Samuel Butler Erewhon, or Over the Range

1. Samuel ButlerErewhon, or Over the Range Published 1872 Travel Literature 7

2. Imaginary topoi • From the earliest writings to the present, authors have been fascinated by imaginary locations • One of the earliest was Atlantis, an island in the western ocean • Plato speaks of it as huge, wealthy, powerful, corrupt Travel Literature 7

3. The end of Atlantis • The citizens of Atlantis may have enjoyed unimaginable luxuries • Before becoming power-crazy and decadent • And then disaster struck the island … Travel Literature 7

4. Utopia • Written by Thomas More in 1516 • May be read on-line at: • http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2130 • Utopia: eutopia or outopia? • A land in the Americas, ruled by a wise monarch motivated by reason and humanity Travel Literature 7

5. Imaginary worlds • Range from Atlantis and Utopia via Lilliput, Brobdignag and Erewhon to Metropolis, Bergonia, Cyberia and the virtual reality of www.secondlife.com Travel Literature 7

6. From Utopia to dystopia • Imaginary worlds fall into two groups: • Utopian states: improvements on reality • Dystopian (or cacotopian) states: worse than reality • Common to both as a strongly satirical purpose • And sometimes it may be hard to unscramble the positive from the negative Travel Literature 7

7. Samuel Butler 1835-1902 • Grandson of Samuel Butler (1774 - 1839), a classical scholar and schoolmaster at Shrewsbury, and later Bishop of Lichfield • Obtained a First in Classics from Cambridge • Was destined to take holy orders but questioned his faith when he discovered that baptism made no difference to people’s morality Fell out with his father; emigrated to New Zealand (1860-1864) Travel Literature 7

8. Works • Butler returned to England in 1864 • Erewhon published 1872; Erewhon Revisited in 1901 • The Way of All Flesh (1903) attacked the Victorian way of life, in particular the ecclesiastical environment in which its author had grown up • Butler also developed a theory that The Odyssey was the work of a Sicilian woman Travel Literature 7

9. The Narrator • Butler chooses a young and naïve narrator who has no idea what he is about to stumble on • A typical would-be colonist • Seeks to ‘better his fortunes more rapidly than he could in England’ (1) • In pressing on across the mountains, he his motivated by no more than a desire to acquire new land ‘determined to monopolise’ (17) • Once there, is purpose is twofold: conversion or making money out of them (40) Travel Literature 7

10. A naïve perspective? • The narrator claims to be a young man, but expresses sophisticated opinions • And has travelled widely • Is ‘deeply interested in the people’ (35) • Makes comparisons between Erewhon and North Africa, Italy • Assumes the inhabitants of Erewhon must be the Lost Tribes of Israel Travel Literature 7

11. The qualities of Erewhon • In some respects it is idealised • People are very handsome, women very pretty • the religion is humane and logical • In other respects Erewhon mirrors nineteenth century England • Prisons, hypocrisy, bogus medical practices, a religion that no-one really believes in, colleges that teach ‘unreason’ and ‘hypothetical language’ Travel Literature 7

12. The language • The Erewhonian tongue reverses English, so that • Erewhon becomes Nowhere • Yram becomes Mary • Nosnibor becomes Robinson • Thims equals Smith • Ydgrun resolves itself into ‘Grundy’ • But this is not maintained throughout Travel Literature 7

13. A topsy-turvy world • The narrator chronicles the customs of Erewhon as any traveller would • It soon becomes obvious that in Erewhon everything is different • The narrator speaks of ‘extraordinary perversions of thought’ (39) • Machines are banned • Illness is regarded as a character flaw • Criminal behaviour is condoned and treated with sympathy Travel Literature 7

14. The people of Erewhon • Do their best to keep foreigners out of their country • Are handsome and gentle • Yet fall into three categories • Beautiful and noble • Comely and agreeable • Snobs pure and simple (39) • Thus Erewhon is not a clear-cut Utopia nor a Dystopia, but a conflation of the two Travel Literature 7

15. Ugliness • Erewhonians hate it • They used to sacrifice ugly captives in order to propitiate the gods of deformity and disease (43) • This seems to have had the consequence of producing an aesthetically pleasing race • Compare ‘eugenics’ • They also spend time contemplating beautiful statues • But their knowledge of music is limited and their musical productions sound awful: ‘melancholy cadences that at times degenerated into a howl’ (75) Travel Literature 7

16. Illness • Illnesses and ugliness are considered offences • Sick people (under 70) are tried by a jury • They are condemned to hard labour in prison • The worst crime in their eyes is typhus fever • Illness in young children is accepted (53) • Butler seems to be arguing the case for eugenics; the Erewhonians are beautiful and healthy because they have ‘criminalised’ ill-health • Or driven it underground (‘they conceal ill health by every cunning and hypocrisy and artifice which they can devise’, 49) Travel Literature 7

