Wednesday 25 April 2012

U Is For Utopia


*Cool dark setting for today*

According to Wikipedia, Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt to create an ideal society, and fictional societies portrayed in literature. It has spawned other concepts, most prominently dystopia.

Considering Dystopia is a hot (albeit dwindling trend at the moment) I believe the next fad will be either Angels (right up my alley) or Utopian societies with dark sides (or a combination of the two--hey there's an idea!).

In many cultures, societies, religions, and cosmogonies, there is some myth or memory of a distant past when humankind lived in a primitive and simple state, but at the same time one of perfect happiness and fulfillment. In those days, the various myths tell us, there was an instinctive harmony between man and nature. Men's needs were few and their desires limited. Both were easily satisfied by the abundance provided by nature. Accordingly, there were no motives whatsoever for war or oppression. Nor was there any need for hard and painful work. Humans were simple and pious, and felt themselves close to the gods. According to one anthropological theory, hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society.

This comes down to our own interpretation of what the perfect world will be. For me, it is a mixture of ancient Greek architecture and futuristic techno-like innovations and design, melded with alienesque flora and fauna, ultra modern apparel and devoid of any caste system. I suppose this will be my next project. I have yet to see a modern take on a Utopian society and I strongly believe this is the way to go. There isn't a shred of doubt in my mind that this will be the next big thing in books.

I personally would love to see a Utopian society merged with some sort of Angelic influence or people. But, like I aforementioned, this will most likely be my next project.

So what about you, what is your ideal world?  

5 comments:

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Oh redesigned blog! It looks great. I live in what the Mormons think is a utopia (Salt Lake City). To me it just looks like a city. Maybe I'm not seeing all the utopia-ness in it because I'm not Mormon.

ryan field said...

I love the concept.

T.D. McFrost said...

We need a YA Utopia trend to pop up! Le's be the ones to starts it. Who's with me? No one? Okay, I guess I'm on my own. LOL

And I'm reverting to my old style tomorrow. I think.

Angela Brown said...

I'm probably just a little on the fence on how a Utopia differs from a Dystopia...I suppose that's because even a perfect society, in my mind, has to have somethig dark and sinister lurking in the wings lol!!!

T.D. McFrost said...

Yeah I agree. Can't have drama without some sort of trouble right? But the idea of a Utopia as envisaged by Plato in the aptly named Plato's Republic is one where there is a caste system, so that, in itself, is a recipe for disaster.

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