COUNTDOWN....!

It's a bit ironic that in fifteen days, my first novel will become available on February 15th! My editor approved the final proof a few weeks ago, and while that was exciting enough, I cannot wait until actual copies of Cursed reach the hands of readers.

A Further Realization of Utopia: Edward Bellamy's "Equality"

Given ten years to reflect on his work, Bellamy was able to expand upon the thoughts and issues of the utopian society in Looking Backward. Equality is not so much a sequel to that novel than it is a continuation. There were questions in Looking Backward that went unanswered and that is where Equality comes up with the answers. For example, the gender gap is one that Bellamy took into account and remedied.

A photo of Edward Bellamy,
as seen in the Libary of Congress,
(1889). Source: Wikimedia Commons

In the first novel, a woman’s role in the 20th century is not all that different from their role in the 19th century. The women West meets still dress relatively the same, and they seem to defer to their male counterparts, content in the role of daughter and mother. Bellamy explains this away by describing Letee’s need to make West comfortable in his first few weeks in the year 2000. He had his wife and daughter dress in a similar fashion to that of women in 1887 so that West would not be shocked to discover that women are allowed a more independent lifestyle, one that involves wearing pants and working any job they please.

A further explanation of the banking and work placement system are other issues tackled in Equality. West is allowed to open his own account, and he questions the teller about how the system works without capitalism. In summation, the teller recounts the old capitalist system and how it was designed to trick the consumer into thinking that capitalism and individual freedoms were synonymous, when in fact, the opposite was true. With the new system of the year 2000, many commodities are paid for by the government, like utilities, music, news, theater, postal and electronic communications, and transportation. Because of that, small stipends are awarded each citizen, totaling to around 7,000 dollars a year, enough so that they can still purchase the things that they would wish, like food, clothing, and rent. The new economic system was created under the mindset that “nobody owes anybody, or is owed by anybody, or has any contract with anybody, or any account of any sort with anybody, but is simply beholden to everybody for such kindly regard as his virtues may attract” (34).

The idea of the loss of individual liberty in a Marxist society is addressed and debunked by Bellamy in Equality. For decades, it has been assumed that if a government nationalized the banking and job systems, then that security is the trade people would have made in exchange for their independence.

However, West enters the nationalized workforce and learns that he can choose whichever profession he would like to study, and if that position is not available to him later on, he can transfer to another city where it is available, or make do with a second or third choice in his profession. The government does not assign professions to citizens, rather it assigns what hours each job receives for a day’s work (shorter work hours for more physically demanding jobs, like coal mining), and what pay each worker receives (each worker receives equal pay, be it a doctor or bookkeeper). When people receive different pay for different work, they begin to assume that they are better than others, and that is where class warfare really begins. Human beings that are working, regardless of the job, should be regarded with the same respect that everyone else receives. There are many that would find Bellamy’s Marxist society as distasteful or unnatural, but in retrospect, our Capitalist (not ‘free-market’ society as suggested by the media, but Capitalist) society is the unnatural one, as it fosters poverty, a feudal class system, and creates gods out of the top money-makers.

Bellamy, Edward. Equality. Boston: D. Appleton & Company, 1897. Print. 

Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward: 2000-1887" is a surprising reflection of modern society

Dust Jacket of "Looking Backward"
by Edward Bellamy (1888).
Source: Scan from the original
book as shown on
WikiMedia Commons

The setting for the beginning of the novel is the year 1887, but at times, I felt as if I were reading about the year 2012 in relation to economic unrest. Many workers of that time were protesting, demanding higher wages, less exploitation, and safer work environments, much like many of the union workers in Illinois, New York, Wisconsin and more. The narrator, Julian West, is a plutocrat that is disgusted by the protests, viewing them as a nuisance to his plans to refurbish his mansion.

His views about the class system begin to change, but only after he enters a Van-Winkle state of sleep to wake up in the year 2000.

A difference between this novel and other feminist utopian sci-fi novels would be the driving theme. In Mizora and Herland, social issues like children and education were of the greatest import. However, in Bellamy's story, the class and economic system take center theme. Women and their roles do not vary much from 1887 to 2000. West meets two 20th century women, and while he finds one of them attractive (based on her girlish beauty), he ultimately dismisses their import, and instead the male friend Doctor Letee, who discovered West, is given more attention.

In the year 2000, all men are equal and receive equal amounts of work and pay. The class system has been completely abolished, even though there are still jobs that would be considered ‘dead-end’. Menial jobs, as told by Letee, are no longer thought of as menial, only necessary. When Letee and West eat at a restaurant, they are served by a waiter. Letee treats the waiter respectfully, never speaking down to him. Similarly, the waiter does not seem ashamed of the job he is performing, and West notes that the young man appears to be very poised and educated. Letee and his daughter set forth the idea that it is immoral to abhor a person for doing a service that you would not be willing to, in turn, do for them.

There are several societal ideas presented in the novel, a great many of them rooted in Marxism. There is no more capitalism in the year 2000, as the government itself is the sole capitalist, handing out stipends of cash to each citizen every year. Possessions are no longer revered, and nor is wealth. Instead, during their lifetimes, people strive to possess as little as possible, because to have less is better (as the upkeep for large estates is seen as frivolous). If a relative dies and leaves their assets behind to a relative, that is not seen as a boon, but rather as an inconvenience that must be rid of quickly. The same negative thoughts about accumulation of wealth are echoed in the novel A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder.

After reading about many utopian (and often Marxist) societies in sf literature, I could not find myself sympathetic to the society laid out by Bellamy. It seemed too much like a Stalinist-Russia, one in which individual freedoms where stripped away, leaving a compliant citizen with no rights or dreams for themselves. However, as I kept reading, I discovered that my resistance to Bellamy’s imagined society was mere prejudice, perpetuated by my fear of what a truly Marxist society would mean. The citizens in Bellamy’s novel are not stripped of their individual freedoms, only of their oppression. It was after reading  Equality, the follow-up to Looking Backward, that I fully understood that.

Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1888. Print.