet uses of adversity.”
I don’t know how autobiographical this characterization was intended to be but Higgs, not withstanding his idolization by society in Erewhon Revisited, was carved out to be a messiah figure who suffered emotionally and physically, ultimately sacrificing himself for the selfless improvement of Erewhon society. Higgs expressed some obligation to undo the damage he had unwittingly caused by escaping Erewhon (where he was about to be persecuted for acting and speaking ideas that were antithetical to current Erewhon norms) in a balloon. As was mentioned, this precipitated a new religion which adopted Higgs as the “Sun Child” who had (conveniently) “gone to live with his father the sun.”
On his return, Higgs see’s his responsibility to undo this misconception and destroy the religious infrastructure that the new though leaders were using to manipulate society.
Despite this “Old Testament / New Testament” story line and it’s implicit morals, the author clearly elevates certain characters by their birth right and formal education. All of the Queens family and Higgs and his two sons (one by the queen illegitimately) are the handsomest and smartest in society and manage to accrue great wealth either through fate or the providence of god. A lot of wealth is accrued naturally, that is not via the machinations of early Erewhon economics. For instance, When Higgs returns to England, he is ultimately persecuted by English society for having too fantastic of a tale. (See any themes here?) This causes him great financial ruin until a long lost uncle dies and leaves him a fabulous estate worth millions. Coincidence? Or Gods hand in supporting the deservedly?
Separately, Higgs brought a bride back to England with him who, beyond providing him a son that plays a major role in Erewhon Revisited, is largely ignored and ultimately dies, providing another reason to sympathize with the plight of Higgs, but not impeding his ambitions much.
Lastly, the two sons of Higgs, both benefit greatly from the inheretance left by Higgs when he ultimately dies from the mental exertions of losing his wife and addressing the plight of the ordinary Erehwonians under Sunchildism. Their main contribution to earning this wealth is being most like Higgs himself. So while this is somewhat denigrated as a means to social standing, Higgs is not beyond it himself. Elitism, clear and simple.
(Note to self. I need not be too critical here as any wealth that Kathy and I have accrued is the product of our participating in elite schools in the northeast, then settling here in humble Whidbey Island)
About Parallels between Erewhon and 19th Century England
The thought leaders in Erewhon have many thinly veiled self deceptions such as where children come from. Their belief is that children are just people from another world that insisted on trying to live in the earthly world, with all biological inconveniences politely ignored.
Another self deception is around money. They acknowledge two currencies, one is the real currency for business trade and the other is from the “Musical Bank”. This is mainly just coins that have no value for purchasing. People, mostly women, make a ritual of going to this Musical Bank and exchanging some real cash for some of this artificial currency. This practice seems to be more for the social experience than the money itself. The people who work in the Musical Bank are boring, drab people who have lost their way in Erewhon society, failed to get an education in some more productive trade, and are mostly from high society families that are self deceived into believing this is a respectable job.
My initial impression was that the point of this story line is to emphasize the mindless value society places on monetary value and not cultural values.
Later, I began to see parallels between the Musical Bank and organized religion. The author becomes more explicit about the role of the Church of England in English society in the second volume “Erewhon Revisited”. The coins provided at the “Musical Bank” are kind of like the rituals and the “miracles” that are the canon of organized religion. Most people take these with a grain of salt. The music and social prestige of the Musical Bank may have direct translation to their equivalents in the church. I’m not sure if the Musical Bank has an equivalent ethos to the social values e.g. generocity, forgiveness, do unto others, etc, found in most organized religions.
In “Erewhon Revisted” the Musical Banks transition to an institution for maintaining and proselytizing a new religion call “Sunchildism”. This apparently provided the Musical Bank with a moral foundation that was becoming noticibly lacking by society.
I’m sure the author intended a lot more social statement, particularly about his feelings towards English society of the time, when writing about the transformations in Erewhon society between Higgs first and second visit to Erewhon.
