which edition of utopia in english would contain the most notes about st. thomas more's humor, including puns that get lost in translation? i took a quick look and the cambridge university press edition seemed decent. norton critical edition which is over 300 pages could also be very good, but i've not had a chance to look inside.
My introduction to this piece of literature was by a Marxist stating it was a description of "proto-communism". With that my read of it was as absolute horror. But, this background discussion of More fills in a lot of blanks and makes me realize it was a satire. I guess my initial read was a casualty of revisionist history!
Thank you… tbh Utopia is a highly mysterious book. I wanted to draw attention to the jokey parts that are seldom discussed. There is a gap between what “More” (he is a character in his own book) says and what Hythloday (“messenger of nonsense”) reports. It’s ambiguous.
This was a concise yet enlightening review of Thomas More’s “Utopia,” with a great character sketch of Thomas More himself. It’s an interesting man indeed who is heralded as both a humanist philosopher as well as a devout Christian and canonized saint, who is claimed by Catholics and Anglicans, democrats and communists alike, yet also condemned for his reported persecution of Protestants, including Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbury, Thomas Dusgate, James Bainham, and William Tyndale, who many at the time (and some perhaps still) regarded as heretics, and who was willing to stand up to King Henry VIII at cost of his own life to defend his convictions. How many are willing to do the same today, even when the stakes are far less?
I think there is one thing about utopia that is held common. The land of plenty, the fountain of youth and the holy grail. These archetypical ideas are the same as the idea of sustainability . If our food supply can always renew to the extent where we barely struggle to find food or spend most of our wages and life obtaining food. People could save for Grand projects and do other vocations motivated by things other than getting enough food to eat. In the modern world it's vertical farming and other ideas. But I also think utopia needs to fill the eye with constant beauty. Making people feel at ease or awe struck when mundainly going about their lives. In utopia clean water flows everywhere. I think utopia has things worth striving for. But we need to find desirable things beyond any single ideology. For example regardless of your ideology, a good irrigation system is something that's desirable. Glorious buildings should be desired, and a prosperous fertile environment is unanimously desired. The only people that don't desire the above, are those that want the masses perpetually manipulated by endless problems , so as to solidify their power.
Their friendship was certainly destroyed by the Boleyn marriage. I'm not sure their connection went back quite that far-- they moved in different circles. But when More distinguished himself as an author and politician, Henry wanted him at court. And they became close.
What More meant his by invention, Utopia, is an enduring mystery. But I think the best hint is in the word, which oscillates between “a good place” and “no place”.
The original utopia sounds too communist for my liking. I read parts of it as I found the book utopia when I was 16, at school. I went to a school named after Thomas Moore. Anyway, when I read the mention of communal living and gold chains around the necks of prisoners to make people associate gold with poverty. It sounds like it wants people to enjoy only humble pleasures, but a city adorned with gems and gold on the buildings would look utopian for lack of a better world. I don't think minimalism creates a good environment, it leads to depression, anxiety and irritability.
Utopia is a mysterious book. I don’t think More fully endorsed the policies he described- if you read the introductory part, you see he’s skeptical on communism.
