Erewhon

Rating:
Summary: Nowhere in particular
Review: Samuel Butler does a neat balancing act with "Erewhon," a novel that is equal parts fictitious travelogue, philosophical tract, social/political/religious satire, and adventure story complete with a romantic subplot. The protagonist, a young Englishman named Higgs who is unsatisfied with employment prospects in his home country, moves to a distant colonized land where he takes a job as a shepherd. Beyond a mountain range there lie some mysterious lands that he would like to explore, and, setting out one day with a timid guide who later abandons him, he eventually gets to the other side of the peaks and finds himself in an isolated country named Erewhon.

One of the first things Higgs notes is that Erewhon is a few hundred years behind the times technologically. They have no modern mechanical conveniences, and when Higgs is discovered to own a watch, it is confiscated and he is put in prison. Later released and placed into the custody of a rich man named Mr. Nosnibor, Higgs learns all about the bizarre customs and beliefs of the Erewhonians.

In Erewhon, sickness is punishable by law and criminal acts are treated medically by people called "straighteners"; so, stealing a pair of socks is analogous to feeling a bit under the weather. The Erewhon banking system is a facade, as their money is worthless. The Erewhonians believe in an ethereal prenatal world where babies are given the (preferred) option not to be born into the mortal world. Their institutions of higher education, the Colleges of Unreason, teach conformity and resist originality and progress. Most importantly, they condemn technological advancement because of the fear that machines will continue evolving so rapidly that they will eventually develop a consciousness, out-evolve man, and take control of the world. Imagine how the Erewhonians would have despaired over the realization of artificial intelligence!

How have the Erewhonians arrived at all of these beliefs? Higgs concludes that their belief system is a result of gullibility -- they tend to put their faith in anybody who comes up with a convincing argument for whatever agenda he's trying to push. They don't analyze, question, or challenge; they just accept the status quo until somebody with a big mouth (but not necessarily a big brain) decides the status quo needs to be changed. In this way, one man who thinks killing animals is wrong convinces the people to become vegetarians; another man who likes meat convinces the people that killing plants is an even greater sin.

This book has a lot of targets, some not all that obvious, but I think Butler was prophesying a world in which demagoguery takes the place of common sense and reason, a world through which he was satirizing organized religion, sentimental notions of familial sanctity, and the complacency of the Victorian middle class. I've also read "The Way of All Flesh," but I find "Erewhon" to be a better representative of Butler's skewering cynicism and sly humor.

Rating:
Summary: A true Classic in Utopian literature: a must read!
Review: Samuel Butler's 'Erewhon' is a tale of a simple shepherd who travels too far in his foreign country, (unnamed, but based on New Zealand), only to find another, hidden Country where the sick are imprisoned and the criminal are 'healed'. This previously unknown society is described in detail as to its workings, and seems irrational in its execution.
People you will meet in the travels and travails of this poor lost fellow are of various interesting sorts; including the straighteners, who are doctors for the criminally ill. Our shepherd, visits the musical bank, the College of Unreason, and in detail describes how the people of Erewhon dress and act.
The book was written, in part, to be a criticism of Victorian England, but really stands as a literary classic. Certainly provides amusing entertainment, it is also an interesting look at society in general. Highly recomended for C.S. Lewis and Tolkien fans, this book is indispensable as is the sequel, 'EREWHON REVISITED'.

Rating:
Summary: The pleasure of ethical paradox
Review: Social satire has ever been an interesting and delightful way to discover and examine the basics of human behaviour and believing, both to show the weakness of logic and the strength of hypocrisy of many rules and customs. Butler, in his novel, developes this theme as a XIX century writer can do. The result is a pleasing reading, made a bit difficult by a slightly obsolete style and too much care of details, which sometimes gives some obstacles to thread. An example of how, about half a century later, a writer could have faced the same subject is given by new world by Huxley. The book is nonetherless quite readable, and an example of the high level tradition in which Butler can stand together with Swift.

Rating:
Summary: Biting social satire
Review: This satire still has all its teeth, despite being over 125 years old. The plot has its protagonist setting out to explore regions that have not yet been explored - i.e., explored by Europeans, i.e. explored by anyone who counts. He finds the remarkable country of Erewhon, with its many odd ways.

Most of those odd ways exaggerate the social ills that Butler saw in his own society. The Erewhonians are overtly fascinated with physical beauty and health, to the point of treating ugliness or disease as criminal offenses. (Our own fascination with looks differs not in kind but in degree, and maybe not such a large degree.) Theft and embezzlement are treated as minor quirks, more like habits to be broken than real crimes. (Well, our business pages read like a police blotter most days.)

Butler skewers the church, by redrawing it as a sort of bank. It's an odd bank, though. Everyone feels they should do business there, but very few do except so they can be seen doing it. It has its own currency, but a currency that can't buy anything and that even its own cashiers treat casually. The Erewhonians all hold it to be the most wonderful of institutions, but hold it in complete disregard in their day to day activities - does this sound at all familiar?

He also takes on vegetarians, an anti-machine sentiment that seems to have gone out of fashion, and especially higher education. That last, or UnReason as he calls it, is his primary target of ridicule. I'll let you read the details for yourself, but the points that Butler attacks are still a part of modern academia. In fact, those malfunctions of purpose have spread out of the universities and into our grade schools.

Butler's worst exaggerations are saved for the protagonist himself, however. The last chapter has the hero escape from Erewhon. He intends to return with a team of missionaries who will convert that nation of heathens, to the greater glory of god and gold. He is quite specific in the armament that will be used to ease the process. He also details how the Erewhon nation would be turned over to slave-holders for enforced religious instruction (and to turn a quick buck). Butler takes on the very worst of The White Man's Burden, and sinks it under its own miserable weight.

This is a brief book, but very worthwhile. It stands well next to Gulliver's Travels as a partner in satire. It also works well against utopias like Shangri-La, by taking the same premises and working them in the opposite way. I recommend this classic to any thinking reader.

//wiredweird