17. The trial of a sick man • Chapter 11 describes the trial of a man suffering from an advanced state of consumption, ‘almost at the point of death’ (56) • He is blamed for this condition and regarded as a threat to able-bodied society • His defence argues in vain that he was trying to defraud an insurance company • He is sentenced to forced labour and two spoonfuls of castor oil per day, for the rest of his miserable existence • There are indications that earlier ages would have sentenced him to death Travel Literature 7

18. Reactions • The narrator comments on the fairness and impartiality of the trial – the sick man is given every opportunity to defend himself (56-59), the judge is a ‘kind and thoughtful person’ (61) • But is later assailed by doubts, because the judge paid no attention to hereditary factors • He is clearly commenting on the way in which the English system punishes people for personal misfortunes and accidents of birth • The travelogue is used at several points to discuss imperfections in the British social system (compare with Stevenson, George Orwell) Travel Literature 7

19. ‘Malcontents’ • Erewhon harbours a minority of radical who disapprove of the way sick people are sent to jail • They agree that society needs to be protected against the ill, but argue that the sick need only be put away, not actually punished • These are the equivalents of Victorian reformers of the penal system, which was notorious for its harsh punishments Travel Literature 7

20. Criminality • Criminal behaviour (theft, embezzlement) is viewed with sympathy • An ‘attack of the socks’ is a standard apology • The perpetrator is treated by a ‘straightener’ • Parallels are drawn with Italian and Muslim societies (48) • A further reaction against the harsh Victorian penal code • Also an indication that the people of Erewhon have devoted too much effort to the elimination of ‘outward’ deficiencies and not enough to immorality Travel Literature 7

21. The Straightener • Must practise the vices he intends to treat • Sometimes this has fatal consequences • The treatments prescribed by straighteners are harsh and very painful; bread and water, flogging • Yet everyone submits to them willingly • Even the narrator Travel Literature 7

22. Ethos • Butler appears to be imagining what our society might look like in 500 years time • He often states that some years earlier, Erewhon was much like Europe, with machines, railways, public statues • Modern Erewhon has moved on, not necessarily for the better Travel Literature 7

23. Machines • One of the first things that happens to our narrator is the confiscation of his watch • He is shown a museum of old pieces of machinery • It emerges that when Erewhonian technology was far in advance of our own, a professor argued that machines would ultimately supplant the human race, so all less than 271 years old were abandoned (44; 118-138) • His watch is regarded with suspicion, and his stories about hot air balloons are thought to be lies Travel Literature 7

24. Progress and Education • Erewhonians are hostile to progress, wishing to keep things as they are • They believe progress leads to wars, and that people should not strive to be better than their neighbours (113) • Many other reasons persuaded them to abandon machines • Yet they waste time learning a ‘hypothetical language’ in their ‘Colleges of Unreason’ Travel Literature 7

25. Hypocrisy • The main point Butler is trying to make is to view contemporary society through the device of an alienating perspective • Thus focuses on our hypocrisy in refusing to acknowledge our moral deficiencies while spending a great deal of time and money on treating physical ailments • In Erewhon the situation is reversed: immorality is treated, illness is punished Travel Literature 7

26. Death • Erewhonians are cremated, and can choose where their ashes should be scattered • They send each other a certain number of artificial tears as a token of sympathy when someone dies • Everyone realises that this is a symbolic gesture that has relatively little meaning • In earlier times, they stuck the tears onto their faces with some kind of glue! (69) Travel Literature 7

27. Erewhonian hypocrisy • Many Erewhonians turn out to be deeply hypocritical • They cover up their illnesses • Even pretending to be criminals when really they are ill • Mahaina has a weak constitution but pretends to be an alcoholic (70-72) • Pregnant women also have to conceal their condition • ‘In their eagerness to stamp out disease, these people had overshot their mark’ (72) • Also, the scholars and professors he meets are terrified of ‘giving themselves away’ (115) Travel Literature 7

28. The ‘Musical Banks’ • This is one of Butler’s most biting satires • There exist Musical Banks which everyone considers it honourable to belong to • They have tedious ceremonies which are accompanied by hideous-sounding music • The currency which they distribute has no commercial value • They are almost empty most of the time, visited mainly by women and children • They resemble our churches, which play music and preach virtues which cannot easily be implemented and which no one follows Travel Literature 7

29. Women • The narrator is strongly attracted both to Yram and Arowhena • Cannot marry Arowhena as he is expected to marry her older sister, whom he dislikes • The sequel makes it obvious that the relationship with Yram, who taught him the Erewhonian language, was not confined to language lessons … Travel Literature 7

30. The End • For a time it seems that the narrator will never escape from Erewhon • He has been taken to the capital blindfolded • His love for Arowhena runs counter to the laws of the country • But in the end, an opportunity does present itself • Note that Butler wrote a sequel, Erewhon Revisited, in which his narrator returns to find that a new religion has been established around himself Travel Literature 7