Subject: _Erewhon_, Samuel Butler

From: [email-masked] (JIM HENRY)
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 04:23:08 GMT

_Erewhon_ by Samuel Butler has been described as a utopian novel, but to
call it a utopia or dystopia is an oversimplification.  It is a novel of
ideas about a society that is in some respects better than 19th century
England, in some respects worse; Butler now satirizes an institution, now
proposes a reform, and now plays with ideas for their own sake.  The story
leaves a bit to be desired; that is to say, the exposition of ideas is not
always so well integrated into the story as it might be.  It is nonetheless
worth reading for that.

I will sketch here a few of the odd, thought-provoking ideas that Butler
tosses up in the course of the story.  The Erewhonians consider natural
disease to be morally reprehensible, and punish it following investigation
and trial by imprisonment and hard labor.  (There is an unpopular reform
movement which proposes doing away with hard labor and making it a simple
quarantine.)  For what most societies consider moral crimes, however, they
consult the services of "straighteners," who are supposed to heal such
ailments by prescription of various sorts of penance.

They do not believe in a life after death, but they tell of a world of the
unborn, from which suicides emigrate to our world by pestering men and women
until they beget a child.

Their Colleges of Unreason train young men in inconsistency and compromise,
and teach them not to slavishly follow ideas to their logical, absurd
conclusions.

Some centuries ago there was a debate about machines, which were at that
time much more advanced than those of 19th century Europe.  Some argued that
at their present rate of improvement machines would someday surpass humans,
and would replace or subjugate them.  Others argued that machines were
simply extensions of human powers and senses, and that the improvement of
machines was an indirect improvement of humans.

I have not even mentioned the singing statues, the musical banks, the
funeral monuments, the worship of Ydgrun, the debate over the rights of
animals and vegetables, or the Hospital of Incurable Bores.  This is not
only an important book in the history of science fiction, it is great fun
for anyone who enjoys playing with ideas.

%T Erewhon, or, Over the Range
%A Butler, Samuel
%D 1872  (many later reprints)
%K science fiction social satire machine evolution disease crime