The suscepibility of the masses to the proclamations of the elite thought leaders is key. And the way this minority manipulate their message to fit their personal and political ambitions, so at odds with the underlying concepts. Even the protaganists, the queen and her very intelligent family and friends see the need to corrupt the truth to allow a justice to be done. Thus, they used the same deceits that caused a problem to resolve the problem.
The overall theme is something like “The means don’t matter but the ends do matter.”
There is a lot of research that could go on here on the actual evidence for correlation between Erewhon and English society of the 19th century. Probably between the Erewhon books and
other literature, dystopic and utopic, of there era. I probably don’t have time or interest in pursuing this now.
About Machines in Erewhon
The main reason I began reading this story is that there is a section on “machines” that predicts the downside of automation. This is the dystopia I am looking for. Here are some pertinent quotes.
“There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers: when a fly settles upon the blossom, the petals close upon it and hold it fast till the plant has absorbed the insect into its system; but they will close on nothing but what is good to eat; of a drop of rain or a piece of stick they will take no notice. Curious! that so unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its own interest. If this is unconsciousness, where is the use of consciousness?”
” “There is no security”—to quote his own words—“against the ultimate development of mechanical consciousness, in the fact of machines possessing little consciousness now. …what will they not in the end become? Is it not safer to nip the mischief in the bud and to forbid them further progress?…”
“The power of custom is enormous, and so gradual will be the change, that man’s sense of what is due to himself will be at no time rudely shocked; our bondage will steal upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches; nor will there ever be such a clashing of desires between man and the machines as will lead to an encounter between them. Among themselves the machines will war eternally, but they will still require man as the being through whose agency the struggle will be principally conducted. In point of fact there is no occasion for anxiety about the future happiness of man so long as he continues to be in any way profitable to the machines; he may become the inferior race, but he will be infinitely better off than he is now. Is it not then both absurd and unreasonable to be envious of our benefactors? And should we not be guilty of consummate folly if we were to reject advantages which we cannot obtain otherwise, merely because they involve a greater gain to others than to ourselves?”
“But returning to the argument, I would repeat that I fear none of the existing machines; what I fear is the extraordinary rapidity with which they are becoming something very different to what they are at present. No class of beings have in any time past made so rapid a movement forward. ”
“What we do know is, that the more the past and present are known, the more the future can be predicted;”
(Thus, Big Data and Analytics today)
This is what I was looking for when I started reading Erewhon. I still don’t quite understand the authors point but, his reasoning is clear and crisp, if perhaps flawed.
Later, the author states: “Indeed I can see no hope for the Erewhonians till they have got to understand that reason uncorrected by instinct is as bad as instinct uncorrected by reason.”
(My emphasis)
Quotes from Erewhon Revisited
Erewhon Revisited is what sequels are supposed to accomplish. It is like the resolving chord in a jazz riff. It answers the questions left open in the first volume, it completes the theme, and leaves the user with a moral challenge. Here are some quotes that supercede the plot.
“so happiness lies less in immediate pleasure than in lively recollection of a worse time and lively hope of better.”
(Higgs)
“It has been said that though God cannot alter the past, historians can; it is perhaps because they can be useful to Him in this respect that He tolerates their existence. ”
(Higgs)
“You want a heart to check your head, and a head to check your heart. ”
(Higgs)
“there is no royal road to unlearning, and you have much to unlearn. ”
(Higgs to officials at Erewhon about the future of “Sunchildism”)
Conclusion
I think I got what I was originally looking for when I started Erewhon, the dystopic view of technology.
I actually got a lot more than that because it made me think about how the bulk of society is manipulated, and willfully accepts the dogma of the day, no matter how far fetched. How fear and social stigma are used mercilessly by those with entrenched power to extract wealth and submissiveness from the general population.
I could get this same moral from a hundred other books, but this author makes it more compelling by virtue of its timeframe, the formal English language that is used, and the transformation of the protaganists throuout the course of the novel.
This book definitely goes on my best read list.